Isnt This Fun?

Just ask Progressive Urban Real Estate, who ran their first ad last week: “Thanks Thomas for the opportunity to sponsor the Cool Cleveland newsletter. We had a great response at our EcoVillage open house that we showcased. More people came through from Cool Cleveland than the Scene, Plain Dealer and Gay People’s Chronicle combined! I look forward to the continued success of the newsletter and of our sponsorship.” You Cool Cleveland readers can do your part by finding the PURE sponsored link this week below and clicking on it. And by telling other potential sponsors to send us a note at Thomas@Mulready.com. Wanna sponsor Cool Cleveland? 
Click here to sponsor Cool Cleveland

Back by popular demand, Cool Cleveland presents the follow-up to our sold-out Art/Tech/Dance party, designed to bring together the arts, business and tech communities of this great city. Now the party moves downtown to the Tower Press Building at 1900 Superior, with over 80 live/work lofts designed for artists and professionals. Featuring multiple rooms of digital art by Cleveland artists on huge video screens, dancing to HeadrushMusic.com DJs, refreshments from MyOhioWine.com, design by Nesnadny+Schwartz (www.NSideas.com), digital art fromNewCAT, tech power by IdeaStar.com, much more. Thu 2/20 4PM-9PM. Get ready for some serious Made In Cleveland art, food and drink. Tour the lofts, dance with a designer. December’s event was sold out with over 400 people. Don’t miss the party this time: register now. 
Click here to register now

In a press release remarkable for its understatement, the Cleveland Museum of Art has acknowledged that they are planning a NOA (Northeast Ohio Art) exhibition, to be held every 3-4 years to “provide a new forum in which artists from throughout the area can show their work and receive both public exposure and critical review,” according to Director Katharine Lee Reid. Expected to use curators from the Museum as well as guest curators, and welcoming work in all media, this is big news for regional artists who looked forward to the opportunities offered by the May Show, held annually from 1919 to 1993. “By showing contemporary work within the context of exceptional art from around the world,” Reid says, “we believe our visitors will come to understand that Northeast Ohio also has artists of great talent.” Bravo.
See the press release at Cleveland Museum of Art

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This week, Progressive Urban Real Estate (PURE) invites you to an open house on Sun 2/9 from 2-4PM to check out the classic yet contemporary architecture of the Boulevard Townhomesin the heart of Cleveland Hts at the corner of Euclid Hts Blvd and Lee Road. Cool Cleveland readers will especially appreciate the 10-year 50% tax abatement and the 1.5% discounted mortgage rate. Click below and support our Cool Cleveland sponsors.
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Click here to check out PURE’s Boulevard Townhomes

Now that Dr. Edward Hundert has experienced his coronation, the hard work begins, and even then, the problems of regionalism may be overwhelming. While last week’s colloquium with Mayor Jane Campbell on Great Universities and their Cities was a superb opportunity to highlight the potential for this region to work together, we can’t wait a decade for all the competing political, corporate and civic sub-divisions to decide it’s better to work together. We’ll see if Hundert and Campbell are the leaders who can pull the city and it’s biggest university into a single trajectory. Wouldn’t it be great if the next colloquium were called Great Cities and their Universities? See excellent CrainTech analysis by Chris Thompson.
See CrainTech

One of Governor Taft’s more bizarre recommendations in his recently announced budget plan is to start taxing admission to art events. He also proposes an end to the exemption from sales tax for tangible personal property used in non-profit presentations of music, drama and performance. Huh? While this will generate a pittance for the State of Ohio, it would tremendously impact attendance at live theatre, dance, music and performance events in Cleveland, which are already “suffering continuing and apparently unresolvable financial crises” (according to the Cleveland Foundation’s Civic Study Commission on the Performing Arts), and struggling to compete for people’s time and pocketbook with corporate-driven sports and television. We’ve already lost the Cleveland Ballet, and our two largest theatres are talking about merging, they are so strapped. Anyone who thinks a tax to raise arts ticket prices will help stimulate the creative class in Ohio needs to think a little harder. Instead, the Civic Study Commission recommended public support, educational partnerships, and a community-wide cultural planning process, all of which are currently underway in Cleveland. With just a click, you can send your thoughts to Ohio Citizens for the Arts, who are in touch with your legislators in Columbus.
Click here to tell the Ohio Citizens for the Arts what you think of the Governor’s proposal

