Utopia in Four Movements

Utopia in Four Movements is a "live documentary" by Sam Green and Dave Cerf. It was presented at the American Film Institute's Silverdocs Documentary Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland (just outside of Washington, DC) on June 26, 2010. This "live documentary" was a multimedia presentation. The filmmaker Sam Green, in the flesh, narrated the film with live background music provided by a trio called The Quavers, with Dave Cerf masterminding the sound. So this is not (yet) a standalone documentary film.

The four utopias are (1) Esperanto, (2) revolution, (3) shopping malls, (4) forensic anthropology. The general theme undergirding all the "utopias" is the frustrated dream of an egalitarian society. Esperanto is not only the first utopia of the film but in a sense its anchor.

Esperanto was presented with quite a bit of photographic footage originating prior to World War II and film footage of contemporary Esperantists from a wide range of nationalities at world congresses. As most of my face-to-face contact is with American Esperantists, I rarely get the full impact of oral communication across language barriers. All this was quite inspiring and swelled me with pride in being an Esperantist.

I was quite stunned to see film footage of Zamenhof himself, which I didn't know existed. I wish we could get hold of this and preserve it in a usable form ourselves. I inquired afterward and was told it came from a French newsreel and was difficult to acquire. Sam Green was rather pressed for time, so I didn't get a chance to pursue the matter, but we should inquire as to the details and availability of this footage.

Including myself, I identified three Esperantists in the audience. At the end of the Q & A, Jim Ryan, sporting an Esperanto T-shirt, was called upon to say a few words about Esperanto and the presence of the local society. Afterwards, he handed out flyers to exiting attendees.

It was fun for me, and good for Esperanto, unless you think a photo of Mao's red book in Esperanto might give people the wrong idea. (I'm told it's not the red book but Mao's Elektitaj Verkoj Vol. I [Selected Works].)

Evaluation of the whole film requires more in-depth analysis. I think the strength of the relationship between the overall point made about the difference between the perspectives of the early 20th century and now, and the fragments of historical information provided, particularly about revolutionary movements, could be questioned, for the actual examples given could serve to undermine the general argument. I brought this up with Sam Green, who admitted the problem. Regardless, we get a rather impressive exposition of Esperanto, both of its explosive growth and presence prior to the Second World War, and its persistence up to the present time.

If you can read Esperanto, you will see from the Libera Folio blog that some Esperantists were put off by the film. I don't know much Sam Green varies his narrative at each showing, but I don't see him depicting Esperanto as a noble failure. If anything, he demonstrates the resilience of the Esperanto movement, and by showing Esperanto as a living language, in which people of all nations participate, he releases Esperanto from being held hostage to finvenkismo [final victory of Esperanto as an international auxiliary language]. His depiction of Esperanto conferences reflects his 1000-points-of-light theme about patches of limited progress in the face of the smashing of big dreams about a comprehensive social overhaul.

Sam Green's aim, as he has stated in public and to me personally, was to paint a poetic rather than historically precise portrayal of any of these 'utopias'. The question remains as to whether people would get the general gist of his contrast between the big dreams of a century ago (and up through the 1960s) and the dismal prospects of today, or whether they would scrutinize with critical precision the details of what was being presented and question its logic. I would hate to see the '60s summed up by the Brinks bank robbery and the Cultural Revolution. I don't recall whether I saw Green's documentary on The Weather Underground on PBS. It's quite possible, but then I also saw the film the Weather Underground itself made underground in the '70s, and my memory is blurring. As I told Green after the film, people might get the wrong idea from the examples he chose, a possibility he admitted. But you can see how his associative thinking worked: big dreams turned into disasters, Viennese ex-socialist inventing the American shopping mall, ex-Maoist becoming mega-mall developer, Cuba trying to keep the dream alive, American fugitive and expatriate in Cuba keeping the dream alive, Mao's book in Esperanto. It's a chain of associative connections which are not logical from the standpoint of serious historiography, but which, if not scrutinized too closely, support Green's imaginative construct.

I'm also guessing that Green, who is evidently too young to remember the '60s, might be over-romanticizing the wrong things, or more accurately, might have internalized a crude opposition between utopia and disaster, taking each as frozen images of political movements to place in opposition to one another, which is no way of understanding real history. I hope he doesn't wear a Che T-shirt. I couldn't stand that stuff 40 years ago.

