New Review

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I wanted to share a review written by Dante Di Stefano for Waiting to the Dead to Speak, published by Arcadia Press. I am grateful for this thoughtful review and the context Dante places the book in, post-election, namely the class issues. You can check it out here.  Here is an exert:

The Scranton, Pennsylvania of Waiting for the Dead to Speak, a place freighted with pasts and vanishings, could be anywhere in Middle America; Fanelli’s poetry mainlines anthracite and coal dust, caked in creosote and lye, in order to deliver a rustbelt bucolic in which empathy outflanks hate.

Next post, I’ll reflect on 2016, and share some of my favorite films and books of the year.

Some Political Predictions for 2017

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With 2016 winding down, I thought I would take some time to share some political predictions for 2017. There is no doubt that 2016 was a historic year, with a lurch to the right globally, resulting in Brexit, the resignation of Italy’s left-leaning PM, president-elect Donald Trump, and  anti-immigrant populism reshaping the globe.

To those on the left, myself included, 2017 is not likely going to be any easier to deal with because we’ll start to see the result of some of the right-wing, populist governance, especially in the U.S. Here are my predictions for the U.S. and other parts of the globe.

Europe: All eyes will be on two countries in Europe in the first quarter of 2017, Italy and France. It is likely that right-wing, anti-immigrant Marine Le Pen will be one of the final contenders for the presidency in France. Right now, she is not predicted to win, but pundits and poll watchers said the same thing about Brexit and Donald Trump. Keep your eyes on France. The other country to pay attention to is Italy. There, it is more likely that a right-wing populist, Beppe Grillo, a former comedian/celebrity turned politician and leader of the internet-born, anti-EU Five Star Movement, will rise to power. Last weekend, Italy’s left-learning prime minister, Matteo Renzi, resigned after his party suffered a stinging defeat in terms of a referendum that would have changed the make-up of Italy’s government. For a better understanding of Europe’s growing right-wing populism, including France and Italy’s situations, check out this article by the NYT. Keep in mind that this was published before the referendum vote in Italy last weekend. For more info on the Five Star Movement, click here. 

There is some hope for Europe, however. Last weekend, while Italy lurched to the right, pro-EU, left-leaning Alexander van der Bellen defeated right-wing populist Norbert Hofer in Austria. In Germany, meanwhile, Angela Merkel announced that she will seek a fourth term. It is unclear, however, whether or not she will survive the right-wing populist tide heading into the new year.

The U.S. 

I broke these predictions into separate issues.

Abortion rights: You don’t really need to overturn Roe V. Wade at the Supreme Court to restrict abortion rights or even obliterate them at the state level. Republicans started to learn this after they won a slew of state legislatures in 2010 and 2014. The Democrats lost even more state legislatures after the most recent election, and already, you are starting to see GOP-controlled state legislatures really go after abortion rights. Just this week, Ohio passed one of the most extreme anti-choice laws in the country, which would ban abortions after six weeks. To put this into context, think of how many women don’t even know they are pregnant at that point. Gov. John Kasich has 10 days to decide whether or not to sign the bill. No matter Kasich’s decision, what Ohio did is probably a preview of what other states will do. They will also most likely try to pass laws that regulate medical facilities, which, in turn, will cause a lot of abortion providers to shut down because they can’t meet the requirements. So really, the Supreme Court or GOP-controlled federal government doesn’t need to go after Roe V. Wade. They can just restrict abortion rights at the state level. Meanwhile, expect the GOP Congress to totally cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood. In fact, I would say, expect that soon. They already tried it numerous times with spending bills over the last few years, and if President Obama was not in office, it would have happened.

Gay rights: I am not one who believes that gay marriage will be overturned. Even recently, during a “60 Minutes” interview, Trump said he has no interest in seeing gay marriage overturned. (I will note that in that same interview, he said he is going to appoint Supreme Court Justices who will overturn Roe V. Wade and it will go back to the states). That said, I do think there is a real possibility that workplace protections/anti-discrimination laws that Obama put in place via executive action can be overturned, through Trump’s own executive orders, or through the Justice Department, which is going to be led by Sen. Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, whose record on civil rights and gay rights is dismal, to say the least. I’ll talk about him more when I get to voting rights.

