What will happen when nothing is �Made in America� anymore? What will happen to all that machinery: the machines themselves, the operators that drove them, and the old walls and roofs that housed manufacturing villages churning out blue jeans and paychecks to a vanishing middleclass?
Award-winning author Lisa Beatman answers these questions and more in Manufacturing America (ISBN 978-0-6151-8124-0, Ibbetson Street Press, $14.95), a collection of poetry and prose. Beatman won first prize at the 2000 Lucidity poetry conference, and Honorable Mention for the 2004 Miriam Lindberg International Poetry Peace Prize. She was also awarded a Fellowship to Sacatar Foundation in Brazil, and a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant.
Norm Davis, editor of the HazMat Review, says, " Beatman�s poetry is very alive and full of feeling and pictures. The working people she writes about are not simply �victims� at the hands of exploiters. They are fighters, too. Her poem, Good Bones, portrays the magnitude and the utter tragedy of what has happened to the working class.�
In Manufacturing America, Beatman conducts a chorus of immigrant factory workers. The collection moves through the �life cycle� of manufacturing � from its roots in the Lowell, MA textile mills, through downsizing, to the �artist lofts� mined from the old buildings as manufacturing moves overseas. It documents the swan song of a formerly vital sector that historically provided a leg up to many American workers. The book is true-to-life, based on her job at a manufacturing plant near Boston, MA.
Susan Eisenberg, author of Blind Spot, says, "Manufacturing America bears witness to the lyrical life of a factory and the individuals who inhabit it at the start-up of the 21st-century. Lisa Beatman adds the stories of immigrant workers, heard through the ear of a poet on site to teach literacy skills, to the growing literature of work poetry."
Lisa Beatman currently manages adult education programs at the Harriet Tubman House in Boston, MA. She studied international public administration at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Her poems and stories have appeared in Lonely Planet, Lilith Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, Powhatan Review, Rhino, Manzanita, and Pemmican. Her first book, �Ladies� Night at the Blue Hill Spa�, was published by Bear House Publishing.
Doug Holder, Editor of Ibbetson Street Press, says, �Lisa Beatman's poetry reminds me of another Mass. Cultural Council Award winner, Charles Coe. Both Cole and Beatman's work is accessible but layered with meaning. Their poetry has an ample dose of levity, and at the same time, it is wise and knowing. Beatman has a gimlet reporter's eye and a poet's heart.�
Manufacturing America is available from www.lulu.com, ibbetsonpress.com, and soon from amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, as well as in a growing number of Boston bookstores, including Brookline Booksmith, Groliers and Porter Squ. Books in Cambridge, Jamaicaway Books in Jamaica Plain, Lucy Parsons in Boston, and Village Books in Roslindale. You can also buy it directly from the author.
There will be a book launch celebration on Mar. 16 @ 2:00pm at Out of the Blue Art Gallery, 106 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA . Come enjoy food, art, music, and poetry.
2008 Readings and Book Signings
Mar. 16 @ 2:00 pm @ Out of the Blue Gallery, 106 Prospect St., Cambridge
Mar. 27 @ 7:00 @ Emack & Bolio's, Roslindale Village
Mar. 30 @ 3:00 pm @ West Falmouth Library, W. Falmouth
Apr. 12 @ 11:00am @ Boston Public Library, Copley Sq., Boston
May 20 @ 6:30pm @ South End Public Library
Jun. 18 @ 6:30pm @ Borders Books, 10-24 School St., Boston
Nov. 3 @ 7:30pm @ Chapter and Verse, Lorning Greenough House, 12 South St., Jamaica Plain