And now, a couple paragraphs for non-anglophone Esperantists, followed by a list of links.

Krom la anglalingvaj retpaĝoj, rigardu Utopio en kvar movimentoj ĉe Verda Filmejo. En la blogo Libera Folio vi trovos plurajn plendaĉojn pri la filmo, kelkajn defendojn, kaj plurajn kromdiskutojn. Bazita de la ĵusa specifa prezento en Silver Spring, mi ne gajnis impreson pri Esperanto similan al tio de tiuj kiuj reagis negative. Ŝajnas al mi, ke la ĝenerala bildo pri Esperanto estas pozitiva. Se oni atentos detalojn, eble oni perceptus alimaniere, sed neniu povas certi pri reago de novulo kiu antaŭe sciis nenion pri Esperanto.

Eble ekzistas problemo pli ĝenerala, t.e. nostalgio pri utopioj kiujn oni funebras kiel malrealismajn. La ŝlosila difekto--aŭ manko de logiko kaj konsekvenceco--estas en la dua parto de la filmo, pri revolucio--kies mesaĝo finfine malkoheras kiel rezulto de la ekzemploj elektitaj.

Links / Retligoj:

Utopia in Four Movements

Sam Green

American Film Institute's Silverdocs Documentary Festival

Silverdocs: A conversation with Utopia in 4 Movements Director Sam Green

Utopia in Four Movements | San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

Sam Green @ YouTube:

Sam Green: Hoping for the Best

Sam Green - Utopia in Four Movements

SFIFF53 Video Scoop Friday April 30

Utopio en kvar movimentoj

Filmo pri utopio ignoras la realan Esperantujon

Unamunda: David Ives, Spinoza, Trotsky, Esperanto

Last night I saw this excellent, brilliantly written play:

New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch De Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656. A play by David Ives.
June 26–July 25, 2010, DC Jewish Community Center.
Directed by Jeremy Skidmore.

My review in progress can be found on my Reason & Society blog.

Well, it turns out that David Ives authored another play I saw in Buffalo many many years ago: All in the Timing. I remember very little except for one vignette featuring Leon Trotsky pacing around his desk with an ice pick in his head acting like Ralph Kramden threatening Alice with a trip to the moon. However, there is another component to the play I don't remember at all, as described in this review:

"Universal Language" is an ambitious parody of the Esperanto campaign, in which an unscrupulous entrepreneur has set up a studio in which he promises to teach the language that will be understood everywhere, and an innocent student arrives eager to cure her stutter and speak the universal language. The language itself is a brilliant invention, worthy of Tom Stoppard. I was reminded of the artificial language in his Dogg's Hamlet, in which, for example, "Plank" means "here" -- and surely the reminiscence is deliberate, since at one point "Tom Stoppard" is the universal language's phrase for "tongue stopper." It's in fact the main source of laughter in the play, and if Derek Nason's speed of delivery sometimes meant that we missed the good ones, there were plenty to go around, as Emily Curry as the student actually begins to speak the nonexistent language, and becomes a proponent of what began as a scam. If it seemed to run a little longer than it should, perhaps it was we weren't catching all the delicate wit of the doubletalk "universal language," but I've never seen a production in which that problem was solved.

Yet another account:

If Sure Thing and Words are playgrounds for Ives to explore the elastic properties of great literature, The Universal Language sends him leaping off into the basics of communication. Shy, reticent Dawn (Carlin) meekly presents herself at Don's (Correa) school of Unamundo (read: Esperanto). She's a stutterer and wants to be able to speak fluently. Don, exuberant salesman that he is -- I don't think Correa has ever been better -- pulls her in with the greeting, "Bell jar! Harvard U?" ("Hello! How are you?") She has an uncanny gift for Unamundo, and picks it up almost at once. They chatter away at one another as -- you guessed it -- romance begins to bloom. But here Ives stumbles just a bit. Instead of trusting us to get his point, he lets Dawn and Don fall back into English (that's "John Cleese" in Unamundo) to explain Don's motivation for inventing a universal language: "I believe language is the opposite of loneliness, and if everyone in the world spoke the same language, no one would be lonely." Luckily, it's not long before the enraptured couple goes back to Unamundo. Odd words such as "shtick" and "Tommy Stoppard" fly past us and magically make themselves heard. Correa pumps his way around the stage like a Latino version of Groucho Marx, with Carlin matching him step for step in the plucky tradition of Judy Garland or Ginger Rogers. It's pure comic virtuosity.

