ABOUT SF PEACE AND HOPE
Images of the destruction wrought this week in Japan by earthquake and tsunami have shocked viewers around the world. They may have rekindled in Americans the shock and horror caused a decade ago by the attacks on the World Trade Center. Many observers at the time said that the world would never be the same afterwards, and that we would never forget 9/11. They were right, even if the passage of time and the challenges of subsequent events have dulled the pain, so piercingly expressed in Ken Saffran's 2001 poem:
“an avalanche of debris
a moment ago was
remarkably fragile steel
the image of security
reflected in glass
so many lives
rising and falling”
9/11 was personally devastating, as I had always thought of New York City as a home away from home. Since my father was in the military, my family moved constantly throughout the U.S. and abroad, but we always returned to visit relatives there; even after I relocated to the Bay area, those strong links remained. I started blogging on September 12 as a way of connecting to New York and San Francisco, east and west, past and present—and, perhaps, through writing and art, making a small contribution toward improving the world situation. The Bay area poets Kit Kennedy, Frances Spencer, Claire J.Baker, Mary Rudge and Richard Angilly responded immediately to that challenge, and the Peace and Hope enterprise has grown and matured during the past decade, expanding to become an online journal informed by the idealism of the 1960s. It’s a labor of love produced by the poets and visual artists of the San Francisco Bay area and beyond.
We believe that these transformational times require creative thinking outside polemical or partisan boxes. Since 9/11 we have become embroiled in three wars in the Middle East, and the political climate has become increasingly polarized at home. During the past few weeks, the Middle East has been thrown into turmoil, though possibly a hopeful one, with people demonstrating at considerable personal risk against years of oppression.
Less dramatic, but no less revolutionary, have been the changes in communication created by digital technology and the altering of how we experience time and space. The benefits of instant global communication via twitter, Facebook, ipods and e-mail are many, but we also risk becoming mechanical drones with media devices claiming ever-increasing roles in our lives. Unless we stop to “smell the roses” through poetry and art, and connect with nature and eternity, we risk losing our humanity. The Bay area artist, Squeak Carnwath, writes in one of her diaristic semi-abstract paintings, “It’s not tomorrow it’s always NOW not yesterday.” Here at SF Peace and Hope, we believe that examining global change and celebrating the changeless aspects of life are both essential.
Finally, thank you to our wonderful contributors. On a personal note, life-changing events of my own—the recent passing of my father, two aunts and an uncle—have been made more tolerable through my work on the journal, so thanks to all who have been so generous with their time and talent, including supporter and advisor Al Young, who has contributed an inspiring introduction, to Niya C. Sisk for her elegant website, and to Kit Kennedy, for introducing us to so many wonderful San Francisco poets.
Elizabeth Hack
Berkeley, California 2011