phati'tude Literary Magazine Vol. 2, No. 3 by The IAAS

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COMPETITION WINNERS & FINALISTS FOR OUR EKPHRASIS ISSUE

a publication of The Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc.(IAAS) a New York nonprofit organization

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN POETS & ARTISTS

Gabrielle David Editor-in-Chief

Jennifer Bacon Associate Editor Lora René Tucker Assistant Editor

Featuring essays by Ryan Welsh, Thom Donovan & Theresa Ann White

Jon Sands Editor Lorraine Miller Nuzzo Art Director Angela Sternreich Program Director Michelle Aragón Director, Marketing Communications

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Gabrielle David, Chair Angela Sternreich, Secretary Lynn Korsman, Treasurer Shirley Bradley LeFlore Stephanie Agosto Michelle Aragón Naydene Brickus Nikita Hunter Advisory Board Kenneth Campbell Robert Coburn Andrew P. Jackson (Sekou Molefi Baako) Special Advisor for the IAAS Board

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Drew Davidson EKPHRASTIC ACADEMIA: IMAGES, SOUNDS & MOTIONS IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

Gabrielle David PAINTING WITH WORDS: SUSAN B. A. SOMERS-WILLETT & JASON LAHR

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Our First Featured Artist: JULIA FORREST

phati’tude Literary Magazine is published quarterly (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall), ISSN: 1091-1480; ISBN: 1453778349; EAN13: 9781453778340. Copyright © 2010 by The Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc. (IAAS). All rights reserved. Printed and bound in the U.S.A. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without permission in writing from the Publisher. The views expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors of phati’tude Literary Magazine, the Board of Directors of the IAAS, donors or sponsors. Single issue: US$18; Annual subscriptions: US$65; Int’l-Canadian: US$75; Institutional US$110. We offer special discounts for classes and groups. The Publisher cannot guarantee delivery unless notification of change of address is received. Visit our website at www.phatitude.org. Manuscripts with SASE, letters to the editor and all other correspondence to phati’tude Literary Magazine, P.O. Box 4378, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-4378; or email editor@phatitude.org. Cover Design: Michelle Aragón; Cover Art: Edward L. Rubin (see p. 166).

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EDITOR’S NOTE THIS & THAT TIM WISE Imagine If The Tea Party Was Black PATRICIA SMITH What Robert Frost Can Teach Performance Poets PETER LAUFER Hard Copy BOOK REVIEWS POETS WITH PHATI’TUDE OF NOTE Richard Kostelantz THE FINAL WORD Brad Leithauser CONTRIBUTORS COVER ART Edward L. Rubin

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E K P H R A S I S: A Conversation Between Poets & Writers RYAN WELSH ekphrasis THOM DONOVAN On Ekphrasis THERESA ANN WHITE Understanding ekphrastic poetry

GABRIELLE DAVID Painting With Words: An Exploration of Ekphrastic Poetry with Susan B.A. Somers-Willett How Jason Lahr Builds Narratives in His Paintings

DREW DAVIDSON

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Ekphastic Academia: Images, Sounds and Motions in Academic Discourse

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FEATURES 25

ART SCENE TODAY Competition Winners & Finalists

EKPHRASIS POETRY & ART MICHELLE S. ARAGÓN INTRODUCTION THE POETS: Sam Ambler, Stephen Mead, Janice D. Soderling, John Vick, Bruce Lader, Stella Read, Mark Blickley, Kim Keith, Alice Lacey, Imee Cuison, Seree Cohen Zohar, Tara Betts THE ARTISTS: Edward L. Rubin, Christine Perrine, Cecil V. Gresham, Barbara Danin, Rosemarie Bloch, Laria Saunders, Anne Cherubim, Don Bergland, Bayberry L. Shah

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INTRODUCING THE FEATURED ARTISTS FEATURED VISUAL ARTIST Julia Forrest

SHORT STORIES 100 149 124 138 141

KEVIN BROWN One Life SAHAR DELIJANI The Bracelet of Date Stones JEREMY GARRETT The Badge NANCY MÉNDEZ-BOOTH Swept Away ANDREW STOTT Sangria Roshamp

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PROSE POETRY SAM AMBLER 63 After You Died Night Upon Night He Listened 64 65 The Moon, Spring, A Kiss, The Spirit, and My Best Friend LUANNA AZZARITO 155 Right is Right TARA BETTS 84 Cradle of Life MARK BLICKLEY 73 Mysterious Waters of the Naked and Nervous SUZANNE BRUCE 93 Question for Monet 93 Portrait of Madame Matisse, 1913 SEREE COHEN ZOHAR 79 Unbridled 80 BLUE CHRIS CRITTENDEN 115 Reagan’s Ghost 116 Justice Quest IMEE CUISON 76 You and All the Others SHARON DOLIN 90 For the Alabaster Figure from the Cyclades 91 Pilgrimage

NEIL ELLMAN 92 The Maximum Speed of Raphael’s Madonna 92 Daum Marries Her Pedantic Automaton George in May 1920, John Heartfield is Very Glad of It. ANTHONY GAYLE 114 Urban Renewal MIKAYA HEART 148 That Word Love ADRIANNA HERRERA 123 Black Star JACQUELINE HILL 156 The Connection EDWARD HIRSCH 87 Soutine: A Show of Still Lifes 89 The Chardin Exhibition VIVEKANAND JHA 145 An elegy to the poem KIM KEITH 74 Global Recession 113 You Stay Alive in Art (How the Death’s Head Moth Gets Its Mark) LYNNE KNIGHT 95 The Gold Basket 96 Van Gogh’s Olive-grove MIODRAG KOJADINOVIC 130 Boys Will Be Boys Will Boys

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ALICE LACEY 75 Mellow Yellow Rebel 78 No Face BRUCE LADER 71 Browsing the Virtual Mall 121 Attendance Check MARK LAMOUREUX 97 “LOVE IS THE ONLY SOLUTION” 98 From “Sometimes Things Seem Very Dark: Poems for Francesca Woodman”

KENNETH POBO 122 I’m Not Crazy STELLA READ 72 Pan Gu tailspin

SAMANTHA LÊ 117 The Outsiders 118 A Small Death

HENRY 7. RENEAU, JR. 135 new day 135 communion

A. ROBERT LEE 111 Charlottesville Julips

JANICE D. SODERLING 68 Coalminer’s Daughter

MIRAH V. LUCAS 134 Women & Cigarettes STEPHEN MEAD 66 Beyond Eulogy

SUSAN B. A. SOMERS-WILLETT 43 The Last Known Confederate Civil War Widow Writes from the Dead Letter Office of Heaven

JESÚS PAPOLETO MELÉNDEZ 108 Justice, Because

DANIELLE SPEARS 147 Mothers & Daughters

MICHAEL MONTESANO 131 Miel 131 Junta Aesthetics

JOHN VICK 69 freedom as rubbish (in indolent elements) 82 time, yet there is mo muted flight

SILAS PARRY 119 Clothes 120 I bet your imagining

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E D I T O R ‘ S N O T E G

“Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Gabrielle David, founder and editor of phati’tude Literary Magazine, is a writer and multimedia artist who has worked as a desktop publisher, photographer, visual artist, video editor and musician.

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or this issue came about while I was doing rehe idea ffor search on various topics to present in phati’tude Literary Magazine — I kept running across the term “ekphrasis.” As long as I have been involved in poetry, the idea to use visual arts as a catalyst for writing was always a given. What I didn't know is that writing about art was a literary technique that dates back to antiquity. After reading extensively and researching the origins and evolution of ekphrasis, I became interested in how poetry and the visual arts relate to one another and from this experience, the idea to create an issue based on a conversation between poets and artists was born. It seems that ekphrastic poetry is enjoying a resurgence in the poetry community. According to Jennifer Bosveld (poet, publisher and the editor of several books on ekphrasis poetry) the terms “ekphrasis” and “ekphrastic” are making their way back into the dictionaries. Ekphrasis comes from the Greek words ek (‘out’) and phrazein (‘to speak’), which literally translates to “speak out,”

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to proclaim or call an inanimate object by name, with scholars Plato and Aristotle credited with its early use. In the literary world, ekphrasis is not a poetic form like a sonnet or sestina, it is a rhetorical device in which one medium of art relates to another by describing its substance and form in a dramatic way that relates more directly to the audience through its illuminative liveliness.

