[Newspoetry] you should investigate this poetry scandal

[Reedandrite at aol.com]

Airy Nothings: Poetry at the Chicago Sun-Times
by Gloria Klein

 “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing 
memory and desire.” April is a time when the head of the American Academy of 
Poets appears on national television and claims that the gay, Hindu poet Walt 
Whitman is typically American. April is a time of poetry contests in Chicago.
Here, below, is the first prize winning poem by Tyehimba Jess from the 
Sun-Times poetry contest. It was selected the winner by there judges. They 
were: Mark Strand, the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry and professor at 
the University of Chicago; Marc Smith, founder of the performance poetry 
phenomenon, the "slam;'' and Regie Gibson, the man on whose life the film 
Love Jones was based. Simply put, I ask you, is this a first class poem 
worthy of first place or just propaganda for the failed concerns of a 
moribund liberalism? I ask this question knowing full well that critics of 
contests are in a difficult situation: How can they be critical without 
expressing what sounds like sour grapes?

Black Poets on Death's Corner

Black boy bears diamond studded
black cap bearing legend of
black life spray painted
on brick corner wall: RIP L.C.
There is something that throbs there
where L.C.'s blood ran
on Flournoy and Spaulding
with the boys selling stones,
with the poets making poems,
with the wide eyed crack kids,
with the sky about to break,
heaved city at our feet,
broken world in our eyes.
Bruh, I never met you,
but I see you everyday still.
A streetcorner Eshu splitting
life and death in each deal.
Maybe you got capped for this one moment:
a circle of poets and mothers and bangers
and druglords holding hands
like a prayer would ease you into the concrete
a little more graceful than bullets.
So we could pause and understand
for a moment, and then say:
I don't understand.
Hold each other
a little tighter as the rain comes, 
washes us away.

