Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Veterans' Poetry at Puffin Cultural Forum

Friday, November 7, 8 p.m.
POETRY: Vets Against War
Puffin Cultural Forum
20 Puffin Way, Teaneck, NJ
201-836-3499

Vietnam veterans Jan Barry and Gerald McCarthy will headline this evening of anti-war poetry and solidarity with our veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Other poets include Dayl Wise, Thomas Brinson, Jim Murphy, Walt Nygard, Sam Weinrab, and Michael Embrich.

This will also be an open mic event emceed by Walt Nygard (VP of Veterans for Peace, Northern NJ, Chapter 21). Free and open to the public.

For more information and directions: http://www.puffinfoundation.org/forum/forum_new/home.html

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Turning Military Uniforms into Art


A thought-provoking project by a band of Iraq veterans is to gather a group of vets and students at local colleges and shred military uniforms into handmade “combat paper”—which is then inscribed with images or messages designed by the vets.

For instance, Drew Cameron printed a poem over photos of a soldier shedding his uniform, titled “You Are Not My Enemy.” His work appears in a collection of poetry and art titled Warrior Writers: Re-Making Sense, published earlier this year by Iraq Veterans Against the War.

The Combat Paper Project is bringing this creative take on war memories to New Jersey on November 10-15 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Garden State vets are invited to participate in the workshops, which are free, at the Brodsky Center for Print and Paper.

“Veterans of wars in Iraq, Viet Nam, World War II and Bosnia, have contributed so far,” says Cameron, an Army vet of the Iraqi campaign who has helped lead more than a dozen such workshops across the country. “From each new participant, I take a piece of fabric and mix it into the lineage pulp. This pulp is then mixed in with each new batch of pulp, so a little piece of each vet’s uniform is in every new piece of paper made.”

Many of these recycled works of art have been shown in a number of art shows and galleries around the country. But the biggest artistic impact may be on the vet who shed the uniform. “The Combat Paper Project gives vets a chance to fight back against their trauma — taking the horrors of war from the battlefield into the studio, sharing their experiences with other veterans, and remaking those experiences into something entirely new,” writer Julia Rappaport noted in a perceptive news report (“Scars & Stripes,” 9/25/08) in the Boston Phoenix.

“The story of the fiber, the blood, sweat and tears, the months of hardship and brutal violence are held within those old uniforms. The uniforms often become inhabitants of closets or boxes in the attic. Reclaiming that association of subordination, of warfare and service into something collective and beautiful is our inspiration,” says Cameron, who founded the Combat Paper Project in Burlington, Vermont with fellow artist Drew Matott.

Cameron, Matott and other papermaking veterans will be at Rutgers November 10–15 at the Judith K. and David J. Brodsky Center for Print and Paper in the Department of Visual Arts, Mason Gross School of the Arts, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick. They will conduct a combat paper workshop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday with area veterans and students, followed by an evening of readings and performances on Friday. To sign up, call 732-932-2222 ext 838 or email Cameron at drewcameron@combatpaper.org.

For more information: http://www.combatpaper.org/index.html

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Another Move to Bring NJ Soldiers Home

The Teaneck town council sent a message this week to Washington that it wants the NJ National Guard out of Iraq. Last month, about half of the state’s National Guard members began shipping out to Iraq, many for a second tour in the war. As host community for a National Guard armory, Teaneck has debated the war since the Bush administration invaded Iraq. Reflecting the course of that debate, the council voted 4-3 on Tuesday to support a bill in the state legislature that calls for keeping the National Guard in the state, unless Congress declares war.

“I think it is part of our responsibility to advocate on behalf of our residents,” Mayor Michael Feit replied to a councilman who questioned the legality of local government addressing a national issue. Councilman Adam Gussen said he felt the message the council majority wanted to send should be directed to Congress, but not via a local resolution in support of a state bill. A local American Legion leader spoke against the resolution from the audience, arguing that "it does not reflect the entire township" and in particular members of his veterans' group.

Teaneck’s resolution was based on one passed by Highland Park in August. The municipal resolutions support bills introduced earlier this year by state Senator Loretta Weinberg (SJR55) and Assemblywomen Connie Wagner and Valerie Huttle (AJR89). The bills challenge Bush’s authority to order National Guard troops to Iraq, arguing that the U.S. Senate’s 2002 authorization to use military force in Iraq has expired.

Paula Rogovin, a leader of Military Families Speak Out, Bergen County and other peace activists in the audience applauded the Teaneck council vote. The next step, Rogovin said after the meeting, is to lobby state legislators to hold hearings and approve the National Guard bill.

“The premise of the bill is simple,” Weinberg said last month as she joined peace activists outside the Teaneck Armory to present a petition with over 4000 signatures to a representative of Governor Corzine that calls for keeping NJ’s National Guard in New Jersey. “The National Guard was called up under an Iraqi threat posed by Weapons of Mass Destruction. There were no weapons, and Iraq’s military has been defeated. There is no threat left for the National Guard to defend us from."

For more information: http://www.bringhometheguard.org/