“We wanted to explore how poets and visual artists “speak” to one another, inform each other's practices, blend with one another on the page . . .” Ekphrasis itself is not limited to any particular genre, and examples can be found in novels and nonfiction, and even art criticism, which is technically ekphrastic in nature. Actually, there are numerous types of ekphrasis, including actual ekphrasis and notional ekphrasis. For example, a poem describing the “Mona Lisa,” would be actual ekphrasis, based on an artwork that exists. On the other hand, notional ekphrasis is writing about art objects that don't exist, something that the writer simply imagines. While scholars and writers have defined a dozen ways of writing ekphrasis, these definitions are not mutually exclusive and more often than not simply codify practice. The key to ekphrasis undoubtedly is the descriptive nature of the poem as it relates to the artwork. While Aristotle’s idea that art ought to imitate reality was valid for several centuries, for most readers of famous Greek and Latin texts, it didn't

matter whether the subject was real or imagined; the texts were studied to develop habits of thinking and writing that leaned toward a demonstration of both the creative imagination and the expertise of the writer. It is, however, the description by ancient Greek epic poet Homer of Achilles' shield in Book 18 of the Iliad, which stands at the beginning of the ekphrastic tradition as we know it today. Many writers in subsequent centuries followed Homer's lead and wrote in a manner that could be tied into the ekphrastic tradition. It can be found in the Chinese school of Literati Painting (the art and craft of poetry intertwined and inseparable from painting); and the tradition of Persian miniature painting, which was greatly influenced by Shahnama (the epic poem by Abu’l Qasim Firdausi) during the 14th century. It was during the Romantic era (mid-1700s to the mid-1800s) and among the pre-Raphaelite poets (1840s to 1900s) when ekphrastic writing began to flourish. Instances of ekphrasis in the 19th century can be found in the works of such prominent figures as Spanish novelist Benito Pérez Galdós; French poet, painter and novelist Théophile Gautier; Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen and Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky; with the most distinctive use of ekphrasis found in Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. John Keat's 1820 poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” is in essence a classic rumination on an art object. Poets such as Robert Browning, Charlotte Brontë, William Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley also incorporated ekphrasis in their work. During the 20th century, many poets proclaimed ekphrastic works, and the vast majority of these concern actual, not imaginary works. W.H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts,”

William Carlos Williams’ “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” and Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo” (featured in this issue of PLM) are the most famous examples of modern-day ekphrasis. So why has this marriage become popular again? When you search ekphrasis on the web, a slew of links come up that connect to books, lesson plans, essays, theses and studies of the most historically respected poets. There is even a literary journal, Ekphrasis, which publishes the work of contemporary poets who write in response to art. I think in part it's because most people have always sensed that poetry and art share similar goals, that a close relationship exists between them. Both try to condense images and meanings in order to maximize expression in a small temporal or spatial dimension. More important, notwithstanding the historical significance of ekphrasis, I think the idea of poets writing about artwork is simply a very cool thing to do. And so it was that we arrived at the theme, “Ekphrasis: A Conversation Between Poets & Artists.” We wanted to explore how poets and visual artists “speak” to one another, inform each other's practices, blend with one another on the page, as well as address some of the larger philosophical and theoretical questions that arise when creative minds are inspired. We wanted to see what would result when a dialogue was initiated between the artist and poet, the poet and poem, the poem and reader. As we embarked on developing this issue, we first had to figure out how to publish artwork alongside poetry. While critics and scholars are of the belief that ekphrastic poetry should be able to stand alone, we determined that artists, poets and readers alike would prefer to see the

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literary and visual works side-by-side. In order to make this happen, we had to tackle the logistics of getting artwork, permission to reprint and then making the art available to poets for the submission process. Strategy sessions with Michelle Aragón, our Marketing and Advertising Director, led to using her website, ArtSceneToday (www.artscenetoday.com), which runs themed juried art competitions online. Michelle ran a competition with the express purpose of making artwork available to poets and writers for ekphrastic work. The unique and diverse group of winning entries were posted on PLM’s website for poets to select, interpret and submit for publication. Additionally, the first place winning work, by artist Edward L. Rubin, would become the cover artwork of the issue. In the end, the work of artists Don Bergland, Rosemarie Bloch, Anne Cherubim, Barbara Danin, Cecil V. Gresham, Christine Perrine, Edward L. Rubin, Laria Saunders and Bayberry L. Shah were the inspiration for the wonderfully varied poems by Sam Ambler, Stephen Mead, Janice D. Soderling, John Vick, Bruce Lader, Stella Read, Mark Blickley, Kim Keith, Alice Lacey, Imee Cuison, Seree Cohen Zohar and Tara Betts. The result offers a striking example of the full breadth of contemporary ekphrastic poetry. We also published ekphrastic poetry by Edward Hirsch, Sharon Dolin, Neil Ellman, Suzanne Bruce, Lynne Knight, and Mark Lamoureux without artwork, so readers can rely on their imagination to realize the “visual” experience of these poems. Essays by Ryan Welsh, Thom Donovan and Theresa Ann White provide an examination of ekphrasis. Drew Davidson's essay “Ekphrastic Academic: Images, Sounds and Motions in Academic Discourse,” addresses the rhetorical aspects of images, sounds and motions that make up multimedia text as a new medium of academic discussions. We also feature conversations with poet and writer, Susan B.A. Somers-Willett, who shares her viewpoint on ekphrastic poetry's purpose and motives; and visual artist Jason Lahr, who provides verbal depth to the visual. Putting this issue together was a real eye-opener and gave us another way to look at how poetry and prose is written. The collaboration between PLM and Art Scene Today provided an opportunity for visual and literary artists to cross pollinate, with one influencing and inspiring the impetus for creativity in the other. Artists are always finding new ways to engage with the world, and we believe the relationship between visual and verbal expression found in ekphrastic poetry gives our readers an even deeper understanding of the power to create an image in one's mind.

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T H I S & T H A T R A N D O M

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e if th e TTea ea PPar ar Im gine the artt y W Waas Bl Blaack Imaagin

ET’S PLA YAG AME, shall we? The name of PLAY GAME, the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure — the ones who are driving the action — we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins. So let’s begin. (cont’d pg. 12)

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obe an Ro berrt FFrrost C Can Whaat R Wh Tea erform an ce PPoe oe ts eacch PPe rman ance oets

LEASE. PLEASE. No more. I can’t take another earthy diva bellowing an ode to her ample hips. No mores slithery temptresses urging loverboys to traverse the landscape of their bodies. Let’s do away

with rotund wordsmiths defiantly extolling the joys of foodstuffs and fatback. Can we finally bid adieu to every minority — little people, black Republicans, Dick Cheney’s hunting buddies — whimpering about his or her miserable lot in life? And why are poets so angry? Black people mad about being marginalized, poor people mad about having to stand in long lines for handouts, minorities mad about being racially profiled, Asians mad about being stereo (cont’d pg. 13)

Har dC opy ard Co o re tto o a boo k th an m e re w o rds mo book than me wo T he re's m

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AY I W AS on an American AirHE O THER D WAS OTHER DA lines flight home, and as it crossed the Sierra Nevada and began its descent toward SFO, the stewardess made the usual announcement. “Please shut off all electronic devices,” she said, and then added a litany of what she meant. “Computers, iPods, Gameboys, Kindles. Anything with an on-off switch.” It was the first time I heard the Kindle mentioned as something with the potential to interfere with aircraft navigation systems. (cont’d pg. 14)

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B O O K R E V I E W S E X P L O R I N G

L I T E R A T U R E

Our mission is to increase interest in reading by providing cool, short book recommendations in poetry, fiction and nonfiction. To submit book reviews, send them to editor@phatitude.org. Happy reading!

