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A Bay Area Poet SpeaksAlexandra Naughton and I first met about two years ago when I was writing a piece on foot fetish for The Bold Italic—it's not one of her "things" as they say, but she had seen my call-to-arms on Yelp for potential subjects and had a strange foot story to tell; we met at the Madrone Art Bar on Divisidero to talk toes, writing, and why the Bay is so wonderfully odd after a lifetime of being an East Coaster. (She's from Philly; I'm from New York.) I didn't know it then but it was the beginning of a beautiful—but digital friendship—where I could witness firsthand her sprawling indie-dark darling influence on the World Wide Web. Her steady stream of Facebook statuses casually garner 85 'likes' and inspire a throng of heady comments. Her comments are alternatively witty, honest, perceptive, self-deprecating, knowingly narcissist and sexy—in short, it's a persona that's an Internet wet dream. By day, Alexandra helps run what I can only understand as a kind of modern day Elks Club in San Francisco—by night however, she's a bona fide whirlwind of literary exploits. She's founded her own literary 'zine and publishing "house" Be About it! in addition to her own blog, Tsaritsa Explains It All—which delves into everything from social commentary to art, to hip-hop, sex and books. Oh, and she's also launched a reading series, and published her first collection of poetry, I'll Always Be Your Whore [Love Songs for Billy Corgan] with Punk Hostage Press in January.
On the cusp of her book tour where she'll traipse across ten cities in ten days, we sat down in her North Oakland apartment—finally face to face again after two years—and talked about the sheer joy of being published, why she hates poetry and obsessive love. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Cinematic BrainwashingPart of why people turn to movie reviews and essays on films is because the reader trusts that the critic is someone who can expose what lies beneath a movie. Film critics spend years reading film, reading books about film, and studying related texts to understand film. A film critic is someone who pays attention to subjects like philosophy, sociology, politics, and cultural relativism when viewing a movie, and uses what they know to inform audiences that there is more to what's on screen than what the viewer initially assumes.
The 2012 documentary The Pervert's Guide to Ideology is a film devoted entirely to how one man searches for ideology in cinema. This man, Slovene philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek, spends an entire documentary looking at clips from selected films, as well as commercials, pieces of propaganda, and news footage, to explain what ideology is to how societies use ideology to further goals. In the film, Žižek finds films from different cultures and eras that use similar forms of ideology, and how the presence of these ideologies can shape and influence society. This is not an easy movie to watch, but it's fascinating because of how important it is to find ideology in film. Žižek begins the film by looking at John Carpenter's They Live, a film in which the protagonist discovers a pair of glasses that let him see the subliminal messages in everything, including the aliens disguised as humans. As Žižek puts it, ideology is like glasses “which distort our view. The critique of ideology should be the opposite; you take off the glasses to see things as they really are.” Because of this, Žižek asks the viewer to be open to looking into what films are discussed and how the ideologies present may or may not apply to the viewer. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Proudly 'Women's Work'Whoa! It's summertime and that means a whole of slew of festivals will be bring smiles to faces from sea to shining sea. Among them are 'zine fests, such as the enticingly titled Philly Feminist Zinefest in—you guessed it—Philadelphia. Started in 2012, the festival celebrates 'zines by women artists and writers, all in a "safer space" environment. The grand event take places on June 28th this year at Christ Church Neighborhood House, an arts and culture venue. Exhibitors include, among others, the Trans Oral History Project, Stranger Danger Distro, Werdy Girl, and, of course, Quail Bell Magazine. Here's what Sarah Sawyers-Lovett, festival organizer, had to say about feminists, zines, and fairy tales: CS: Why do you think Philly needed a feminist 'zine fest? How did this become an annual event?
SLL: Philly Feminist Zine Fest isn't an annual event yet, though we're trying to be. We put the first year's fest together after attending NYC Feminist Zinefest—the energy was so positive and safe. So many rad people with similar goals and priorities in one place. How could we not want to bring something so overwhelmingly amazing back to Philly? What are some of the memories you had of the past two PFZFs? What made these memories stand out? One of my favorite moments at PFZF was at the reading the night before the fest. There were a ton of people already on the roster, but this sweet kid read from her 'zine unprompted. It was her sixteenth birthday, and I think it gave everyone in the room a serious case of the swoons. Her writing was so good, and it was especially special that she chose to celebrate her sweet sixteen by reading it to all of us. Other zine fests: My first year at Chicago Zine Fest, I traveled there on tour with some friends. We were coming back from post-fest karaoke and we wound up missing the last bus. We were all tired and kind of cranky, but JC (who writes Tributaries and compiles the zine Collide), sang John Cougar Melloncamp songs to me all the way back to the place we were staying. I was already deep in friend love with her by that point, but it cemented for me that we will be friends until we're cranky old punks. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Martial Arts and a Moral CompassBy John Cappello QuailBellMagazine.com Okay, I read Fay Funk's Sailor Moon article, which gave me the idea to write about Dragonball Z here. Her article features several points about how Sailor Moon’s all girls team is a rarity and how progressive the show was, especially in representing ass-kicking yet feminine women to thousands of young girls. Boy, I wish I could make a point like that with Dragonball Z.