What continues to amaze me about Cleveland is the fecundity of its art community. Almost weekly these days, we’re happy to announce another publication starting up to fill the void in arts reporting. American Motor Thought is a brand new Cleveland-based publication that will feature poetry and various types of experimental literature, as well as promote all other forms of artistic expression, devoting space in each issue to something they call folk science, a way of deconstructing the daily routines of American life by experimenting with the different ways things work together. Published by the newly formed Fovea Centralis Productions, the first issue will feature local writers and others from around the country, including editor Dan Horton, a poet from Cleveland, Mark Kuhar of deepcleveland.com, Bree from Green Panda Press (both out of Cleveland), as well as Scott Ries (from Salt Lake City, Utah). Following the now familiar pattern, the first issue is available online, with plans for a print edition in the Spring. Submission guidelines and first issue at the site.
American Motor Thought magazine

wants to do the right thing: attract business to NEO on a regional basis, rather than our current system of dozens of individual economic development groups and governmental domains fighting it out and undercutting each other. Will the powers that be learn to cooperate, or are we doomed? Check the great analysis by David Bennett and Scott Suttell on CrainTech.
See CrainTech

By now you may have heard that First Lady Laura Bush cancelled a White House poetry symposium honoring Emily Dickinson and Cleveland’s Langston Hughes because she freaked out when poet Sam Hamill of Copper Canyon Press sent out a call for poems of peace and she became afraid that some of the poets might protest the war with Iraq. She’s obviously missing the irony of canceling a poetry event for being too politicized, when the poets being honored were popular because of their politics, not to mention missing the entire point of poetry or the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Maybe we expect too much… But there’s more: Off the Cuffs: Poetry by and about the Police was just released by Soft Skull Press, and a major anthology 100 Poets for Peace anthology was produced in under a week online and is e-circling the planet. Get the pdf free at nth Position.com.
See good coverage at The Guardian
and NPR.
100 Poets for Peace free at nth Position

Great Lakes Publishing has launched Ohio Entrepreneur magazine as an insert to Inside Business and an online resource whose mission is “to provide entrepreneurs access to all the services they need to start and grow a business in Ohio, and promote Ohio — nationally and internationally — as the most advantageous place where businesses go to grow.” Sounds pretty cool to me. See Internet resources, how to pitch and info on tech-savvy women at OhioGoToGrow.com.
See Ohio Entrepreneur magazine

Now open for registration for adult art classes in silk painting, batik, bead-making, acrylic, ceramics, and a cool Multi-Cultural Mania class for kids 6-12 making an Australian didgeridoo, a Navajo sand painting, an African mask, an Inuit sculpture, and a Japanese windsock. Most classes start in March. Art House, 3119 Denison Ave, 398-8556. 
See Art House

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate the Events and Attractions Committee along with the Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Rock Hall, the city and the county (all of whom all put up the cash) for closing the deal for a Cleveland-based sequel. Did you catch the Games last year in the mid-summer heat, and on national TV? Let’s welcome another 164,000 or so fans to our fair town September 10-14. Looks like an exciting summer with the Tall Ships July 9-13, and the Lion King 7/1-8/17 at Playhouse Square. Strap on your sk8s and mark your calendars.
See Cleveland.com