Here's a more recent account: http://sdjewishworld.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/ion-brings-back-all-in-the-timing/.

The artificial language in this play is Unamunda, but as you can see, it has also been incorrectly referenced as Unamundo. I don't know why people can't get something as important as this right. In any case, this play has been published with companion plays by Ives:

All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays

Given the awkward love story theme, I wonder whether the creator of the new film Conlang knows this play.

There's more! Nobody can resist a conlang, even a fake one:

English-Unamunda Dictionary

Unamunda - Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia

unamunda.com | velcro!

The Spectator

Universal Language@Everything2.com

Unamunda, Esperanto, Japanese, being understood in another language, and how I managed to get in two different photo albums in Japan

Iago Parla Unamunda: Understanding a nonsense language By Emily Gasser
(full-on scholarly article!)

You can watch several productions on the play on YouTube, I started with this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DJzIUuJmOs

Here is an undeveloped Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unamunda/188173902742

And here is a musical composition! You can download the score for free:

Unamunda by Robert Giracello.

. . . Because I'm not the only one who can't help myself.

Gramsci & Esperanto (2)

Jen alia kondamno de la falsaĵoj de Gramsci: Gramsci kaj Esperanto de Sen Rodin (pseŭdonimo de Filippo Franceschi), prenita el alia blogo al la blogo de Komuniga Maŝino de Amelano Jo. Ne preteriru la komentojn.

Estas debato en la angla pri Gramsci kaj Esperanto:

no mother tongue?, October 5, 2007

Giorgio Silfer verkis eseon pri "Gramsci e l'esperanto: storia di un malinteso" en la gazeto "Lombarda Esperantisto", n-ro 14 (novembro 1983).

Telos #59 (usona revuo pri "kritika teorio," inkluzive de la gravega "Frankfurta Skolo") havas specialan sekcion pri Gramsci pri lingvo. Mi kredas ke temas pri "Notoj pri la Lingvo".

Ie mi havas ambaŭ aferojn, kun kruda angla traduko de la artikolo de Silfer fare de eks-kolego mia.

Gramsci & Esperanto

Anĉjo PacHorano (Andrea Fontana) atentigas pri debato pri la fama itala komunisto-intelektulo Antonio Gramsci [Gramŝi] kaj Esperanto je la 20a de julio 2009, ĉe la 82a KONGRESO DE SAT. Vi povas aŭskulti kaj pri komenti la debaton ĉi tie.

Notu ankaŭ libron eldonitan de SAT: La Itala Socialismo kaj Esperanto. Estas ankaŭ itallingva eldono: Gramsci e l'Esperanto.

Ĉi tiu afero rememorigas, ke mi devus elfosi mian materialon pri ĉi tiu temo. Anglalingve estas la plurfoje enantologigita publikigita artikolo de Gramsci, kaj laŭmemore estas iu traduko de iuj "Notoj pri la Lingvo". Mi ankaŭ havas itallingvan artikolon de Giorgio Silfer. Mi ne memoras la argumenton nek la tekstojn de Gramsci, sed mi supozas ke la sinteno pri Esperanto ligiĝas al pensoj pri nacia kulturo kaj al organikisma tendenco (filozofia ligo de ĉiuj reakciaj starpunktoj pri Esperanto). Mi dubas ke kulpas la "historia materiismo" kiel ĝenerala perspektivo; la dogmeca filozofia starpunkto pri Esperanto estas metafizika, ne scienca aŭ empiri-bazata perspektivo.

Estas malfacile mense sorbi aŭdregistritan dialogadon do malfacile resumi. El ĉi tiu debato mi rimarkas, ke troviĝas mencioj de la samtempaj ideoj lingvistikaj kiuj influis Gramsci, la karaktero de historia materiismo, dogmeco en la socialisma movado, inter aliaj facetoj de la problemaro. Mi tamen ne trafis trafan analizon pri la lingvaj, kulturaj, kaj filozofiaj ideoj de Gramsci.

