https://www.litkicks.com/frontpage en https://www.litkicks.com/WidemanChallenge <img src="/sites/default/files/johnedgarwideman-books.jpg" /> He stared at me, waiting for an answer. At home we didn't get in other people's faces like that. You talked towards a space and the other person had a choice of entering or not entering ... I was today years old a few months ago when I first heard of the great American author John Edgar Wideman. A friend from Pittsburgh invited me to participate in the #WidemanChallenge, in which a few literary critics, bloggers and journalists spend the end of 2020 calling attention to a writer that too few people know about - an important voice... Sunday, December 20, 2020 08:42 am Marc Eliot Stein https://www.litkicks.com/WidemanChallenge https://www.litkicks.com/RevolutionaryLetters <img alt="Revolutionary Letters by Diane di Prima" src="/sites/default/files/diprima-revolutionaryletters.jpg" /> I'm reading Diane di Prima's "Revolutionary Letters" this morning. The great Beat poet died this weekend. I haven't heard many details yet - the news hit social media late last night - but since this is the morning of October 26 2020 here in USA where our Supreme Court is being stolen by right-wing extremists and our society appears to be collapsing under the weight of our so-called government's greed and corruption, there's no doubt the poet herself would still be in a... Monday, October 26, 2020 09:18 am Marc Eliot Stein https://www.litkicks.com/RevolutionaryLetters https://www.litkicks.com/ScorchedEarth <img src="/sites/default/files/be-here-now-brooklyn.jpg" /> There's a smell of scorched earth in the air lately, here in America. It's smoke from Pacific coast wildfires, and it's something more: the warning scent of an authoritarian future we must avoid, even as our society chokes on climate change, racism, social injustice, predatory capitalism and military escalation. Scorched earth is what I see when I close my eyes and think about the direction the USA is going in right now. In five weeks I'm going to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (even though I wish I could be voting for... Monday, September 28, 2020 09:37 pm Marc Eliot Stein https://www.litkicks.com/ScorchedEarth https://www.litkicks.com/TheVision2020 <img src="/sites/default/files/prospect-eye500.jpg" /> Many of us spend our lives pursuing a certain vision. An idea, a dream, a blueprint. There is something we are supposed to work on, in this life. No matter what we do, and no matter what else we think we are doing, this is what we work on, every minute, every day. I don't know how it became my dharma to work on two different monthly podcasts at the same time, and to pour my heart into each episode of each as if I were packaging the secrets of the universe for the world to enjoy. All I know is, I'm glad to have some creative outlets, and I... Wednesday, July 8, 2020 08:46 am Marc Eliot Stein https://www.litkicks.com/TheVision2020 https://www.litkicks.com/MichaelMcClure2020 <img src="/sites/default/files/mcclure-and-lion.jpg" /> The poet Michael McClure, who died on May 4, 2020 in his home in Oakland, California, was one of five readers at the seminal Six Gallery poetry reading in San Francisco in 1955 that kicked off the Beat Generation. I always loved his simple and organic poetic style, at once both cosmic and down-to-earth, and I also loved his attention to nature and animals. In an era when visionary causes abounded, he invented his own: an insistence on recognizing all animals as spiritual beings who can teach us more than we can teach them. He once... Wednesday, May 6, 2020 10:09 am Marc Eliot Stein https://www.litkicks.com/MichaelMcClure2020