PHOTO/JOSEPHINE GILDERSLEEVE
FRESNO, CA — On July 13, 2013, at Manchester Center, a program called Manchester Experiment presented a poetry reading entitled SHOUT OUT. The program was put together and organized by local artist Ramiro Martinez. It was a poetry reading of 10 amazing poets. They read their poetry to an audience of about 100 people. In a building that had no air conditioner the poets read their poetry with a lot of emotion and vigor. The audience enjoyed the subjects covered, which varied from political consciousness to everyday issues.
Ramiro Martinez indicated that the purpose of the program was to bring outside and regional poets to start a dialogue with Valley poets, hopefully on the art of creative discourse. This would lead to more creativity in the Valley. My intention was to bring poets from different regions together to read poems as a collective whole. Ramiro feels poets are a witness to all things occurring in society. They are messengers for humanity to start engaging in society’s needs with a humanistic approach. Poets express their own personal feelings, as themselves and to integrate other forms into real life society.
Ramiro Martinez acknowledged the presence of the People’s Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo. When people came to review the papers on the table, the distributor told them ‘this is the Political Consciousness Table’. Ramiro told the audience that they needed to look over the papers in order to get a true perspective on what is really happening in our society.
Matt Sedillo, one of the poets, indicated that these two papers help explain why this country is in the mess it’s in – the increasing denial by the ruling class of people’s basic human needs in a country of plenty. It is the voice of those who are oppressed and being attacked by corporations and the government.
Ramiro Martinez further stated that poems show a command of the poet’s feelings by looking at the reality of our present society. They envision a society that is communal and integrative, where everything is shared with the community, instead of the individualism of capitalism.
The future plans for Manchester Experiment are for a combination of visual arts, poetry, music, mural making and performance. One such endeavor is the unveiling of a mural depicting movies with the theme of rebelling, or revolting. He visualizes the Manchester Experiment as an art form which he calls ‘open heart surgery’ – an art form that is autonomous and becomes one with the community.
The Manchester event showed the potential for developing the political conscious of those being oppressed by those in power, be it the corporations, government and others. Those who see the need to fight together as a working class of whatever racial groups, to get back the necessities of life the ruling class has taken from us.
