STEVE DALACHINSKY'S NEXT BIG THING

steve dalachinsky, Prague, 2011

(c) Bonny Finberg

What is the working title of the book?

A Superintendent's Eyes

Where did the idea come from for the book?
a good part of my life from early adulthood until my 50's (when i was actually the super of my building)incorporating many episodes & dreams as they occurred but making it seem timeless while at times poetic - this is a revised edition with updates.

What genre does your book fall under?
prose/poetry -  prose poetry - haibun - semi-auto-biography

What actors would you choose to play the the part of your characters in a movie version?
Pacino, Kinski, Hoffman, Brando, Bardot, Rod Steiger, Veronica Lake, Belmondo, Jean - Pierre Leaud, Gerard Philipe, Jean Gabin, Nakadai, Mifune, any well mannered lovely Japanese woman etc.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
proletariat meanderings - the life & times of a disgruntled partial servant of the people - life as art & vice- versa

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
it was in fragments - not originally meant as a whole - so i can't really answer this accurately. the revised copy was of course easier.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
me. my little life & some of what transpired within & around it.
reality/dream/laughter/tears/black comedy/poignancy/a place where one's insides mingle with one's outside(s)

What else about this book might pique the reader's interest?
the mixing of styles & processes. glimpses at reality & surreality

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
it will be published by unbearables/autonomedia press

What is it that you want of a book?
that it be both infinitely readable as well as unreadable & that it meet all the qualifications, standards  & desires i imagined it would when i created it & of course to sell it.

* * * 

steve dalachinsky was born in 1946, Brooklyn, New York right after the last big war and has managed to survive lots of little wars. His work has appeared extensively in journals on & off line including; Big Bridge, Milk, Tribes, Unlikely Stories, Ratapallax, Evergreen Review, Long Shot, Alpha Beat Soup, Xtant, Blue Beat Jacket, The Brooklyn Review. He is included in such anthologies as Beat Indeed, The Haiku Moment, Up is Up But So is Down: NYU Downtown Literary Anthology, the Unbearables anthologies: Help Yourself, The Worse Book I Ever Read and The Big Book of Sex (of which he is a co-editor) and the esteemed Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. He has written liner notes for the CDs of many artists including Anthony Braxton, Charles Gayle, James "Blood" Ulmer, Rashied Ali, Roy Campbell, Matthew Shipp and Roscoe Mitchell. His 1999 CD, Incomplete Direction (Knitting Factory Records), a collection of his poetry read in collaboration with various musicians, has garnered much praise. His chapbooks include Musicology (Editions Pioche, Paris 2005), Trial and Error in Paris (Loudmouth Collective 2003), Lautreamont's Laments (Furniture Press 2005), In Glorious Black and White (Ugly Duckling Presse 2005), Dream Book (Avantcular Press 2005), Christ Amongst the Fishes (A book of collages, Oilcan Press 2009), Insomnia Poems (Propaganda Press 2009), Invasion of the Animal People (Propaganda Press 2010), The Mantis: collected poems for Cecil Taylor 1966-2009 (Iniquity Press 2011), Trustfund Babies (Unlikely Stories Press The Veiled Doorway & St. Lucie (Unarmed Press 20012) and Long Play E.P. (Corrupt Press, 2012). His book The Final Nite (complete notes from a Charles Gayle Notebook, Ugly Duckling Presse 2006) won the 2007 Josephine Miles PEN National Book Award. His most recent books are Logos and Language, a collaboration with pianist Matthew Shipp (Rogueart Press 2007), Reaching into the Unknown, a collaborative project with French photographer Jacques Bisceglia, RogueArt 2009). His latest CD is Phenomena of Interference, a collaboration with pianist Matthew Shipp (Hopscotch Records 2005). He has read throughout the N.Y. area, the U.S., Japan and Europe, including France and Germany. He is a contributing writer to the Brooklyn Rail. His book A Superintendent's Eyes (Hozomeen Press 2000) is being reissued by Autonomedia/Unbearables in an expanded/revised edition in late fall 2013. His latest cds are collaborations with saxophonist Dave Liebman, bassist Joelle Leandre and an experimental French rock Group the Snobs.

RON KOLM'S NEXT BIG THING

                                      RON KOLM  
                                    Photo by Bonny Finberg
              

What is the working title of the book?