How can a dance company (Cleveland’s Repertory Project) that’s 15 years old make a debut? With a new artistic director (Hernando Cortez, relocated here from NYC), their first performances ever with male dancers, a trio of works choreographed by Cortez (a first for this repertory-only company) and a dose of “leadership, goals, vision and a new drive,” according to one dancer. Filling the big shoes of recently departed founder Susan Miller, Cortez brought some of his NYC dancers to Cleveland, and premiered the show in South Florida. With music by the Afro-Celt Sound System and sexy dresses that somehow come off during the dance, this is an auspiciously ambitious high point in an amazing month of contemporary dance in Cleveland. And it’s also an object lesson on why artists want to move to a place like Cleveland (cheap rent, culturally rich and diverse, lots of studio space to create art, no need to wait tables in a nasty NYC diner, and best of all, appreciative audiences). See Repertory Project. On Fri 2/7, listen to Around Noon on WCPN 90.3FM for an interview with Cortez. See them at CPT on Fri 2/7 and Sat 2/8 at 8PM and Sun 2/9 at 3PM. Special benefit for AIDS Task Force on Thu 2/6 6415 Detroit Ave, 631-2727. See nice Wilma Smith article on Cleveland.com. 
Cleveland Public Theatre

When this site first launched in 10/02, those of us who passed around the URL of this Cleveland-based online archive of experimental video knew it was something special. Now they’re up for the top award at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival’s Website Competition. The site’s art director, Kenn Louis and content editor, Andy Timithy plan to attend the awards ceremony on March 10 at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Austin, TX. “We’re thrilled just to be nominated!” says Louis. “This is the first time a Cleveland project has been recognized in this high-profile competition.” Since it’s debut, SPONGI has over 50 streaming videos in it’s archives– and it plans to add many more. “Our site is dedicated to giving exposure to experimental video artists,” Louis said. “We feature short works from underground artists in Cleveland as well as submissions we receive from artists around the world.” Austin’s SXSW has evolved with the times and no longer simply presents music, now drawing web developers, content creators and new media pioneers from across the country and around the globe. Hmmm… Maybe Cleveland should have a cool festival of some sort… 
SPONGI.com

performance and workshop by German avant-garde/classical/jazz cellist Fried Daehn, who has performed with Frank Zappa, culminating a five-day workshop with the TIME program (Technology & Integrated Media Environment), where he’s been creating a soundtrack to the 1929 surrealist masterpiece Un Chien Andalou by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali. Wed 2/5 7:30PM at CIA Ohio Bell Aud, 11141 East Blvd 421-7000.
Cleveland Institute of Art

architect, is one of two finalists in a worldwide competition to redesign the CMA, and he is delivering a “special presentation” at the free Public Forum III Envisioning a New Cleveland Museum of Art to talk about their $225 million upcoming expansion effort. Thu 2/6 6PM Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square, organized by Cleveland Public Art. It’s already sold out, so call 621-5330 or send to contactus@clevelandpublicart.org to get on the waiting list, or watch the video at the Museum’s site. Check here and here for a couple of good Steven Litt articles onCleveland.com.

perform Planet Soup, The Man and the Echo, and Two Hours That Shook The World Thu 2/6 8PM thru 2/9 at CPT (see above), 6415 Detroit Ave, 631-2727.
Cleveland Public Theatre

From Little Red Riding Hood to Gershwin by Cleveland Institute of Music Ensembles and Cleveland Youth Ballet. One of the best things about University Circle is the plethora of great cultural stuff for kids, such as this innovative collaboration. Fri 2/7 10:30AM and 7:30PM CIM, 11021 East Blvd 791-5000.
Cleveland Institute of Music

Cleveland’s slam champ reads poetry at 7PM, while the Mike Rotman Trio rocks out the Cool Fridays series in the Interior Garden Court from 5:30-8:30PM, and the galleries stay open until 9PM Fri 2/7 Museum of Art, 707-2598. 
Cleveland Museum of Art

is the most incredible art show you may see all year in Cleveland. Actually, you don’t see it at all, you sniff it, then look it up on the web. Starting from the unbelievable fact that virtually all the perfume in the world is created by seven perfumers, artist Nobi Shioya (goes by “S”) commissioned these olfactory geniuses to create scents representing the seven deadly sins, and the show also includes their respective “resumes,” examples of their most well-known past work for labels such as Givency, Yves Saint Laurent, Armani, Ralph Lauren and others that you can smell. Thru 3/8CSU Art Gallery, 2307 Chester 687-2103. 
CSU Art Gallery