The critic Walter Benjamin ends his seminal essay, “The Work of Art in the 
Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” with a prophetic observation: “This is the 
situation of politics which Fascism is rendering aesthetic. Communism 
responds by politicizing art.” Well, the Fascists and the Communists that 
Benjamin spoke about have vanished from the stage. New actors, in better 
costumes, but playing the same parts, have taken their place. Now, instead of 
the Communists, the moribund liberals and progressives are politicizing art, 
and this is never more true than in Chicago. It comes as no surprise, then, 
that the winner of the poetry contest seems to have gotten this award not by 
craft but by connections. 
In a recent letter to the Chicagopoetry.com web site, Jane Kostowicz writes. 
“Does anyone find it a bit suspicious that Tyehimba Jess (the first place 
$1,000 winner of the Sun-Times’ poetry contest) is best friends with Regie 
Gibson, one of the judges, and was on The Green Mill slam team, and that Marc 
Smith one of the other judges hosts at the Green Mill? I mean I think that 
there were only 3 judges total. It doesn't seem fair, Even I as an unknown 
lurker that sits at the bar with a Guiness, knows that Regie and Tyehimba are 
very close ... just doesn't seem fair...” SEEM fair? Why, Jane, it ISN’T 
fair! But don’t get worked up over all this. It’s just poetry, just sound 
and fury signifying nothing. Or is it? Maybe what went on at the Sun-Times 
tells us something about what is happening in our society and in our souls as 
well.
How was this contest managed? A phone call to the Sun-Times informed me that 
none of the three judges read all of the more than 5,000 entries. According 
to John Barron, there was a preliminary screening by various readers. This 
means that there were more judges than the three judges announced. In fact, 
the poems were judged before they ever got to the official judges. This 
raises the question about the taste and qualification of the first round of 
judges. A poet I know questioned the integrity of the entire judging process. 
“One judge had no integrity, another judge can’t even spell the word, and a 
third judge forgot what it meant,” she said sarcastically. Based upon the 
results printed in the Sun-Times, it looks like the final three judges had 
poor taste and were only qualified to recognize mediocrity, but what about 
the judges that read the poems before they even got to round two? Were the 
same standards applied equally to every poem, by every reader, or, like chads 
in the recent Florida presidential election, was there confusion and variance 
over what constituted a winning poem like the confusion and variance over 
what was a dangling chad? How many poems did the final judges in fact read, 
and did they read in common? Answers to these question are not yet 
forthcoming. 
I also wanted to know what kind of standards were used in making the final 
judgments. Were the judges looking for the best poetic diction, rhyme, or 
modern themes in the poetry submitted?  Could the judges state clearly and 
simply what they thought was a good poem and what they thought was a bad poem 
and why the winning poems met their criterion for success? It would be nice 
if some of those who lost the contest would send their poems to 
Chicagopoetry.com and have them published on the web site. Let’s print those 
losing poems beside the winners and see how they all stack up. Maybe the 
people will have better judgment than the professional poets. From the final 
results, it looks like the Sun-Times would have been better served if the 
judges of the contest just threw all the 5,000 entries into a big, revolving 
drum and drew at random three poems to be the winners. I bet the poems would 
have been just as “meritorious” as the three that won and were supposedly 
chosen by the judges on their “poetic” merit. 
I am curious also to know how the voting went on the final selections. Was 
there a unanimous vote on the first place poem, or was the vote split two to 
one? No one returned my phone calls inquiring about these points, either. All 
these questions and more should be answered if the Sun-Times poetry contest 
is to continue and if it is to be creditable. Otherwise, it looks like 
business as usual in the Chicago arts scene. A moribund liberalism uses art 
to placate the minorities, to garner votes and to stem off social unrest 
while at the same time proving themselves to be the Philistines everyone 
suspects them to be. One may wonder what these judges are thinking when they 
make such awards. I suspect some of them see themselves making decisions that 
would be validated by a grand theory of postmodernism, forgetting that 
postmodernism is really another disguise for anti-Semitism.
I imagine, too, that Walter Benjamin’s ghosts wanders in grief when he sees 
the shenanigans that prevail in the Chicago art scene. When art is 
politicized, we create an opening where the relative values of postmodernism 
are allowed to dominate. This is the irony of the Sun-Times poetry contest. 
In creating a contest where there were judges that gave the illusion of 
standards, they ended up sunk in the swamp of postmodernism where everything 
is swallowed. The standards that were supposed to be, sink into the muck of 
politics and posturing. In a postmodern world, how can their be winners to 
begin with? Even the Pulitzer prize succumbs to the corrosion of relativism. 
We finally end up praising the pathetic, for at the very least, everyone can 
be pathetic.
The results of the Sun-Times poetry contest were not shocking, but all too 
predictable, given the politics of art in this city. Most people suspected 
that some poet with a time-tested complaint about prejudice and persecution 
would win at the Sun-Times. That’s the state of artistic sentiments in 
Chicago. Now, what IS shocking was the list of winners for The Poetry Center 
of Chicago’s Annual Juried Reading. Besides rewarding what some would call 
mediocrity, NINETY-TWO PERCENT of the winners in that contest seem to be 
women. What happened at the Poetry Center to the diversity and inclusion that 
the liberal arts community in Chicago so often hypes? But that’s another 
story.  For now, what would have been shocking at the Sun-Times is that the 
judges had picked as the winner a poem about God written by a middle-aged, 
working class white man.  
When politics dominates the arts, you not only get silly poems, but ugly 
murals under the Lake Shore Drive bridge and pathetic propaganda posters 
hanging in the CTA stations. At this rate Chicago will need a separate land 
fill just to hold all this stuff along with the garbage churned out by 
Gallery 37. We cannot be shocked by the winners of these contests because a 
moribund liberalism has conditioned us to expect this kind of foolish 
expression. That is why when it comes to art, most people look the other way 
and walk on. They have more important things to do. They step gingerly over 
the trash and wish an April rain would come to wash it all away.

1,500 words

Avis Weathersbee may be reached at 312.321.2141; Mark Strand at 1.773. 702. 
8408; and John Barron at 312 321.2897.


Hey Gloria -- this is a fascinating article. I'd appreciate if you could send 
another copy to me directly at this email address...as you can see, when 
messages bounce to me off the list, all kinds of symbol crap gets added. I'd 
like to be able to forward a clean copy of this to some people I know. I 
happen to like Tyehimba's poem, but I don't like corrupt contests -- similar 
thing happened in NYC last year with the Lyric Recovery Festival. Ten 
finalists, all friends of the "judge". I could forgive this in a free 
contest, maybe, but when there's an entry fee there's should be some 
obligation of fairness. Thanks for sending this over.

jackie
creatrixx at yahoo.com

Here are the rules for the Sun-Times poetry contest. The issue is rather simpl
e. The newspaper did not follow their own rules. They will investigate 
corruption in the CHA, but they will not investigate corruption in their own 
contest.

The rules say there will be 3 judges, but we know from their own admission 
there were more, and that these judges read and disqualified many poems that 
the THREE judges never saw.

The rules also say the poem must not be published or broadcast, but many say 
this poem was performed (broadcast) many times by the winner who is a 
“performance” poet. Go Figure.



