The Oscars Ought To Look In The Mirror

January 14, 2016

If the Oscars looked in the mirror--and the Oscars really, really need to--the Oscars would see white men. Haven't they learned anything from last year's diversity gap (and that's putting it nicely)?

This year, the committee pulled the same nonsense.

While the racial breakdowns are SCARY problematic, here's a tiny, tiny glimpse into just how bad it is: Creed (written AND directed by a black man) and Straight Outta Compton (starring black actors) were recognized. But it was the white men in the mix that were nominated. The white men.

This is not a test.

It's hard to understand the bias against people of color and women that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has--considering all of the amazing art being made--but one thing is certain: they're not too concerned with changing it.

In 2015, the Academy welcomed 322 new members to counter its diversity problem (overwhelmingly made up white males over the age of 50; in 2013, it was 93% male.)

Are these new members making a dent?

The problem is with all of Hollywood and all of America; it's sexist. When it comes to women, the numbers are awful: 22% of the Academy are made up of women--women who are underpaid and undervalued (props to J-Law for speaking up). The Academy is blind to the fact that people of color need to be represented more (watch this excellent Hollywood Reporter roundtable with Amy Schumer, Gina Roridguez, Tracee Ellis-Ross, and more) and too propped up by its own systemic privilege to make change. So when you're looking at what happens on the outside (like the Oscars whitewash) it's a good indicator that the problem is from the inside.

When are we going to stop letting people in positions of power make the wrong decisions? We've got another #OscarsSoWhite situation. Keep speaking up.

Poetry by Devin Kelly

January 14, 2016

Devin Kelly earned his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. His collaborative chapbook with Melissa Smyth, This Cup of Absence, is forthcoming from Anchor & Plume Press. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming inGigantic Sequins, Armchair/Shotgun, Post Road, RATTLE, The Millions, Appalachian Heritage, Midwestern Gothic, The Adirondack Review, and more, and his essay “Love Innings" was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He co-hosts the Dead Rabbits Reading Series in Manhattan, teaches Creative Writing and English classes to high schoolers in Queens, and lives in Harlem. You can find him on twitter @themoneyiowe.

Interview with Poet & Painter Rebecca Nison on Influences and New Book

January 13, 2016

Rebecca Nison is one of those people you want to hate a little bit, because she's just good at everything. Being a poet and a painter, while not completely unheard of, is pretty unusual if you're actually talented at both. And she is--she's proved it in her new book, If We'd Never Seen the Sea, which was published by Deadly Chaps Press at the end of 2015.

Memories Of Major Tom: Remembering David Bowie

January 12, 2016

I was fourteen and sheltered and different and stoned all the time. My parents had divorced a few years earlier and I lived on the edge of the naked cliff of Hippie Days and Punk Rock nights. I had a boombox. I took it with me when I went to hang with my friends at the Tomlinson Rec Center. Ziggy Stardust in spandex pants and blue eye shadow sang of Starmen and Moonchildren. I drank cans of Miller lights and smoked Marlboro 100’s with my eyes closed in bliss (also painted blue).

Poet Robert Balun on His Obsessions, Process, & 'Self (Ceremony)'

January 12, 2016

I'm interested in what works and what's engaging; I'm thinking about other media and drawing from them. I think this mindset influences my perception of ontology and aesthetics, they way I move through the world, what to pay attention to, what to absorb. I forget who said this, but they said that poets orbit all of the arts, and this was illuminating and affirming for me to hear. Maybe, though, I'm not exactly sure what this distinction means; I don't know what a poet or writer's "mentality" is or if it's any different. But being an artist is a lifelong pursuit, again, a way to make sense of the world, a lens. David Bohm talks about how art, science, and religion all evolved from the same impulse in humanity (and were once a unified entity), and I think there's something of this in the way that I approach my work and myself.

How David Bowie Took a Girl to Mars & Beyond

January 11, 2016

As a kid, I was always conscious of David Bowie. Just like you're conscious of Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Back to the Future, or the Mona Lisa. He was something that always existed. He was the world, the moon, the glittering stars, and even the black holes.

David Bowie: The Man Who Fell to Earth

January 11, 2016

David Bowie was born two days after me and thirty-nine years earlier.

When "The Next Day" was announced on David’s birthday back in 2013, I remember crying for an hour while listening to “Where Are We Now?” on loop, half under the covers in my bed in Brooklyn, memorizing the lyrics. I was in awe that he had returned to music, that he had kept it so secret.

I did the same when Blackstar was announced.

I’ve been waiting for the vinyl to arrive in the mail. It was supposed to arrive before the release date, before David Bowie’s 69th birthday. I was supposed to put it on the turntable and turn up the dial, lose myself in the joy of another unexpected album.

A Conversation with Szilvia Molnar on 'Soft Split' & Psychosexual Dreams

January 8, 2016

The latest chapbook from Future Tense Books is Szilvia Molnar's Soft Split. I read "Soft Split" sitting in a wooden chair in the corner of my living room with my leg muscles tensed, my mouth watering. Written in first person, the book follows a nameless female protagonist as she escapes from her unfulfilling day-to-day into psychosexual dream states. This is one of the weirdest, smartest, most provocative stories I've read in a long time, so I was really excited to talk to Szilvia. We chatted over e-mail about desire, dreams, dirty books, and the truth.