Along with the original lyric manuscripts, stage sets and personal correspondence, the exhibit takes up the top three floors of the HOF and includes photos by Anton Corbijn, video and animation cells and other ephemera. Forget their Super Bowl/Grammy Awards/MTV video stuff, think about the trophy they won in a battle of the bands in 1978, when they were really saying something. Sat 2/8 preview party for members and their guests, the rest of us can check it out on Sun 2/9. Rock and Roll HOF+M, One Key Plaza 781-ROCK thru 9/03.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame+Museum

speaks at the Cleveland City Club on Should the US wage war on Iraq? Her radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria’s Oil Dictatorship, in which she exposed the killing of Nigerian villagers, won the George Polk Award in 1998, and won the Golden Reel Award for Best National Documentary from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and was named one of the “10 Most Censored Stories of 1998” by Project Censored. Concerted foe of censorship, the City Club, features her on Fri 2/7 noon 621-0082, 850 Euclid. If you can’t be there, set a reminder to watch the webcast at Webcast Group. 
Cleveland City Club

Writer/Director Christopher Johnston’s one-act play that considers the good and bad but all too-human aspects of long-term relationships between men and women. Representative of this broad spectrum of experiences, the play builds on a number of images of light and darkness as well as the distinctive language of relationships. Written for one male and one female actor who represent the universal “man and woman” rather than specific, individual characters, the play features five stylistically different but thematically connected scenes Fri 2/7 thru 2/9 at CPT, 6415 Detroit Ave, 631-2727. 
Cleveland Public Theatre

Something different for Cleveland and for the CMA, this Jazz on the Circle concert features Bassist Charlie Haden and Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and violinist Frederico Britos Ruiz, exploring the rhythmic pulse of Cuban and Mexican ballads in their collaboration Nocture. Haden and Rubalcaba have developed their unique Afro-Cuban dance interpretations into a convincing blend of jazz lyricism and Latin rhythms. Sat 2/8 8PM Gartner Auditorium at Cleveland Museum of Art, 231-1111.
Cleveland Museum of Art

No! to the War on Iraq featuring: Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!, speaking on The Propaganda War: How the Media Manipulates the News on Iraq; David Sole, President of UAW 2334 in Detroit, speaking on The Real Reasons for the U.S. War on Iraq and the War’s Impact Here at Home; and Stephanie Tolliver, Cultural Arts Instructor at Phillis Wheatley Assn in Cleve, speaking on Building Opposition to the War; Where Do We Go From Here? Plus issue workshops on Effects of the Bombings and Sanctions on the Iraqi People; History of the Region; Attacks on Civil Liberties at Home; and more. Free Sat 2/8 1-6PM CSU University Center, 2121 Euclid Ave NOACinfo@aol.com 231-4245. 
NEO American Friends Services Committee

spins a deeper, underground house and blends in her jazzy vocals. So nice to see (and hear) women take their turn behind the tables. Sat 2/8 Touch Supper Club, 2710 Lorain 631-5200. 
Touch Supper Club

a bi-monthly festival of super8 and 16mm films. Check it out Sat 2/8 8PM Talkies Film and Coffee Bar, 2521 Market Street 696-3456 info@flickercleveland.com. Wanna get your stuff screened: rolling submission deadline/no entry fee Flicker Cleveland PO BOX 14897 Cleveland, OH 44114-0897.

a benefit for Cleveland’s newest classical music orchestra, red (an orchestra), featuring Cabared music, hors d’oeuvres, fashion show, silent auction, dessert and dancing on Sat 2/8 Windows on the River, Powerhouse, West Bank of the Flats 440-519-1733. And listen to Around Noon on WCPN 90.3 FM on Thu 2/6 to hear artistic director Jonathan Sheffer talk about their upcoming tribute to Spike Jones. 

