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Maighread, Not that I know of. And not that I'd know it if it were the case! But objectively speaking, as we used to say in the Socialist Workers Party, they do seem like good Cultural Ambassadors, don't they? Both for the U.S. State Dept. and for the Chinese Communist Party! But Language writers have been voyaging to China and accepting official support on "poetry visits" since (amazingly) little more than a couple years after Tiananmen, when so many writers, artists, and intellectuals were freshly in shackles or forced exile or in process of being hunted down. A good many still are, of course. (And to the best of my knowledge, that early Language poet-led excursion--the Roof Books publisher and IBM exec James Sherry was the point man, ironically enough--was the first official visit by American poets in close wake of the massacre.) By accepting the sponsorship of the Chinese state and staying zip-lipped about the repression of cultural and human rights activists there, American "experimental" poets provide the regime with a modest but shameful measure of ideological cover. A writer who won the Nobel Prize some years back, even, is locked away and without communication. His wife, the prominent poet and photographer Liu Xia, has suffered greatly, too. They are just two examples. But certain American and British poets don't seem to give a shit. They seem to have a jolly good time when they go over there to read and lecture and dine and toast, though. It's sort of astonishing that this is happening and virtually no one says a word about it. Kent >>> Maighread Medbh <[log in to unmask]> 10/06/16 3:47 PM >>> Is there any evidence of CIA involvement? Pardon me if I'm uninformed. On 06/10/2016, David Lace <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Look at the CIA involvement in modern art in the 1960s, or was it the 1950s. > If it's also true of language poetry, it would explain its rise and success > within the universities etc. > > > > ------------------Original Message-------------------- > > Kent Johnson wrote: > > My half-serious theory is that the CIA's handling of Language poetry as a > quasi-Congress for Cultural Freedom tool started with the AT&T Super Bowl > ad, in 1998, starring Charles Bernstein. > -- Máighréad Medbh 42 Boroimhe Alder, Swords, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Web: www.maighreadmedbh.ie Phone: 353 87 2894744 Poet, Writer. -------------------------- Most Recent Books: Savage Solitude http://www.dedaluspress.com/auth/76 Pagan to the Core http://www.maighreadmedbh.ie/published-books.htm#pagan ****** The Body Coat and The Coal-black Sea (E-books) http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=maighread+medbh&covers=on