I’ll be super serious for a minute here. Krillin isn’t the biggest loser in DBZ. He may get his butt kicked by the most powerful beings in the universe from time to time, but at least he tries. No, Yamcha is actually the fattest turd in Dragonball Z. He was killed by a fucking Saibaman. I recently re-watched Seasons 1-3 on Blu-ray, which encompasses the Saiyan, Namek, and Frieza sagas. And they look amazing. Buy them. I can’t make money from this endorsement. Of course, if you think about it, they’re all the same saga with the same storyline, but of course Funimation wanted another reason to divide the series into more sets to sell. The fight-to-survive style of the series ensures its immediate appeal. Now, in the year 2014, the series is officially celebrating its 30-year anniversary. Since its inception, the series has had an unfortunate bad rep of being too long, featuring repetitive fight scenes, and having a simplistic storyline. Many fail to realize that the television series had to keep up with the pace of the manga series, and turn a weekly 12-page chapter into a 22-minute television episode. This meant they had to come up with filler content, as is the standard practice for most serialized anime. Still, its enduring popularity cannot be an accident. It is a damn good show. Perhaps it was never DBZ’s intention to represent something more than it was. I’ll try to explain what this show meant and continues to mean to little boys and childish men like myself. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Art in the Star City of the SouthBy M. Alouette QuailBellMagazine.com © Barbara Norman-Lashley Big Lick now has a much more romantic name attached to its rolling hills and small-town charm than it once did: the Star City of the South. Roanoke, Virginia's nickname comes from the large star illuminating Mill Mountain. Sitting 1,045 feet above the Appalachian city, it's the largest free-standing, human-made star on the globe. The star, which is visible for a whopping 60 miles, has crowned Mill Mountain since 1949. For the sight-hungry, Quail Bell Camera Eye snapped a picture of it in May. But this feature isn't about Roanoke's best-known star; it's about one of the groups responsible for making post-industrial Roanoke a rising arts star: The Market Gallery, an art space located in Downtown Roanoke. Kim Sutliff and Anna Wentworth, gallery co-presidents, teamed up to answer a few questions the Quail Bell Crew had for Market Gallery: QB: Give readers a brief sense of what The Market Gallery is. What experience can they expect to have visiting the gallery? MG: The Market Gallery is a regional cooperative art gallery located in Roanoke's historic downtown marketplace. We began the gallery in 2003 and after 11 years, we have grown to around 30 artists. Twelve of the original charter members are still members of our gallery. The gallery itself is a source of inspiration. When you walk in the light-filled gallery, you are warmly greeted by an artist (not an employee), with music playing and fantastic fine art to peruse. Depending on the day of your visit, the artist might be painting, drawing or cutting up papers as they continue to work on their art while also working the gallery. The gallery is surrounded by some of Roanoke’s finest restaurants, museums and shops including The Taubman Museum of Art just one block away. Weekends especially are a fun time to be in the downtown area as it is filled with people for music concerts, fairs, theatre, and festivals, many times right outside our gallery doors. © Anne Way Bernard You run the gallery as a cooperative of regional artists. Logistically, how does that work? What do you like about the set up? Back in the early 2000s, a group of Roanoke artists were not satisfied with the limited choices for displaying their artwork and decided to create their own gallery by coming together and combining their resources and talents. We wanted to be able to control everything about the gallery. This included who was invited to show in the gallery, how it was run, the hours it is open, how it is advertised, everything. With this set-up, we are invested in the gallery and its success. Each member pays a monthly fee and gives a percentage of their sales to the gallery. This money is used to pay the bills: rent, telephone, Internet, advertising, etc.
Additionally, and more importantly, all members take a vested interest in the gallery by working in the gallery two shifts per month, taking on committee responsibility, and sharing the responsibility of mundane tasks like cleaning the floors and windows to taking out the trash. As your mother probably told you, “Many hands make quick work." We also rotate responsibilities every few years to keep us more involved and knowledgeable about all the items needed to operate the gallery as a whole. We each have an allotted amount of space to show our work and rotate every other month so we can change the look of the gallery and show in different spaces. We like this set up as it gives us total creative control over our surroundings and how we present and sell our art. We generally feature two to four artists each month and those artists get extra space to show their work. Our gallery members become a small family and we really care and support each other through trials as well as celebrations. We also have supportive landlords that live above the gallery and want us to succeed. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
SummerBy Charles Bane, Jr. QuailBellMagazine.com Editor's Note: Read the second installment in this series of letters between poets Donald Hall and Charles Bane, Jr. here. June 21, 2012
Dear Don, A late June night in Florida is like every other month of the year, except that the Poinciana trees are in bloom for these weeks only and the ground below them is red and bright yellow. If our residents want season change, he or she must imagine them and imagine that the Royal Palm trees are oak or maple in the season they are remembering. The year here isn’t of seasons, but tide. At low tide on the Waterway, alligators sleep near fishermen who walk onto the mud to catch supper, or go shrimping with net and lantern. It’s fine to write poetry, but it’s fine also not to, to have a finished manuscript in the hands of a book designer and not be lost in the physics of verse. It is better than writing poems to leave the windows open at bedtime and hear mockingbirds throughout the night and to be piped by birds to a café to read and watch the sun like a starfish. Better still to be with my son without distractions and to have breakfast and talk. “The One Day” was more than a day’s work, so perhaps season is illusory. If you read Hemingway, it is always Fall or early Spring and Melville makes snow on waves. Tonight, poems have their oars raised to the sky and time is slowed and prized. Always, Charles The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Literary Finesse in Lobster CountryBy Laura Steadham Smith QuailBellMagazine.com In her debut novel, The From-Aways, CJ Hauser whisks us into a world of homegrown legends and tenacious lobstermen, of rocky shores and political gridlock. Set in the fictional town of Menamon, Maine, the novel tells a tale fraught with