Yitna Firdyiwek directs Poe’s Eureka. He, like the rest of the creative team, has a love for the art of filmmaking, and for the art of language making. We all marvel at Edgar Allan Poe’s language in Eureka.
He, also like the rest of us, is not fully at ease with the marketplaces of American culture.
He writes:
“We went public the other day. We are now professional mendicants. We do not have the capital to achieve our goals. So we are asking for financial help from those who believe our goal is worthwhile. I feel a little nervous about asking, but I also feel it’s absolutely right to do so. Let me digress…
“As an Ethiopian, when I first came to the US in 1970, two things that struck me about this country were 1) yard sales, and 2) pledges on public broadcasting. The first, of course, is a time-honored bartering milieu of shopkeepers made fertile on a local level by a pure capitalist infrastructure. It intrigued me to see the way people openly bought and sold each others’ intimate objects without any inhibitions. But then again it was simply an informal marketplace, like the piazza, or the merkato, granted on an extremely local level. The second, however, what PBS was doing, was absolutely wild. People simply got on the radio and asked for money (begged for it), and got it! Were there such Americans, I thought then (1970) who gave at the mere asking? Little did I know then, that this twist on “begging” was a Canadian import. But that doesn’t matter. I accepted it naively as an American original and marveled at its efficacy. I realized this country was nothing like the Hollywood and MAAG projections of the US I was used to before I came here. The church and street beggars of Ethiopia came to mind — they too promised good news, bright lights, and eternal happiness… and went home with a pretty penny!
“So here I am now, crowd-funding for Eureka! and Poe.”
You can join the Indiegogo Campaign for Poe’s Eureka.
Like the beggars of Ethiopia we offer unimaginable rewards for your support.
You can also join the conversation by adding a thoughtful comment below.
Tags: Edgar Allan Poe, poe poetry society