The Environment: During the campaign, Trump said many times he wants the U.S. to exit the Paris Climate Agreement, which is a commitment for major countries to cut down on their green house gas emissions. This is one of the most important parts of Obama’s legacy, along with the numerous executive orders he signed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. This week, environmental activists saw some hope when Trump and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, met with Al Gore to discuss climate change. Hopes were dashed a few hours later, however, when Trump announced that climate change denier Scott Pruitt will head the EPA. Pruitt also has very close ties to the fossil fuel industry. I predict that the progress President Obama made on combating climate change is going to be rolled back. It’s unclear if Trump even believes in the science, since he said during the campaign that climate change is a hoax developed by the Chinese! I assume that Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress will really gut environmental regulations. The environmental movement needs to put Trump’s administration on watch and not stand for deregulating everything.

Voting rights: Things aren’t looking too good here, either. Voting rights have already suffered  over the last few years, after the Supreme Court gutted parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and GOP-controlled states passed restrictive voter ID laws. Now, expect more of that stuff to pass at the state level, because, like gerrymandering, it is one way for the GOP to maintain power. Meanwhile, Jeff Sessions, as attorney general, will do very little to protect voting rights. I am saying this based on his past comments on race. Sessions was deemed so extreme in the 1980s, when Reagan tried to appoint him as a federal judge, that a GOP-led Senate denied his appointment.

Immigration: I am not sure that I can make a prediction on this issue, but DREAMers certainly have the right to be worried that they will be deported. Trump ran a campaign where this was his central issue, and he successfully pitted the white-working class against minorities. This political move goes back to what rich, white property owners did shortly after the Civil War. They pitted the white working-class against black Americans as a way to maintain power and launch terrible Jim Crow laws across the South. Du Bois talks about this political maneuvering in the Souls of Black Folk, and Trump exercised the same move brilliantly. Whether or not he will be able to deliver, it has yet to be seen, but his cabinet appointments are an alarming sign.

The Economy: Trump is fortunate that he will inherit the Obama recovery. Unemployment is now below 5 percent. However, I predict the GOP will pass massive tax cuts for the rich, run up the deficit, and defang Dodd-Frank, meaning Wall Street will go back to being unregulated, which in turn, can lead to another economic meltdown a la 2007/2008, if not in 2017, then maybe in 2018.

Foreign Policy: This may be the hardest thing to predict. Trump has already rattled China by talking to Taiwan last week, and he has  praised Putin. Putin wants these right-wing, isolationist populists to win so he can be more aggressive towards the Baltic states. The Trump win, coupled with a possible Marine Le Pen win in France, could serve to embolden Putin and lead to more Russian aggression, similar to what Russia did in Ukraine a few years ago. We shall see, but pay attention to Russia in 2017.

The Democratic Party: Boy, oh boy, does this party need to rebuild. Unfortunately, part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fact that he oversaw the loss of dozens of state legislatures, the House, and the Senate, after winning in 2008 with massive majorities in the House and Senate. His party is in the wilderness as he leaves office, at every level of government. The DNC needs a grassroots remaking, from the bottom up. The party would be wise not to ditch identity politics, which is really a term for civil rights. You can’t halt the shifting demographics in this country, and if the party was smart, they would panic less about the loss of the rust belt states and focus more on flipping Texas, Arizona, and Georgia. Yes, those states are trending purple and even BLUE long-term! In fact, the margin Clinton lost in Georgia was less than she lost in Ohio and Iowa, so it befuddles me why the party is not investing in flipping Arizona, Texas, and Georgia. They need to build infrastructure there and start at the local level, just as Republicans have done for years across the country.