Divine Comedy.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I wanted to do a collection of my newer poems for awhile.  I got the idea of using Fly By Night Press from George Spencer; I really liked his book, Unpious Pilgrim.  I also admire Steve Cannon, and the other books he's published.

What genre does your book fall under?

Poetry.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

It's always Hollywood in this culture; celebrities.  This time period is the worst of the fucking fifties; not the Beats, but the fear of being different -- everybody with their short hair; all ready to go off to war, or away to summer camp -- this culture is awash with kids; shallow immaturity -- jeez, fuck Hollywood.  Watch Tarkovsky, Bunuel... something with some depth... Jarmusch even.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Wow, ok -- This sequence of poems is an attempt to delineate, not understand, the sequence of emotions involved in falling into and out of love. along with a bunch of other stuff.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Fifteen years.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Peter Handke.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The sex bits.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

No and no.

What is it that you want of a book?

I was a dipshit fascist growing up in Pennsylvania when I stumbled upon the Beats and Catch 22.  Those writers (and books) made me realize, among other things, that Vietnam was immoral, and so I volunteered to work in Appalachia as a community organizer.  I sincerely hope that my tiny texts reach some kid out there in the hinterlands and steer him, or her, to a different shore -- maybe evern more than one person -- one tries to amplify as best one can.

Ron Kolm is one of the founding members of the Unbearables literary collective, and an editor of several of their anthologies: Crimes of the Beats, The Worst Book I Ever Read and The Unbearables Big Book of Sex! Ron is a contributing editor of Sensitive Skin magazine and an associate editor of The Evergreen Review.  He is also the co-author, with Jim Feast, of Neo Phobe, and the author of The Plastic Factory.  A new collection of his poems, Divine Comedy, is forthcoming from Fly By Night Press.  He’s had work recently published in Jeff Wright’s LiveMag, and Steve Cannon’s Gathering of the Tribes Kolm’s papers were purchased by the New York University library, where they’ve been catalogued in the Fales Collection as part of the Downtown Writers Group.  He has worked in most of New York City’s independent bookstores, including the Strand, St. Mark’s Bookshop and Coliseum Books.  He currently works for Posman Books in Grand Central Station.

You can see him interviewed on Poetry Thin Air.

DANGEROUS DIANE'S NEXT BIG THING

                                                   Dangerous Diane

                                                 Photo by Guler Ugur   

THE NEXT BIG THING PROJECT 

What is the working title of the book? 

“The Drunk Monologues.”

Not “The Drunken Monologues.” Some people think they are being helpful when they tell me the grammar is incorrect. But they don’t get it. (In some way it’s sort of a play on “show don’t tell,” isn’t it?) 

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was drinking a beer in a brown paper bag on the corner of 78^th Street and Second Avenue when I saw a group of men looking under the hood of a car. I leaned against a deli wall and watched their ritualistic moves and thought it was hilarious. I went home and wrote “Men and Cars.” That was in the 80’s and I’ve been writing monologues about drinking ever since.

What genre does your book fall under?

I don’t know. Poetry, prose, a solo play, fiction, creative non-fiction. Excerpts have been published in fiction anthologies, arts magazines and monologue books. It’s part memoir. It could even be horror or thriller although those genres usually reject me like ex-husbands.

So I guess it’s a novel. Hopefully literature.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in the movie rendition?

Lily Tomlin or Tom Waits.

Tomlin is also from Detroit, where a lot of the stories take place, especially the music. And since there is music, my original drummer, Leonard Paul Johnson would play drums. Waits once said that he’s a musician because it was either that or air conditioning repair. That’s how I feel about being an artist.

I was the first actor. I read the monologues in all the usual poetry venues in NYC and then performed the solo show in a Horse Trade production, which they produced and directed (by their theatre director at the time, Russ Dobular). I went on to do it again at the NY and New Zealand fringe festivals. If Tomlin or Waits turn it down, I could be persuaded to do it myself but I don’t like pretending I’m drunk anymore. I want the real thing now. It might be because I’m in Florida.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

A tragic-comedy about one woman’s drinking addiction with absolutely no reference to recovery.

OR

Sobriety is over-rated. 

