{"id":24016,"date":"2012-03-31T19:16:49","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T19:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/uchicagopress-july-3-1997-jane-alexander-the\/"},"modified":"2018-12-05T22:07:44","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T05:07:44","slug":"uchicagopress-july-3-1997-jane-alexander-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/uchicagopress-july-3-1997-jane-alexander-the\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-24016 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/uchicagopress-july-3-1997-jane-alexander-the\/attachment\/24017\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-content\/uploads\/tumblr_m1m7uni1LC1qegcopo1_400-100x100.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/uchicagopress.tumblr.com\/post\/20081080038\/july-3-1997-jane-alexander-the-national\" class=\"tumblr_blog\">uchicagopress<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">July 3, 1997\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Jane Alexander <br \/> The National Endowment for the Arts<br \/> 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue <br \/> Washington, DC 20506\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u00a0Dear Jane Alexander, <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I just spoke with a young man from your office, who informed me that I had been chosen to be one of twelve recipients of the National Medal for the Arts at a ceremony at the White House in the fall. I told him at once that I could not accept such an award from President Clinton or this White House because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration. I want to clarify to you what I meant by my refusal. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Anyone familiar with my work from the early Sixties on knows that I believe in art\u2019s social presence\u2014as breaker of official silences, as voice for those whose voices are disregarded, and as a human birthright.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In my lifetime I have seen the space for the arts opened by movements for social justice, the power of art to break despair. Over the past two decades I have witnessed the increasingly brutal impact of racial and economic injustice in our country. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know that art\u2014in my own case the art of poetry\u2014means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage. The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A President cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I know you have been engaged in a serious and disheartening struggle to save government funding for the arts, against those whose fear and suspicion of art is nakedly repressive. In the end, I don\u2019t think we can separate art from overall human dignity and hope. My concern for my country is inextricable from my concerns as an artist. I could not participate in a ritual which would feel so hypocritical to me. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u00a0Sincerely, <br \/> \u00a0Adrienne Rich <br \/> \u00a0cc: President Clinton<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">**<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Adrienne Rich\u2019s \u201cFinal Notations\u201d is included in <a href=\"http:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/chicago\/O\/bo13919067.html\"><em>The Open Door: One Hundred Poems, One Hundred Years of <\/em>Poetry<em> Magazine<\/em><\/a>, forthcoming this fall.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>uchicagopress: July 3, 1997\u00a0 Jane Alexander The National Endowment for the Arts 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20506\u00a0 \u00a0Dear Jane Alexander, I just spoke with a young man from your office, who informed me that I had been chosen to be one of twelve recipients of the National Medal for the Arts at a ceremony [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-words","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-6fm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24018,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24016\/revisions\/24018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}