This
was my presentation for the Associated Writers and Writing Programs panel Uneasy Alliance: Poets Laureate & Government Agencies, Feb.
9 in Washington D.C. Thank you to Patricia Clark for adding me to the panel.
Several people asked me to post my remarks, and thank you for your kind
encouragement.
I’m Denise Low, poet laureate of
Kansas 2007-2009. Poets laureate
positions are now among
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| AWP-Photo by Fred Viebahn of Kimberly Blaeser, Denise Low |
Kansas is a canary-in-the-mine state
for the United States. It was crucial in the Free State battle of the 19th
century. John Brown fired his first shots against marauding Missouri slavers in
the Battle of Black Jack, 1856, near Baldwin City. A hundred years later, Brown
versus Topeka Board of Education was the deciding legal case determining school
desegregation. Kansas is a political hotbed.
In 2004, Kathleen Sibelius, secretary
of health under Obama, was governor of Kansas. She established the poet
laureate position. The Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency,
researched the position for her and determined its scope. Jonathan Holden was the
first Poet Laureate in 2005, and I was the second, starting duties in 2006 and
continuing appearances until 2009. Duties included judging Poetry Out Loud, giving
an ecumenical invocation for the governor’s arts awards, and many other
wonderful activities. The Internet was newish, and I started a blog, still
going, that dates to 2006. I posted poetry broadsides every couple weeks,
eventually published as a book, To the
Stars: Kansas Poets of the Ad Astra Poetry Project (Washburn Center for Kansas Studies/Mammoth 2010, Kansas
Notable Book)
All went well. Caryn Mirriam Goldberg
was chosen 3rd Ks. Poet laureate and began her term, summer of 2009. In early 2010, she organized (with my assistance, but she was the prime mover!) a conference of state poets laureate in Lawrence.
Then, 2011, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback took office as governor. You may not have heard of him. He was a member of the Values Action Team and a leading social conservative in the Senate.
He converted to conservative Catholicism in 2002 and is a member of Opus Dei.
He, before Trump, subscribed to the policy of dismantling government
institutions. He had presidential aspirations.
Did I mention the Koch brothers are
from Wichita, and they backed his career? If you have read Thomas Frank’s first
book What’s the Matter with Kansas,
you will see where I’m going. He explains how people are persuaded to vote
against their own best interests, even if it means losing the family farm. Many
family farms were lost.
One of the first things Brownback did
was to defund the Kansas Arts Commission. He gave no reason. The KAC was well
run and high profile in this rural state. Arts events were funded in remote areas where the tax base supports only bare essentials. In addition to the
arts, the Koch brothers and Brownback despise public education. Home-schooled
fundamentalist Christians are the ideal. So Brownback cut taxes to the point
public education, the arts, the roads, health support for severely handicapped
people, and social services were barely functioning. I can testify that after seven years, trickle-down economics in Kansas is a complete bust. This year Kansas has a 360 million dollar deficit, expected to be
half a billion next year, in a small state. Brownback uses funding for
schools to balance the budget, and they, once excellent, are faltering.
Back to the arts commission. Brownback
tried to establish a private arts organization that would approve fundamentalist Christian
arts programs only. He appointed wealthy citizens to the board. Eventually,
this failed—arts administration is not an amateur game. The tea party Kansas
legislature even voted to fund the KAC, but Brownback vetoed the bill. The KAC
is gone. Gone. Poets in the Schools, grants to artists, dance performances, art exhibits, concerts, quilt workshops--all gone.
Caryn Mirriam Goldberg, with allies,
did a Kickstarter in 2011 to keep her position viable for a year. She approached many angels. Finally, the
Kansas Humanities Council agreed to accept the program. This nongovernment
organization is not at the whim of politics. With the KHC the focus of the position shifted from
arts to humanities content, so there is more emphasis on community building rather than aesthetic/craft
issues. No problem. To this day, the KHC is the home of the poet laureate, and the position
is doing well.
And Kansas people have awakened from the
delusion that Brownback is helping anyone. His approval rating is way down, 18%. The
Koch brothers abandoned his bid for the presidency, and even Trump has not put
him in any position (we were hoping he would leave Kansas but feared for what
he would do to the country). The legislature of Kansas is now, after 2016
elections, moderate Republicans and Democrats, so a slow repairing has begun. Tax
cuts have been reversed by the state legislature, February, 2017.
There is a happy ending, perhaps.
The poets of Kansas keep up an internet presence of poetry projects, and the latest theme, 2017,
is resistance—you can see poems of resistance online at 150 Kansas poems,
“Heartland! Poetry of Love, Resistance, and Solidarity.” Thank you to Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg for her heroic resistance to government
sabotage and to the KHC for its support.
Do prioritize support for the arts.
They do go after the poets first. The National Endowment for the Arts is in
danger. Americans for the Arts is a general organization that supports all arts
programs, especially the NEA. AWP is a member and lobbies each year through the Arts Advocacy Day initiatives
on Capitol Hill, this year March 20-21. Making poetry is a political act.
As poet laureate I went all over a
large and diverse state, from inner cities in KC to sparsely populate High
Plains areas. Libraries, arts centers, and schools all create a situation of
deep literacy, critical to being a good, informed citizen. Today more than
ever, this is an essential charge of our public life as writers.