P O E T R Y

Poets on Paintings by Robert D. Denham McFarland, 2010 www.mcfarlandpub.com $95.00; 341 pp.; ISBN-10: 0786447257

OBER T DENHAM’S BOOK Poets on Paintings OBERT offers a comprehensive volume of works on ekphrastic scholarship. Denham invites the reader to experience ekphrasis as a process of speaking visual art. Poets on Paintings provides an “inventory” of poems written about paintings and painters as well as works on the theoretical study of ekphrasis. Poets on Paintings expands its bibliography to include a dash of poems about graphic art, tapestries and mosaics in addition to the expansive number of poems written about paintings. Approximately 2,500 poems on paintings have been (cont’d pg. 18) catalogued in this book.

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In the Frame: Women’s Ekphrastic Poetry from Marianne Moore to Susan Wheeler edited by Jane Hedley, Nick Halpern and Williard Spiegelman Univ. of Delaware Pr., 2009 www2.lib.udel.edu/udpress/ $60.00; 316 pp.; ISBN-10: 0874130468

N THE FRAME: Women’s Ekphrastic Poetry from Marianne Moore to Susan Wheeler introduces ekphrasis as the act of speaking to, about or for a work of visual art through their powerful essays. The reader is taken on a journey through a process that beckons them to ponder, what poems “see.” Readers are further invited to delve into the experience of seeking in works of visual art. Situated in the consciousness of women poets, In the Frame seeks to expose the intentions of ekphrasis in the gendered realm. The writings and essays illuminate the (cont’d pg. 18)

Museum of Words: The Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery by James A. W. Heffernan Univ. of Chicago Pr., 2004 www.press.uchicago.edu $25.00; 257 pp.; ISBN-10: 0226323145

KPHRASIS IS THE art of describing works of art. Profoundly ambivalent, ekphrastic poetry celebrates the power of the silent image even as it tries to circumscribe that power with the authority of the word. Over the ages its practitioners have created a “museum of words” about real and imaginary paintings and sculptures. Museum of Words is the first book ever to explore this “museum Published in 1991, Heffernan painstakingly investigates the literary trope of ekphrasis and shows how notions of ekphrasis have changed from the epics of Homer, (cont’d pg. 18)

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E K P H R A S I S:: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN POETS & ARTISTS

Heart to Heart : New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art by Jan Greenberg Harry N. Abrams, 2001 www.abramsbooks.com $19.95; 80 pp. ISBN-10: 0810943867

AN GREENBER G’S VISION to create an anthology to GREENBERG’S celebrate the power of art to inspire poetry comes alive in Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspires by Twentieth Century American Art, a picture book that offers large-type poems with full-page reproductions representing America’s most important artistic movements of the 20th century. Greenberg invited 43 poets to choose a piece of modern art and write a poetic response to it. Marketed under Children/Young Adult literature, this compilation, which is also ekphrastic in nature, is actually for anyone interested in poetry inspired by modern American artwork. (cont’d pg. 19)

Quiver: Poems (VQR Poetry) by Susan B. A. Somers-Willett Univ. of Georgia Pr., 2009 www.ugapress.org $16.95; 96 pp. ; ISBN-10: 0820333271

HE POET AVIO PAZ POET,, OCT OCTA PAZ, once said that “Poetry is a form of knowledge, of experimental knowledge.” This quote, from his collection of essays, Alternating Current (Tr. 1973) discusses in great detail the connections of poetry and science. On the surface, poetry may seem very different from science, but what is common to a large sector of both disciplines is their interest in the natural world. They also encompass an enormous diversity of human activity, which I believe, forges a fairly fundamental link between the two subjects. In fact, it was the shared habit of Romantic scientists and poets both to put as much stock in the process of (cont’d pg. 20)

(cont’d pg. 26)

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ArtSceneToday.com, founded by New York City artist and multicultural advertising expert Michelle Aragón, is the new online forum for emerging artists, providing exposure around the world through online juried competitions and exhibitions. Our themed competitions shed light on provocative artistic and social issues, such as the portrayal of women in art, recycling, LGBT art and war. Our exhibitions and resources attract artists and art lovers from over 100 countries. We believe dialogue and cross-pollination between different art forms is important and needs to be encouraged. And so it was with anticipation of great things that we once again collaborated with phati’tude Literary Magazine to bring you an amazing way to appreciate the visual and the written word: Ekphrasis. Our competition provided artwork that would inspire writers to create poetry. We proudly feature here all the winners and finalist of our Ekphrasis Competition from which poets made their selections.

A R T S C E N E T O D A Y E K P H R A S I S 1st Place: Edward L. Rubin

THE ANNUNCIATION

AR TIST ST ATEMENT STA ARTIST In my pastel painting THE ANNUNCIATION, I show the revelation of Spirit in that moment between Life and Death, a universal experience that we all, eventually, must face in our own way. What better subject for Ekphrasis: the transcendence of this world to the next, through the collision of words and paint. www.edwardlrubin.com

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C O M P E T I T I O N W I N N E R S 2nd Place: Bayberry L. Shah CRADLE OF LIFE ATEMENT TIST ST AR STA ARTIST I use a layered technique of painting. I strive for Impressionistic Realism and choose my subjects from my own photography. Using hi-res macro shots allows me to focus in on images of flowers and plants that most people are not used to seeing. Instead of just painting a typical rose bloom, I am more intrigued by the buds and thorns and uniquely shaped leaves. I hope that when people view my paintings, they ask, “What is that?” at first glance. www.bayberryfineart.com

3rd Place: Walt Curlee SPRINGTIME ON THE FARM AR TIST ST ATEMENT ARTIST STA I think of my art as visual poetry, with a sense of peace and all is right with the world – enjoyment for the eyes! www.waltcurleeart.com

VOL2 ISSUE 2

A R T S C E N E T O D A Y E K P H R A S I S

NATURE’S YANTRA Laria Saunders CHESTER Patrick Regan

EMOTION COMING OUT Jesus Alvarez

PAPILLION Laria Saunders

SPRING IN PARIS Laria Saunders

DUSTED Anne Cherubim

ANASAZI John D’Agostino

THE JOURNEY-PRECIPICE Christy Perrine P H A T I’T U D E LITERARYMAGAZINE

BEFORE AND AFTER Daniel Martinez

C O M P E T I T I O N F I N A L I S T S

PRODIGAL ENTREATY Don Bergland

NO FACE Cecil Gresham

MECHANICAL MAN Cecil Gresham

MELLOW YELLOW Rosemarie Bloch

THE ARMS OF UNDERTOW John D’Agostino

MYSTERIOUS WATERS II Barbara Danin

SNAKES Bayberry L. Shah VOL2 ISSUE 2

C O M P E T I T I O N F I N A L I S T S

A PACIFIC COAST DAY Christy Perrine

THE CREATION Daniel Martinez

CATALYST FOR A CHILDHOOD DREAM Andrew Rauhauser

A DAY AT OCEANSIDE Christy Perrine

ARCADIA REFLECTION Christy Perrine

A FALLOW RAPTURE Don Bergland

LOGOS (REASON) WANDERING Kostas Loudovikos P H A T I’T U D E LITERARYMAGAZINE

MUSCULAR RODS Laria Saunders

“Does man love Art? Man visits Art, but squirms. Art hurts. Art urges voyages — and it is easier to stay at home, the nice beer ready. In commonrooms we belch, or sniff, or scratch. Are raw.”

ekphrasis RYAN W E LS H

f the dialectic of word and image is central to the study of media, then the term ekphrasis (alternatively spelled ecphrasis) must also be a crucial part of understanding media as the intersection of verbal and visual. Few pieces of media jargon have as long a history or as considerable an evolution as ekphrasis. The conflict of word and image in media can be better understood by tracing the history and evolution of ekphrasis, which embodies the practice of both elements. (cont’d pg. 34)

P H A T I’T U D E LITERARYMAGAZINE

E K P H R A S I S: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN POETS & ARTISTS

