Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (forthcoming 2016, ELJ Publications) & Xenos (forthcoming 2017, Agape Editions). She received her MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, as well as the managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine. Some of her writing has appeared in Prelude, The Atlas Review, The Feminist Wire, BUST, Pouch, and elsewhere. She also leads workshops at Brooklyn Poets.
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Shun Takino
Interview with Musician & Poet Marcus Bowers on 'First Kiss'
Marcus Bowers, also known as Lateef Dameer in music circles, is a force of nature. He blends music and poetry together seamlessly. He collaborates with poets and writers to create music alongside writing (which you can listen to here) with the collective Brooklyn Gypsies. Over the past few years, Bowers has been working on "First Kiss," which is best described as a music, poetry, and documentary album, Bowers wrote lyrics, recorded music, and interviewed people on what they think love is. And that's a question worth asking - and answering.
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Lisa Jaeggi
Poetry By E. Sparks
Witchy World Roundup - September 2016
Check out the monthly roundup here.
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Watch This Animated Poem About Being Human by Meghann Plunkett
Narrative shapes our capacity to imagine. There are common images we are taught that limit or expand our worldview. I grew up Christian and my poems were obsessed with all things angels, heaven, and god. It was freshman year, the first week of orientation at Sarah Lawrence College. I walked anxiously toward the open mic to share a poem.
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Art by Meredith K Ultra
I go by Meredith K Ultra or Ink and Daggers. That's Ink and Daggers, not Ink and Free Cinnamon Rolls. I think of my art as high tech digital finger painting collage cartoons. My work relies heavily on reference material and are drawn on my iPad (mostly in the Procreate app) with my finger. I stopped using a stylus because my toddler liked to chew on them, and I prefer having to rely on as little equipment as possible to make my art.
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Art by Celeste Martinez
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, afraid that I am dying all over again. When a white truck drives by, I collapse within myself, afraid to move. I am 3 years old and I am in Mexico. There's images of doctors and a table. Everything is slightly tinted green. Other times, I'm in the recovery room. I'm trying to scream, but nothing comes out. That's when I remember that my mouth is sealed shut. My mother comes to me, and she drips water from a cotton ball onto my cracked lips. How did she know that's what I wanted?
Read MorePhotography From A Disability Perspective, by Anthony Tusler
Since discovering the disability community in 1972, Anthony Tusler explains, and enjoys the world through, and from a disability perspective. In his professional and personal activities his goal is to improve the lives of people with disabilities and encourage disability self-determination and culture. Tusler is a writer, photographer, consultant, trainer, and advocate on disability issues. He was the founding Director of the Disability Resource Center at Sonoma State University for 22 years.
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An Autobiographical Comic by Rosie Clay
I go by Rosie. I write and draw autobiographical comics. I have since a year after I was diagnosed with bipolar type one at age eighteen. I have made comics about all aspects of my life, but mainly I am drawn to writing about my manic and depressed episodes.
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Shades of Noir: Gaspar Noe's Love
A Video Poem by Desirée Alvarez
Desirée Alvarez is a painter and poet whose work speaks to a mythic human interaction with the natural world. Her work has received an American Academy of Arts and Letters Willard L. Metcalf Award, three Artist Fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts, and a European Capital of Culture Award. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from Poets House, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Yaddo, and P.S. 122. Her first book of poems won the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize and will be published by Bauhan Publishing in April 2016.
Read MoreLuna Luna at the New York City Poetry Festival – Saturday, July 30 @ Noon
BY LISA MARIE BASILE
This weekend, you beauties – it's just a few short days away. Are you ready to drink wine in the sun and write poems under trees with hundreds of sweaty bodies? Yes, we are too.
Come out and meet Luna Luna this Saturday, July 30, at Noon on Governor's Island. Our readers are splendid and we hand-picked each and every one of them for their power, humor, mystery and musicality.