love, loss, and the unexpected friendships that sustain us. The backdrop is vivid and richly developed, and Hauser’s prose is clear, witty, and lyrical, a confident blend of action and poetry. The story introduces Leah Lynch, a journalist who follows her new husband to Menamon on the coattails of a whirlwind romance and hasty wedding. At the novel’s opening, Leah finds herself in a world both foreign and fascinating. Menamon is a town where petty squabbles count as news and the average stranger understands her new husband better than Leah herself. Leah is idealistic and naïve, but also stubborn; maybe she can’t kill a lobster, but as the action develops and the town takes sides over its uncertain future, she learns the depths of her own strength and tenacity. Quinn Winters comes to Menamon with a different agenda: to track down her long-lost father. Impetuous and quick-tempered, Quinn has arrived in Menamon without a plan, and even her most basic expectations are overturned as the novel’s twists and surprises unfold. Like Leah, Quinn is capable of loving more deeply and dangerously than she has ever known. Though the two women are widely different, they navigate the hazards of life in Menamon side by side. Readers will appreciate the friction and subsequent sparks between these disparate but complementary characters. As the tide rises, these women and the ones they love are pulled into an escalating string of events that culminate in a heartbreaking and achingly hopeful conclusion. Hauser’s debut efforts are charming, insightful, and poignant. She has earned her reputation as an author worth following, both into Menamon and in future endeavors. Rating: A+ #Nostalgic #Imaginative #CJHauser #TheFrom-Aways #Long-lostFather #MenamonMaine #BookReview #Literature Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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Return of the Moon PrincessBy Fay Funk QuailBellMagazine.com In mid-May Hulu announced that it has acquired the rights to broadcast the classic anime Sailor Moon. There’s more good news for Sailor Moon fans: The show is getting a reboot in July 2014 called Sailor Moon Crystal, and some still artwork has already been released. Even though I haven’t seen Sailor Moon in years, this news made my heart flutter, and it goes deeper than just nostalgic excitement. Sailor Moon showed me early on that women can do anything. It introduced me to feminism before I knew what feminism was. Sailor Moon didn’t just show that females can be tough, it showed that femininity can be powerful and world-changing. Femininity and heroism are not mutually exclusive. Unlike in other cartoons, feminine behavior is not a sign of weakness, and any tough woman is basically a man with breasts. With it’s sparkly transformation scenes and twirly dance attacks with names like “Rainbow Moon Heart Ache” and “Moon Gorgeous Meditation,” Sailor Moon is definitely not a traditionally masculine action show. But they defeat their enemies just as well as Superman or Goku. There’s no need to be manly to be a hero. But Sailor Moon isn’t just feminine, it’s feminist. The mostly female cast come from a variety of backgrounds, and there is no one right way to be a girl on Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon/Usagi (or Serena as I knew her) is hyper-feminine, and a selfless leader. Sailor Jupiter/Makoto/Lita is a tall girl with a violent streak who still has a soft spot for boys and cooking. There was a Sailor Scout for everyone. As a kid I most identified with Sailor Mercury/Ami. Shy and smart, her passive nature often got her written off as weak. Sailor Mercury really possessed a different kind of strength: intelligence and strategy. She could also muster alarming aggression at times, but reserved that power only for when it was necessary. Mostly though, she used kindness. All the Sailor Soldiers did. Sailor Moon is a show about love. I think that’s what made it so progressive. Love has been at the heart of all progressive movements, from feminism to civil rights. Relationships between people drive the action more than winning or being the best, frequent superhero cliches. Those themes are remnants of the conquerors. Love, all kinds of love, romantic and platonic, even loving your enemies is the central theme of Sailor Moon. One of the most beautiful relationships on the show is the lesbian love between Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, who were changed to cousins for the English dub of Sailor Moon in a cowardly move by the English translators, DiC and Cloverway. The change went about as well as you can imagine, and instead of hiding the homosexuality the relationship appeared incestuous. I knew, even at nine years old, that Sailor Uranus and Neptune did not have a platonic relationship. At one point during a major battle it looks as though Sailor Neptune has died, and Sailor Uranus made it clear she wants to die as well. That’s the reaction someone has to losing the love of their life, not their cousin, and it was all very weird. I felt simultaneously relieved and furious about being duped when I learned years later that Uranus and Neptune were actually lesbians. It may not have been the intention of the translators to make Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune incestuous, but the results show just how deep disgust with LGBTQ people runs. This perfectly lovely romance was warped into something legitimately disturbing, and validated everything homophobes believe about gay people. Children like me were misled, and DiC and Cloverway actually furthered the notion that homosexuality is disgusting and wrong in opposition to Sailor Moon’s actual message of love and acceptance. Relating to Sailor Mercury was a big step towards accepting myself as a child, and too many young girls who might have felt a connection to Sailor Uranus or Sailor Neptune were denied that opportunity. Fortunately, the episodes that have aired so far on Hulu have not been censored. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune do not appear until much later in the series, so it remains to be seen if their relationship will be visible, but all reports indicate that they will not be hidden. It looks as though Sailor Moon will finally get to take a true stand for love and justice. #Nostalgic #Nostalgia #SailorMoon #Hulu #FeminismInSailorMoon #LesbianLoveOnSailorMoon #FeministAnime Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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Some Chatter about Chatter, a Chicago Lit EventBy Quail Bell Social Butterfly QuailBellMagazine.com Windy City writing and printmaking are the belles of Printers Ball, a premiere literary event started in 2004 by Poetry magazine Associate Editor Fred Sasaki. The Printers Ball takes place June 28th at Hubbard Street Lofts in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood. We emailed Angee Lennard, director of Spudnik Press Cooperative, which tasks itself with organizing the Printers Ball, and asked her a few questions about this year's sparkling event: QB: This will be the tenth Printers Ball. That must mean a lot of pressure to be extra banging. What will make this Printers Ball the Printers Ball of all Printers Balls thus far?
