Mark Lipman Biography, bibliography and Social Activism
MARK LIPMAN:
Recipient of the "2015 Joe Hill Labor Poetry Award"; founder of VAGABOND; a writer, poet, multi-media artist and activist, author of six books: "Poetry for the Masses" (2015), "Global Economic Amnesty" (2014) with a comment by Noam Chomsky, "A Stirring Underfoot" (2011), "The Dirt of Dispair" (2010) translated into Spanish by poet Antonieta Villamil, "Because We Were Happy And Free" (2009). His first novel, "Impermanence", was published in Paris 2001, and nominated for the "Bard Literary Prize" in 2003.
Mark uses poetry to connect communities to the greater social issues that affect all of our lives, while building consciousness through the spoken word. Mark Lipman is also an AWA (Award Winning Author) with the book "The Border Crossed Us: An Anthology to End Apartheid" (2015), given annually by The Latino Book Awards for published books with themes about or written by Latino Authors.
Mark Lipman published in the anthologies "Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising From The Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles" with an Introduction by Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez, published by Tia Chucha Press, "Revolutionary Poets Brigade Anthology: Los Angeles", "The RPB World Anthology", "Heartfire Anthology" and "Overthrow Capitalism Anthology", etc.
In 2002 he became writer in residence in Paris France, for a year at the world famous Shakespeare and Company, under the guidance of its founder George Whitman. In that year he worked with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Hirschman and the Italian poet, Igor Costanzo, in Back to Beat, a Fluxus art and poetry event in Breccia, Italy.
In Los Angeles, Mark has been a frequent contributor with articles and poetry for the Free Venice Beachhead. Currently, he is a member of POWER (People Organized for Westside Renewal), Occupy Venice, the Revolutionary Poets Brigade and 100 Thousand Poets for Change.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM
Since moving to Venice California in 2008, he has been organizing on affordable housing issues and has been an outspoken advocate for human rights to housing, from Veteran Rights to Human Rights.
His social and political activism began in Berlin, where as a witness to true democracy, he helped to take down The Berlin Wall. After returning from active duty with NMCB16 (Seabees) - a Gulf War Era Veteran, Mark's political views moved further to the left, having witnessed from inside the military the contradictions between the "official stories" and the reality of war.
Co-founder of the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition (USA), Agir Contre la Guerre (France) and Occupy Los Angeles, and most recently the Westside Tenants Union, he has been an outspoken critic of war and occupation since 2001. In 1992, he started organizing with CalPIRG, to protect California's waterways and then, while living in Paris, he was a volunteer with Greenpeace France in 1998 and later became their Assistant Rain-forest Campaigner.
