Art on the Line: Essays by Artists about the Point Where Their Art & Activism Intersect

by Jack Hirschman

Art on the Line is a collection of essays by writers and artists speaking about where their social commitment and their art intersect. That is, these essays illuminate the aesthetics of "engaged literature," and include work by writers from the U.S., Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa who believe art can move people to action.

Art on the Line provides the aesthetic understanding to fully appreciate the kind of work Curbstone publishes in general and will stimulate thought and discussion about the enjoyment and function of literature from the point of view that has its roots in the work of Bertolt Brecht, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison.

"Basically the poet must keep faith with poetry, with beauty. He must take the content that his outlook on life and mankind imposes on him (as the great responsibility that goes with coexistence, with living together) and steep it in the abundance of the beautiful. And here there's no room for subterfuges or the inversion of terms, The poet is such because he makes poetry, that is to say, because he creates a beautiful work. While he does something else he will be whatever he wants to be, except a poet. Which certainly does not imply, with respect to the poet, a privileged position among men, but only a precise placement among them and a rigorous limitation of his activity, the same that would also take effect in specifications of the capacities of doctors, carpenters, soldiers and criminals."-From Poetry and Militancy in Latin America by Roque Dalton

Jack Hirschman was born in New York City in 1933 and has lived since 1973 in San Francisco.

418 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Jack Hirschman is a San Francisco poet, translator, and editor. His powerfully eloquent voice set the tone for political poetry in this country many years ago. Since leaving a teaching career in the 60s, Hirschman has taken the free exchange of poetry and politics into the streets where he is, in the words of poet Luke Breit, "America s most important living poet." He is the author of numerous books of poetry, plus some 45 translations from a half a dozen languages, as well as the editor of anthologies and journals. Among his many volumes of poetry are Endless Threshold, The Xibalba Arcane, and Lyripol (City Lights, 1976). "