AL: There is a lot of pressure to throw the biggest and best Ball yet, but this is a challenge we were thrilled to take on. One highlight of the event that pays homage to the history of the event are the pop-up readings. We decided to include twice as many performers as usual, allowing us to showcase like never before the diversity of talent in our city as well as bring back performers from previous Printers Balls. We have increased the participatory aspects of the ball as well, with the majority of programming being hands-on experiences, like our program with Pixiehammer Press. Skillful poets will write a love letter or a hate letter to anyone, on your behalf. QB: The website describes the event as "quintessentially Chicagoan." How are you honoring that promise? What do you think sets Chicago's literary and printmaking culture apart from other cities'? AL: In truth, "quintessentially Chicagoan" is hard to define because we have a really diverse city. However, I will say that our literary and printmaking culture has as much to do with the artists producing work as the audience that supports their practice. Audiences tend to be more than spectators, acting as contributors and advocates. For example, our presenters include Pup House, a shadow puppet troupe, who will create in interactive shadow play with Printers Ball guests. We are teaming up with Maria's Packaged Goods, a landmark bar in the Bridgeport neighborhood that is known for their involvement in their community as much as their delicious local beers. Our city is also prolific and inventive. For example, Chicago is the home of Brain Frame, a performative comics reading series that is constantly breaking stereotypes with visual artists exploring how to translate comics into live experiences. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Pen your way to a Motor City homeBy the Quail Bell Editors QuailBellMagazine.com "It’s like a writer-in-residence program, only in this case we're actually giving the writer the residence, forever." The common refrain is that writers need peace and quiet to concentrate and process their experiences and their research in order to write well-crafted stories. But writers also need a supportive literary community and financial stability—facts that have only more recently become topics for open discussions about M.F.A. programs, for instance. Writing groups, a local reading series, university library access, and other literary and journalistic resources can help any writer. Free rent is also nice. Write A House is a Detroit-based nonprofit that gives homes to qualified writers who already live in the Motor City or are willing to relocate there. The team teaches young folks carpentry skills and renovates old houses that are then awarded to writers. They aim to support three low- and moderate-income writers every year. Those writers are then expected to write and bolster Detroit's literary community. Write A House is also working on producing a literary journal to artistically document their renovation process. The website states: "Our long, long term goal involves building a literary colony in Detroit, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves." Well, they're already on their way! On May 12, 2014, the Write A House blog announced it had cleaned out its first house set to be renovated. Now to turn that house into a home. Are you a writer? Apply for a house. WriterHouse.org #Imaginative #MichiganNonprofit #DetroitNonprofit #DetroitArts #LiteraryDetroit #WriterResidencies #WriteYourNovel Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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On being self-published as fuck For all my adult and even adolescent life, I have self-published in the form of zines, pamphlets, scribbles, and scraps that I’d leave wherever there seemed to be an audience. It has been a key to my continued survival as a somewhat doomed-at-birth human being to process the convoluted mess that is the average human existence. But only in the past couple years have I moved into actual full-print objects that are bookish type books, but definitely still married to the freedom of 'zine-making. This has included formatting and producing electronic versions as well. I do this instead of putting all my meandering thoughts into a dragon blog that is never not hungry for more, never satisfied with what I’ve given it, and never stops scanning for something else, newer, more reactionary, more immediate, more now. Raven in his writing studio with his newest book. This is not about digital vs. print though, because—like most issues—there’s no black-or-white real truth to the debate. Everything is gray matter, and both have their advantages and disadvantages. But I can tell you getting a box of books with my assumed name my weird ass art on the cover gives me a strong sense of satisfaction. And for the most part, the larger world doesn’t care for published works and even less for self-published ones. But there are small pockets of people who at least pretend to be interested in my “work," work that has become more habit than any type of real work. Self-publishing is looked down upon by the established publishing industry as a lesser version of well-vetted projects that go through the process of fine tuning by an agent, editor, and publisher, with re-working, planned promotional tours, on and on and on. The idea is that a creative project can be fully realized after ten sets of eyes have gone over it, but maybe not so much one or two sets. But, obviously, the publishing industry’s end goal is sales. Often times in that vetting process, stories are changed and motivations are altered to engineer a more marketable final creation. Marketable to whom? Well, to people who spend money on books. To people who have enough discretionary income to shell out for books. For new books, which can sometimes be really expensive. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
On the harmonious fusion of Romani “Gypsy” music I had the good fortune to conduct an interview with the scintillating Tatiana Eva-Marie, a performer of mixed-Romani heritage who The Wall Street Journal has called, “One of the best young singers around.” She holds a degree in medieval poetry from the Sorbonne University in Paris where, at night, she “performed as a Gypsy singer at night in cabarets across the city, barefoot on tables with the Eastern mafia drinking vodka out of her shoes.” She has also graced the stage as a singer and actress “in some of the most renowned theaters in France, including the Comedie Française and the Théâtre du Rond Point. Tatiana Eva-Marie wrote and directed two musical theater plays, Rhapsodia and The Magic Violin, which had a lot of success at the Avignon Theater Festival.” Now you can find her performing in New York City as the lead singer of The Avalon Jazz Band, alongside her husband, violinist Adrien Chevalier, as well as in the world music documentary and competition Music Explorer representing French, Yiddish, and Romani music. The documentary airs in June, which also happens to be Romani and Traveller History Month, and you can vote for Tatiana now via the website. If you’re not sure who the Roma are, allow Dr. Ian Hancock, linguist, Romani scholar, and professor at The University of Texas—Austin, to explain. In short, the Roma, the ethnic group better known as Gypsies, originated in India and began to travel west, most likely because of the invading Muslim army, in the 11th century. In Europe, Roma were met by hostile Christians who were suspicious of their dark skin and ‘strange’ customs, and were violently persecuted throughout the continent and enslaved in the Balkans. The