The Savage Brain: From the American Revolution to Syria's Refugee Crisis

January 7, 2016

In 2002, Manolescu Loan, a Romanian man who was walking cross-country after his truck broke down, found 8-year-old Traian, legs splayed from rickets, eating from the carcass of a dog. He was the size of a three-year-old and huddled for warmth in a cardboard box; his circulation slowing because of the frostbite--inevitable in the freezing Transylvanian forest. Three years prior, it seems Traian had been abandoned by his 20-year mother who had been abused by the man to whom she was married under Gypsy law. The doctors who observed the case (and who nicknamed the boy Mowgli) believe that he was fostered by wolves: he barked, howled, growled and bit.

Poetry by Jenna Cardinale

January 6, 2016

You notice that the pen you’re using to write is not an easy pen with which to write. Maybe it’s the flow. Or something about the grip is off. So you look at the pen. It is thin. Silver, black, then tipped with silver. “Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.” You think, “How fancy,” then remember that this is your pen. You took it from a Four Season hotel. It wasn’t as decadent as the appearance of the pen might suggest. Or maybe it was fancy for the Midwest. Because you were in the St. Louis Four Seasons hotel and St. Louis is different from where you’re from. This is why you were staying in a hotel, after all. But there was a rainfall shower. And the TV appeared in the corner of the bathroom mirror. Was the toilet seat heated? Maybe you don’t understand decadence. Did you touch it all?

Overnight Success Is Overrated: A Book Blogger’s Journey

January 6, 2016

It’s hard to believe that my book review blog, Savvy Verse & Wit, is still going after eight years. It started with just one reader and individual poems I’d read in literary journals, like Poetry and AGNI, that I liked or made me view the world a little differently. I wanted to share these poems and my thoughts, and I really gave very little thought to how the blog would continue or how it would evolve. All I knew is that I wanted to talk about poetry, something I missed after college graduation.

You Write What You Read

January 5, 2016

I didn’t consciously make my protagonists white when I began to write fiction. There were times I swore I didn’t think about my characters’ races. But really, they were. Even when I claimed they were utter inventions of my imagination, removed from a context of race, I re-read my stories and see how they really weren’t of anything else. They were all cut from the same cloth.

Witchy World Roundup - January 2016

January 4, 2016

BY JOANNA C. VALENTE

Mistress Harley is a tech dominatrix. It's pretty fascinating:

"When new technology springs up, sexuality adapts to it," she says. "Human sexuality is never static. A new form of technology emerges and we find a way to connect it to sex."

-Jessica Placzek for Broadly

Heart mender tea. Um, yes:

"The bittersweet effect of love is a force we all know well. Breakups can be a harrowing process. The recollections of time together haunt us and fog our thoughts."

-Brittany Ducham for Witch Craft Mag

What everyone should know about the intersex community:

"It is estimated that 1 in 2,000 people is intersex, but it is likely that the figure is actually higher. “Intersex is a natural variation of human biology,” Quinn says. “I think once everyone realizes how non-binary human biology is, it'll be easier for people to accept others on the sex or gender spectrum.'"

-Alaina Leary for Her Campus

Writing against the false narratives of anorexia:

"I have nothing pretty to say about my body when I get too thin. My skin dulls and develops scaly patches; my oversized noggin bobs on my pencil-neck like an idiot balloon. Eating disorder memoirists love to fetishize hipbones, but I am here to tell you that mine made zero aesthetic contributions to my stomach area."

-Katy Waldman for Slate

On modern love for the modern, single woman:

"Why was I putting myself through this again? It was exhausting. Maybe love was overrated. Maybe love was just what people claimed to feel for anyone who’d put up with them. I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. I could hear the chatter of women, turning on faucets, flushing toilets. I’ll just wait here, I thought, until the mingling is over."

-Susan M. Gelles for NY Times

This guy didn't drink for two years. This is what happened:

"I’ve had friends who’ve stopped hanging out with me because I don’t drink anymore. I’ve had relationships end (or not even start) because of it. I have been sent screenshots of people I know talking smack about me to other people because I choose to not do a thing."

-Andy Boyle for Medium

Black women don't get to be depressed:

"Depression was something that happened to white people on television, not a thing that could take down a Strong Black Woman. It seemed like just another way I was desperately trying to be white."

-Samantha Irby for Cosmo

Bill Cosby was finally charged with sexual assault.

"Mr. Cosby’s apologies to Ms. Constand and her mother and offer of financial assistance was 'further indicative of Cosby’s consciousness of guilt,' according to the complaint."

-NY Times

An interview with Michael Seidlinger on his book "The Strangest," which was inspired by Camus:

"I was particularly interested (and worried) in the narrative arc—a death, a murder, a trial—and whether or not I could accurately replicate it without it being too derivative for readers. I also worried about how much of the book should remain faithful to the classic and how much should be original."

-Heather Partington for The Rumpus