On Ekphrasis1 THOM DONOVAN

riting poetry ‘after’ or ‘in relation to’ art is a qualitatively different activity, I’ve found, from, say, having a conversation about art with a friend, or trying to write a review of an art show or critical essay about a particular artist’s practice. The poem-many of the poems I write at least-would like to grasp some essence about the work, or to speak from the position of the process by which the art object came into being/to have meaning. It is as if there is a (cont’d pg. 36)

Understanding ekphrastic poetry THERESA ANN WHITE

he Shield of Achilles” is considered one of the first known instances of the use of ekphrasis. The vivid description occurs in Chapter Eighteen of Homer’s Illiad and sets the standard for the Greek use of ekphrasis. The passage is a detailed, literal description of Achilles’ armor, and does not verge from the object being described. In early 19th century England, the Romantic poet John Keats would employ the ekphrastic method with a flourish in his “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” concluding with these immortal lines: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” (cont’d pg. 37)

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N ANCIENT TRADITION CARRIED through to present time, ekphrasis is a poetic description of, or commentary on, a visual work of art. While painters and sculptors have been inspired by literary works, writers have continued to translate their interpretation of visual artwork into written form. In this interview, scholar and poet Susan B. Anthony Somers-Willett discusses ekphrastic poetry and her writing process, including the connections between visual and written art – as well as her take on bringing the ancient tradition of ekphrasis into the 21st century. Born in Ohio and raised in New Orleans, just like her namesake, Susan B. Anthony Somers-Willett is a teacher, writer and activist. With a wide range of interests and, yes, passions, it’s no surprise how her social and literary interests intersect in her work. In college, Somers-Willett became interested in production while working at a newspaper and began work at a small book company as a production manager, doing layouts. When she completed her undergraduate work at Duke University with a degree in cultural anthology and women’s studies, she quickly realized how her studies greatly influenced her interest in poetry and literature. Her growing passion for poetry also extended to performing, and she became active in the slam scene, competing in several national poetry slam teams as a competitor and coach. This foray into slam helped Somers-Willett envision the poem in the realm of sound and performance, giving her a new set of tools — vocalization, gesture, singing, improvisation, music, dialect — that have opened up other ways to look at her writing and create new works. She eventually entered a graduate program in Creative Writing at the University of Texas at Austin and received both her Masters in Creative Writing, and her Ph.D. in Literature. In 2003, she published her first book of poetry, Roam (Southern Illinois University Press), a vibrant collection that chronicles a varied range of topics, notably the trial of Joan of Arc. The book was selected for the Crab Orchard Award Series in 2006, and was a finalist for the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for poetry. In intervening years, Somers-Willett built a reputation as a poet exploring and rethinking ekphrastic poetry’s motives and purposes, delving into multimedia collaborations. For example, in 2008, she participated in The Blanton Poetry Project at the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, creating poetry based on Dario Robleto’s artwork, “Daughters of Wounds and Relics;” and has also held ekphrasis

An Exploration of Ekphrastic Poetry with Susan B.A. Somers-Willett

(cont’d pg. 40)

KPHRASIS IS THE VERBAL DESCRIPTION of pictorial or sculptural works of art, meaning, the poet and writer creates prose or poetry as it relates to the artwork. But what’s interesting is that artists have been using text and words in their paintings as far back as when Egyptians and Persians used text as an essential element in their works. However, it wasn’t until painter Charles Demeth (“The Figure 5 in Gold,” 1928), often cited as one of the earliest recognized modern artists to use text, when the use of written language in artwork became one of the most defining developments in visual art of the twentieth century. There have always been some purists who believed that you simply cannot and should not mix media, including the use of words and text in a painting, but the idea of “pure” art has been challenged and bastardized for some time now. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were using words copied from newspapers during their Cubist phase; artists like Allan Kaprow and Robert Rauschenberg introduced other media into paintings; and René Magritte (“The Treachery of Images / La trahison des images,” 1928-29) and Dadaist artists used text to describe anti-art and anti-aesthetic sentiment. By the 1960s, some of the most famous Conceptual artists of the era began to use written language as the basis of their artwork. Artists such as John Baldessari, Lawrence Weiner and Bruce Nauman, who are still today some of the world’s most respected artists, helped push boundaries of what constitutes art. Contemporary artists who represent different aesthetics, from abstract to figurative, continue to incorporate some form of words and texts to expand their work’s possibilities. Its wide ranging effects could be a direct and immediate means of expression (Tracey Emin, Cy Twombly); or used as an effective sociopolitical artistic mechanism (Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer). The idea of “pure” art is pretty much dead. So what makes an artist want to use words and text in their work, and is it ekphrastic in nature? Also, what is the visual result that comes from organizing words and text into a painting? These are some of the many questions posed to artist Jason Lahr, a painter who builds narratives out of written texts and appropriated images. Lahr’s paintings consist of darkly comic texts that are sparse, geometrically-stripped and often limited to several colors. As a result of the bombardment of text and imagery in our society (i.e., newspapers, posters, billboards, television, the internet, cell phones, etc.), Lahr sees the world as fragmentary and therefore incorporates this type of imagery into his work. He writes his own text, but doesn’t necessarily use text that correlates with his images — it’s almost like Lahr is playing a “tug of war” with his words and his paintings. Yet, his paintings manage to form narratives which question the assumptions we experience and create through popular culture. In fact, when you look closely at his work, there is an

How Jason Lahr Builds Narratives in His Paintings

(cont’d pg. 48)

Images, Sounds and Motions in Academic Discourse

HIS ESSAY EXPLORES the potential of multimedia on computers to create ekphrastic documents; documents that are an artistic and rhetorical response to a work of art. The characteristics of multimedia (images, sounds, motions and text) are explored in terms of their possible rhetorical aspects. From here, the contention is made that the interactivity of multimedia allows for an audience to perform a reading of the document, themselves creating an ekphrastic response. It is the believe of the author that performative, ekphrastic multimedia can benefit complement our tradition, text-based scholarship. In academics, we traverse a diversity of problems and offer a plethora of solutions. For instance, we formulate theories as to how we could or should look at the world. We also ponder how to evaluate and express our arguments. In all, we struggle to place theories and their function in our lives. This brings me to the questions that drive this essay. Would the use of a performative, ekphrastic academe better allow us to place theory into our lives? And do the new technologies of multimedia open up to ekphrasis more than (contâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d pg. 56)

Night Upon Night He Listened SAM AMBLER Night upon night we sat and talked, just us, he and I. I found anchors in his being, saw light break through his shadows when he was bathed in dark. I brought him a bit of moon. He gave me a glimpse of sun. We kissed like the Northern Lights from dawn until dusk for years on end, until it happened. Cancer. I held him. Even in touch, he listened.

Night upon night I heard him moan when he thought I slept. I did not sleep those many weeks as I tried to shield his fragile frame from the onslaught of metastasis. The cancer was eating him alive. He could feel every bite like a shark on his flesh. I whispered with him at the end, sang to him, prayed for him. Even in pain, he listened.

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Night upon night I wrestle fatigue, expecting to meet his body in a tangle of limbs there on the sheets next to me. I remember the look of his eyes from two inches away. The blue so deep when I fell in, only he could catch me. And I fell in often â&#x20AC;&#x201C; such was our joy. Night upon night in the echoing bed I think I hear him breathing. Even in death, he listens.

E K P H R A S I S: A C O N V E R SATI O N B ETW E E N PO ETS & ARTI STS

The Moon, Spring, A Kiss, The Spirit and My Best Friend SAM AMBLER

Though the moon fall from its apogee drawing behind it light from the stars like a black hole, I will wait and watch for a new moon. Though the year stretch and twist riving spring from summer helter-skelter like a cotton gin, I will wait and watch for another spring. Though a kiss blister the lips it touches petrifying the warmth of unsuspecting hearts like wet skin on dry ice, I will watch and wait for a loverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kiss. Though the spirit rage for divine intervention calling on gods pagan and catholic like a brimstone preacher, I will watch and wait for a calm spirit. Though my best friend wither and waste to his bones brittle, bursting into flame like the phoenix, I will wait and watch . . .

