Re: Viet Nam War Poerty, African American GI writings, & hard to find
collections, etc:
Steve Hassna (No. Calif) has been writing poetry since he was in Nam.
CJM, you know how to reach him? He's got some published in "Short Timers
Journal," and other anthologies, I believe.
Univ of Wisconsin (Madison) houses archives on microfilm of GI press
which has lots & lots of poetry from active duty GI's as well as much
other original *source* material from the period. I remember an
African-American soldiers meeting/org in Germany around 69-70. UW should
have material from them, or at least info from other GI press regarding
their activities. I remember a meeting attended by well over 1,000 Black
GI's! in Heidelberg.
Anyone out there know where folks from United States Servicemen's Fund
are? Last I heard, Irwin Silber was in Bay ARea. He may have material as
USSF played key role in funding GI press/coffee houses. There's a Josh &
a Corrina out there too. Where are you? My recollection is that they
turned most of their stuff over to UW, but I have some memory of
material going to some E. Coast Univ archive.
Also, the Military Law Project of the NLG (Natl Lawyers Guild) has/had
material from GI stuff on w. coast around Movement for Dem Military
(MDM) & Support Our Soldiers (SOS) & others. They are still in San
Diego. Much of their stuff went to Wisc too.
There was/still is? an org in Brooklyn, NY called Black Viet Nam
Veterans. 686 Fulton St, 11217. Ph: 718.935.1116. Job Makerishi is/was
contact. This info is several years old. . .Also, Black Panther
newspaper often ran poetry by GI's & veterans
Also VVAW should have lots of poetry & info on African-American GI's &
the entire GI & veterans movements. They are in Chicago url:
http://www.prairienet.org/vvaw/
VVAW e-mail: jtmiller@uiuc.edu
Also, an unlikely source for material on & about the GI movement (WITH
REPRINTS) is our own, taxpayer funded U.S. Congress. I refer you to a
report entitled "Investigation Of Attempts to Subvert The United States
Armed Forces," the result of hearings held by the well respected (sic)
Committee On Internal Security of the House of Representatives. HUAC, I
believe. There are 4 parts to the reports. part 3 is the juciest, but
there is interesting "testimony" in all four (4) volumes.
And, lastly, there is the Winter Soldier Archives (& investigations).
Good luck on locating those journals. . .
Hal Muskat
(2)
From: Marc Levin <MLEVIN@AGI-USA.ORG>
Good morning!
Have you encountered the Vietnam War poetry of Denise Levertov (who
died just last month.)? In 1968, she spent a day with a group of war
resiters in Pittsburgh. She really boosted my spirits as prison loomed--
extremely passionate and wise.
Good luck with your thesis.
Sincerely,
Marc Levin
>>> MobyMeg <MobyMeg@AOL.COM> 03/29/98 10:28pm >>>
I'm an undergraduate senior at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale,
majoring in English. I am currently working on an honors thesis on
Vietnam
War poetry. My research on this subject led me to this listserv and I
would
like to engage in conversation on this and related areas with anyone who
cares. My research focuses on the works of Yusef Komunyakaa, Bruce
Weigl, and
Elliot Richman, but I am willing to discuss the genre as a whole as well as
other authors.
Thanks! Nice to talk to you all!