Roma were forced into a nomadic lifestyle, not as a show of free-spirited whimsy as movies and literature suggest, but to escape the rising tide of antigypsyism which still surges today. Romani culture is expansive yet tightly knit—there are Roma on almost every continent and yet both the culture and ethnicity have remained distinct—in fact, most Roma are much closer genetically to Indians than to Europeans. In the twentieth century in Paris, Jazz Manouche became extremely popular, spearheaded by prodigies Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli, Biréli Lagrène, and many others. Manouche refers to the name of the Romani clan* in and around Paris that Reinhardt and others in the movement belong to. Although Roma are often called “Gypsies” and Jazz Manouche is frequently called “Gypsy Jazz,” the word 'Gypsy' is both a misnomer and a racial slur. (For instance, people say, “I’ve been gypped!” to mean, “I’ve been cheated!” This comes from ‘thieving Gypsy’ stereotype.) Even though Gypsy is the word that most of us are familiar with, it’s best if you join the education front: if you aren’t Romani, don’t say Gypsy. Instead say 'Romani people,' 'Roma,' and 'Jazz Manouche.' However, many Roma and people of Romani heritage, like Tatiana Eva Marie, make a conscious choice to reclaim the word Gypsy, as is their prerogative. Romani (“Gypsy”) culture glitters with music and has influenced musical styles across the world for centuries and Romani musicians have long been appreciated by gadjé, non-Romani people, for their talent and unique sound. Historically and presently, however, gadjé culture has done little more than appreciate the entertainment and fantasy that Roma provide while Roma all over the world continue to struggle for representation, human rights, and equality. A haunting reminder of the world’s fickle affection toward the Roma is the story of how Django Reinhardt, the famous Manouche “Gypsy” Jazz musician, was spared from the concentration camps because the Nazis who invaded France enjoyed attending his concerts. The more that Romani musicians, scholars, artists, writers, and professionals are represented and represent themselves, the more the rest of the world can experience, understand, and fall in love with real Romani culture and the individuals who make up the many clans and communities—and hopefully countries will treat their Roma as equal citizens and residents. I love Tatiana’s music for many reasons—it’s eerily gorgeous yet cheerfully sweet, it makes me feel in touch with a heritage that was nearly stifled through genocide and intolerance and nearly lost in my own family, and it’s a glorious fusion of Roma & European-gadjé aesthetics and sound. Even Tatiana herself is a voice of tolerance and inclusion and expresses her own multi-cultural heritage as the harmonious joy of ‘the melting pot.’ We need more of this coexistent beauty in our world. * There are many, many Romani clans, all with their own culture and dialect of Rromanes (the Romani language), so it is impossible to generalize about Romani culture as a whole. For more about Romani culture, check out RADOC, ROMBASE, The Romedia Foundation, The Gypsy Chronicles, and Patrin. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
The Beginnings of Palabras a DiosPalabras a Dios is book of Catholic poems written by school children in Piura, Peru, as well as teen girls at the orphanage Hogar del Redentor, which suffered a fire last month. The students wrote these poems in September 2013 during workshops led by missionaries from Commissioned by Christ. Palabras a Dios will feature English and Spanish translations of the poems, plus essays by missionaries and parish staff. It will be published as a fundraiser for Hogar Madre del Redentor's ongoing needs, from food to clothes to bedding and more. The book, which is currently still in the production stage, is being coordinated by Quail Bell Press & Productions. It is on track for being published by early 2015.
Here are some of the poems that will be featured in the book: The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Light vs. BrightThis is a movie about two women staying at a beachside cottage for an indefinite period of time. This is a movie about how the two interact with one another. This is a movie where the characters of these women are drawn out and questioned, with conflict arising from the closed environment and the opposite personalities of the two women on screen. This should be an easy movie to understand, but it is probably one of the most striking surrealist films ever made.
Directed by Swedish legend Ingmar Bergman, Persona is a 1966 drama that pushes many different boundaries of what was considered conventional at the time. The American release had to have a few notable edits, such as removing a still image of an erect penis that appears briefly, while also heavily editing the dialogue in one particular scene. Persona is a movie that appears very alien to the viewer, but watching the film causes the viewer to be completely thrown off. Everything the viewer knows about cinema is uprooted by this film. The film opens with a series of strange images and sounds. It opens with a film projector, images of an old cartoon, a silent era film, a sheep getting its throat slit, a hand getting nailed to a cross, and more. It then settles on a bespectacled boy, who reads a book in bed, then caresses a large blurry image that shifts between the two lead actresses. In the first five minutes, the viewer isn't sure what to think. They can try to assume that the images will come into play in the film or are all symbolic of something greater to come, but no clear answer is given. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
On the 'Most Inclusive' Poetry Fest in the Big AppleThe New York City Poetry Festival is run almost entirely by Nicholas Adamski and me. Nicholas also co-organizes The Poetry Brothel with me. Of course, we also have a slew of friends, volunteers, and interns who help us out. Liz Axelrod has been huge on development for us. Lisa Marie Basile manages our social media presence. Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein and Jordana Frankel run the Children's Poetry Festival. We couldn't have done made past festivals happen without former interns Conor Messinger, Emma Timbers, and Elizabeth Von Klemperer, volunteers like RA Araya and James Cook, and active supporters like John Deming at Coldfront Magazine and Jen Benka at the Academy of American Poets. Nick and I first conceived the festival while planning The Poetry Brothel's summer residency on Governors Island in 2011. We looked at the beautiful triangle of grass sprawling out in front of our house, and realized we needed to host a poetry festival there. Our mission as collaborators has always been to present poetry in beautiful, innovative, and "not boring" ways in order to re-introduce the art of poetry to the general population. The New York City Poetry Festival draws inspiration from a vast history of summer festivals, from ancient to the present, to celebrate the vibrancy of the poetry community in New York City. I am the Executive Director of the festival with a staff of volunteers, which basically means that I coordinate all of the minute logistics that go into the festival's production, and I also execute a bunch of those logistics. I organize the development, programming, and publicity for the festival. For this year's festival, I wrote grants, sponsorship decks, and budgets and disseminated them; I put out the call for participants and have managed all of that information as it has come in; I had a new website designed, and I write and manage all that content; I