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Coalminerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Daughter J A N I C E D. S O D E R L I N G

The road is overgrown now, Paths slither into high grass like copperhead snakes. Easy fire glitters temptingly near the surface. Her hurt will never heal completely. Bulldozers rip across soft earth, The land is violated, abandoned. Some things can never be reclaimed. Girl-child heavy with child-girl. Stunted bushes and tufts of weeds, cling to the sides of the spoil banks.

THE JOURNEY-PRECIPICE Artist: Christy Perrine

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Pan Gu tailspin STELLA READ without ceremony retrograde initiates

absorbing order as it reverts to chaos

extinguishing light from the cosmic shell sealing heavenly fissures

MYSTERIOUS WATERS II Artist: Barbara Danin

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return to nothingness a faceless creator in a black hole beyond time

Cradle of Life TARA BETTS Ribbons of cellulose rock inception against veined ruffles. A pulse of water and sunlight fills crisp tumescence. The cauldron where cycles make stories

infinite triggers cells. Pollinate, sprout, travel to insect and animal instinct. This cosmogony rooted in chlorophyll, leaves as lined membranes veiling organs. This exchange of gases rippling through grass

CRADLE OF LIFE Artist: Bayberry L. Shah

and humble gardens takes each person back to soft, moist crook of soil. Green feeds all seeing eyes with flat and curled tongues sticking out and upward.

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E K P H R A S I S: A CONVERSATION BETWEEN POETS & ARTISTS

I NT R O D U C I N G T H E F EAT U R E D A RT I ST S

Don Bergland (PRODIGAL ENTREATY) is an awardwinning visual artist, audio producer, video performer and educator. Currently a professor of Digital Arts at the University of Victoria in Canada, he has worked extensively in both fine art gallery exhibition venues as well as in the graphics and multimedia industry. He maintains an active exhibiting career and has featured his work in over 120 international exhibitions and performances throughout the world. His current creative activity involves the use of digital tools in the production of technosurrealistic painting and the studio integration of musical performance with visual production. His artwork is represented in major corporate and private collections in Canada, the US, and Europe. www.donbergland.com Rosemarie Bloch (MELLOW YELLOW) is a homegrown Ohioan and full time artist. Exhibiting in more than 30 states, she also participates in competitions and with the group “Wild Women Artists,” which she founded. Her shows include 2010 Semantics Gallery Open Call; 2010 “Urban Express” Visionaries and Voices, Cincinnati, OH; 2009 Regional Abstraction at Southside Art league, Indianapolis; and her work has appeared in publications such as Studio Visit and Best of American Oil, among others. Bloch is also an instructor at Middletown Arts Center in Ohio. www.roseblochart.com

limited color palette; a reflection of contemporary art as portrayed by someone who is a product of a myriad of cultures: a Canadian girl, born of Sri Lankan parents, now residing in the US. This year, Cherubim has partnered with Grumbacher and Michaels Stores to offer fine art classes. She exhibits her work locally and internationally. www.cherubim-arts.com Barbara Danin (MYSTERIOUS WATERS II) received her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and a BFA from Arcadia University. Her watercolors attempt to create visual journeys that resonate with life-affirming memories and themes offering solace, refuge and meditative spaces. Exhibitions include Philadelphia Museum of Art Sales and Rental Gallery; Fleisher Art Memorial, Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts; Sande Webster Gallery; Delaware Art Museum Sales and Rental Gallery; and Art in City Hall. www.barbaradanin.com Cecil V. Gresham (NO FACE; MECHANICAL MAN) believes his images speak for themselves. He approaches his work as Pollack did, with action. He has been in numerous shows and will continue to create.

Anne Cherubim (DUSTED) is a self-taught artist who paints contemporary landscapes, working predominantly in acrylic. Her art is rooted in real life images and textures, with a modern abstraction, often in a

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I NT R O D U C I N G T H E F EAT U R E D A RT I ST S

Edward L. Rubin (THE ANNUNCIATION) is an artist and Emmy Award winning Production Designer. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture with Honors from the University of California, Berkeley, and he holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in set design from Carnegie-Mellon University. He also attended the Academie de Port Royal in Paris, studying classical drawing and painting. From 1991-1997 he lived in San Francisco, and during this time developed his mastery of the soft pastel medium. Rubin currently resides in his hometown of Los Angeles, where he Art Directs LOVE BITES for NBC, and paints figurative work. He also designed the Leonidas Chocolate Cafe in Beverly Hills, is a Volunteer Chaplain at Cedars Sinai Hospital, and a proud member of Pacific Masters Swimming. www.edwardlrubin.com Christine Perrine (THE JOURNEY PRECIPICE) is a landscape artist not afraid to push boundaries. Wanting to convey a sense of drama and power to pull the viewer into her landscape, Perrine paints her ground with bold, strong brushstrokes that create a depth and added level of translated energy. A nod to the mastery of impressionism is constantly present in each of her compositions, specifically influenced by the dramatic and deliberate brush strokes present in the works of Edgar Degas. Perrine shows her work throughout the Pacific Northwest in both gallery settings as well as juried exhibitions. She is a member of the Northwest Pastel Society, Portland Plein Aire Painters, and Painter’s Showcase of Portland; and has exhibited her work at Art on the Boulevard in Vancouver, WA, Riversea Gallery in Astoria, OR, and Sequoia Gallery & Studios in Hillsboro, OR, where her studio is open to the public. www.christyperrine.com

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Laria Saunders (SPRING IN PARIS) draws upon a lifetime of classical dance, photography, meditation and a family of artists. Saunders graduated from the University California Los Angeles (summa) and as an Alumni Arts Scholar in the World Arts and Culture program, using both photography and dance as an Emma B. Keller grant recipient in India. After retiring from dance, Saunders turned full time to photography, creating abstracts intended to raise consciousness as well as capture sacred movement, embolden creative sight and mystical perception. Her latest exhibit was in a group show at Photo Place Gallery, Vermont called “Photos with Words,” and was recently commissioned by the television series, “Desperate Housewives.” www.photographystudio311.com; www.lariasaunders.com Bayberry L. Shah (CRADLE OF LIFE) is a painter who specializes in her own form of impressionistic realism. Her early years took her from being an award winning artist in high school, to a music performance major in college and eventually, an international marketing student in graduate school. Shah has worked in various media, exhibited at art fairs and galleries in New York, and is a juried artist in national shows. She currently works as an Artist-in-Residence in local schools. Shah’s current series is of unique flowers and plants, which seek to give a new perspective on these subjects. She uses images from her own macro photography and chooses compositions that beg the question, “What is that?” www.bayberryfineart.com

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CONTRIBUTORS M E E T W H O

T H E P O E T S M A K E I T

& W R I T E R S H A P P E N!