At the same time, the party needs to return to its roots and formulate a populist economic message. The challenge going forward will be to incorporate civil rights issues and economic populism. How they do that remains to be seen, but the DNC chair will be the first real sign of which direction the party is going. I still believe that Keith Ellison can unite the working-class part of the party with the wing that cares about civil rights issues. He also said he would give up his House seat to run the DNC full-time. That also needs to happen. The Dems need to stop appointing people to the DNC who are full-time membesr of Congress. The DNC chair MUST be a full-time job, just like the RNC chair is full-time.

There is some hope going forward. The Dems are poised to capture more governorship in 2018 and probably flip a few House seats, too. Winning those types of races will help build the party and build its bench for presidential elections moving forward. The bad news, however, is that the Senate map for Democrats in 2018 is awful! They have to defend over 20 seats, including some in red states. Right now, I am predicting the Democrats will work to rebuild the party in 2017, win some state elections in 2018, but lose more Senate seats.

For those that are left-leaning, 2017 is poised to be another tough year. The tide of right-wing populism is probably not slowing down, but since Trump’s election, I have seen a type of mobilization happening that is even greater than what I witnessed during the Bush years. There is hope, but it is going to take movement-building to counter what’s coming. I feel like the left globally resembles the rebels in Rogue One, a group of scrappy fighters opposed to the Empire. You know, going into Rogue One, that the rebels aren’t going to win the battles against the Empire in that movie, but you also know that they are laying the groundwork for A New Hope, so there’s reason to keep fighting and resisting.

What are your predictions for the new year? Where is the world going?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Carries On, Another Closes

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If you’re a lover of indie bookstores and live in the tri-state area, then you may have heard of Farley’s Bookstore in New Hope, one of the most well-known shops in the Philly area.. Farley’s is unique not only for its rows and rows of fiction and nonfiction books, but also because it has one of the strongest poetry sections around, one which showcases small publishers and independent presses. The shop owners and workers even take the time to write thoughtful reviews on note cards about some of their favorite books from showcased presses.

I have been fortunate to read at Farley’s three or four times over the years, at least once with each book, as recent as last week for Waiting for the Dead to Speak. Each time I have read there, I’ve encountered an engaged audience not only willing to spend money and support writers, but also talk to you about their favorite poets.

I bring up Farley’s because this week, it got some national attention, this nice article in The Guardian. The shop has been operating since the late 1960s, and this attention is much-deserved.

While Farley’s received this recognition, it was also announced this week that RiverReads Books in Binghamton, NY is closing. A staple of the community since the early 2000s, RiverReads has been a hub for literary activity in the college town. The store will shut its doors by Jan. 31, 2017, according to this announcement published on the website by the owners. The owners write, “Our plan was to offer a gathering place for all things literary and artsy, a place to share ideas and converse with the community.  Well, we did just that … in eight years we held almost 900 events.  Planning those events was important because we wanted to offer something for everyone.  We wanted to highlight the very talented local authors, to give them a chance to share their words with those who might never have known about their books. ”

I’m grateful I had the chance to read at RiverReads a few times over the years, first, back in 2011, a few months after my chapbook Front Man was published, and then for a launch party of Harpur Palate, and lastly, a few weeks ago for Waiting for the Dead to Speak. Like Farley’s, RiverReads always managed to draw an engaged crowd interested in poetry. Beyond that, the store stocked a wide array of books.

Let’s hope that Farley’s can keep doing what it’s been doing for the last several decades. Meanwhile, let’s mourn the closing of RiverReads, a much-needed indie bookstore in a city that is still trying to recover economically.If you have an indie bookstore in your community, please, make sure to support it. These places not only are important for authors, but they are a lifeblood and cultural center point for their communities.

