It's the economy part II: scattered thoughts

*An article that echoes my previous post on the recession and how it might affect artists.
* Travis helpfully mentioned an old NEA article on artists in the workforce. On that note, isn’t the risk-averse Bush appointee Dana Gioia stepping down to do some soul-searching in Aspen? I’m curious to see who Obama will appoint as Gioia’s successor (Art funding will probably be #70,455 on Obama’s to-do list). Perhaps the NEA will return to its pre-Piss Christ days and dole out individual grants to visual artists and launch more cutting-edge programs that promote innovative work by artists and not just arts education. This might be wishful thinking.
*Lavinia asked if the election will inspire more political poetry. I hope so. But I would think that the war, deregulation of corporations, Katrina, the pillaging of the environment, Abu Ghraib, and other corrosive abuses of power within the last eight years would be plenty reason to spur political poetry but has it? At the top of my head, I can think of a few poets whose latest collections have held a tuning fork to the world: Juliana Spahr, Ed Roberson, Claudia Rankine, Rodrigo Toscano, Barbara Jane Reyes, Dennis Nurkse, Matthea Harvey, and Aracelis Girmay. I’m sure there are many others who I’m forgetting…