Wednesday, November 11 - poet Brenda Hillman

My guest Wednesday at 2:30 pm is poet and activist Brenda Hillman. She is the author of seven previous collections, and co-editor of the groundbreaking anthology, The Permission: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood. She teaches at St. Mary’s College of California and works with Code Pink. Her recent collection, Pieces of Air in the Epic won the William Carlos Williams Award. In her newest volume, Practical Water, Hillman continues her meditative engagement with the elements, this time water, from hydrology to the California Delta to sitting and considering a glass of water in Congressional hearings on the war in Iraq. All of these poems, lyrical and interconnected, assume the power of water: molecular, governmental, spiritual. Brenda Hillman’s art and worldview assume that it’s poetic to protest wars and occupations and global expansionism --- “the poet’s job,” she says. Celebrated as a “master composer,” in this new volume Brenda Hillman brings us to that element which makes us, and our dreams and our politics. To watch a video of an amazing talk Brenda Hillman gave this summer, go to William Stobb's terrific "Hard to Say" blog: http://miporadiohts.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/hard-to-say-episode-33-brenda-hillman-on-poetry-and-politics/. Thanks for listening. Download right away as the station archives for only 90 days, free. Support community radio KPFK 90.7 FM/98.7 FM and at http://www.kpfk.org. Thanks!