Classical Poets Live: The Problem with Arts Grants The Society October 22, 2023 Classical Poets Live, Poetry, Video 13 Comments . Classical Poets Live with Andrew Benson Brown Episode 7 Part 1: The Problem with Arts Grants If you enjoy this video, please like and subscribe on YouTube to support the production. . . . Andrew Benson Brown has had poems and reviews published in a few journals. His epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, will chronicle the major events of the American Revolution if he lives to complete it. Though he writes history articles for American Essence magazine, he lists his primary occupation on official forms as ‘poet.’ He is, in other words, a vagabond. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Trending now: 13 Responses James Sale October 22, 2023 Another wonderful expose of the corruption at the heart of the American arts/literature industry. The most painful aspect of it is that taxpayers who don’t want the meaningless rubbish are paying for it. I can say with complete confidence that not much is different in the UK: the talentless and woke are lauded and funded and the real talent has to find its own way through the weeds and thickets. Still, I guess if it were easy – like poetry – how would the heroes emerge? Well done ABB – I have shared my post on FB – hope others share this where they can. Reply ABB October 22, 2023 Thanks, James. Nobody else is really addressing this issue—at least on YouTube—kind of flies under the conservatives’ radar given all the other crazy stuff happening in the world. Though many of us in the classical poetry world are inhabiting the cultural ghetto, my hope is that we can eventually rectify this…slowly, slowly. Reply Joseph S. Salemi October 22, 2023 One thing should always be recognized about the left, the woke, the liberals, the social justice warriors, and all the rest of those who posture as helpers of the neglected and marginalized: they never miss a chance to arrange for themselves to get vast outlays of taxpayer cash. The NEH and the NEA are now completely controlled by parasitic classes whose interest in the arts and the humanities are purely mercenary. Reply ABB October 22, 2023 Well said about their mercenary quality. They have to fund their lavish estate living some way. They’ll eventually run out of other people’s money eventually, but we’ll all be bankrupt by then. Reply Evan Mantyk October 22, 2023 This is wonderfully insightful and entertaining work as usual, Andrew. You skim over the big grant winners and dismiss their poetry (which is similar to poetry you have analyzed in detail in earlier episodes). In case others are wondering about this I’m posting below a noted poem from the grant winner. People may simply judge for themselves. There are a lot of creative and good qualities one might find below, but genuinely taking the poem and measuring the relative quality, historically and in terms of what might speak to average well educated (non-poet) readers, and we find that it simply does not qualify as an exceptional or highly skillful poem. American Income BY AFAA MICHAEL WEAVER The survey says all groups can make more money if they lose weight except black men…men of other colors and women of all colors have more gold, but black men are the summary of weight, a lead thick thing on the scales, meters spinning until they ring off the end of the numbering of accumulation, how things grow heavy, fish on the ends of lines that become whales, then prehistoric sea life beyond all memories, the billion days of human hands working, doing all the labor one can imagine, hands now the population of cactus leaves on a papyrus moon waiting for the fire, the notes from all their singing gone up into the salt breath of tears of children that dry, rise up to be the crystalline canopy of promises, the infinite gone fishing days with the apologies for not being able to love anymore, gone down inside earth somewhere where women make no demands, have fewer dreams of forever, these feet that marched and ran and got cut off, these hearts torn out of chests by nameless thieves, this thrashing until the chaff is gone out and black men know the gold of being the dead center of things, where pain is the gateway to Jerusalems, Bodhi trees, places for meditation and howling, keeping the weeping heads of gods in their eyes. Reply ABB October 22, 2023 Thanks for posting this, Evan. Should have dwelled a bit more on the Wallace Stevens prize winners. Ha, if I had known about this 100K-worthy poem I would have read the first few lines on the show for pure entertainment value. Weaver must be experiencing a lot of “pain” as “the gateway to Jerusalems” as he is spending his reward. Reply Cheryl Corey October 22, 2023 “Creative and good qualities?” You’re being too kind, Evan. Reply ABB October 23, 2023 I’ll admit there are a few good images and phrases, but only when considered individually. This is just a ranting prose sentence, arbitrarily chopped into lines, with images strung together in a completely nonsensical way. What does it mean to compare hands to “the population of cactus leaves on a papyrus moon / waiting for the fire?” Reminds me of some of Hart Crane’s poetry, just stream-of-consciousness word soup that imitates profundity. Except as far as that goes, Crane did it a lot better. James Sale October 23, 2023 As always, Evan, you are a generous and non-malicious person and it must have heartened you a heart-beat to see a reference to Bodhi trees, but frankly this is such pretentious, confused and incoherent twaddle that its being awarded $100K is nothing short of breath-taking. The ‘victim’ narrative with which it starts is a marvel of how not to develop a non-poem. It fails to be poetry, but what ‘thinking’ means is to ‘think through’: so this doesn’t even add up as prose. It disguises its lack of prosaic thought by pretending to be a poem! I guess for $100K that is a kind of genius! Reply Cheryl Corey October 22, 2023 Another excellent presentation, Andrew. Reply ABB October 23, 2023 Thanks, Cheryl. Reply jd October 24, 2023 I enjoyed the podcast, Andrew and also the interview of C.B. Anderson. Thank you. Reply ABB October 25, 2023 Thanks for your support, jd. 