Sam Ambler has a B.A. in English (Creative Writing of Poetry) from Stanford University and a Certificate of Study from Pacific School of Religion. His poetry has published in magazines, newspapers and anthologies including Christopher Street, The James White Review, City Lights Review #2, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Voices of the Grieving Heart, and Speaking Our Truth, among others. In 2004, his poem “The Pawnshop” was adapted into a 10-minute film called “The Pawn,” which has been seen in film festivals around the world including New York, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, and Kosovo; and has won many awards. He currently works for the S. Mark Taper Foundation in Brentwood. Luanna Azzarito is originally from Rio de Janeiro. During her senior year of high school she immigrated to the US. Her work has appeared in Audience Magazine, Black Words On White Paper, Muscle & Blood and Vanilla. Jennifer Bacon is Associate Editor of phati’tude Literary Magazine. The founder of Black Women Writing, she received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland. Bacon is a recipient of the 2010 Book In A Day writing fellowship in Florence, Italy; the 2009 recipient of Poetry Alive; and the 2008 recipient of the Pursue the Dream: Chris Mazza Award for Poetry Therapy. Her writing and research interests include social justice, poetry, culturally responsive pedagogy, global education, African American culture, gender studies and adolescent identity and development; and has published poetry in literary magazines such as phati’tude and Returning Woman. Tara Betts is a poet, writer, activist and professor. She recently published her debut poetry collection, Arc & Hue (Willow Books, 2009), and her work has appeared in publications such as Essence, literary magazines such as Obsidian III, Callaloo, Columbia Poetry Review, Ninth Letter, Hanging Loose, and Drunken Boat; and has been widely anthologized. Betts has also been a freelance writer for publications such as XXL, The Source, BIBR, Mosaic Magazine and Black Radio Exclusive. Betts, a Cave Canem fellow, is a lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. www.tarabetts.net Mark Blickley is a native New Yorker and widely published author of fiction, nonfiction, drama and poetry. His latest book is the story collection Sacred Misfits (Red Hen Press). His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary publications including Fiction International, Coe Review, Cream City Review, Palo Alto Review and Salt Hill Journal. Blickley served as staff writer for Artis Spectrum magazine, publishing art reviews and artist profiles. He is a proud member of PEN American Center who teaches writing at York College (CUNY) Kevin Brown has had work published in over seventy journals and was nominated for a 2007 Journey Award and a Pushcart Prize. His first book, Ink On Wood, is forthcoming. www.invisiblebodies.com Suzanne Bruce, born and raised in Oklahoma, holds a BS in Education from the University of Tulsa. She completed her graduate work at Wichita State University in Childhood Behavior Disorders and taught school for many years. Bruce reads her poetry at various venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and her work has won several poetry prizes and has been published in numerous journals. She also collaborates ekphrastic work with artist Janet Manalo and published the book, Voices Beyond the Canvas (2007). Their work can be seen on their website at www.ekphrasticexpressions.com Seree Cohen Zohar was born in Australia and emigrated to Israel when she was 20 years old. Since then, she has spent the past two decades farming, which is echoed in her art, poetry and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in publications such as Routledge’s International Feminist Journal of Politics, Voices Israel, Arc, Skive and the Jerusalem Post. A professional translator and Reiki Master, Cohen Zohar also lectures on the metaphysical within the Genesis texts, and often uses a Biblical and Kabbalistic approach in her poetry. She recently collaborated as a Bible language consultant on a new verse translation of Davidic psalms by Alan Sullivan.

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Chris Crittenden (Owl Who Laughs) has a Ph.D. in philosophy and teaches environmental ethics at the University of Maine. He spends ten months a year in a remote corner of Maine and two months in the car world of the San Fernando Valley. Crittenden has published in hundreds of journals, including Chelsea, Atlanta Review, Disquieting Muses, and Portland Review; and was nominated for the Best New Poets anthology by the publisher Raving Dove. Imee Cuison is a freelance writer living in Charleston, SC. Her work has appeared in Maganda Magazine, White Mountain Essays and 30 POV. When not occupied with the task of writing, she is a critical care registered nurse. Gabrielle David, Editor-in-Chief of phati’tude Literary Magazine, is a multimedia artist that has worked as a desktop publisher, photographer, artist, video editor and musician. David has published several essays on multicultural literature and published the poetry collections: this is me, a collection of poems & things (CCI Books, 1994); and spring has returned & i am renewed (CCI Books, 1995). Her work has published in Paterson Literary Review, Journal of New Jersey Poets, AIM Magazine, and phati’tude Literary Magazine. She is the Executive Director of the Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc. (IAAS), a NY-based nonprofit organization that promotes multicultural literature and literacy, which publishes phati’tude Literary Magazine. Drew Davidson is a professor, producer and player of interactive media. His background, which spans academic, industry and professional worlds, currently serves as Director of the Entertainment Technology Center – Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University, and the Editor of ETC Press. He completed his Ph.D. in Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and received a B.A. and M.A. in Communications Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Davidson is the lead on several MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Initiative grants and has written and edited books, journals, articles and essays on narratives across media, serious games, analyzing game play and cross-media communication. www.waxebb.com Sahar Delijani, born in Tehran, Iran, grew up in San Francisco’s Bay Area and currently resides in Torino, Italy. She has a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and has published in Perigee, The Beginning Literary Magazine, Current Literary Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine, Berkeley Poetry Review, Sangam Review, and Pezhvak Literary Journal. Delijani is a regular contributor of Iran-Emrooz (Iran of Today) Political and Cultural Journal at www.iran-emrooz.net and blogs at http://sahardelijani.wordpress.com. Sharon Dolin was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. A Fulbright Scholar to Italy, she holds a Ph.D. in English from Cornell University and an M.A. in English from the University of California at Berkeley. Dolin is the author of four books of poetry, Burn and Dodge (Univ. of Pittsburgh Pr., 2008), selected by Bob Hicok for the 2007 AWP Donald Hall Prize in Poetry; Realm of the Possible (Four Way Books, 2004); Serious Pink (Marsh Hawk Pr., 2003); and Heart Work (The Sheep Meadow Pr., 1995). Her poems have appeared in four anthologies and in over 100 magazines including Barrow Street, Denver Quarterly, The Georgia Review, Jacket, The Kenyon Review, New American Writing, and The New Republic. She currently teaches poetry workshops at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in NYC. www.sharondolin.com Thom Donovan lives in New York City where he co-edits ON Contemporary Practice; edits Wild Horses Of Fire weblog (http://whof.blogspot.com/); curates both Peace Events and SEGUE reading series; and is an ongoing participant in the Nonsite Collective. His first collection of critical writings, Critical Objects 2005-2010, is forthcoming in 2011. He currently teaches at Bard College, Baruch College, and School of Visual Arts. Neil Ellman is a retired educator who has returned to his first love, poetry, after many years of relative inactivity. Although he has published numerous articles, reviews, and satirical pieces in educational journals, he is only now beginning to publish poems, most recently in The Recusant and online whispers & [Shouts]. Jeremy Garrett has a B.A. in English and Humanities from the University of Louisville, and currently works as a manager at an extended warranty call center. His stories have appeared in Gargoyle Magazine, American Fantastic, Prick of the Spindle, and the Susquehanna Review. He is the founder of the Louisville Queer Readers Group, which was recently featured in the Lexington Herald-Leader for receiving ELandF Gallery’s Book Reader honorarium. Anthony Gayle has published in Concise Delight, Mississippi Review, Apocalypse, Penny-Ante-Feud, Fine Print and Cause and Effect. He is currently a Mathematics Professor at Georgia Military College. Mikaya Heart grew up in Scotland, came out as a lesbian and a feminist in 1978, and moved to northern California, where she resides today. She is the author of several books, most recently My Sweet Wild Dance (Dog Ear, 2009), which was shortlisted for a Golden Crown Literary Award. Heart has also written books about shamanism, lesbianism, and orgasm, as well as numerous articles and short stories. Her next book, A Different Rhythm: Thailand and Indonesia, the first in a series about her travels, is forthcoming. www.mikayaheart.org Adrianna Herrera is a native New Mexican residing in Albuquerque. Her first poem appeared in UNM Conceptions Southwest while an undergraduate at the university where she received her B.A. in Spanish. Another poem

