Bill Nevins

  • Women rip it up at Taos poetry circus 2003

    NEW MEXICO — Slam Poet/Freedom Fighter Pat "Velvet Hammer" Payne led her sisters to triumph in mid-June at Taos, as women poets swept all Taos Poetry Circus competitions held this year. Payne defeated hard-battling Nuyorican

  • John Trudell's poetic arrows

    ALBUQUERQUE — A New Mexico tribal drum circle concludes an honour song and John Trudell steps onto the stage, all in black, even his eyes shielded by opaque lenses, his dark hair streaming past his shoulders. His band Bad

  • Why the right hates Steve Earle

    Steve Earle has always been intrigued by fighters, and by the reasons why they fight. He has championed union organisers, the impoverished, death-row inmates and indigenous rights activists. As one of America's most prominent

  • Larry Kirwan: Not all happy riots and righteous parties

    Larry Kirwan is best known as leader/song-writer of Irish-American rebel-rockers Black 47. He is most often seen in a packed New York pub, his fist upraised, shouting, "So here's to you, revolution! May your flame keep burning still!".

  • Native American roots, rhythms and joy

    SANTA FE, New Mexico — "An Indian President!", shouted Robert Mirabal, fist clenched, buckskin and long black hair flying. "That's just one of my crazy, crazy ideas. But why not, people?". The Taos Pueblo native is leading his

  • John Trudell and the poetry of resistance

    TAOS, New Mexico — John Trudell, founder/leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970s, is now a movie star (Thunderheart and Smoke Signals), a recording artist (with albums Graffiti Man and his latest, Blue Indians),

  • Indigenous Americans celebrate unity

    Indigenous Americans celebrate unityALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — Turtle Island, Aztlan, the Land of the People: these are all names for the sacred places where the varied indigenous peoples of the Americas thrived for untold

  • Rage against La Frontera

    "Los ojos de me memoria. Minds eye dances. They can only take your soul if you let them." — Priscilla Baca y Candelaria "Poetry is the sacred way to touch the fabric of peoples' souls in a way that lets them take the stage and

  • US conference exposes Washington's 'war against the poor'

    US conference exposes Washington's 'war against the poor'EUGENE, Oregon USA — "People ask me what I'm reading these days. I'm reading history — about the Nazis, about slavery. That seems closest to what is happening to poor