I recently created a spoken-word set for Carolina Poets‘ online series, #poetrygoesviral. The four-piece performance includes a sampler, a looper, and three MoogerFooger pedals, on loan from my friend Dave Hamilton.
Find three more videos from this performance here, here, and here.
Inspired by the life and music of Margie Hendrix and the “Wake” installation by Mel Chin. This is my first video in which I produced and edited all the components, and I’m so thrilled to share it!
Save the date:
Like many other creatives, I’m trying to spend my COVID-19 quarantine learning new skills, working on projects that feed my soul, and making badass art. I’m offering daily creativity prompts (Monday through Friday) on Instagram — please join me, tell your friends, share the 1-minute video series as you like.
The prompts are intended to foster some deep thought, new perspectives and (most importantly) fun. No prior artistic experience required. No judgement, no agenda, no wrong answers.
This video was created in collaboration with filmmaker A.D. Weighs. The spoken word piece was written during a previous spring when the world felt uncertain in a different way. But the idea of regeneration feels apropos to this moment, too.
Taught through the Flatiron Writers Room. This class meets online via Zoom videoconferencing on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, 6-8:30 p.m.
Ekphrastic art is work made in response to another piece of artwork. It can be a story jump-started by a painting, a song inspired by a sculpture or — to paraphrase a cliche — a dance about architecture. In this workshop, we’ll focus on poetry as our medium and, while writers may use any poetic form to which they feel called, those new to poetry and/or ekphrastic work are encouraged to use freeform or prose poetry.
The workshop will include a discussion of ekphrastic art and examples of it from our own bodies of work (it’s likely we’ve all made ekphrastic art, even if unintentionally). We’ll also talk about ekphrastic art as a means of collaboration with a knowing or unknowing fellow artist. And we’ll work on outlining and/or writing poems in response to several artistic works of various mediums.
Workshop participants should have two pieces of art in mind, with an image handy.
1) One they’ve long been inspired by or to which they’ve felt called to respond.
2) One they’ve recently discovered.
These artworks can be in any medium, from literary or visual (painting, drawing, photography, etc.) to dramatic or cinematic, to performative or musical.
The workshop will include time for questions as well as tips and prompts for creating future ekphrastic poems, and resources, such as a number of museum collections and exhibitions that are online for free, virtual tours.
$40-$45. Register here.
Stay tuned for a new spoken-word / live-painting video coming soon. Here’s the crew: Alli Marshall, Scott Varn (who came up with the title), Blais Bellenoit, Dave Hamilton (who took this time lapse shot since we’re all practicing social distancing).
Sweetheart/Bitter heart is an exploration of the juxtaposition of environmental decline and relationship anxiety (fear of abandonment, fear of engulfment, fear of intimacy, etc.) as told through spoken word and party games. This reluctant Valentine’s Day celebration for the romance-averse promises weird dancing, kissing games, exorcism and sweet treats.
The show is a double feature with OKAPI, who will perform “Carousel (part II).”
Tickets for all three shows are available here.
Every day I get an email from Meetup.com suggesting a new group I might want to join. Young Republicans. Future Farmers. Martial artists and stay-at-home moms and people considering becoming travel agents (is that even a thing any more?). None of them are my tribe. Meetup’s web-tracking technology clearly has room for improvement.
But the absurdity of the suggestions has inspired a tanka (a poetic form related to haiku) series. The titles are the actual meetup group names and first line or two of each tanka is taken from or inspired by that particular meetup’s description. Here’s the first installment:
WARRIORSAGE DOJO
WarriorSages
keep one foot planted in the
material world.
It’s a delicate balance:
meditate or masturbate. Continue reading