Nutley, NJ (PRWEB) June 21, 2014
Daniel P Quinn's organized labor is a panoramic survey of labor history in poetic verse with historic photographs. From New York's Landmark Tavern in the 1890's to the 1913 strike at the Botto House Museum, Haledon, NJ. Mr. Quinn shapes a vision both old and new of his family history and that of Labor itself.
ArtsPRunlimited announces Daniel P. Quinn, Author of 'organized labor' (AuthorHouse), is available for Labor Day interviews or book orders 800-839-8640 (AH) for organized labor day commemorations beyond the conventional.
His book has received notable press coverage on the Web (see below) and in The Bergen Record, Coast Star, Italian Tribune, Star-Ledger. His writing reflects a wide range of interests in my life and work. In many ways they share a public and private persona; both evocative and in some cases provocative view of life in our time. The early work is lighter and more whimsical in nature while the later work shares a darker view of reality. A prolific writer, director and producer Daniel P. Quinn has had a profound impact on the Arts since 1981. Highlights include his Soho debut Off-Broadway, The Short Play Festival, Irish Institute, Lincoln Center, and OBIE awards as Producer. He appeared on NPR radio for "organized labor" with Bonnie Grice as interviewer. Quinn also toured Lyons, France for curating an Arts Festival in Paterson, NJ, as well as being a Producing Scout in Dublin and guest director in Rome, Italy. Mr. Quinn will always be grateful for the early encouragement of staff at the Newark Library, the editors at Co-Tech & Newscribes for publishing many of the poems in "organized labor" to the encouragement of Edward Bond, Olympia Dukakis and Leo Buscaglia.
Web Reviews:
Organized Labor, Poems with Grit and Passion By: Davidson Garrett
"I am a member of three labor unions, and I really enjoyed Daniel Quinn's new collection of poems, Organized Labor. Mr. Quinn's use of language and imagery paints a picture of an era that hardly exists anymore. His poems also touch on topics that we all face today in an ever-changing global society. If you like poems that are alive with truth and deep emotional observation, you will enjoy the poems of this man who sees the world in a highly unique fashion."
organized labor: Collected Poems by: David Messineo
organized labor is an ambitious first collection by Daniel P. Quinn, which covers four generations of American and family history, from the birth of his grandmother in NYC in 1887 to the fall of the Twin Towers in 2001.
Like much of the poetry in this 46-page volume, the book's title has multiple allusions: from poems that deal with the organized labor movement in America (most notably, the 1913 strike of 20,000 Paterson silk workers at Botto House in Haledon, NJ), to the labor of organizing--and reconciling--past and present (captured eloquently in the title poem, organized labor), to even the labor of preparing one's poetry for publication.
Part I contains 17 poems of personal reflection from 1977 to 1998, including poems about Edgar Allan Poe and his Bronx cottage (Poetry in Transformation); soul-draining office work (x-mas greetings on oppression!); opera (Omaggio); and art and politics in the Reagan years (re: public rhetoric), including these lines: Remember: magic tricks & cowboys,/the Wild West, riding off into the sunset/while joking about RR. You can hear the silence of Art./And look at the price tags for VanGogh,/Now, that he's art & dead.
The composers, painters, authors, and historic figures who influenced the author's life are paid homage in Part I. In the first 25 pages, August Strindberg and F. Scott Fitzgerald are quoted, and Poe, Mozart, VanGogh, T.S. Eliot, Berlioz, Paganini, Gurnemanz, Parsifal, Medea, Maria (Callas), and Verdi are cited in various poems. Fill in the b ank and Fragments capture a solitary voice against the ocean--often the feeling of those who make a career out of creating art, in contrast to those who make a career out of making money: Moving against/the waves.//As your legs are pulled and pushed,/You feel/the process/of the struggle/between/nature and man.
Part II, containing six poems, opens with a narrative poem on the 1913 Paterson workers' strike. Later, in New York Trilogy, Daniel reflects on a photograph (reproduced in the book) of his great-grandfather as a manager of the Landmark Tavern, circa 1900. NY Trilogy III evoked the spirit of Stephane Mallarme in its use of text placement as a visual element, creating a moving poem on the loss of the Twin Towers while elevating the work to that of a visual art piece. The concluding poem, Epilogue, offers this great stanza: Co-mingling/the image/of Mel and Bell/ville, capturing, in few syllables, that tenuous balance of artistic interest and everyday living.
Book production is nicely done, from the cover design and drawing of hands by Thomas Micchelli to the feel of the paper within. All in all, organized labor is a labor of love to family, art, and history: an admirable first book.
organized labor: collected poems (ISBN: 9781418403577)
Quinn, Daniel P.
ISBN 10: 1418403571
ISBN 13: 9781418403577
Bookseller: AuthorHouse
(Bloomington, IN, U.S.A.)
$15.75 List Price
800-839-8640 Book Orders.
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