Volume 142, Issue #5
| PEACE AND POEMS IN THE NAME OF GANDHI BY
ELIZABETH SKOW
A small and committed group of people of all ages celebrated the birthday of the late, philosopher and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi on Sunday, Oct.1 in San Francisco. “Gandhi Birthday Poems for Peace” was held at the Gandhi statue on the Ferry Plaza and people celebrated what would have been Gandhi’s 137th birthday by reading poems, playing music and promoting peace. Organizers “Diamond” Dave Whitaker, Associated Students vice president of cultural affairs, and his longtime friend Arnie Passman, urged people to participate and celebrate peace, love, justice and nonviolent, direct-action civil disobedience. Passman said he came up with the idea for the event when he took the ferry into San Francisco on Spare the Air Day and first saw the Gandhi statue. The statue is one of many in major cities like New York, Washington D.C. and St. Louis that honor the leader. Passman discussed the idea of an event honoring Gandhi’s birthday with Whitaker, a permanent fixture in the Bay Area poetry scene, and off they went. One by one, people stood up in front of the makeshift microphone to voice their contributions. Each person had five minutes to speak — or sing — his or her mind. People joked and prayed. The audience listened responsively, clapping and hooting here and there, but never talking over the performers. The bronze statue of Gandhi presided humbly over the occasion, dressed up by someone who had pressed a fresh peach-colored Dahlia into his bronze hand. The five-minute readings went from about 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., without many interruptions. People talked of their hopes for peace and about Gandhi’s example of non-violent resistance. Many read their own poems, most of which carried a common theme of rising up out of oppression and nonviolent resistance to our oppressors. Some people took the opportunity to express some very unique messages that might not normally be expressed so publicly. One man, who identified himself as Horehound Stillpoint, stood on a balance-board holding a sign that read “Nutty, fruity, bipolar poet” in one hand, and the microphone and words to his poem in another. “We need more bicycles and less weaponry. Less work for more pay. We don’t need to save the planet, the planet will be just fine,” Stillpoint said. “ We need to save us. And to do that we need to save the planet.” A sitar player, Eric Filthmilk, provided music between poetry and spoken-word, which lent an air of authenticity to the day. The proceedings were occasionally punctuated by a barking megaphone announcing ferry arrivals and departures, but the peacemaking continued doggedly. Pressman said he would like to see this type of event happen at more Gandhi statues around the world next year. He and Whitaker hope to make this an annual event. Not surprisingly, the spirit and intention of the event can be best summed up with Gandhi’s own words, commemorated on the plaque below his statue: “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is the supreme law. By it alone can mankind be saved. e-mail: eskow@theguardsman.com
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Kirk Lumpkin, Bay Area poet and singer-songwriter, speaks to the crowd in Ferry Plaza in recognition of Gandhi's birthday and peaceful ideology. Participants shared poems, songs, and thoughts in five-minute increments throughout the day. 