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I never stopped. The first monologue was around 1988. There are more monologues than what ended up in the show so I'm excited to get all the monologues together again. Since 1988 I moved three more times in Manhattan, six times in New Zealand, once to Woodstock, three house sitting gigs in NYC, one sublet in Brooklyn (same hood as the Bensonhurt Butcher), and one roommate share in Hoboken, NJ. Now I’m in Florida. In 2004 I left New York for New Zealand to try a second hand romance. The marriage was in front of a portrait of the Queen of England!. It ended not well because that husband was drinking and I was jealous. My moving for the past ten years has a lot to do with writing and drinking, I’m just not sure exactly what it is.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Steven Canon invited me to be a feature reader at the now defunct Avenue B Social Club where the audience included people drinking and people in recovery. Because they all laughed at my stories I was encourage to go further. When I saw John Leguizamo's “Freak” I knew I had a Broadway show. I never got that far but off-off broadway has been good and getting some of the monologues published is  inspiring.

Now Bonny Finberg has invited me to do this. I couldn't say no. I'm inspired to go forward and finish. Thanks Bonny.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest.

Chapter One: Train Birth

I was born in motion. The train rocking and surging,  metal against metal I popped out on a double seat in a little town called Puce - which is French for flea or so  they tell me - fifteen miles east of Windsor, Ontario. Canada. Water blood afterbirth and my mother's tears mixed with clapping and cheering and a champagne toast. Some fell on me, and at birth I was already moving and drinking. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Self published. 

Because: 

1. I can’t go through mass rejection again. Twenty years ago I had a top New York agent who sent my first novel, “Girl Culture” to all the big publishing houses. I received over twenty-two rejection letters all in a span of a few weeks. At the same time I had been dating a poet/cab driver who asked me to marry him over a few bottles of vodka. We flew to San Francisco.  In the middle of the ceremony the judge admonished me for laughing because  it was a “solemn occasion”. I stopped laughing, we got married and my friends Bobby and Marcie took us to a revolving restaurant in the sky where we ordered champagne. However, my new husband wanted a bloody mary instead and I knew I married the wrong man. 

2. I want to publish visuals and music with the chapters. There are old songs and cartoons that are appropriate and I want to create new stuff with sound and ink.  A blog is the only way to control that. As soon as I figure out how to create those menu blocks on the top of the blog and how to create links so the reader can “read more” I will go forward.

3. When finished I will toast the project with a glass of red wine. Lately I’ve been riding my bike to the grocery store where I browse the wine aisle. Once I picked up a bottle to see how it feels. This is an incredible incentive. When I’m finished I get to toast my success. After sixteen years sober, I think I deserve a drink. Recovery is so over-rated. I’m not having any fun since I hit bottom. 

What is it that you want of a book? 

I want my book to do what books do for me: EVERYTHING.

Truth! 

Gore Vidal says that a writer must tell the truth and the best way to do that is in a novel. I like deadlines. Now if my neighbors invite me for a game of golf I can say, “Sorry I’m on a deadline.”

BIO

Diane Spodarek is a Canadian-American artist, a recipient of an NEA artist’s fellowship in video-art and two New York Foundation for the Arts artist’s fellowship in creative nonfiction. Excerpts from, “The Drunk Monologues,” are published in “Young Women’s Monologues from Contemporary Plays,” “The Unbearables’ Big Book of Sex,”"Even More Monologues for Women by Women," and Gathering of the Tribes 12.” She was the "First Runner Up" at the Nuyorican Poets Café "First Grand Poetry Slam" in NYC and her short story “The Farmer in the Dell” will appear in the horror anthology, “Apocryphile” in 2013.www.dangerousdiane.blogspot.com

BART PLANTENGA'S NEXT BIG THING

Here's the next installment of the NEXT BIG THING PROJECT. I'm glad to host bart plantenga's self-interview. 

bart, formerly a DJ on WFMU, hosts a freeform radio show from Amsterdam called Wreck This Mess.

His blog is called Wreck This Cloud.

His novels Wiggling Wishbone (Autonomedia, NY) and Beer Mystic are underground classics. See a video excerpt here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEeL1QzGsc

                                           ***

                                photo of bart plantenga by Eddie Woods

NEXT BIG THING PROJECT 

bart plantenga

What is the working title of the book?