Something Worth Celebratin

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Tonight, we’re celebrating five years of the Writers’ Showcase Reading Series in Scranton. I hear that there will be cupcakes. There will also be featured readers taking  the stage to share their work. I’m going to get a little sentimental for a moment. The Writers’ Showcase has undergone three different venue locations. Yes, three! We started out at New Visions Studio and Gallery, a wonderful space in downtown Scranton that closed its doors about two years after we started the reading series. Then, we moved to the Vintage Theater, also downtown. Unfortunately, that venue closed a few months after we relocated. Last year, we found a new venue, the Olde Brick Theatre. They have been incredibly supportive of everything we do.

Since the series started, we’ve mixed local writers with regional and national writers. We’ve had features come from as far away as Boston and Chicago, yes Chicago, to take part in a reading series in Scranton, of all places. My original co-host and co-organizer, Jason Lucarelli, wanted to start this series with me because there were few reading series in Scranton back in 2011. The city was also in MUCH worse financial condition than it is now. At the time, Scranton made national headlines because the mayor had to temporarily pay city workers minimum wage, due to the city’s debt and distressed status. Now, five years later, the city is almost out of distressed status, in part, because it sold off a lot of its assets, including the Parking Authority and Sewer Authority. There are no more headlines on NPR or Fox News about the city’s crisis, thank goodness.

Perhaps more importantly, the downtown has a different look. Back in 2011, there were entire blocks of downtown with vacant storefronts, especially on Lackawanna Avenue. Now, most of those empty storefronts have been filled. Last night, after I had a reading during the First Friday Art Walk, I marveled at how many boutiques have spread through the downtown, from Penn Avenue to Spruce Street. I also took a moment to feel grateful that a poetry reading on a Friday night had so many people at it. Even more people flooded  a holiday market held at the location of a former popular department store, The Globe. This says something about the potential this city has.

Scranton’s future still has yet to be determined. It still has many obstacles to overcome, namely matters of long-term employment prospects for young people, but the city has changed since the Writers’ Showcase Reading Series started five years ago. The downtown has more businesses and restaurants. There is a community of young artists trying to create something here. The city is moving forward with paying off its debts and getting out of its distressed status.

Tonight, we’re going to celebrate five years of a reading series that has connected national writers with local ones. We’re also going to celebrate the progress the city has made.

Last Literary Events of the Year

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I’m closing out the remaining weeks of 2016 by doing a few more readings for Waiting for the Dead to Speak, before I take a break for a few weeks to celebrate the holidays and gear up for the new year. Here is a list of upcoming events. Special note: the 5-year anniversary of the Writers’ Showcase Reading Series in Scranton will happen this Saturday!

Sunday, November 27 2016 3-5 p.m.

MRAC Reading

419 Green Lane (Rear) Havertown, PA 19128

Thursday, December 1, 2016 7- 9 p.m.

Farley’s First Thursday Poetry Reading

Farley’s Bookstore, 44 S. Main Street, New Hope, PA.

Friday, December 2 2016 6 p.m.

First Friday Poetry Reading

Library Express, Steamtown Mall Scranton

Saturday, December 3 2016 7-9 p.m.

Writers’ Showcase

Olde Brick Theater, 126 W. Market Street, Scranton, PA

Featured readers include Stanton Hancock, Alexis Belluzzi, Daryl Sznyter, and  Jaimee Wriston Colbert. Admission is $4.

 

One Week Later

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The last time I posted on my blog, the county was shocked, making sense of the election results that proved all pollsters wrong. In a week, the world feels like it has been turned upside down. President Obama, to his credit, has been as gracious as he can be in his transition of power. Hillary Clinton conceded last Wednesday and has since blamed James Comey and the FBI letters for her loss. The Democrats, meanwhile, are gearing up to select a new DNC chair. So far, popular progressive Rep. Keith Ellison has tossed his name into the ring, as well as Howard Dean. So far, a lot of Dems, including Harry Reid and soon-to-be Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have backed Ellison. In the House, meanwhile, the Democrats have delayed their leadership elections, which does not bode well for Nancy Pelosi. The Democrats are licking their wounds and ready to clean house, at least somewhat. If they want to move forward, gear up for 2018, and start winning elections again, that’s probably for the best.