Main Poetry Contest Official Rules

1. HOW TO ENTER: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter by writing your name, age, 
address, home and work telephone numbers, the name of your poem, and checking 
the box for the Main Poetry Contest, or writing "Main Poetry Contest" on the 
official entry form in the Chicago Sun-Times or at www.suntimes.com, or on a 
postcard, and mailing it along with your poetry submission to: Chicago 
Sun-Times, Main Poetry Contest, Features Department, 401 N. Wabash, Chicago, 
IL 60611. Enter as often as you wish. Each entry must be mailed separately 
and each poem must have a separately completed entry form attached to it. 
Entries may also be dropped off at the Sun-Times Public Information Bureau, 
401 N. Wabash Ave., Room 110, Chicago, IL, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 
p.m. One entry form, per person, per day is available at the Sun-Times Public 
Information Bureau. Entry forms are also available at www.suntimes.com. 
Copies of the Chicago Sun-Times are available for inspection at the public 
library. Entries will be accepted beginning Monday, January 29, 2001. Contest 
ends February 28, 2001 at 5:00 p.m. Mechanically reproduced entries will not 
be accepted. All completed entries become property of the Chicago Sun-Times 
and will not be returned. All Contestants retain the copyrights to their 
poems. The Sun-Times is not responsible for late, damaged, incomplete, 
illegible, lost, delayed, mutilated, misdirected or postage due entries. 
Receipt of entry will not be acknowledged.

2. ELIGIBILITY: To be eligible, entries must be received by February 28, 2001 
at 5:00 p.m. The contest is open to residents of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and 
Wisconsin aged 15 and over, except the contest judges, employees of Chicago 
Sun-Times, Inc., their affiliated companies, advertising agencies and/or 
promotional partners, and their relatives. For the purposes of this contest, 
relatives are defined as spouse, mother, father, in-laws, grandmother, 
grandfather, brother, sister, children and grandchildren. Void where 
prohibited. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.

3. MAIN POETRY REQUIREMENTS: Each poem must be: (I) no more than 300 words; 
(II) typed or neatly printed on 8-1/2" x 11" paper; (III) in English; (IV) 
attached to a fully completed entry form; (V) in any style or form, with the 
exception of a limerick; (VI) the original work of the Contestant; and (VII) 
never before published or broadcasted.

4. JUDGING: The poems will be judged by the following judges: Regie Gibson, 
Mark Strand and Mark Smith, based on the following criteria: originality, 
poetic quality and artistic merit. Winners will be notified during the week 
of March 25th, 2001. Chicago Sun-Times reserves the right to change judges 
should any judge be unable or unwilling to judge the contest and to appoint 
additional judges should volume of entities exceed those expected. Winning 
poems will be published in the Chicago Sun-Times Showcase section on Sunday, 
April 8th, 2001. Winners (through their guardians, if applicable) will be 
required to sign prize claims, affidavits, liability/publicity releases and 
an acknowledgement of license grant or prize may be forfeited. Prizes are 
non-transferable. No substitutions or cash redemptions will be made. All 
prizes claimed will be awarded. All unclaimed prizes will be forfeited.

5. PRIZES: One (1) First Prize of $1,000; one (1) second place prize of $500; 
and one (1) third place prize of $250. Total value of prizes $1,750.

6. COPYRIGHT/LICENSE GRANT: Contestants shall retain all copyrights to their 
poems; however, by entering the contest, Contestants grant Chicago Sun-Times, 
Inc. a non-exclusive, perpetual, unrestricted license to print, reprint, 
publish and broadcast the poems, in whole or in part, including but not 
limited to internet and other forms of electronic media. By entering the 
contest, a Contestant represents and warrants to Chicago Sun-Times, Inc. that 
the poem submitted by such Contestant is such Contestant's own original work 
and indemnifies Chicago Sun-Times, Inc. against any intellectual property 
claims regarding such poem.
7. LIMITATION ON LIABILITY: By accepting a prize, winners agree that the 
contest judges, the Sun-Times, their respective parents, divisions, 
subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising, promotion, and public relations 
agencies, and the respective officers, directors, employees, representatives 
and agencies of each shall have no liability whatsoever, for any injuries or 
damage incurred in whole or in part from acceptance or use of the prizes, or 
participation in this contest or publication of the winning poems. Any person 
who supplies false information, obtains entries by fraudulent means, or is 
otherwise determined to be in violation of these rules in an attempt to 
obtain any prize will forfeit any prize won and will be prosecuted to the 
fullest extent of the law. Void where prohibited. Additional state, local and 
federal restrictions may apply. For a list of prize winners send a 
self-addressed stamped legal-sized envelope to Chicago Sun-Times Main Poetry 
Contest Winners List, 401 N. Wabash Ave., Features Department, Chicago, IL 
60611.