Esperanto USA 2010 Congress (5): Arika Okrent on Esperanto & the 3 ages of invented languages

Arika Okrent was the keynote speaker on Saturday May 29. She commenced her speech in Esperanto and switched to English so as, in her terms, not to abuse the language. Rather than read a summary of mine, you can see and hear her talk for yourself:

OK, here are a few notes. Dr. Okrent claimed that the coverage of the 1910 Universal Congress set the tone for one approach to the journalistic coverage of Esperanto (bemused but not hostile), though in this case the extent of the press coverage is impressive. It seems that after a couple decades, "reform fatigue" set in in the public mind. The 3rd era of the conlang phenomenon, today's Klingon era, represents the coming out of J.R.R. Tolkein's "secret vice" of the pure pleasures of language creation, which now involve extrapolations of fictional scenarios or philosophical ideas, or incorporation of intriguing or "exotic" features of existing natural languages. The 2nd conlang era, dominated by Esperanto, is over. (The 1st was the era of philosophical languages that peaked in the 17th century), but the 2nd era shares with the 3rd a spirit of linguistic internationalism.

The Q & A period involved such varied questions, I won't attempt to summarize them this time around.

Esperanto USA 2010 Congress (4): “Esperanto, Washington, & the World in 1910”

Ralph Dumain: “Esperanto, Washington, and the World in 1910” /
“Esperanto, Vaŝingtono, kaj la Mondo en 1910”

58th National Congress of Esperanto USA (Bethesda, MD, May 28-31, 2010) /
58-a Landa Kongreso de Esperanto USA

On May 30 I delivered my talk on this topic in Esperanto, with the assistance of Verlette Simon, who coordinated my accompanying “slide show.” This talk is part of a larger research effort to analyze the American Esperanto movement of a century ago with a view to the broader social forces that converged on Washington in 1910, as my way of commemorating this centennial and the Zamenhof sesquicentennial. (1)

I briefly enumerated a number of relevant perspectives: diplomacy, science and technology, commerce, labor, women’s rights, religion and freethought, Latin America, European and American Jews and Zamenhof’s own Eastern European Jewish perspective, and the general ethos of optimistic prospects on the threshold of the 20th century which began with epochal scientific and technological breakthroughs. My talk took off from a contrast between Zamenhof’s famous “Land of Liberty” speech and the reality of Jim Crow Washington, and culminated in the hitherto unexplored African-American perspective.

Most noteworthy is the contrast between our national congress of 2010—which could have gone unnoticed by the wider world were it not for the luck of being briefly spotlighted by National Public Radio (2)—and the 1910 International Congress, which was the subject of daily headline news in four Washington newspapers, as well as reportage by newspapers around the nation. My “slide show” was comprised largely of clippings from the Washington Herald and Washington Times, which reveal the range of activities of the Congress, including the performance of Shakespeare’s As You Like It in Esperanto and the use of Esperanto in a major league baseball game, as well as the serious attention given to Esperanto by diplomats, heads of state, government representatives, and a major American labor leader.

Then I sprang the aspect of my project of greatest personal interest: my attempt to document the reportage of Esperanto and international languages in the black press and my quest for the unknown history of black participation in the Esperanto movement. My most significant find here was William Pickens, who surfaced as an advocate of Esperanto in 1906 and who later became an eminent professor and college administrator and leader in the civil rights movement of the time. There’s a further linkage to the contemporary poet Elizabeth Alexander, who writes of Pickens in a poem as the “first Afro-American Esperantist” and who delivered on the steps of the Capitol the commemorative poem she wrote for the inauguration of President Obama! Who could have foreseen such an event in 1910?

I followed up this presentation with an hour-long radio program in Buffalo, NY, on June 7, in which I summarized this talk, added remarks on likely reasons for Zamenhof’s perspective on the United States, and recited my three Esperanto translations of poems by William Blake which I had recited in the “Poezia Rondo” which also transpired at the Esperanto Congress. (3)

(1) See my web-based project at http://autodidactproject.org/esperanto2010/intro.html.

(2) See "Marking the Centennial of Esperanto Creator's Visit" by Art Silverman, "All Things Considered", National Public Radio, Tuesday 25 May 2010, 5:55 pm EDT
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?verified=true&storyId=127118219#commentBlock, from where you can listen to or download the audio broadcast itself.