co-directed a Kickstarter video and launched a (successful!) Kickstarter campaign; and now I am beginning to coordinate and train all of our staff. I basically read and answer A TON of emails. Governors Island is a magical relic of New York's history, a pastoral island that somehow exists in one of the biggest cities in the world. The Trust for Governors Island is also incredibly supportive of the arts. We chose July because it is a hot and sunny month in the middle of summer. Festival highlights include our headliners: Paul Muldoon and the Wayside Shrines, Mark Doty, Joyelle McSweeney, and Matthea Harvey. Paul Muldoon will be playing music with his band. Other highlights include the Brooklyn Brewery Beer Garden, where we'll be serving $5 beer all day; The Poetry Brothel, in an old, dark, candlelit officer's house where poets will give private, one-on-one poetry readings; The Ring of Daisies Open Mic; The Children's Poetry Festival, where there will be writing games and an all-kids stage, and The Typewriter Project, where attendees are invited to write a few lines on an antique typewriter in a rustic, wooden booth. I usually tell non-poets there is a ferry ride, cheap beer, delicious food, and a solar powered merry-go-round. Non-poets love this festival! This is the most inclusive poetry festival in New York, if not the world. We invite all poetry organizations, large and small, to participate, and we have them curate their own readers. It is also free to attend and free to participate. #NYCPoFest #PoetryFestival #StephanieBerger #GovernorsIsland #NYCArts #LiteraryFestival #NYCPoetryReadings Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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197 Episodes of Solid Nerd HumorNow that I have graduated college, I have a lot of free time before I begin working part-time at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and while I'm looking at possible grad school opportunities. This is time I've tried putting towards creative writing assignments and other hobbies around my house, but the desire to goof off has come up plenty. One of the ways this has emerged is that I've been revisiting one of the most influential shows of my life: Mystery Science Theater 3000. Episodes of the series can be found on Netflix, and even more can be found in full on YouTube. As a result, I can settle down for an evening and watch an entire 90-minute episode of the show, taking in both a movie and a television show.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ran from 1989 to 1999 for 197 episodes. Although the show's cast has rotated during the run, the basic premise remains the same. Mad scientists have launched an average joe to a satellite floating in space dubbed the Satellite of Love. On the satellite, the poor schmuck is forced to sit in a theater and watch bad movies every day so the “mads” can find the perfect bad movie to conquer the world with. The protagonist for the first few years was Joel Robinson, played by Joel Hodgson from 1988-1993. When Hodgson left the show, he was replaced with Mike Nelson, played by Michael J. Nelson. The show shifts between host segments and film segments. In the host segments, Joel or Mike interacts with the robots Joel built (Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, Gypsy, and Cambot) and have humorous bits with the mad scientists. In the film segments, Joel/Mike, Crow, and Tom enter the theater and watch the movie-of-the-week. The shows plays the movie of the week, with silhouettes of the S.O.L crew at the bottom of the screen, showing the three characters watching the movie and riffing on the feature presentation. The riffs can range from comments on the actors, criticism of the production values, pop culture references, to even adding humorous sound effects to random moments. This series is one of the most influential pieces of media I have ever known. I first discovered the show when I was nine years old, when the Sci-Fi channel aired reruns at 9 a.m. On Saturday mornings. MST3K (as the show is often abbreviated as) was a show my dad was a fan of, and since I had discovered it on my own, I found myself hooked. I'd get up early on Saturday mornings just to watch the show, the same way kids in my age group probably woke up early to watch Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Flexing at Château de Verdeonne The Cambridge Writers’ Workshop hosts writing and yoga workshops in the NYC metropolitan area as well an annual retreat in Picardy, France, located one hour from Paris. Our two-week retreat in summer 2014 will be our third annual writing retreat in France. Each year, we try to make the experience even better for participants. Your contribution can help us fund this wonderful experience by providing scholarship funds and helping to cover some of the overhead costs of the trip. Read Jessica Reidy's recent essay/interview about the retreat. #CambridgeWritersWorkshop #France #JessicaReidy #Yoga #CreativeWriting #FrenchCastle #AwesomeRetreat Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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Our Dearly DepartedBy The Quail Bell Crew QuailBellMagazine.com Though we only (e)met the bloggers behind Poe's Deadly Daughters last year, our mutual love for dark and mysterious literature made us peas in a slightly off-putting pod. (Only because we were all delightful weirdos.) So we asked if we could re-post a few of their pieces here on QuailBellMagazine.com. They chirped their permission and we were elated. It was a fine partnership. But now Poe's Deadly Daughters has been gone for nearly five months. Each blogger decided to pursue an individual project, in most cases a book. And so the blog died. It's not unusual for blogs to die. In fact, most blogs do, but we do wish that this one had stayed. Farewell, Poe's Deadly Daughters and best of luck to each and every one of your writers. We invite our readers to visit your website directly and see its former glory in old posts: #MysteryBlog #GoneBlog #DeadBlog #NoMore #PoesDeadlyDaughters #Blogging #Blogs #FavoriteBlogs Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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SpringBy Charles Bane, Jr. QuailBellMagazine.com Editor's Note: Read the first installment in this series of letters between poets Donald Hall and Charles Bane, Jr. here. March 23, 2012
Dear Don, I live in Palm Beach, Florida, which surprises visitors: it is more Carribbean than American in mood and very small, only five miles long and never wider than half a mile. It’s a few minutes walk from the Intracoastal Waterway on its west edge, to the Atlantic. My health was restored in moving here many years ago, but nothing would give me greater pleasure than to meet you and revisit New England or welcome you as my guest. I disagree with you; your work will be remembered. I place greater value on it than Frost’s work; yours are like the kinder season of my home. I don’t bemoan that some poets may seem less read, like Shapiro and MacLeish ( who was a presence in Chicago ). The young who I interact with on Facebook read them and more: they quote Cummings and Neruda and set them atop their Facebook pages like medals. They wear Owen’s decorations. My son and I will go synagogue tonight. A common thought of Jews is that succeeding generations are witnesses at Sinai. That’s the core of my belief in great poetry: the poet transports me to the origins of the soul. Always, Charles March 28, 2012 “ I have been standing all my life in the Direct path of a battery of signals The most accurately transmitted most Untranslatable language in the universe.” Gentle sleep, Adrienne Rich * *Adrienne Rich passed away on March 27, 2012 The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Bizarre Books From My Uni DaysBy Fay Funk In college I had a work-study job in the ILL department of the library. I worked in a small, quiet office surrounded by stacks and stacks of books. My job wasn’t to read any of them, just check them in, pack them up, and ship them out. But of course I read a few of them. And I read some weird stuff. On multiple occasions I opened a book and was greeted by an erect penis. Some were science books, but most were just hardcore porn. The covers on these books were always blank, just plain black boards with no text about what was inside. The one I remember best was a book of 1950s style comic strips with graphic images of orgies and sodomy. The paperwork I needed was buried in a full page spread of a classic 1950s housewife on her knees between a two sailors. Most of the books that went through our department were for research, and I assume this book was for someone’s dissertation. I was curious about what they were researching, what so many people were researching that required such numerous and varied images of penises, but there was no way to find out. So I scanned the book and sent it on its way. Sometimes I would come across books loaned out to one of my professors. None of them were looking at penises, but I still felt dirty looking at their research materials. It felt like I was invading their minds, and none of them would ever know. I knew what about a reading my history teacher was going to assign a week before it happened. My Spanish teacher checked out books all the time. They were all in Spanish, which despite his best efforts I still couldn’t understand, so I felt a little less bad about flipping through them, though I lived in fear that someday he would come into the office and catch me furiously trying to decipher his Colombian history book. The most absorbing thing I ever read was a dissertation on child abuse within Orthodox Judaism. I read the whole thing, checking over my shoulder to make sure my supervisor didn’t catch me. The PhD candidate interviewed about fifteen former Orthodox Jewish people. She detailed the ways in which the abuse was expertly kept secret, and the emotional and spiritual effect it had on those who finally left the community. It was a fascinating read, and I had a hard time adding it to the massive stack of books I needed to shelve. There was so much weird and interesting stuff going through the library, and I could only read bits and pieces before sending the books on to the patron. One such book was A Confederacy of Dunces. I cracked up at just the title, so I had to read the foreword, about the bizarre publishing history of this ridiculous-sounding book. I wanted more, but it was the end of the day and the A Confederacy of Dunces is 500 pages long, so I had to wait. When summer break began, I checked out the book myself. Buried amidst the erect dicks and private PhD thoughts, I found a treasure. A book so wild and silly, it got me reading again. #Library #Books #ReadingHabits #StrangeReads #Sodomy #ChildAbuse #Dicks #Cocks #OrthodoxJews Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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Retreat, Ritual, and a Chat with the Women of the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop *Note: Though the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop Summer Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne, France has marked its application deadline as May 15th, admissions are rolling until filled and there are still a few spaces. Apply A.S.A.P. Photo: Rita Banerjee We hear that writers are crazy and miserable people. I don’t necessarily mean crazy in the clinical, mental illness sort of way, though sometimes we are that too. “Writer crazy” is that unspecified, wild-eyed, solitary unhappiness exalted and romanticized in films, books, television, plays, songs…because what could be more romantic than the manic sadness of a tragic visionary who collapses under her own magnificent world? It’s a blessing and a curse. Meanwhile, my friends who are doctors, therapists, and psychologists vehemently assure me that artists who struggle with mental illness are usually less productive or entirely unproductive in periods of illness compared to their periods of stability, wellness, or recovery. While instability and isolation do not support sustained prolific creativity, fortunately, the road to “You can get it!” is paved with easily accessible self-care and support. It’s just a matter of finding the practices and communities that support you. Many practices that you can do on your own, at home, and for free or for rather cheap can beautifully maintain a creative writer’s balance and feed her craft: yoga, meditation, journaling, mandala coloring, breathing exercises, running, swimming, riding, long walks or hikes in nature…Whatever it is, it’s important that the activity is performed with awareness, mindfulness, and an engagement with the present moment. It should render your mind a quiet, fertile place. Ritual feels like the perfect word for the act of cultivating a nourishing writing practice—what you do to prepare for (or complement) writing should be a kind of dedication with mental, physical, and emotional signals that communicate to your mind/body that it’s time to create. I knew this when I began my Master’s in Fine Arts in Creative Writing, but while I am relatively disciplined at home, there was no denying that teaching, interning, department extras, and classes were taking over my writing, sleeping, and breathing time. My health, already bad, declined, and I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Even simple tasks like grocery shopping and cooking were exhausting. Then I switched genres from Poetry to Fiction, finally admitting that most of all I wanted to write a novel (set in France), which was a lovely, freeing, and very work-intensive decision. I needed to do something big to get the project off the ground and get myself together. That’s when I heard about the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop (CWW), founded by writers Diana Norma Szokolyai and Rita Banerjee, and their Summer Yoga & Writing Retreat at the Château de Verderonne, France. I thought, A retreat—what a magnificent idea. Someone would say, “Jess, do yoga now. Here’s a pillow.” And “Jess, write now. I’ll take care of lunch.” I’d pay for that. A few months later, there I was. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Get Your Freak On Created for R.A.I.N.'s dance party, "Freakiest Freaky Freak Friday," at Balliceaux in Richmond, Virginia on May 16, 2014. Can't make it? Blast your favorite tunes and have a dance party in your room. (Because why not?) #VideoArt #VJ #DanceParty #GetIntoIt Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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'Nineteen Eighty-Four for 1984'We often look to the past because we can understand it. Thanks to hindsight, anyone can think back to days past and either think fondly or poorly about it. No matter how one views the past, part of the allure is that a person can look back and know why things were like that and have the sense to understand why people acted and thought like they did in the past. On the other hand, looking to the future is a lot more daunting. There's no idea what the future will be like, and most people are aware that the future is likely to be something beyond their understanding. Values, phrases, and customs might be outdated or forgotten in the future, and to imagine a world without the traits of the present can be hard to handle.