Radio Activity Kills

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea came out of desperation & experiences beyond the ken of normal sentient beings down a dead end where the chosen & discarded confuse one another. the idea also arose out of the fact that no one has ever written a novel of some caliber on the subject. Don’t get me started; OK, but now that you have... In 2012, after 8.33 years of bickering with my latest book YODEL IN HIFI: From Kitsch Folk to Contemporary Electronica that addresses people’s comfortable preconceptions & socially determined prejudices on culture, here specifically related to yodeling; & after a decade-long protracted birthing process that produced the twin books PARIS SCRATCH & SIN PHONEY IN FACE FLAT MINOR, consisting of urban zen snapshots; & after the routine rejection of yet another version of the novel BEER MYSTIC by some 100+ gatekeepers [editors, agents, publishers] & then publishing the entire book online in a global pub crawl & producing a guerilla film of the book’s last chapter: Beer Mystic: Last Day on the Planet; I decided it was time to tell daughter Paloma Jet [13] that she must at all costs never harbor the delusion that writing can ever be considered a worthy, well-respected pursuit commanding any prestige or means for survival. In our rush to democratize we forgot criteria like talent. & since Paloma is smart & visually oriented, I am not worried. It is however then, never at a loss for words or rather not knowing what else to do, that I suddenly decided to give various shapeshifting experiences some definition at the peril of risking my mental wellbeing yet again.

What genre does your book fall under?

Somewhere between speculative-neurotic-metro-nerd-quasi-fiction & transgressive-black-humorist-implausible-memoir-manifesto: imagine characters from the old sitcom WKRP played by Monty Python offspring in a script written by Dostoyevsky, the channeled voice of Lester Bangs & the comedic talents of writers fired from the sets of various harebrained teen sex comedies.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

They will be unknown but gifted non-actors with a link to the milieu & zeitgeist [not a type of beer, although why not]. They would reside well outside the realm of the entitled & connected few & they will not have been tainted by formal training, Hollywood, or any professional workshopping-networking activities ... They will like both Jacques Tati & the Three Stooges, both Antonioni & Animal House & will have formidable music collections consisting of bands no one has ever heard of & they will have noticed something poetic about Doris Wishman’s movies & something inherently humane in the spirit of Jon Peel. They will have spent some time doing menial, underpaid labor & take that with them on their journey.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Radio as lived environment, sexual aid & alternative reality; a space where the cultural battles will be fought. & those [wo]manning the barricades will have only their wits & their encyclopedic knowledge of obscure & neglected musics as their weapons.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

26.2 years experience + an estimated 1.44 years of scribbling...

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Squat-pirate-illegal-alternative radio, faceless radiomakers with homemade egos – & their mothers, partners & enemies operating in straight/compromised media outlets...

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Their deep understanding of irony & satire will not be enough to save the main characters from a perdition that will be bearable only to some. Their sexploits will redeem certain bad decisions they have made although the STDs contracted will not. The novel will not be your standard musical although many of the main characters will speak in lines cribbed from the lyrics of obscure & sometimes touching soul, hillbilly, blues & novelty songs. The revolutionary impact of their actions will surprise even them.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Neither - it will be via a third way...

What is it that you want of a book?

The book should – or rather the text or rather the texture & ambience of the text – should serve as a lived environment, as an auxiliary, alternative halfway house somewhere between fear & imagination, entertainment & the discomfort that comes with revelation. For instance, if the main character was a tongue s/he would be located equidistant from the teeth, cheek & throat. The main characters’ ventures into performed & recorded music can best be described as charming & portentous fiascos.

MY NEXT BIG THING PROJECT

The Next Big Thing project is flying around and has landed here. Each of us posts a self-interview and tags 5 others to do the same. I was invited to participate by Amy Hollowell, who was invited by Pansy Mauer-Alvarez, who was invited by my Paris publisher, Dylan Harris of Corrupt Press.

Steve Dalachinsky, Ron Kolm, Diane Spodarek and Bart Plantenga have agreed to participate. I'll be posting their interviews here starting on March 30, 2013. 

nextbigthingnextbigthingnextbigthingnextbigthingnextbigthi

What is the working title of the book?

Kali’s Day, which has stuck.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The confluence of the lost and found, victims and perpetrators, living and dead, rivers, mountains, roads, cities, streets, rooms.

What genre does your book fall under?