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James Sale October 22, 2023 Another wonderful expose of the corruption at the heart of the American arts/literature industry. The most painful aspect of it is that taxpayers who don’t want the meaningless rubbish are paying for it. I can say with complete confidence that not much is different in the UK: the talentless and woke are lauded and funded and the real talent has to find its own way through the weeds and thickets. Still, I guess if it were easy – like poetry – how would the heroes emerge? Well done ABB – I have shared my post on FB – hope others share this where they can. Reply
ABB October 22, 2023 Thanks, James. Nobody else is really addressing this issue—at least on YouTube—kind of flies under the conservatives’ radar given all the other crazy stuff happening in the world. Though many of us in the classical poetry world are inhabiting the cultural ghetto, my hope is that we can eventually rectify this…slowly, slowly. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi October 22, 2023 One thing should always be recognized about the left, the woke, the liberals, the social justice warriors, and all the rest of those who posture as helpers of the neglected and marginalized: they never miss a chance to arrange for themselves to get vast outlays of taxpayer cash. The NEH and the NEA are now completely controlled by parasitic classes whose interest in the arts and the humanities are purely mercenary. Reply
ABB October 22, 2023 Well said about their mercenary quality. They have to fund their lavish estate living some way. They’ll eventually run out of other people’s money eventually, but we’ll all be bankrupt by then. Reply
Evan Mantyk October 22, 2023 This is wonderfully insightful and entertaining work as usual, Andrew. You skim over the big grant winners and dismiss their poetry (which is similar to poetry you have analyzed in detail in earlier episodes). In case others are wondering about this I’m posting below a noted poem from the grant winner. People may simply judge for themselves. There are a lot of creative and good qualities one might find below, but genuinely taking the poem and measuring the relative quality, historically and in terms of what might speak to average well educated (non-poet) readers, and we find that it simply does not qualify as an exceptional or highly skillful poem. American Income BY AFAA MICHAEL WEAVER The survey says all groups can make more money if they lose weight except black men…men of other colors and women of all colors have more gold, but black men are the summary of weight, a lead thick thing on the scales, meters spinning until they ring off the end of the numbering of accumulation, how things grow heavy, fish on the ends of lines that become whales, then prehistoric sea life beyond all memories, the billion days of human hands working, doing all the labor one can imagine, hands now the population of cactus leaves on a papyrus moon waiting for the fire, the notes from all their singing gone up into the salt breath of tears of children that dry, rise up to be the crystalline canopy of promises, the infinite gone fishing days with the apologies for not being able to love anymore, gone down inside earth somewhere where women make no demands, have fewer dreams of forever, these feet that marched and ran and got cut off, these hearts torn out of chests by nameless thieves, this thrashing until the chaff is gone out and black men know the gold of being the dead center of things, where pain is the gateway to Jerusalems, Bodhi trees, places for meditation and howling, keeping the weeping heads of gods in their eyes. Reply
ABB October 22, 2023 Thanks for posting this, Evan. Should have dwelled a bit more on the Wallace Stevens prize winners. Ha, if I had known about this 100K-worthy poem I would have read the first few lines on the show for pure entertainment value. Weaver must be experiencing a lot of “pain” as “the gateway to Jerusalems” as he is spending his reward. Reply
ABB October 23, 2023 I’ll admit there are a few good images and phrases, but only when considered individually. This is just a ranting prose sentence, arbitrarily chopped into lines, with images strung together in a completely nonsensical way. What does it mean to compare hands to “the population of cactus leaves on a papyrus moon / waiting for the fire?” Reminds me of some of Hart Crane’s poetry, just stream-of-consciousness word soup that imitates profundity. Except as far as that goes, Crane did it a lot better.
James Sale October 23, 2023 As always, Evan, you are a generous and non-malicious person and it must have heartened you a heart-beat to see a reference to Bodhi trees, but frankly this is such pretentious, confused and incoherent twaddle that its being awarded $100K is nothing short of breath-taking. The ‘victim’ narrative with which it starts is a marvel of how not to develop a non-poem. It fails to be poetry, but what ‘thinking’ means is to ‘think through’: so this doesn’t even add up as prose. It disguises its lack of prosaic thought by pretending to be a poem! I guess for $100K that is a kind of genius! Reply
jd October 24, 2023 I enjoyed the podcast, Andrew and also the interview of C.B. Anderson. Thank you. Reply