- Stephanie Valente
- Yesenia Montilla
- Deirdre Coyle
- Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein
We're also doing something special this year – anyone who comes to meet & greet us will have their photo taken and used on our social channels to promote *your* projects and *your* books. Why? Because you have loved us for four years (our anniversary falls on July 30) and we want to shout you out. We'll be there Saturday at noon, and throughout the whole festival.
Here are our magic readers:
Here are some pics from last year's festival:
It Was Romance Releases New Song + Shot By Shot Remake of Fiona Apple's Criminal
BY LISA MARIE BASILE
If you're reading this website, there is an 99.9% chance you were obsessed with Fiona Apple's Tidal. Because you're an angsty dreamer just like me. You probably also think "This world is bullshit." If so, read on!
Lane Moore – writer, comedian, musician and all-around amazing lady – is in a pretty amazing band, It Was Romance (Lane Moore, Alejandro Triana, Angel Lozada and Jeff Connors). They're celebrating Tidal's 20th anniversary – by releasing a shot-for-shot remake of the Criminal video to their own song, Hooking Up With Girls. Yay! Watch it below.
Also, I talked to Lane and she told me all about her music and love for Fiona:
You have so much going on. Tell me a little bit about why you guys started It Was Romance.
I've been singing and writing and recording my own music since I was little. It Was Romance actually started as my solo project where I played all the instruments and sang and layered everything on my computer. It's kind of a name like "Cat Power" is. Everyone told me I should just go play shows by myself and try to do it all, but even if I was writing all these songs and could technically do it by myself, I'd always wanted to find the right musicians to play with. It took me years and years to find the people who play with me now and the second it all fell into place I was like, "YES! Good. Great. OK, let's make this record." I wrote a lot of these songs before I even knew these guys existed in the world, so to finally see everything taking off with the right people is so satisfying.
It's the 20th anniversary (I am so old) of Tidal. It was the second cassette I owned and hearing Never Is A Promise as a wayward little goth made me who I am today. How did this album impact you growing up? What about today? Why is Fiona Apple just so goddamned amazing?
Fiona Apple has always been a huge influence on me, personally and professionally. I just think she's incredible and I relate to her on so many levels. When The Pawn was actually my gateway album and then I went back to Tidal after hearing that. I listened to both nonstop for most of my childhood and teen years and still listen to them all the time. She's just such a powerful singer and songwriter. I once heard one of the Crutchfield sisters (from PS Eliot) say something on Twitter like, "If you don't think Fiona Apple is punk rock, get away from me." It's so accurate. I get very intense on stage when we play live shows and I'm sure seeing her do the same at a young age gave me the freedom to show that intensity in my music and my performances.
How do you think Criminal video stands up against all the music videos out there today?
It holds up incredibly well. You look at a lot of the way we're advertising things now and so much of it looks like '70s porn.
What are some upcoming projects for your band?
I've been writing about 2-3 songs I was happy with per week since I was a kid, so I've always written them faster than any of my band members, past or present, could learn them. I have easily over 300 right now that I'd happily record in the studio/release tomorrow if I could. I'm really excited to make the second IWR album and keep making videos and touring and opening for bigger bands. All of it. I'm ready. [Follow them on Bandcamp, Facebook & iTunes]
What's coming up for you?
So many things. Maybe sleep eventually, but I doubt it.
PS: It Was Romance is playing Aug 17 @ Cake Shop in NYC and Sept. 30 @ Pianos in NYC.
Anders Eriksson
Poetry By Afshan Shafi
You're the dappled world, brilliant toxin. a choate reprieve. Hair, a triptych of flax and rippled sheaf at break of day. You bear your assiduousness cleanly, your sharpened jaw, your forehead, those enamel cliffs. A ruminant has strewed you thus, over the paper weirs, over the torn lip of the world, its heft of blood. sleet in-the-voice touch. My engrossment, a kitten in snow. beyond ode.
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Type 'Quirky' into Google Image search. You'll find a whole bunch of Zooey Deschanel.
What Does It Mean When We Label Women & Artists as 'Quirky'?
What does quirky mean, really? Who gets this label, and why? And what are the real consequences?
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