(3) The summary can be found on the Think Twice Radio site: http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/sound-clips/sound-clips.html. The mp3 audio clip itself can be found at http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/sound-clips/audio/100607.mp3. On the same page as the program description you will find a link to a program from May 10 in which I briefly discuss the upcoming national Esperanto congress.

Esperanto USA 2010 Congress (3): Library of Congress visit

Library of Congress Field Trip
58th National Congress of Esperanto USA

On the afternoon of Saturday May 30 a contingent of Esperantists made a pilgrimage to the Library of Congress, one of our greatest national treasures, where we were greeted by Lee Douglas, a veteran Esperantist and librarian stationed in the Local History & Genealogy Dept. Also awaiting our arrival was a display of books from the library’s rich collection (on site and from the repository in Ft. Meade) and from Mr. Douglas’s personal collection, ranging from old and rare to recently published items. I made a note of a few items of interest: Class Leader’s Course by Correspondence (American School of Esperanto, Washington D.C., 1911); Practical Esperanto: Complete Method for Learning the International Language "Esperanto": Home Course (William Sol Benson, 1925-1932); Proleta Kurso de Esperanto, vol. 5 (Tokyo, 1932); La Lasta Usonano by J. A. Mitchell (various editions); Vivprotokoloj: Ĉiutagaj Vivoj, Rakontitaj de Esperantistoj compiled by Ulrich Becker & Zdravka Metz (2nd ed., 2009). In turn, we presented items for donation to the library’s collection.

Mr. Douglas treated us to an overview of how to fully use the library’s resources, which included information new even to me as a veteran researcher. There are various tricks to using the online catalog available to everyone, especially in light of the newer practice of “minimal level cataloging.”

In addition to researching the usual published formats, one must do some digging to find Esperanto-related material in various archives. For example, the library has on microfiche the German secret police reports covering the period 1920-1933, in which the Esperanto movement was heavily surveilled by government spies.

Finally, the acquisitions policies of the library were reviewed. The Library of Congress accepts everything, throws nothing away, but will probably never catalog a substantial percentage of material entered into storage. Esperanto material is of the lowest priority for cataloging, and of a very low priority for regular acquisitions. You can of course write to the Library of Congress yourself urging your priorities, but you are unlikely to have much impact unless you or someone you know has pull.

I trust that others moved on to take in other departments of the Library of Congress or other tourist attractions. I remained behind to pursue my research passion for a bit. Thanks, Mr. Douglas and the Library of Congress staff, for your service to our group as well as to the national memory.

Esperanto USA 2010 Kongreso (2B): Pluaj komentoj pri prelego de Humphrey Tonkin

Rimarku, ke mia raporto pri la prelego de Humphrey Tonkin pri "Esperanto en la Nuna Mondo" estas sufiĉe diplomateca. Fakte, mi estas multe pli cinika. Komente ĉe la prelego, mi menciis iom el mia skeptikemo, ekz. citante mian sperton de usonaj esperantistoj en la antaŭa usona kongreso en Vaŝingtono en 1987, kiam pluraj usonaj esperantistoj esprimis la saman dekstran tendencon pri hispanlingvanoj en Usono kiel aliaj usonanoj. Mi asertis, ke estas absurdaĵo supozi ke usonaj esperantistoj havas ajnan intereson pri "lingva diskriminacio."

Post miaj komentoj, D-ro Tonkin asertis ke temas pri etika demando de diverseco, identeco, diskriminacio, ktp.

Ĉi tiuj abstraktaj asertoj tute ne konvinkas min. Mi ne perceptas praktikan rilaton inter la abstraktaj supozataj koncernoj de esperantistoj kaj realaj lingvaj, etnaj, naciaj, landaj, kaj internaciaj problemoj. Cetere, mi skeptikas pri la koncepto postmoderisma, kvankam mi komprenas la enhavon sub tiu misetikedo. Mi ankaŭ cinikas pri konceptoj "diverseco" kaj "identeco" favorata de la etburĝa liberalularo.

Cetere, oni ne sufiĉe esploris la situacion de reteca socia agado en sociaj movadoj. Percepteblas, ege evidentas, la kapablo por sinorganizado de movadanoj (la eksplodo de movado de negraj ateistoj/humanistoj en Usono el nenio, nur dum la pasinta jaro, estas elstara ekzemplo!), sed restas la demando de la efikeco de sociaj movadoj al la ĝenerala socio. Oni ja povas brile sin organizi kaj resti socipolitike impotenta.