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E K P H R A S I S: A C O N V E R SATI O N B ETW E E N PO ETS & ARTI STS accepted for publication will appear this fall in PALABRA: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art. Currently, she is experimenting with fusing English with Spanish into her writing. Jacqueline Hill, a Southern Californian born in Southern Ohio, is a retired educator pursuing her dream of publishing her poetry, stories, and essays. She is a member of Writers Anonymous, a workshop sponsored through the UCLA Writing Project and phati’tude Literary Magazine is her first publication. Edward Hirsch is a poet and academic who wrote the best seller, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry in 1999 and remains in print through multiple printings. He received his Ph.D. in folklore at the University of Pennsylvania, and was a professor of English at Wayne State University. In 1985, he joined the faculty of the University of Houston where he still holds tenure as professor of English. His has published the award-winning collections For the Sleepwalkers (1981) and Wild Gratitude (1986). He is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship (1985), MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1987) and the William Riley Parker Prize from the Modern Language Association (1991). Hirsch’s essays have published in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, American Poetry Review, and The Paris Review; and writes a weekly column on poetry for the Washington Post Book World. He currently serves as the fourth president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Vivekanand Jha is a poet and research scholar from India. He is currently working on his Ph.D. at Lalit Narayan Mithila University Darbhanga, India. His poems have published in Pagan Imagination, P & W, Danse Macabre, Vox Poetica, Writing Raw, Whisper (on line publication), Tribal Soul Kitchen, Winamop, Literature India, Mother Bird, Retort Magazine, Kalinga Times and Holy Rose Review. Kim Keith lives in Gold Canyon, Arizona and is a senior at Arizona State University, with plans to pursue her MFA in 2011. She currently serves as an editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review, and her most recent work has been included or is forthcoming in The Houston Literary Review, The Shine Journal, Mad Swirl, LUX Creative Review, Fast and Deadly, Skive Magazine, Barrier Islands Review, Punkin House Digest, and Fissure Magazine. Lynne Knight has published four poetry collections, her most recent, Again (Sixteen Rivers Pr., 2009), Dissolving Borders (Quarterly Review of Literature), The Book of Common Betrayals (Bear Star Pr.), and Night in the Shape of a Mirror (David Robert Books); plus three award-winning chapbooks. A cycle of poems on Impressionist winter paintings, Snow Effects (Small Poetry Pr.), has been translated into the French by Nicole Courtet. Knight’s work has appeared in Best American Poetry 2000, and her awards include a Theodore Roethke Award from Poetry Northwest, a Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, an NEA grant, and the 2009 RATTLE Poetry Prize. She lives in Berkeley, CA. www.lynneknight.com Miodrag Kojadinovic is a Serbian-Canadian poet, erotica and nonfiction writer, whose work has appeared in anthologies, journals and magazines in the US, Serbia, Canada, Russia, the Netherlands, Slovenia, India, France, Montenegro, the UK, and Croatia. After years of teaching at universities and colleges in Mainland China and Macau, he recently returned to Serbia. He speaks seven languages and his writing has appeared in print in eight countries. Richard Kostelanetz is a writer-artist who has published poetry, stories, articles, reviews, and experimental prose to hundreds of magazines in the U.S. and abroad. He has written more than fifty books of criticism, cultural history and creative work, in addition to editing over three dozen anthologies of art and exposition. Among his recent books are, SoHo: The Rise and Fall of an Artist’s Colony (Routledge), 3 Canadian Geniuses (Colombo), More Wordworks (Talisman), and second editions of A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes (Schirmer/Routledge) and Conversing with Cage (Routledge). The recipient of numerous scholarships and grants, he has been a Visiting Professor of American Studies and English at the University of Texas and a Visiting Professor of graduate theater at Hunter College, CUNY. www.richardkostelanetz.com Alice Lacey has been an English Professor with the CUNY for almost two decades where she teaches creative writing, various literature electives and expository writing. She received her M.A. in Creative Writing/Poetry from NYU, and has served as the director/instructor of a grassroots Queens-based creative writing workshop, The Sunnyside Writers’ Circle, and publisher/editor of the literary magazine, The Circle Journal. She has read her works throughout New York City, and participates in after-school programs and conducts poetry workshops. Bruce Lader has published poems in over 100 international journals and anthologies, including Poetry, the New York Quarterly, the Humanist, International Poetry Review, Harpur Palate, New Millennium Writings, Margie, Poet Lore, Asheville Poetry Review, and Against Agamemnon: War Poems. The subject matter of his books, Landscapes of Longing (Main Street Rag Pub., 2009) and Discovering Mortality (March Street Pr., 2005) were impacted by his cultural experiences and from ten years of teaching teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds in NYC. Lader is also the founding director of Bridges Tutoring, an organization based in Raleigh, North Carolina, educating multicultural

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students; a former Writer-in-Residence at the Helene Wurlitzer Colony; and has received an honorarium from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara. www.brucelader.com Jason Lahr received his MFA in drawing and painting from Penn State University and his BFA in painting from Clarion University. He recently published his book, Words for Paintings (Stepsister Press, 2010), a collection of twelve years worth of texts alongside reproductions of his work and in-progress views from his studio. Lahr is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in painting at the University of Notre Dame, and is interviewed in this issue of phati’tude Literary Magazine. www.jasonlahr.net Mark Lamoureux recently published his first full-length collection, Astrometry Orgonon by BlazeVOX books in 2008. He is the author of five chapbooks: Poem Stripped of Artifice, winner of the New School 2007 Chapbooks Contest; Traceland, 29 Cheeseburgers, Film Poems and City/Temple. His work has been published in print and online in Fourteen Hills, Fence, Mustachioed, miPoesias, Jubilat, Denver Quarterly, Conduit, Lungfull!, Carve Poems, Coconut, GutCult and many others. In 2006, he started Cy Gist Press, a micropress focusing on ekphrastic poetry. He resides in Astoria, NY. http://cygistpress.blogspot.com Peter Laufer, winner of major awards for excellence in reporting, is an independent journalist, broadcaster and documentary filmmaker working in traditional and new media. While a correspondent for NBC News, he also reported, wrote, and produced several documentaries and special event broadcasts for the network that dealt in detail with crucial social issues. Laufer’s books include The Question of Consent: Innocence and Complicity in the Glen Ridge Rape Case, a study of the rape of a mentally retarded schoolgirl by a gang of her classmates. He has written Iron Curtain Rising, on the fall of Communism in Europe; and Inside Talk Radio: America’s Voice Or Just Hot Air, a severe criticism of contemporary talk radio. His recent books are The Dangerous World of Butterflies: The Startling Subculture of Criminals, Collectors, and Conservationists (Lyons Pr., 2010) and Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets (Lyons Pr., 2010). www.peterlaufer.com Samantha Lê was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the U.S. in 1983. The recipient of several James D. Phelan Literary Awards and the National League of American Pen Women Poetry Award, her publications include Holding Up the Sky (Chusma House Pub.) a collection of nonfiction stories; Good Intentions Are for Fools (Paper Street Pr.); A Moment to Remember (Pen Pushers Pub.); Running Backwards (JMW Pub.); My Solitude, a collection of spoken poetry and original music on CD (Chusma House Pub.); Corridors, a collection of poetry and short stories (Chusma House Pub.); and Little Sister Left Behind, a fictional memoir (Chusma House Pub.). She received her education from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, and San Jose State University, and is the owner and creative director of e33 design by Samantha Lê (www.e33design.com). Lê resides in San Jose, California. www.samanthale.com A. Robert Lee, a Britisher, is Professor of American Literature at Nihon University, Tokyo. He formerly taught at the University of Kent at Canterbury and has held visiting appointments at Princeton, the University of Virginia, Bryn Mawr College, Northwestern University, the University of Colorado and Berkeley. He has written numerous influential articles, essays and publications, and recently published Modern American Counter Writing: Beats, Outriders, Ethnics (2010); and Gothic to Multicultural: Idioms of Imagining in American Literary Fiction (2009). His essay-collections include China Fictions/English Language: Literary Essays in Diaspora, Memory, Story (2008); The Beat Generation Writers (1996); and Other British, Other Britain: Contemporary Multicultural Fiction (1995). Brad E. Leithauser is a poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher. After serving as the Emily Dickinson Lecturer in the Humanities at Mount Holyoke College and visiting professor at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he is now on faculty at The Johns Hopkins University in the writing seminars department. Among his many awards and honors are a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and, in 2005, the induction by the president of Iceland into the Order of the Falcon for his writings about Nordic literature. Leithauser is the author of the poetry collections Curves and Angles (2006); five novels, Equal Distance (1985); Hence (1989); Seaward (1993); The Friends of Freeland (1997); and A Few Corrections (2001); and a novel in verse, Darlington’s Fall (2002). He is also co-author of a book of light verse, Lettered Creatures, a collaboration with his brother, artist Mark Leithauser. Mirah V. Lucas is a student, activist, and aspiring performance and mixed media artist whose poetry has appeared in The Shore Magazine, ITCH, and American River Review. She resides near Sacramento, CA. Stephen Mead is a published artist, writer and maker of short collage-films living in NY. His latest Amazon.com release is Our Book of Common Faith, an exploration of world cultures and religions in hopes of finding what binds humanity as opposed to what divides it. Jesús Papoleto Meléndez is one of the original founders of the Nuyorican poets’ movement. He is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry (2001); an Artist for Community Enrichment (ACE) Award

