Picture a room with dim lights, café tables, music and a cast of characters straight out of the movie Hair-people wearing peace signs, bright clothing and hats of various hues and styles from turbans to berets. In the back, coffee and tea brews with a small handwritten sign posted on a glass bottle saying: “donations appreciated.”
Then imagine that these people have gathered together for the evening to read poetry and sing songs opposing war.
If you thought you were revisiting a scene from a Bleeker Street Café, Greenwich Village, circa 1968, you would have been wrong. It was Victory Hall, Jersey City, Dec. 14, 2002, as poets and musicians gathered to vent their outrage over plans for war with Iraq.
The joint production of “Words against War,” by Art House Productions and Shore Poets, brought to Victory Hall in Jersey City a diverse collection of artists, musicians, writers and poets with the purpose of sending a message to the United States military establishment that some were opposed the proposed war in the Middle East as well as all acts of war and violence.
Hosted by Trina Scordo of the Shore Poets and Christine Goodman of Art House Productions (formerly co-host of Alliteration Alley), the event was free to the public and the about 50 people came, part of a growing anti-war movement among artists around the state.
Not all the poets at the event came there to solely oppose the war, nor has the space solely supported anti-war rhetoric. In November, Alliteration Alley featured poet Frank Messina, author of Disorderly Conduct, who supported war efforts. Indeed, Alliteration Alley’s Radomir Luza drew some jeers at the anti-War poetry protest on Dec. 14 for singing the praises of President George W. Bush and efforts to seek out terrorists.
Several poets also raised protest against New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey and the state legislature’s efforts to fire poet Amiri Baraka as the New Jersey poet laureate. The state called for Baraka’s resignation in September, after he read a poem with questionable and possibly anti-Semitic information included in it.
Words against War on Dec. 14 included the creation of a “spontaneous” anthology for participants, which allowed poets to bring copies of their poems to help make up the pages of a chapbook. This was distributed to those who attended the event. q