Poet | Artist |Activist: Let’s Make A Plan: November 12, 2015

The Poetry Center and the Labor Archives and Research Center present poet/artist/activists Cassie Thornton, Christian Nagler, and Christopher Higgenbotham discussing their community projects and reading and performing their works. Tanya Hollis introduces the event, followed by Cassie Thornton reimagining the meaning and structure of debt; Christian Nagler reading a series of poems; and Christopher Higgenbotham performing his spoken-word poem “Why, America?” The event concludes with questions from the audience. Co-sponsored by The Poetry Center, SFSU Labor Archives and Research Center, and Service Employees International Union Local 1021.

Contributor
Steve Dickison, Jessica Lawless, Tanya Hollis, Catherine Powell, Cassie Thornton, Christian Nagler, Christopher Higgenbotham
Date
11/12/2015
Originally Recorded By
DocFilm Institute
Total Run Time
01:18:25
Location
Labor Archives and Research Center, J. Paul Leonard Library, SFSU
Views
2138
Downloads
340

Cassie Thornton (31:25)

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Cassie Thornton remarks on her community work on debt and an artistic project in which she transforms credit-card receipts representing her debt into brass rocks. She integrates an interactive performance into her reading of "What does success look like for an adult" from her book, ROCK (RECESS PDX), accompanied by a series of visual images.

Christian Nagler (21:14)

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Christian Nagler discusses his role in organizing adjunct faculty, and the specialized discourse in his current studies in a PhD program. He then reads his poems "Trying to Organize," "Worker," "Rich Man," " "Voters," and "Thoughts on Communism" from an unpublished manuscript.

Christopher Higgenbotham (08:10)

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Christopher Higgenbotham introduces himself as a former fast-food worker engaged in the minimum wage Fight for $15, a high school history teacher, and alumnus of Morehouse College, and performs "Why, America?"

Conversation (17:45)

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Tanya Hollis welcomes questions from the audience. Cassie Thornton is asked about the takeaways from her friendship with the JP Morgan employee discussed in her reading and also discusses the concept of illegitimate debt and the organization, Strike Debt! Christopher Higgenbotham discusses the Fight for $15 minimum wage and the importance of also unionizing.

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