{"id":117,"date":"2009-07-26T04:29:44","date_gmt":"2009-07-26T12:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opinion.katrinasdream.org\/?p=117"},"modified":"2009-07-26T04:34:37","modified_gmt":"2009-07-26T12:34:37","slug":"press-release-malcolm-boyds-new-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/press-release-malcolm-boyds-new-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"Press Release: Malcolm Boyd’s New Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manset, Maine \u00e2\u20ac\u201c June 25, 2009 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Katrina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dream published a new poem today by Malcolm Boyd about torture in American prisons.\u00c2\u00a0 The poem connects torture in our American jails and \\in Anaheim this July to pass a resolution asking Congress to outlaw torture in American jails and prisons.\u00c2\u00a0 The resolution is on the internet at http:\/\/www.opinion.katrinasdream.org\/?p=107\u00c2\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

Boyd, 86, is poet\/writer-in-residence at the Episcopal Cathedral Center of St. Paul in Los Angeles.\u00c2\u00a0 After a career in Hollywood and television, Boyd was ordained an Episcopal priest.\u00c2\u00a0 He founded a college coffee house in Colorado and opposed segregation in Louisiana in 1959. He joined 27 other Episcopal priests, Black and white, in a Louisiana Freedom Ride in 1961, and registered voters in Mississippi and Alabama in 1965, the year \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are You Running with Me, Jesus?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was published.\u00c2\u00a0 A fortieth anniversary edition has been published with additional poems.<\/p>\n

In 1966 national media reported on his gig reading prayers and his dialogue with audiences about God in the San Francisco nightclub, the hungry i.\u00c2\u00a0 He performed with Dick Gregory, Vince Guaraldi and Charlie Byrd.<\/p>\n

The New York Times wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Malcolm Boyd is a latter-day Luther or a more worldly Wesley, trying to move religion out of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcghettoized\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 churches into the streets where people are.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 In 1968 Boyd was with Martin Luther King, Jr. in a nonviolent protest against the Vietnam War inside Arlington Cemetery, directly below the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.\u00c2\u00a0 He was arrested in the Pentagon for being part of a Peace Mass protesting the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

Bobby Dellelo, 67, spent 40 years of his life in reform schools and prisons, five years in solitary, with three escapes.\u00c2\u00a0 He works on the American Friends Service Committee Criminal Justice Program.\u00c2\u00a0 He was featured in the March 30, 2009, New Yorker Article \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hellhole\u00e2\u20ac\u009d about torture in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n

Katrina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dream was founded in memory of the late Katrina Martha Swanson, one of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Philadelphia Eleven\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ordained priest irregularly in 1974.\u00c2\u00a0 When the Equal Rights Amendment was voted down, Katrina always said the Pledge of Allegiance, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153With Liberty and Justice for Some.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Katrina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dream is dedicated to the full inclusion of women in society and Liberty and Justice for All.<\/p>\n

Among other justice issues, Katrina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s booth at the Episcopal Convention will support a resolution that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153requests the Congress of the United States to prohibit torture including long-term solitary confinement and every cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners in all prisons, jails, and other places of confinement within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction, following the definition of torture in the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 Bobby Dellelo will help staff the booth at the Episcopal convention and speak at the legislative hearing on the resolution which he helped write.<\/p>\n

Change Us<\/strong>
\nBy Malcolm Boyd
\nGeneral Convention 2009<\/div>\n

We’ve mainstreamed torture, haven’t we, Jesus?\u00c2\u00a0 Turned it into just another word in the clutter of everyday news.\u00c2\u00a0 Not something to work up any sweat about.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems to me our worst sin is to torture people who are already in our power as prisoners.\u00c2\u00a0 Like people in our prisons.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Bobby Dellelo.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nThe 33 years you spent with us here, Jesus, including when we nailed you, still hasn’t taught us what we need to know about love and justice, has it?\u00c2\u00a0 Our prison system seems an agonizing and endless system of crucifixion.\u00c2\u00a0 Why don’t we wake up, Jesus?\u00c2\u00a0 Prison torture is torture of flesh and blood beings.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not unlike our torture of you when you dwelt among us. <\/strong><\/p>\n


\nPlease convert us, Jesus, to work against prison torture.\u00c2\u00a0 Change us into community organizers for peace, justice, nonviolence and your love.\u00c2\u00a0 Thank you, Jesus.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manset, Maine \u00e2\u20ac\u201c June 25, 2009 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Katrina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dream published a new poem today by Malcolm Boyd about torture in American prisons.\u00c2\u00a0 The poem connects torture in our American jails and \\in Anaheim this July to pass a resolution asking Congress to outlaw torture in American jails and prisons.\u00c2\u00a0 The resolution is on the internet…
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