born in Iran, raised in San Francisco, blending progressive and tribal, from deep house to dark house, and he’s right when he says, “a good DJ tells a story.” Dance to his stories on Sat 2/8>9PM at Moda 1871 W. 25th Check his samples at: http://www.djbehrouz.com.
Moda

Yes, that is the actual name for this fundraiser mounted by those fanatics who are freaky about Cleveland’s (and possibly the country’s) most outspoken politician. Here’s your chance to put your money where his mouth is. Sun 2/9 noon-2PM, Highland Party Center, 3030 W. 117th, Cleve 252-9000.
Check his speeches here

Join Naturalist Chris Larson-McKenzie on a 2 mile hike to learn how Indians in Ohio used plants and animals for survival on Sun 2/9 2-5PM at South Chagrin Reservation, Miles Rd East of Rt. 91 in Bentleyville 440-247-7075.
Cleveland Metroparks

Suburban sprawl causes enormous waste, frustration and long-term costs by depleting land and resources, causing a dependency on the automobile, and increasing pollution, congestion, and social isolation. Arcosanti, designed according to the concept of arcology (architecture + ecology), developed by Italian architect Paolo Soleri, addresses these issues by building a three-dimensional, pedestrian-oriented city where the built and the living interact as organs would in a highly evolved being. This means many systems work together, with efficient circulation of people and resources, multi-use buildings, and solar orientation for lighting, heating and cooling. On Sun 2/9 at 3PM hear Dennis Sebian, a Research Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT when he speaks at CIG creative impetus gallery, 2512 church avenue, near Detroit & W. 25th Cleveland 861-3062. 

Check this Havana-based company of 22 female dancers who combine Spanish flamenco, Afro-Cuban rhythms and 19th century Pepita ballet. Sun 2/9 7:30PM Gartner Aud, Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd 421-7350.
Cleveland Museum of Art

is one of those 2002 films that came and went too quickly, featuring Campbell Scott, Isabella Rossellini and Jennifer Beals, about a chauvinist pig ad exec tutoring his virginal nephew from Ohio on the fine points of picking up women on Sun 2/9 9PM Cinematheque at CIA 11141 East Blvd 421-7450. 
Cleveland Cinematheque

Artists are an integral part of Northeast Ohio’s fabric of life. But in order for artists to create a sustainable living and thus contribute to the region’s economic and social growth, their business practice skills must be strong. With that in mind, the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture is partnering with Tri-C and COSE to develop a program designed to help artists refine their business skills. The Artist as Entrepreneur Institute, a series of seminars will address different topics related to developing artists’ entrepreneurial skills. The first session, Business Fundamentals for Artists is designed to familiarize artists with business planning concepts. All 3 dates are the same session: Mon 2/10 6-9PM Tri-C West, Rm G4A, 1100 Pleasant Valley Rd, Parma; Sat 2/159AM-noon Tri-C East, Rm E3, 2101, 4250 Richmond, Highland Hills; Tues 2/25 1-4PM COSE, 50 Public Square, Tower City Center, 2nd Floor. 575-0331. 
COSE

with Rolfe Schulte on violin and James Winn on piano in a free performance of Bartok, Schoenberg, Webern and Carter on Mon 2/10 at CSU’s wonderful Drinko Hall, 2001 Euclid 687-2029.

is guest conductor of the CIM Orchestra, cranking out a little Strauss Death and Transfiguration, Dvorak’s Carnival Concert Overture, and a personal fave, Haydn’s 99th, on Tues 2/11 8PM Free, Severance Hall, 791-5000.
Cleveland Institute of Music

promises to “inform you about City Year while providing you with an unforgettable encounter with a unique culture and idealistic young people who are changing the world.” Many talk the talk, these guys walk the walk, on Wed 2/12 7:30-8:30AM, City Year 1007 Euclid, rsvp to 373-3411 or cvalencheck@cityyear.org.