To be blunt, the Democrats have few easy paths forward. In 2018, they have an enormous amount of Senate seats to defend, including some in red states. In the House, they still have a few dozen seats to flip until they win back the majority. The party is poised to be in the minority at least for the next four years. Meanwhile, it may be hard to develop a strong, progressive alternative vision to Trump because it seems likely they are going to have to fight to protect progressive gains made over the last few decades. Paul Ryan is already licking his chops about privatizing medicare and medicaid, which would unravel a large part of LBJ’s domestic legacy. In the “60 Minutes” interview that aired a few days ago, Trump warned that if Roe V. Wade is overturned, abortion rights will go back to the states and women will have to go to another state to get an abortion. The problem is that nearly 2/3 of state legislatures are in GOP control. So yes, I think the Democrats have quite a fight on their hands going forward, but if Trump’s governing is totally mismanaged, it is possible there could be another wave election, on par with 2006, which would give Democrats control of at least one branch of Congress.

Despite this, I have been amazed at how fast the left has organized. Already, there are mass protests planned for January 20 and 21, the weekend of the inauguration. The women’s march on the 21st appears to be gaining the most momentum, to the point where it already earned a story in the NYT. There are buses headed to that rally from all across the country, including in Scranton. I will be there with my partner, and we already know of a few friends joining us. Meanwhile, organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have reported record donations since Tuesday’s results. Even locally, I have been meeting with people about what we can do in this community. This election has rattled enough people that they are wiling to fight over the next few years.

If you want to get involved, here are some easy ways:

  • Contact your  Senator and Congressman/woman. Tell them to be vigilant and NOT support any attempts by the new Trump administration to roll back women’s rights, LGBT rights, and civil rights. Tell them to NOT support any attempts to privatize the social safety net programs, namely Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
  • Contact your local Senator and Congressman/woman and tell them to pressure Trump to rescind the appointment of white nationalist/alt-right leader Steve Bannon as top adviser.
  • Make a donation, no matter how small, to organizations that work to protect women’s rights, LGBT rights,  civil rights, and immigrants.
  • Plan to attend the inauguration protests. Go to rallybus.net. If you can’t be there, and if you can afford it, sponsor a bus seat for someone who wants to attend but can’t afford a bus seat.
  • Get involved in your community. Reach out to people that want to mobilize. There are more folks out there wanting to do something than you may imagine.

 

 

 

A Post-Election Train of Thought

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As I write this, I am working on few hours of sleep.  My partner and I stayed pretty late at a field organizer’s house last night, watching the election slip away from Hillary Clinton as the GOP also maintained control of the House and  Senate. Yep, come January, the U.S. is looking at a far-right Republican Party controlling three branches of government and most likely the Supreme Court. As I write this, I am an hour and a half away from teaching Virigina Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” and “Professions for Women” in my Women’s Lit class. I will, of course, let them have an open, respectful discussion about the election, if they chose to. Teaching Woolf in this moment feels daunting. If you haven’t read either essay, here is as summary: Woolf declares that there have been so few female writers prior to her time in the early 20th Century because there was  not the economic or emotional space for women to write. They had to be mothers and/or  housewives, or if they did write, they had to face the crippling claims that women were not smart enough to write and publish.  Woolf goes so far in “A Room of One’s Own” to imagine if Shakespeare had as sister, born with the same talent and genius as he. If she went to the theater with a play she wrote, or if she wanted to act,  she would have been laughed right out the door. Woolf concludes that Shakespeare’s sister would have killed herself, due to the inability to fulfill her dreams and pursue her natural talent.

