Poetry for Peace and Justice
On September 11 poets from the Bradford area gathered at the Loveapple Cafe to hold a night of poetry for Peace and Justice
The aim of the evening was to commemorate the criminal attack ont he Twin Towers, the thousands of subsequent victims of Bush's so-called War on Terrorism. It was also to commemorate an event that has been overshadowed in the media: the 30th anniversary of Pinochet's CIA-backed coup in Chile in 1973, which overthrew the democratically elected Allende government
The evening began with a performance by Steve Bindman set to music he composed with local African musician Moses Ekebusi. Many well-known local poets followed, including an electrifying performance by Bruce barnes and a moving reading of the folk song Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye by Kathy Benson. The first half of the evening finished with Karl dallas performing songs written during his peace activities in palestine and Iraq
The open mic part of the evening was a tremendous success with a wide variety of performances, many of the peots reading from the Poets4Peace anthology Sundoves, Bumblebees & Blue Streak Bananas. Steve Wilkinson followed with a selection from the set of 54 poems he has written on the Iraq conflict. It was a pleasure to finish off the night with Gerard Benson's wonderful poetry.
