PSA for my poetry community — Hey, here’s an idea: Instead of going to the Ugly Mug on Wednesday evenings and giving $5 to the owner, Phil, who hates babies and tried to intimidate me into leaving three times because I brought my child, then called her “that thing” and threatened to shut her up with “rope and a board” — how about instead never go there again and instead set up a recurring donation of $5 to send food aid to children where it’s needed?
Seems like a no-brainer to me. Give $5 to the miserable, misanthropic miser who dehumanized and threatened my 9 month old baby… or give $5 to feed babies in Gaza, Mali, Yemen where food insecurity is high? Yeah, fuck you Phil.
$5 might not seem like a lot but $5 per person every week for 25 years is plenty of money. He’s always been rude but he actually crossed a line into being abusive. Sorry, the people who host the reading are fine and no shade to them, but shit is so fucked these days I don’t have time or money to waste on people perpetuating harm with low likelihood they will grow or change. If they’re not in therapy and getting better, they’re getting worse. Abuse escalates over time if not alchemized. I’ve been going there for 20 years and he’s certainly not gotten kinder. This is not a space that is welcoming or inclusive to mothers with children. So if that is you, I highly recommend you avoid this place.
Go ahead and judge me if you want for not being all love and light, I don’t care. Yes, I know everyone has a story and I don’t know his trauma, but a wise teacher said to me one time that once you reach the age of 35, you’re too old to be blaming your parents for your own misery.
We are living in a time when I’m way past the point of diplomacy with assholes and oppressors. Old mean white men do not run the world. We do. The personal is political, remember? One more time for good measure, fuck you Phil. P.S. It’s exasperating how ironic it was that I was there reading poems about “shit men say to me.” It truly never ends.
Here’s a link to send emergency aid to children through the World Food Programme.