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Hello Everyone: John Kinsella suggested that I should approach the group about a program that I am working on for the end of March 2001. Recently, the United Nations passed a resolution declaring 2001 as the year of "Dialogue Between Civilizations." I am working with the UN in developing a literary program to focus on this topic. Here are the different components: (1) There will be a major gathering of international literary journals from around the world to discuss the topic which will be moderated by John Kinsella. (2) A reading at the United Nations featuring Pulitzer Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa (also involved in the Vietnam War for which he received the Bronze Star), poet and Rattapallax's editor-in-chief George Dickerson (was Head of Press and Publications for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) during the 1975-76 Lebanese), and Carolyn Forche (poet involved in El Salvador and recipient of The Edita and Ira Morris Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture Award for 1998). Carolyn has not confirmed, yet. (3) Poetry readings in numerous cities around the world, focused around the resolution, featuring poets who can best represent their city and/or country. (4) An anthology of poems from the various featured readers from the different readings; poets featured at the UN; from the literary journals attending the conference and select international and acclaimed poets. The book will also be available as an e-book from NetLibrary.com with MP3 files and Real video for FREE. (5) School systems from the UN member countries will read poems from other countries during the last week in March. I will need your help in organizing readings around the world to focus on the topic: Dialogue Between Civilizations. I noticed that your group is organizing readings around the world in May 2001 and I would like to incorporate them into the UN program. They will need to be moved to the last week of March 2001 and focus on the proposal. The proposal is broad enough to allow the reading coordinators to develop their own program. The important thing is to feature poets that can best represent their city and/or country and help create dialogue between civilizations by discussing issues and ideas, through poetry, that effect their country. The cities that I hope to have readings at are: New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Paris, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Berlin, Prague, São Paulo, Mexico City, Mumbai, Johannesburg, Toronto, and Moscow. If there are additional cities that we can have readings in, I would like to include them. I can organize readings at these cities and venues: New York-- The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church Los Angeles-- Midnight Special Books or Beyond Baroque Books San Francisco- Blue Books or Cody's Books Philadelphia-- Robin's Books I will need people to setup and coordinate a poetry reading in their respective city focused on the topic. I can help with advertising and programming. If you wish to be involved, I will need a serious commitment on your part because the program will involve the United Nations and major corporations and private foundations who will help to under-write the event. The readings need to occur during the last week in March 2001, but I will need to know by Mid-September 2000: if you would like to be involved, where the reading will occur and who will be featured. Soon after, I will need to get copies of the poems that will be read for the anthology, which I plan to have available by March 2001. If you have any questions, please call me at 212-560-7459 or by e-mail at [log in to unmask] I look forward to working with everyone on the program. Thank You, Ram Devineni Publisher Rattapallax Press http://www.rattapallax.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites. http://invites.yahoo.com/ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%