Poetry As Propaganda

Emeryville Stops Artists From Speaking Truth To Power  

Artists speaking truth to corporate power in Emeryville?  Not so fast says City Hall and its publicly funded Poet Laureate.

Take the temporary plywood pedestrian protection wall recently removed from along the Horton Street sidewalk north of 45th Street at the former Sherwin Williams paint manufacturing site: there the city of Emeryville facilitated the paint corporation in a poetic advertising campaign in the form of an open poetry contest, even while helping to quash artists in town that might have questioned that corporate power. 

The Emeryville plant from the lead and
arsenic dumping go-go years.

Controversy arose around the contest, when Japanese haiku style poetry, critical of Sherwin Williams and its history of illegal toxic waste dumping at the site, was submitted for the wall from at least four citizens.  The paid judges, Ms Janell Moon and Ms Mara Feeney, deemed any poetry critical of the corporation out of bounds and those poems were summarily rejected from consideration. 

  

The plywood wall, removed last week, was erected some months ago at the start of a government mandated toxic waste clean-up project by Sherwin Williams after decades of their illegally dumping lead and arsenic in the soil at the site.  The seemingly innocuous poetry contest meant to adorn the wall with citizen's poetry incorporating and celebrating the proprietary names for Sherwin Williams paint colors was consequently sponsored by the city of Emeryville.  The contest, from Sherwin William's perspective, helped reinforce public good will directed to the paint company and helped to offset the negative public relations brought on by its toxic waste dumping.

In a less cynical world, Sherwin Williams 
paint colors would include:
Arsenic Silver & Lead Silver

The judges were compensated for their work in censoring the poems; Janell Moon, selected as Emeryville's first Poet Laureate last year, received a taxpayer funded stipend for her duties and Mara Feeney is a private corporate public relations consultant retained by Sherwin Williams for the Emeryville toxic waste clean-up.

On a side note, the city of Emeryville, upon bestowing Janell Moon the Poet Laureate title noted she is "Emeryville-based" even though Ms Moon's own website indicates the poet is "San Francisco-based".  The eligibility requirements for the position mandate "the selected poet lives or works in Emeryville".  

The city's contest announcement is here.
The Secret News story on the clean-up is here and here.
The city's announcement declaring Janell Moon the first Poet Laureate is here.