3RD DISTRICT POETRY SLAM RESULTS REVEALED

Dear Readers --

Our friend Tea Krulos remains on the trail left by the Third District aldermanic candidates as they scurry about their district in the waning days of the campaign. Participation in democracy, city style, requires a commitment to frequent public appearances, and there was a dandy one last night, Friday, February 15th, 2008.

That's when the estimable Woodland Pattern book shop invited all candidates to read poetry. Whether it is advisable for politicians to unleash their inner muses is a subject for sociologists and theologians to debate, but like so much in politics, it was a reality, and it took place on Locust Street last night.

Correspondent Krulos notes the varying approaches taken by the candidates to their task, and is positively lyrical in his description of a performance by a Lebanese thespian.

--Michael Horne

ROSES ARE RED…

By Tea Krulos, 3rd District resident

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld


Politicians are known for trying to use flowery language, but how poetic are their souls? Woodland Pattern offered the 3rd District candidates a chance to wax poetic the night of February 15, and all showed up for the challenge except John Connelly. Vince Bushell, publisher of the Riverwest Currents hosted the event and the candidates had a variety of different approaches to the subject.

David Schroeder admitted it had been 42 years since he had read a poem out loud to an audience in school, and he read the last poem Woody Guthrie wrote, about the struggle of hard working immigrants being deported.

Matt Nelson started by asking the elders in the room permission to speak, which was granted. He read poems from friends that spoke of creativity being the antidote to problems, and trying to better one’s neighborhood environment. He ended with a piece on the common man, art, and liberation from Albert Camus’s 1960 collection Resistance, Rebellion, and Death.

Sam McGovern-Rowen took a much lighter approach. He started with a quote from Steve Martin, “Some people have a way with words, some people not have way.” He then read the classic tale, in its entirety, of Sam-I-Am in Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss. The audience was amused.

Nik Kovac read a poem by Charles Hines, cousin of Common Council President Willie Hines, which began “People are made of people…” Next he read an excerpt of a short story he wrote in college, and ended with a clever and funny poem about the long, cold, trek of the campaign trail, with politely funny nods to the other aldermanic candidates. He had a great line about Dan Fouliard hyping “a chicken for every pot, and a pineapple for every pothole.” The line refers to an aldermanic forum in which Fouliard brought a pineapple to illustrate the point that he was a complex fruit, the pineapple, while the other candidates were merely apples. It also refers to one of Fouliard’s talking points, fixing the many potholes in the 3rd District.

Fouliard himself was up next, and picked up an acoustic guitar. “Let me introduce you to my friend, A” he said “It stands for aequitas, which is Latin for justice.” He then sang a rendition of Where the Streets Have No Name by U2. U2 is certainly must be on the top of Fouliard’s playlist. He once tried to get a million people to sign a petition to have the group play a charity gig at Miller Park, although he was unable to convince the Irish rockers to sign on. He then played a tune called Ms.Amazing which he wrote for his sweetheart who was in the audience. The lyrics can be found in his newspaper, The Advocate of Milwaukee in an ad for the Petaluna flower shop on page 11.

Sura Faraj has long been a poetry advocate. She started with a Riverwest Manifest-o which was an ode to the creative scene in this neighborhood, and read two more from Nerve House, a short-lived but well produced art and literature publication that she edited and published. One of the poems, I Love America, was an angry tirade against the heavy-handed U.S. bombing of middle eastern countries. [Faraj’s country of heritage is Lebanon.] Her last poem was a tribute to her grandmother that appeared in Mizna, a publication showcasing Arab American artists.

Patrick Flaherty was the last poet of the night, reading an Ode to Television that he wrote twenty years ago. He explained this poem was read before his college friends after they found many discarded television sets and decided to put the unfortunate TVs on a fake trial, complete with judge and defendants before smashing them. The poem made references to Little House on the Prairie, MTV, and Starsky and Hutch.