If you want to know how Louisiana is uniquely related to Abraham Lincoln, the Louisiana Poetry Project is for you. This Feb. 12, the nation celebrates the 200th birthday of our 16th president. Here in Louisiana, poets, professors, playwrights and politicians will embark on a series of readings and performances honoring Lincoln’s life and legacy.
Lincoln’s last speech asked “without retribution and vitriol, to admit Louisiana back into the Union,” says poet Darrell Bourque, who is taking the lead in organizing poetry readings statewide. Lincoln wanted the Louisiana Plan for Reconstruction to be the model for the nation. “John Wilkes Booth was in the audience and vowed Lincoln would never give another speech,” continues Bourque, who has been doing his homework on Lincoln.
David Madden, LSU’s Robert Penn Warren professor of creative writing and Gov. Bobby Jindal’s liaison to the national Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, has created the statewide commemoration. He tapped Acadiana resident Bourque, who served as Louisiana Poet Laureate in 2007 and will be reappointed to the position later this year, to develop a series of poetry events as part of the state’s activities.
Bourque lined up poets and writers Sidney Creaghan, Ann Dobie, Reggie Scott Young, Ava Haymon, Bonny McDonald, Elizabeth Foos, Charles deGravelles, Jack Bedell and Madden to give dramatic readings of poems Lincoln wrote himself, and poems that famous poets such as Walt Whitman, Vachel Lindsay and Langston Hughes wrote about Lincoln. To learn more about Lincoln, the national bicentennial, and to view a list of poems inspired by Lincoln, go to www.AbrahamLincoln200.org .
The 10-day commemoration begins Wednesday, Feb. 4, with a talk by Richard White on Lincoln’s Leadership at the East Baton Rouge Main Library at 7 p.m. Highlights of the week include a poetry reading by 10 major Louisiana poets at the State Library in Baton Rouge, Feb. 8, 2 p.m.; and a major birthday celebration on the 12th, including poetry, proclamations and the reading of Lincoln’s resounding Second Inaugural Address on the steps of the State Capitol beginning at 3 p.m.
Local events all take place Feb. 12, including a poetry reading at UL, Griffin Hall, Rm. 319, from 11 a.m - 1 p.m.; a talk and poetry at St. Martinville Junior High at 1:30 p.m.; and a poetry reading at Casa Azul in Grand Coteau at 7 p.m. For more information, contact Bourque at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or Madden at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Lincoln Idolization written by Charles Lauret , February 06, 2009 - 12:23 am
I appreciate that David Madden thinks so highly of old Abe and the fact that Louisiana is joining in on the Abe Bicentennial, but the shmooze coming out of the "O Captain!" article needs to be tempered with a few facts about the idol Lincoln. He felt that new territories should be made for the homes of white people (1854); He had "no purpose to introduce political or social equality between the white and black races" and that the race to which he belonged had the "superior position." (1858); In 23 years of practicing law, Abe never defended a single runaway slave, but did defend a slave owner. Abe favored colonization of slaves in 1862, in the middle of the War Between the States and, contrary to what most people believe, the Emancipation Proclamation freed only slaves that were residing in areas not under Union control during the War. Lincoln rebuffed efforts by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to avoid war and even refused offers by Napoleon III to mediate before hostilities broke out. Abe suppressed free elections in Maryland in 1861, ordering anyone voting the "peace ticket" arrested. He even had a US congressman from Ohio arrested and deported to the South because the man made a speech denouncing Lincoln's unconstitutional usurpation of powers. Much more could be said, but I will leave it at that. It is one thing to remember past presidents, it is quite another to make them seem god-like and act if they he were infallible. I recommend The Real Lincoln by Thomas DiLorenzo.
Charles Lauret Washington
You must be logged in to post a comment. Log in using your Facebook account or register if you do not have an account yet.
Advertisement
Read the Flipping Paper!
Click Here for the Entire Print Version of IND Monthly
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
If you want to know how Louisiana is uniquely related to Abraham Lincoln, the Louisiana Poetry Project is for you. This Feb. 12, the nation celebrates the 200th birthday of our 16th president. Here in Louisiana, poets, professors, playwrights and politicians will embark on a series of readings and performances honoring Lincoln’s life and legacy. 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
I appreciate that David Madden thinks so highly of old Abe and the fact that Louisiana is joining in on the Abe Bicentennial, but the shmooze coming out of the "O Captain!" article needs to be tempered with a few facts about the idol Lincoln. He felt that new territories should be made for the homes of white people (1854); He had "no purpose to introduce political or social equality between the white and black races" and that the race to which he belonged had the "superior position." (1858); In 23 years of practicing law, Abe never defended a single runaway slave, but did defend a slave owner. Abe favored colonization of slaves in 1862, in the middle of the War Between the States and, contrary to what most people believe, the Emancipation Proclamation freed only slaves that were residing in areas not under Union control during the War. Lincoln rebuffed efforts by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to avoid war and even refused offers by Napoleon III to mediate before hostilities broke out. Abe suppressed free elections in Maryland in 1861, ordering anyone voting the "peace ticket" arrested. He even had a US congressman from Ohio arrested and deported to the South because the man made a speech denouncing Lincoln's unconstitutional usurpation of powers. Much more could be said, but I will leave it at that. It is one thing to remember past presidents, it is quite another to make them seem god-like and act if they he were infallible. I recommend The Real Lincoln by Thomas DiLorenzo.
Charles Lauret
Washington