ISSUE 01: STATE(D) VIOLENCE
ABOUT
JOE HALL
Joe Hall is a Buffalo-based writer and researcher. His six books of poetry include Fugue & Strike (Black Ocean 2023) and People Finder, Buffalo (Cloak 2024). Current Affairs on Fugue & Strike: “a remarkable poetic project, unlike anything else in literature today.” Hall has performed and delivered talks nationally at bars, squats, universities, and rivers. Protean, The Cleveland Review of Books, Eighteen-Century Fiction, Poetry Daily, Fence Digital, mercury firs, dollar bills, and an NFTA bus shelter have all featured his writing. He has taught community-based writing workshops for teachers, teens, and workers. Community Mausoleum recently featured his essay “PEN America: Cultural Imperialism’s Avant-Garde.” Find more at http://joehalljoehall.com.
STATEMENT
Most large cultural and literary publications have responded to Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide of the Palestinian people with silence, obfuscation, and implicit support. If we wonder why, we might begin by looking at figures like Jeffrey Goldberg, who served as a prison guard for the Israeli military, or the Wall Street Journal reporter Carrie Keller-Lynn, who also served with the Israeli military.
In addition to endorsing the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves against a one-hundred years long campaign of annihilatory destruction and in addition to boycotting institutions normalizing relations with Israel through academic and cultural exchange, it is also important to discredit, damn, and enfeeble organizations like The Atlantic, PEN America, and The New York Times that have spent over a year running cover for genocide.
GENOCIDE NOTEBOOK: CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
UNTITLED
if guerilla war must be fought
w/infinite patience
if for gratuitous wrong piled on
gratuitous wrong, there
must be accountability
in this city, if in this hour
in all wild fields, falls’ stems
give way against your shins
if you don’t wait for the law