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Costa Mantis movie, dated 1/19/10, "Safe Ground Goes to SF"


[Pictured to the left of the 666 is attorney Mark Merin; to the right of the 666 are Tracey Rice-Bailey and Paula Lomazzi] In the viddie, Jack Hirschman reads his 1987 poem "Home." [Listeners to the poem should note that the nature of being homeless has changed more than a little over the course of 23 years.]

And here a glowing article, a decade ago, about Hirschman in SF GATE, the online presence of the San Francisco Chronicle: "Dean of S.F.'s Marxist Poetry / Jack Hirschman is lauded abroad unknown at home."

And, here, Hirschman in wikipedia, where we are told that Hirschman is, today, "an avowed Stalinist and has translated the youthful poems of Joseph Stalin into English (Joey: The Poems of Joseph Stalin [Deliriodendron Press, 2001])." [Though the book of translated poems is not listed on Hirschman's bibliography at the Poetry Foundation website, I am pretty sure the wikipedia statement is true. When Stalin was a young poet he was known as "Soso," the diminuative of Josef, and, thus, the Russian equivalent of "Joey." [Update, 7/13/13: Here is Hirschman's book Joey at Amazon in the UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joey-Joseph-Jack-ed-Hirschman/dp/B0056TMFYY ] [Deliriodendron Press was Hirschman's own tiny publishing house. An article/video online asks, "Could Stalin have been poet instead of tyrant?" Of course my question would be "Can a psychopath ever be a good poet?"] Indeed, a recent [2007] book, Young Stalin, won the Los Angeles Book Prize for Biography. It tells, in part, of "Joey's" background as a teenage poet with some talent.

Here, btw, is Costa Mantis's nine-minute video of the march in San Francisco on 1/20/10.

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