Esperanto USA 2010 Kongreso (2): Humphrey Tonkin pri “Esperanto en la Nuna Mondo”

Humphrey Tonkin: “Esperanto en la Nuna Mondo”
58-a Landa Kongreso de Esperanto USA

La 30an de majo Humphrey Tonkin prelegis, komence en la angla, poste en Esperanto, pri perskeptivoj de la Esperanto-movado. La mondo je la fino de la 19a jarcento, kiam Esperanto aperis, estas kvalite malsama ol tio aktuala. La tradicia Esperanto-movado daŭris laŭ akceptitaj antaŭsupozoj eĉ post la Dua Mondmilito. Evidentas aktuale, tamen, ke ni ne bezonas komunan interlingvon; ni havas la anglan, kvankam ĝi respegulas neneŭtralecon kaj neegalecon. Kontraŭe, Esperanto ĝuas la plej malaltan estimon inter la lingvoj de la mondo. La socia demando nun ne konsistiĝas el komuna interkomprenado, sed estas afero de diskriminacio. La principoj de neŭtraleco kaj egaleco respondas al la bezonoj de socia identeco.

La Esperanto-movado en praktiko orientiĝas laŭ provizado de servoj al Esperantistoj mem. D-ro Tonkin mem komence inspiriĝis de la Esperanto-komunumo, nur poste konstatis la mondskalajn sociajn implicaĵojn de la movado. Li asertas, ke la konservado de la Esperanto-komunumo malaltiĝu prioritate, favore al engaĝiĝo kun la vasta mondo.

D-ro Tonkin konceptigas la epokan diferencon laŭ la konceptoj modernismo / postmodernismo. La moderna epoko, el kiu fontis Esperanto, reliefigis la trajtojn de formalaj, hierarkiaj rilatoj, sed la postmoderna epoko estas esence reteca, neformala. Oni ankoraŭ organizas la Esperanto-movadon modernisme en postmoderna mondo. La strukturo de tradiciaj asocioj kaj la provizado de varoj al efektivaj aŭ potencialaj Esperantistoj konstrastendas al la aktuala modo de sinorganizado (ekz. Facebook). Sed la Esperanto-movado iam estis avangarda: ekz., kiam UEA fondiĝis, okazis senpera aliĝo sen landaj asocioj. Esperanto mem estis reteca. Sed finfine Esperanto lamis post la evoluo de la cetera mondo. Ni nun troviĝas en epoko en kiu oni povas agi interrete, senpage, interagi individue, eĉ neniam persone renkonti unu la alian. En ĉi tiu epoko ni ne pensu plejparte pri memkonservo de organizoj kaj varbado de novaj membroj. D-ro Tonkin laŭ propraj vortoj pensas “puritanisme”: ni ne nur ĝuu Esperanton; ni okupiĝu por pli justa mondo.

Sekvis demandoj kaj komentoj de aŭskultintoj. Estas rimarkinda generacia diferenco pri alkultimiĝo la la reta mondo. Alia problemo estas ke Usonanoj nek konas nek prikompatas lingvan diskriminacion, ankaŭ en ĝenerala etoso de “laceco pri egaleco.” Mi esprimis skeptikegemon pri la intereso de usonaj Esperantistoj pri lingva diskriminacio enlanda, kaj historie la limoj de la naci-ŝtato estas problemo el kiu rezultis diversaj lingvopolitikoj en la Esperanto-movado: la Zamenhofa, la “neŭtral”-movada (internaciisma), kaj la sennaciisma kaj la etnisma kiel kontraŭaj ekstremoj. (Flanke: neniu menciis Raŭmismon kiel alternativan perspektivon, kiu ja kontraŭdiras tion de la tradicia movado kaj kiu rezignas la movadan finvenkismon.) Responde, D-ro Tonkin asertis, ke temas pri afero de konscienco senkoncerne pri landlimoj. Estas afero de diverseco de identeco kontraŭ tutmondiga homogenigo. Min tute ne kontentigis lia respondo pri la rilato inter Esperanto kaj ĉiaspeca lingva diskriminacio, kaj restas bezonata konkretigo de rekonceptigota rilato inter aktuala reteco kaj tradiciaj organizoj. Jen elirpunktoj por plua diskutado.