I don’t mean to be dire, but I knocked on a lot of doors, made a lot of phone calls, and did the usual campaign grunt work. I guess I can afford to feel a little down, after the campaign was so optimistic over the last few weeks, even after the Comey letter. I’m still unsure how to process this. I am bewildered and frightened by the FBI’s involvement in the election process, be it Comey’s press conference in July or the letter about 10 days prior to the election. I am alarmed at the massive hacks Wikileaks and possibly Russia committed against the DNC and Hillary campaign. I do wonder what other influences they will have on our election process going forward and how to prevent that. I am befuddled that the Democratic Party, with a president/figurehead who has a higher approval rating than when Reagan left office, STILL managed to lose the White House, and not only the White House, but the House and Senate, where they only needed FOUR pick-ups and had to defend far, far less seats than the GOP.

I am not ready yet to even ponder the future of the Democratic Party. I’ve been a part of it since I was 18 and worked on a number of campaigns. This loss, however, stings the worst, due to all that Trumps stands for. I have no idea what type of world we’ll be living in. I’m not optimistic the Dems can take back even one branch of government in 2018. The Senate map is nasty for them, frankly because they have to defend a ton of seats they won in 2012. The House is also an uphill slog, and Dems vote in even lower numbers during mid-terms. Still, I will get back to organizing,  fighting, and  reshaping the party. I hope others do, too, including the Bernie folks.

The Democratic Party is now post-Clinton and post-Obama. It has no figurehead, no well-known, younger leaders to direct it and craft a platform in preparation for 2018. It will have to get it together quick because the Dems are the only real check on Trump that remains, other than the lower courts. My main concern going forward is the lack of depth within the party, how thin the bench is, due to the fact Democrats have lost several mid-terms over the last several election cycles. Who will step up?

Regardless, I will keep putting in the work. I hope that others do, too. Find others in your community. Get together. Donate to causes that do good work for women’s rights, LGBT rights, immigrant rights, religious tolerance,  lower-income folks, etc, etc. They will be the groups most impacted by a Trump presidency and GOP-controlled Congress.

Right now, I’m going to get ready to teach Virginia Woolf, to have an honest, respectful discussion with my students about the election, if they want to have it, and then I’m going home to rest so I can get back to work.

 

 

Some News about the New Book

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Amid the buzz of a heated election season, I wanted to pause from politics and share some news about the new book, Waiting for the Dead to Speak.

I am grateful for this review on Best American Poetry blog. I especially appreciate Patricia Welch’s last paragraph in the review, in the context of this long, painful election season:

The voice in Waiting for the Dead to Speak reverberates long after the book is closed making it a collection aimed at beginnings rather than endings. Understanding, compassion, and hope glimmer in a gray world.

I am also grateful for this review published last week by The Triangle.

Richard Payne writes:

Fanelli does not write as a person might expect of an English professor. He has a youthful, roving, and recursive mind. There is a simple, pure, working class wisdom to his verse. He ruminates upon the past as you  might expect an older man to, but he makes frequent references to the plain artifacts of a contemporary zeitgeist: going to punk shows, Occupy Wall Street, diners, Facebook requests, Youtube, the Iraq war, teen angst, X-Men comics, The Clash, the X-Files. It is a beautiful synthesis of a self-absorbed Millennial culture and the poetic, reflective impulse that tries to  transcend that culture.

Lastly, I wanted to share this interview I did with the “Weekly Reader” radio program, hosted by graduate students at the University of Minnesota.

Some Upcoming Readings/Events

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My never-ending book tour for Waiting for the Dead to Speak is continuing, with a lot of events scheduled over the next few weeks. I’m eager to be reading at some of my favorite book stores on the East Coast in the next few weeks. If you happen to be in any of these areas, I encourage you to come on out!

Friday, October 28 2016 7-9 p.m.

Midtown Scholar Bookstore,  1302 N. 3rd Street, Harrisburg PA

I will be the feature, and an open mic will follow.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016 6:30-8:30 pm.

RiverReads Bookstore, 5 Court Street, Binghamton NY

I will be reading with Dawn Leas and Jason Allen

Saturday, November 5 2016 3 p.m.

Buffalo Street Books 215 N. Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY

I will be reading with Dawn Leas. Ocean Vuong will also read at 5:30 p.m.