This is why dystopia literature and media has appeal. Novelists like George Orwell and Aldous Huxley published some of their most famous works by writing about their fears for how the future will be. Books like Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World examine variations on the current society and told tales about if those attributes, whether it be control or pleasure, were taken to the extreme. These stories are frightening, but fascinating to look at because they represent how the person in that era looked at the future. It makes sense these works would inspire a film like Brazil. The film, directed by Monty Python member Terry Gilliam is a sci-fi dystopia film that takes tropes common to works like Nineteen Eighty-Four and uses them to make a farce. In an unnamed city “somewhere in the 20th century,” Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is the typical middleman in a complete bureaucratic hell. His life is dull and gray, usually dealing with technology that's quirky but useless or dealing with his plastic surgery obsessed mother (Katherine Helmond). The only break in his monotony are the recurring dreams he has, where he's an armored man with wings who is enchanted by a beautiful woman (Kim Greist) and fights a giant metal samurai. His life changes when he meets a woman who resembles the dream woman, and this takes Sam on a journey into the depths of the bureaucracy and into the depths of madness. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
WinterIn the winter of 2012, Donald Hall, then eighty three years old, could sit back at his rural home, Eagle Pond Farm, in New Hampshire and accurately reflect that he was the most significant contemporary poet in the United States. He had recently been awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President Barack Obama. He was past Poet Laureate of the United States; a winner, in 1988, of the National Book Critics Circle Award for his masterwork “The One Day”, which was also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He was a two-time Guggenheim Fellow, and winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
In all, he had authored more than fifty works of verse, children’s books, essays and biography. Much of his later work focused on his relationship with his wife, the distinguished poet Jane Kenyon who died of leukemia in 1995, and whose death was a blow from which he never recovered. In a life devoted to his craft , Hall had interviewed and formed lasting relationships with four titans of twentieth century poetry: Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and Robert Frost. These interviews appeared in both the Paris Review ( he was the Reviews’ Poetry Editor from 1953 until 1961 ), and later books. Hall and I began writing one another in January of 2012. It was a condition of our correspondence that I would not ask for a public endorsement of my work, nor publish our letters in full until after his death. Hall himself never went near a computer. I emailed my letters to his assistant Kendall Currier, who transcribed these into hard copy. Hall then replied by hand or dictation and these were emailed in return. I have added footnotes where quotes, other poetry and Hall’s published works are referenced. Ill and weary, his letters stopped in July of that year. We had exchanged a flurry for three short seasons of the calendar. It was a privilege. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
Ever wondered who's waving her wand on these posts?By M. Alouette QuailBellMagazine.com It's one thing to start a Facebook page. It's another thing to garner more than 80,000 likes on said page—especially if it's just you, not a business or organization, running and representing that page, and you're not posting about celebrity gossip. But Nikki, a mother of three living in the Pittsburgh Metro area, practically wrote the words to that incantation. Her Facebook page, Fairies, Myths, and Magic, "explores art, crafts, stories and more for those who yearn for a fantasy world." So she scours the Internet for the best in fantasy news, creations, and thought and shares her findings with the community she's built. Enchanting, no? We asked Nikki to tell us a little bit more about her wizardly Facebook ways. Here's what she told us over Facebook chat (of course): "I have loved fantasy all of my life. My father was a huge influence, and was constantly showing me a new sci-fi movie or talking about a book he just read. I started this page as an outlet and a place to escape from my every day life. I have struggled most of my life with chronic depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, and fantasy helps me forget my troubles for a short while. I try very hard to keep the page positive and uplifting, and I think that is part of the reason that the page has grown in popularity. A lot of people tell me that they enjoy looking through the pictures I post with their children, so it's a safe page to enjoy with your family. I even share it with my own kiddos. As for advice [in running your own Facebook fan page], I would say to create a page about something you have a passion for—not just a liking. Pages can take a long time to grow, so be patient and share often with other pages that you love and are relevant to your page. My favorite fairy tale is not really a fairy tale but a poem written by Tennyson titled 'The Lady of Shalott.' I have always felt a deep connection to her, and to the paintings done of her. John William Waterhouse has an amazing painting of her; I actually have [a reproduction] hanging in my living room." Facebook.com/FairiesMythsAndMagic #FacebookPage #Fairies #Mermaids #Fantasy #FairyTales #Mythology Visit our shop and subscribe. Sponsor us. Submit and become a contributor. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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