Esperanto USA 2010 Congress (1): Poezia Rondo

Poezia Rondo: 58-a Landa Kongreso de Esperanto USA

Esther Schor specializes in Poetry at Princeton University and published a landmark article in English on Zamenhof’s Jewish projects in the National Yiddish Book Center’s magazine Pakn Treger. On May 30 she convened a Poezia Rondo (Poetry Circle) in which translators, authors and readers recited their own material or that of others. Ralph Dumain led off with his three translations from the poetry of William Blake. Humphrey Tonkin contributed several translations of the American poet Wallace Stevens. Steven Brewer contributed both original Haiku and a translation from Emily Dickinson. Several poems by Dickinson were translated by Lee Miller. E. James Lieberman recited his own translation of Esperanto poet Baldur Ragnarsson’s “Nerimarkitaj Herboj” (Unsung Leaves). He also translated Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless, Patient Spider” into Esperanto and Marjorie Boulton’s “Buĉotoj” (To the Butcher) into English. Esther Schor offered her Esperanto translations of Elizabeth Bishop’s “Electrical Storm” and the poem “Don’t Kill Yourself” by Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Ulrich Becker provided two original poems “Humoroj en Stato de Kaptiteco” (about New York from an immigrant’s perspective) and “Sed Ne Flori” (a love poem). Others recited Julius Balbin’s Esperanto translation of Yevgeny Yevushenko’s “Babij Jar” and William Auld’s original Esperanto poem of drunkenness, “Ebrio.” Esther Schor distributed a booklet comprised of all the poems contributed to this program, including also Istvan Ertl’s Esperanto translation of Tony Kushner’s “An Undoing World.”

I was impressed by the seriousness and the level of the contributors’ engagement with poetry and with the language. This Poezia Rondo was a showcase of Esperanto’s role as a meaningful cultural vehicle.

Miaj lastatempaj radio- kaj kongres-programoj

Ĉiuj sekvaj aferoj okazis en la angla lingvo.

Je la 25-a de majo:

Mi kaj Jim Ryan estis aparte intervjuitaj de Art Silverman, kaj el tio rezultis 3-minuta radioprogramo je Nacia Publika Radio, kiu gajnis 12 000 000 aŭskultintojn. Jen la retloko:

"Marking The Centennial Of Esperanto Creator's Visit" by Art Silverman, "All Things Considered", National Public Radio, Tuesday 25 May 2010, 5:55 pm EDT
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?verified=true&storyId=127118219#commentBlock

De tie vi povas aŭskulti au elŝuti la radioprogramon mem.

Je la 30-a de majo, en la landa usona Esperanto-kongreso, mi prelegis pri "Esperanto, Vaŝingtono, kaj la Mondo en 1910".

Je la 7-a de junio, en Buffalo, Novjorko, mi faris 1-horan radioprogramon pri Esperanto por "Think Twice Radio". Vidu priskribon kun retligo al la programo ĉe:

http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/sound-clips/sound-clips.html

La mp3-dosiero troviĝas ĉe:

http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/sound-clips/audio/100607.mp3

Mi resume ripetis la enhavon de mia prelego pri la Universala Kongreso de 1910, kaj pritraktis en postaj komentoj la ideologion de Zamenhof. Mi ankaŭ deklamis miajn tri Esperantajn tradukojn de poemoj de la angla poeto kaj artisto William Blake.

Babm, where are thou? / Babm, kie vi estas?

"Let me die with my collectibles!" — Samson

I have fond memories of the PM8000 section of the Buffalo & Erie County Library, where, 42 years ago, I discovered Esperanto and a bunch of obscure conlangs, including a quaint little volume of Fuishiki Okamoto's BABM, which I scooped up at the recent Esperanto-USA congress. I don't think I'll have time or cause to scan the whole book, but I've scanned the dust jacket, title page, table of contents, introduction, and miscellaneous pages on Okamoto's personal philosophy. Another utopian bites the dust . . .

Universal Auxiliary Language Babm by Fuishiki Okamoto

Other links / Aliaj Ligoj:

Boabomo - Vikipedio

Babm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Babm and Lin" by Ray Brown

Babm: The Simplest Universal Auxiliary Language (excerpts) by Fuishiki Okamoto