Eli Siegel, American Poet and Educator

Eli Siegel on Evolution: Dogs, Horses, People -- and More!

2008-07-17T12:33:00.002-04:00

Eli Siegel's lecture "Poetry Is of Man," which I love, is currently being serialized in the international journal The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known. This week's issue is called "Our Purposes Every Day -- & Evolution." It is thrilling, charming, scientific -- on a subject that has puzzled many people, including now. As you read it, bear in mind that Mr. Siegel gave this lecture extemporaneously.

2007-11-18T12:23:00.000-05:00

NEW PUBLICATION FROM THIRD WORLD PRESS:

The People of Clarendon County -- a play by Ossie Davis

"with Photographs and Historical Documents, and Essays on the Education that can End Racism." Edited by Alice Bernstein.

Read about the courageous men and women of South Carolina whose work, along with that of others, led to the Supreme Court decision that overturned school segregation: Brown v. Board of Education
This short play by Ossie Davis is being published for the first time
It was performed just once, in 1955, with a cast that included Ossie Davis himself, Ruby Dee, and Sidney Poitier

Lois Mason and the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method

2007-10-07T08:43:00.000-04:00

There is an issue of "The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known" that I'd like everyone to know about. In it is a paper by educator Lois Mason, who studied with Eli Siegel. She was a social studies teacher, and one of the teachers of the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method workshop. I learned so much from her, and I miss her. It is very important that the method she used and taught be known.

See Education, America, & Lois Mason

Money, America, & Ethics

2007-10-07T08:30:00.000-04:00

If you haven't read Eli Siegel on economics then you've missed something big. Studying economics at Oxford I had the feeling economics was mainly statistical, exceedingly complicated, and cold. That suited me in a way, because I didn't like people very much, I'm sorry to say.

Eli Siegel's lectures and essay changed all that. He talks about economics as if people do matter a great deal. In fact, he saw the emotions of people as being a great force in the history and economics of the world. He said that ethics is a force. As a history teacher I have seen that he was right.

This link shows you firsthand what I'm talking about -- and explains, through the commentary by editor Ellen Reiss, things going on now in economics.

Money, America, & Ethics

Aesthetic Realism and Rock 'n' Roll

2007-09-25T10:51:00.000-04:00

Another way to study how Aesthetic Realism sees beauty. culture, and our lives is by going to the special repeat performance of
Rock 'n' Roll, the Opposites, & Our Greatest Hopes -- A Celebration!
Hear songs that have been loved, some for decades, some for a short while -- but all presented with the utmost respect and the understanding of their true meaning. Every song is a means of understanding what we are hoping for, in love, economics, and more. And as a person who has the honour to take part as a singer, I can tell you this show rocks!

You will also see reenacted a lesson Eli Siegel gave to a rock musician. You'll see that he understood what this man was going after in his music, and the essence of rock and roll itself. As he speaks to Bob Walker, Eli Siegel relates rock music to jazz, classical music, beauty in nature, and explains why people have loved rock and roll, which was expected by many to be a passing fad, for over half a century.

NB: Call ahead for reservations because the last show was sold out.

2007-07-26T13:02:00.000-04:00

Eli Siegel, who grew up in Baltimore, was trying, from an early age to find a unifying theory of existence--is there any principle that relates everything? You can see how much he was interested in the idea of relation from his prize-winning poem, Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana. That poem won the Nation poetry prize in 1925. About it, poet William Carlos Williams stated "I say definitely that that single poem, out of a thousand others written in the past quarter century, secures our place in the cultural world." (Something To Say, New Directions, 1985)

As a person who studied philosophy at university, I am sure that the principle he came to is crucial to our understanding of existence and our own lives. Moreover, he said that reality, truly seen, is beautiful -- hence the name "Aesthetic Realism."

The principle is:

"The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites."

For illustrations of this principle see, for instance,

I -- By Eli Siegel himself:

Selected Lectures
Excerpt from Self and World, an Explanation of Aesthetic Realism
Poetry and literary criticism, including comments by others on Mr. Siegel's poems

II--Links to some of my favourite Eli Siegel poems:

III -- Writing by Others:

Ellen Reiss on poetry of Eli Siegel
Ellen Reiss on Robert Burns, punctuation, loyalty to America, Harry Potter, and more
the website of renowned anthropologist Arnold Perey PhD.
artist Dorothy Koppelman on the life and work of Jackson Pollock
Educator Rosemary Plumstead on the relation between sports, dance and biology
composer and music educator Professor Edward Green
the website of actress and teacher Ann Richards and myself, Aesthetic Realism & Our Lives
Aesthetic Realism consultant Irene Reiss
Aesthetic Realism Is True -- UK blog
Filmmaker Ken Kimmelman, whose film of Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana has been winning awards all round the US
Aesthetic Realism Can End Racism

Point of information: Eli Siegel had read all of Shakespeare's works by the time he was 16. He would later lecture on every single one of his sonnets, and gave lectures on other Shakespeare plays. I have heard him refer to Hamlet in many (recorded) lectures, to illuminate a principle about economics, or beauty, or mental health, or ethics, and he's always fresh. These lectures, by the way, are the highest point in my education. His knowledge was astounding on a wide variety of subjects, yet he never summed up anything. His knowledge was matched only by his desire to know and to have a good effect on people through his knowledge. I love Oxford, but I never heard anything to match this there!

Eli Siegel and students of Aesthetic Realism on Shakespeare--some instances:

The first section of Eli Siegel's Shakespeare's Hamlet: Revisited
Eli Siegel discusses Othello
Ann Richards & Carol McCluer on Twelfth Night
Anne Fielding, Aesthetic Realism consultant, actress, singer, Director of the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company
Report of Eli Siegel's Shakespeare's Interesting, by Lynette Abel
Anne Fielding: "I Believe This About Acting."
"Shakespeare, Compactly," by Eli Siegel

Eli Siegel, Poet and Educator

2007-07-25T13:09:00.000-04:00

Some links:
To find out more about Eli Siegel visit the following:

Aesthetic Realism Online Library-- this is the definitive website with many poems, reviews, essay, lectures, and more
Biography of Eli Siegel at the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company website
Aesthetic Realism Foundation home page -- the education he founded, continued by Ellen Reiss and others
Biography of Mr. Siegel at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation's website
Books by Eli Siegel also available at Definition Press