Fictohagiography.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Charlize Theron would be perfect for the female lead, Candice, who combines an animal nature, monstrous intelligence and statuesque physicality.

Henry, the male lead would have to be played by some yet undiscovered, prematurely junked-out beauty, late-twenties, dark-haired wonder who could pull off both Hedy Lamar and Johnny Depp (depending on the scene) and look good in a black silk slip.

For teen-aged Stella I’d cast a young Clare Danes who could span the ages of 15-25. 

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Sex, drugs and God on Canal Street under a Himalayin’ moon.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

13 years.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I decided to invent the wheel while staring out a window at crows, chewed some gum, walked to an Iron Age burial ground, kissed a gypsy, sang in the temple, didn’t avert my eyes at the animal sacrifices.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It’s all true and full of lies.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It will be published in the fall of 2013 by Autonomedia/Unbearable Books, NY

What is it that you want of a book?

I want a book to organize experience into some kind of whole where the narrative accumulates rather than drives it as an organizing principle. And a moment of recognition goes a long way.

LORD OF BEASTS, excerpt from "Kali's Day" due out in 2013

Just up on Evergreen Review. Lord of Beasts, an excerpt from the forthcoming novel, Kali's Day, which is due out in 2013.

My review of the Cindy Sherman show at MOMA in A Gathering of the Tribes.

It's finally up!

I'm honored to have edited a selection of 30 Poets, which is dedicated to Akilah Oliver, in the BIG BRIDGE 15TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE. Thanks to all the fantastic poets who contributed. The other sections of poetry, fiction and essays are also a great read. Bravo to Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carion for the hard work they do to keep Big Bridge going.

Déjà Vu reviewed in SABOTAGE

Peter Hughes, Pearl Pirie and Bonny Finberg | Poets Live

Peter Hughes, Pearl Pirie and Bonny Finberg | Poets Live:

'via Blog this'

Déja Vu by Bonny Finberg | corrupt press

Déja Vu by Bonny Finberg | corrupt press:

'via Blog this'

New chapbook, DéJa Vu, from Corrupt Press. Can be purchased through PayPal (see above).
Book launch at Poets Live Tues, Sept 20, 2011
http://poets-live.com/content/september-20th-peter-hughes-pearl-pirie-and-bonny-finberg

New story in EVERGREEN REVIEW #127

My Late Discovery of Claude Cahun: Sensitive Skin Magazine

New Issue of Sensitive Skin Magazine Just Out

New story in Sensitive Skin Magzine:"Botanical Man" along with other great work by Carl Watson, Max Blagg, Patricia Eakins, Elliot Sharp and many others.

Now blogging on Sensitive Skin Magazine Blog

As staff writer I'll now be posting most of my blogs on
the Sensitive Skin Magazine Blog.
And feel free to leave comments. We love your feedback.
Bonny

Review of Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye at Cité de la Musique/Brooklyn Rail

BECAUSE LA NUIT: PATTI SMITH, "UNPLUGGED DREAMS' AT CITÉ DE LA MUSIQUE

Short video on Ivy Writers Paris

The Ivy Writers series is a bi-lingual poetry series in Paris organized by Jennifer K. Dick and Michelle Noteboom. Each reading features an anglophone and a french poet. Jen and Michelle are interviewed as well as local writers including yours truly. Video by Erin Stranyak.

                                             

I almost prayed

       

Two rows of nuns 

took me in their arms, 

raised me to the dome, 
forgave the golden altar, 

the obscene bouquets of white. 

I bowed my head 

for birds and fish.

I tried to pray 

our ways

the way to nothing but

a soup of our own shit

I tried but don't believe.

I walked out onto high ground, 
grey sky, ever changing light, 

dusk infolding

like the wings of sleeping bats, 

trying to forget the stain.

(c) Bonny Finberg

May   10, 2010

Paris

                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                Photos (c)Bonny Finberg

Declaration of Independence

[Adopted in Congress 4 July 1776]

(My note: Some on the Christian Right are fond of noting how many times "God" is mentioned in this document  in order to justify their belief that religion and its teachings belong in government institutions such as schools. However, it's important to note how "God" is defined here:

"...to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them.." Notice the little apostrophe? That tiny detail implies that the drafters and signers of this document believed that

 "God" is from "nature," not that God made nature.)

---

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy of the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levey war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

TITANIC