blogs & angela rawlings

The last thing I've been interested in as anyone working a blog (or any other public forum, including Open Letter, filling Station and whatnot) is to use any of it as a place for attacks, gossip or personal business. I think a good general rule is keeping your shit off-stage, off-line, off-page; no one needs to hear that stuff. Because of that consideration, I've been reluctant to get into the mess going on the last little bit on various blogs concerning who said what where about Toronto writer angela rawlings (who has very wisely stayed out of the whole business). The straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak (until I read Toronto poet Gregory Betts' post, I was personally unaware of previous comments maliciously directed at rawlings), was an event in Ottawa of various BookThug authors, hosted by Jay MillAr, where things were said that really didn't need to be said, public or otherwise. So much of the detail of what was said, and said since, isn't terribly important, but it stands that a number of comments have been directed as attacks on rawlings, whether as public comments at events or posted online, being not only comments considered completely offensive, but that work to dismiss both her personally and her work in such a way that is counter-productive for any consideration of what we think of as "community" (Betts, who was also part of the Ottawa event, says it far better here).

Yesterday, on the lexiconjury email list, Toronto writer and community activist Maggie Helwig sent out this email and list of names in support of rawlings as both human being and community worker. I include it in full, and add my name at the end. I can only hope that those who feel the need to make such comments will think first before they speak, and try to gain some maturity where community, the public, and certain individuals are concerned; I can only hope that angela rawlings (a worthwhile poet and, through this mess, an entirely graceful human being) and BookThug publisher Jay MillAr (who, sadly, seems to be shutting down his own blog as a result of fallout) can see the light at the end of the tunnel after all of this nonsense and get back to the serious business of writing and publishing and living. What was that line in the Margaret Atwood novel, The Handmaid's Tale? Don't let the bastards get you down. As the following writes, "Those voices do not speak for us."

rob

10 May 2006

In response to recent events in which Angela Rawlings has been publicly slagged, we the undersigned wish to vehemently express our love and respect and admiration, both personal and professional, for Angela and our opposition to personal attacks against members of our literary community.For all of us, the lexiconjury reading series and the lex list have been vital elements of our Toronto writing community. The labour, vision, connectivity, and generosity donated by Angela over the past many years have touched all of us personally and contributed greatly to our practice as individual writers.Angela, we love and respect you, your community-building impulse and pro-activism, and your brilliant, brave, truly inspired writing project. You inspire and teach us how to build positive community and to lead an integrated artistic life.Angela deserves our thanks and protection when some among us engage in misguided bitter shallow sarcastic and often sexist behaviour which seems aimed only at finding negative attention and inflicting cruelty.

We also wish to commend Jay Millar, who has found himself in a difficult position as publisher and blog host, for navigating what has been a confusing week.

We realize this letter may provoke general curiosity and concern from those in our community whose backs instantly go up at injustice. We would like to confirm that recent defamation against Angela by specific individuals in the experimental writing community is the tip of an iceberg that we've all observed melting down for some time, and that there have been other targets of abuse as well.This defamation has taken the following forms, among others: Colleague writers have mocked and/or attacked other writers maliciously and ongoingly in public spaces -- including at readings, and on blogs and websites; and, Colleague writers have colluded in the sexist parodying of the body and private person of female members of the literary community, including at a public reading and on blogs and websites.Let's ask that we all pay attention to how we treat each other, and if there are future occasions on which we see our colleagues being slagged, that we stand up to it and challenge it directly and openly and quickly. The lex list can be a space of discussion and social justice, which does not mean that we reduce our critical polylogue. Perhaps it means we take ourselves more seriously as writers and humans, read each other's artistic production and, instead of lampooning the generalized idea and quality of our artistic projects, we give it the substantive consideration it deserves.The below list of signatories is not intended to be exclusive. We believe and know that our concerns are shared by many others in the community. We welcome responses and further dialogue, and we invite you to post this Open Letter on your blog and website to publicly support Angela and others who have recently experienced harassment and to promote equity and collegiality in our community.

Signed,

Sandra Alland
Gary Barwin
derek beaulieu
Gregory Betts
Christian Bok
Brea Burton
Stephen Cain
Margaret Christakos
Jason Christie
T.L. Cowan
James Dangerous
Beverley Daurio
Carmen Derkson
Kate Eichorn
Chris Ewart
ryan fitzpatrick
Jay Gamble
Jocelyn Grosse
Nadia Halim
Sharon Harris
Jill Hartman
Kevin Hehir
Maggie Helwig
Neil Hennessy
Bill Kennedy
Jani Krulc
Sandy Lam
Camille Martin
Colin Martin
danielle maveal
Lynn McClory
Jordan Nail
Katherine Parrish
Andrea Ryer
Jordan Scott
Natalie Simpson
Natalie Zina Walschots
Alana Wilcox
Rachel Zolf
rob mclennan