David Grundy: Reply to Oakland

I'd like to apologize for any mis-representation or offence caused by the two sentences in my paper which have provoked this letter. It must have seemed a casual and unprovoked slur on the committed work that poet-activists have been doing in Oakland , and one that seems to open up a rift between groups that should be working together in solidarity, whether or not they’re on different sides of the Atlantic . These sentences, written in haste and based on vaguely-digested conversational anecdote, were clearly a mistake and shouldn’t have been included. The paper was delivered during a day of intensive discussion in which a large number of different positions were aired and debated, and it is in the spirit of that debate that it has rightly been challenged. I hope, in any case, that we can take this opportunity to learn more about what we are doing in our different locations, and find ways of working together which channel our political and rhetorical energies into joint activism.