Mary Rudge’s Occupy: Readers’ Theater. A special hour-long program for fund drive. The show will be hosted jointly by Jack Foley and Nina Serrano, though Nina’s contribution had to be pre-recorded. The premium will be Mary Rudge’s Occupy: Readers’ Theater—a suite of poems read by various local poets. This premium, produced for KPFA by Nina Serrano, is an expression of community awareness—of solidarity—performed by people in the community. It features a plethora of active, living poets, all of whom were happy to contribute to this exciting project. Occupy: Readers’ Theater is available only from KPFA and is the last labor of love from Mary Rudge (1928-2014), lifelong activist and much-loved Poet Laureate of Alameda. Like KPFA, it is community generated and community powered. This is the opening poem of the sequence:
THE SIX O’CLOCK NEWS
(An Occupant talks back to the news)
Newscaster:
First, because so many adore film stars
is news some will have multi-million dollar
on location trailers to signify their towering
reputation, so unimaginably huge with
every kind of digital invention for the
entertainment and convenience to enhance
the status of
those stars we love.
Occupant:
Aren’t we happy,
standing at the food bank,
now they are well treated, even though
the newscaster said they still
compete against each other,
each wants biggest and best for status,
until returning to their
mansions or to various resorts.
Newscaster:
Next is the news of a Sports Star
kidnapped,
because that is where the money is,
kidnappers know.
Occupant:
Aren’t we lucky standing with our
friends in the unemployment line,
where kidnappers don’t go.
Newscaster:
next is follow-up
of for years cover-up
of molestation of little boys
by someone valued
by a college team.
Occupant:
Perhaps it’s just as well our child
dropped school, no money for
books and clothes and bus fare….