If you go to one of the events listed in Cool Cleveland, or some other cool event, send us a quick review and let’s hear what Cool Clevelanders think about what’s going on in town.Send to Thomas@Mulready.com.

From Cool Cleveland reader Carlo Wolff, on the 2/1 Los Lobos show at the Beachland Ballroom: “Just wanted to let you know the Los Lobos concert at Beachland Feb. 1 was outrageous, so strong it could, and should, put the Cleveland venue on the national map. It was especially a pleasure because the show was great. Not only did Los Lobos showcase tunes from the terrificGood Morning Aztlan, the band also delivered a history lesson spanning the Temptations, Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky, the Allman brothers, the best cover of Richard Thompson’s Shoot out the Lights since John Cougar Mellencamp’s of nearly 20 years ago, and a Cinnamon Girl you didn’t want to end. The room was perfect for it, too, with great acoustics and great atmosphere. Power, passion, virtuosity without ego, and a deep grasp of the vernacular made this show memorable. It was sweaty, smoky, packed with fans eager for music of heart, sinew and locale. Los Lobos reminded us that rock ‘n’ roll can still galvanize, still be moving. Above all, it takes commitment, perseverance and talent, qualities that makes this band one of the last great American rock units.”
Inspired to write your own review? Click here.

“I wish I had time to write more. But, in a nutshell, I love your newsletter! You know your audience very very well.”

“WOW! This e-zine is even cooler than I thought – seriously! I haven’t seen it since the one I told you that I’d seen in Nov and now I am REALLY impressed. I’m going to fwd it to MANY of my friends, so hopefully they’ll subscribe too.”

“You have done it again !! When COOL CLEVELAND arrives in my email, I can’t go any further until I have read it in full – whew! And there is one thing that continues to AMAZE me, the new economic development groups who need MILLIONS of dollars to get started. The Consortium of African American Organizations has helped hundreds of African American businesses on less than $100,000 a year thanks to our strategic partner, Enterprise Development, Inc. How do we do it? We help each other with our time – members helping members – and we help each other with our existing resources, no matter how meager. Our total projected operating budget for 2003 is $120,000. This is possible with the support of a lot of folks volunteering their information, their time, their energy, and their skills, and I just want to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.” See www.caao.net

On the need for a new Convention Center in Cleveland: “I’m always amused when people spout out that Cleveland doesn’t need a new convention center. Have any of these people ever exhibited or had a show at Cleveland Convention or anywhere else for that matter? I’ve been involved at setting up exhibits at perhaps 24 different convention centers in the US. The worst experience of them all? My home town of Cleveland. Wake up people. Get informed. Get past the issue of whether we need it or not and let’s work to create something that works.”

On the inauguration of Dr. Edward Hundert as President of CWRU and Richard Florida’s interest in starting an Innovation Center, possibly outside his home in Pittsburgh:: “I read with interest the prospect of snagging him and his Innovation Center here in Cleveland. In light of the new CWRU President Huindert’s view that CWRU has the sky to offer (and he has pledged $5 million to push the arts, humanities and social sciences) and should be a center of innovation, maybe he should be made aware of the Richard Florida opportunity. Also, maybe something this dynamic and revotionary for Cleveland, if supported with true leadership in the community, might get the attention and love of Peter Lewis back to town!”

Keyboard fingers itchy? Send it in to Cool Cleveland.

Clevelander Langston Hughes started writing poetry in the 8th grade and attended Central High School in Cleveland. His father put him through Columbia University to become an engineer, but he dropped out, wrote one of his most famous poems, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, became the leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s, and became known as The Poet Laureaute of the Negro Race. Let America Be America Again was first published in Esquire in 1938.

Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed–
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek–
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean–
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today–O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.
O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home–
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay–
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again–
The land that never has been yet–
And yet must be–the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME–
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose–
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath–
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain–
All, all the stretch of these great green states–
And make America again!

From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, (1902-1967)
Analysis of Let America Be America Again

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–Thomas Mulready thomas@mulready.com