"Socialist Kate Richards O’Hare, speaking in North Dakota in July of 1917, said, it was reported, that ‘the women of the United States were nothing more nor less than brood sows, to raise children to get into the army and be made into fertilizer.’ She was arrested [under the Espionage Act – still in force, BTW], tried, found guilty, and sentenced to five years in the Missouri state penitentiary. In prison she continued to fight. When she and fellow [sic] prisoners protested the lack of air, because the window above the cell block was kept shut, she was pulled out in the corridor by guards for punishment. In her hand she was carrying a book of poems, and as she was dragged out she flung the book up at the window and broke it, the fresh air streaming in, her fellow prisoners cheering.” [H. Zinn,
A People’s History of the United States]
1 comment:
Poetry is beyond a literary art; poetry indeed has enormous potential to serve as tool for social change.
In Nigeria especially, Poetry is generally seen as a classroom 'thing'. Poetry in Nigeria begins and ends in the classroom.
Poetry for sure is a society thing, it shouldn’t be hijacked by any class- it’s not an academic thing…just like the air we breathe is for all, poetry is meant for all. As much as the usefulness of medicine is not limited to those who studied medical science; so the usefulness of poetry is not limited to poetry scholars; its usefulness is for all.
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