Black Dog Block Party + Photographs
Call and Answer
On August 31 and September 2, Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar in Lowertown St. Paul is hosting a block part inspired not only by the RNC but also by Robert Bly’s poem “Call and Answer.” See below for the line ups on Sunday and Tuesday. Also at the Black Dog Cafe, Local Color, photographs by Media Mike Hazard.
Call and answer
by Robert Bly
Tell me why it is we don’t lift our voices these days
And cry over what is happening. Have you noticed
The plans are made for Iraq and the ice cap is melting?
I say to myself: “Go on, cry. What’s the sense
Of being an adult and having no voice? Cry out!
See who will answer! This is Call and Answer!”
We will have to call especially loud to reach
Our angels, who are hard of hearing; they are hiding
In the jugs of silence filled during our wars.
Have we agreed to so many wars that we can’t
Escape from silence? If we don’t lift our voices, we allow
Others (who are ourselves) to rob the house.
How come we’ve listened to the great criers—Neruda,
Akhmatova, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass—and now
We’re silent as sparrows in the little bushes?
Some masters say our life lasts only seven days.
Where are we in the week? Is it Thursday yet?
Hurry, cry now! Soon Sunday night will come.
Robert Bly 2002
from The Insanity of Empire - Ally Press
Used with permission
Black Dog Block Party Day 1
AUGUST 31
- Pocket of Resistance 2:00
- Soul Tree 2:30
- Bloody Turncoats 3:00
- The Rude Mechanical Orchestra 4:00
- Aviette : 4:40
- Anthony Cox 5:15
- Big Quarters 6:00
- Spaghetti Western String Company 6:40
- The Brass Messengers 7:25
- The Fantastic Merlins 8:00
- Down Lo 8:45
SEPTEMBER 2
- PosNoSys 2:15
- Junkyard Empire 2 45
- Ill Chemistry 3:15
- Dean Magraw & Friends 4:30
- M.anifest 5:15
- Kill the Vultures 6:30
- Los Nativos 7:15
- The Coup 8:00
As all politics are local, my way to address the invasion of my hometown by a national political convention is a show of pictures called LOCAL COLOR. All of the camera works were clicked within easy walking distance of the convention center and the Black Dog Café which is right around the corner from my home. The Black Dog, 308 Prince Street, St. Paul, is also where LOCAL COLOR is on exhibit until October 19, 2008.
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