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E K P H R A S I S: A C O N V E R SATI O N B ETW E E N PO ETS & ARTI STS from the Bronx Council on the Arts, New York (1995); and a COMBO (Combined Arts of San Diego)-NEA Fellowship in Literature (1988). Meléndez has spent the past 30 years working as a poetry-facilitator working in the public schools, coordinating successful poetry/creative writing workshops impacting the lives of thousands of young people. The author of the poetry collections, Casting Long Shadows (NY, 1970), Have You Seen Liberation (NY, 1971), Street Poetry & Other Poems (Barlenmir House, NY 1972), and Concertos On Market Street in 1993. Nancy Méndez-Booth is an accomplished writer and editor in a wide range of topics, from financial and professional services to academia and education, which is reflected by the companies she has worked for such as Essence magazine, Deloitte Services LP, Wall St. Journal and Movado Group Inc. Méndez-Booth received her B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing at Amherst College and her M.A. in English Literature and Critical Theory at Rutgers University. Having taught at Rutgers University, she is a freelance writer and conducts seminars and workshops; and writes short fiction and essays. She is currently working on her novel. www.nancymendezbooth.com Lorraine Miller Nuzzo has been Curator, Art Director of phati’tude Literary Magazine and “phati’tude-related” projects since 1997. While pursuing her professional career, Nuzzo studied painting with Mary Nagin and Carole Jay in New York; and with Tim Holden in Italy. She has held exhibitions at MIB and BJ Spoke Gallery; and is also a former partner of “hotshots unlimited photography,” which held an exhibit at the Langston Hughes Library. She holds a Master’s degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Hofstra University and a Bachelors degree in Psychology with a minor in Art from SUNY, Empire State. www.rainynuzzo.com Michael Montesano grew up in the small, forest town of Ringwood, NJ. He studied at Union College with poets Ed Pavlic and Jordan Smith and author/editor Binyavanga Wainaina, and began teaching English in Argentina in November 2009, which has been crucial in informing his world perspective and guiding his future goals. He is currently raising funding with fellow poet, Yllari Briceño as project partners with the Association for Children and their Environment (ANIA), to help the children of Huacarpay, a community devastated by the flooding in Cusco, Peru. Silas Parry is a poet and writer from Scotland. He received a B.A. Honours in Politics and Anthropology from Glasgow University, before moving to Manchester to work on several writing projects. He regularly performs at Glasgow’s “Toad-in-Mud” poetry readings, and art literature events around the country. Parry’s prose and poetry have been published in the first three editions of Type, a new quarterly poetry review. Kenneth Pobo won the 2009 chapbook contest from Main Street Rag for his manuscript, Trina and the Sky that was published it in 2009. His new chapbook, Tea on Burning Glass, is forthcoming in 2010 from Tandava Poetry Press. Stella Read is a Canadian poet who maintains an active role in several online writing groups. Her most recent accomplishments include the acceptance of her poem “patchwork” for Tiferet Magazine’s Fall 2010 issue as well as having two of her pieces published in Poetry Circle’s upcoming Anthology. henry 7. reneau, jr., a recent graduate of the University of California, Davis, double majored in English and African-American and African studies. He has published in various journals and anthologies, among them, Nameless Magazine, Blue Moon Literary & Art Review, tryst3.com, Pachuco Children Hurl Stones, and hardpan: a journal of poetry; and the chapbook, 13hirteen Levels of Resistance. He is working on a book of short stories centered on his life. Jon Sands, Editor of phati’tude Literary Magazine, has been a full-time teaching and performing artist since 2007. He is a recipient of the 2009 New York City-LouderARTS fellowship grant, and has represented New York City multiple times at the National Poetry Slam, subsequently becoming an NPS finalist. He is currently the Director of Poetry and Arts Education Programming at the Positive Health Project, a syringe exchange center located in Midtown Manhattan, as well as a Youth Mentor with Urban Word-NYC. Sands’ poems have appeared in decomP, Suss, The Literary Bohemian, Spindle Magazine, The November 3rd Club, and others. Edward Snow has published several previous volumes of Rilke translations with North Point Press, including Uncollected Poems (1996); The Book of Images (1994); New Poems [1908]: The Other Part (1987); and New Poems [1907] (1984). He is the recipient of an Academy of Arts and Letters Award for the body of his Rilke translations, and the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. Snow is also the author of Inside Bruegel (1997) and A Study of Vermeer (1979; revised and expanded, 1994), and is a professor of English at Rice University. Patricia Smith is a four-time national individual champion of the notorious and wildly popular Poetry Slam, the most successful competitor in slam history. She has read her work at venues around the world; was featured in the nationally-released film “Slamnation,” and appeared on the award-winning HBO series “Def Poetry Jam.” Her fifth book of poetry, Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Pr.) chronicles the human, physical and emotional toll exacted by Hurricane Katrina, which is also the focal point of a new dance/theater collaboration between Smith and Urban Bush Women dancer Paloma McGregor. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, poemmemoirstory, Harvard

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Divinity Bulletin, the Chautauqua Literary Journal, TriQuarterly, and other journals, and in many groundbreaking anthologies, most recently Gathering Ground, The Spoken Word Revolution, The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry, and Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry. Her poem “The Way Pilots Walk” received a Pushcart Prize, and is featured in Pushcart Prize XXXII: Best of the Small Presses. www.wordwoman.ws Janice D. Soderling was born in the United States but lives in Sweden. Her poetry and fiction has appeared one or more times in literary magazines of seven countries, among them: Beloit Poetry Journal, Blue Unicorn, Bottomfish, Cumberland Poetry Review, The Old Red Kimono, Tar River Poetry (U.S); The Malahat Review, Event, Fiddlehead, University of Windsor Review (Canada); Acumen, Staple New Writing, and Other Poetry (England). Her poems may be viewed online at Innisfree and The Barefoot Muse, forthcoming in The Shit Creek Review and archived at the Beloit Poetry Journal. Her poems were selected for the 1986-87 and the 1997 editions of Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry. She was awarded first prize in the Glimmer Train very short fiction competition (Summer 2006). Susan B. A. Somers-Willett is a poet, scholar, performer and the author of two critically acclaimed poetry collections, Roam (2006) and Quiver (2009). Her book of criticism, The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry: Race, Identity, and the Performance of Popular Verse in America (Univ. of Michigan Pr., 2009). Her writing has been featured in The Iowa Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Gulf Coast, Poets & Writers, and The New Yorker. Somers-Willett holds a B.A. from Duke University, an M.A. in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in American Literature at The University of Texas at Austin. She currently teaches creative writing and poetics as an Assistant Professor of English at Montclair State University in New Jersey and is interviewed in this issue of phati’tude Literary Magazine. www.susansw.com Danielle Spears is a graduate of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences from the University of Washington, Tacoma. She currently resides in Southeast Oklahoma where she teaches high school English, journalism, and speech/drama. Her essay entitled “The Onlooker,” appears in the September 2010 issue of Caper Journal. Andrew Stott is a writer living in Edinburgh. His short stories have been published in a number of literary magazines and he has been included in the New Writing Scotland anthology In The Event of Fire. www.andrew-stott.com Lora René Tucker is Assistant Editor of phati’tude Literary Magazine. She holds a BFA in Interior Design and a Masters in Social Work from Hunter College. She currently practices social work through Positive Direction, offering individual and creative therapy, cultural sensitivity and empowerment workshops. Tucker has performed her poetry at the Poetry Project, the Bowery Poetry Club and the Knitting Factory in NYC; and recently debut the poetry collection, Writes of Passage (2009). positive-directions.blogspot.com, inharmony2day.blogspot.com John Vick was born in Mississippi, moved to Canada and relocated to Oklahoma. He served in the military briefly in the mid-1980s when he was discharged for homosexuality. His has published in numerous venues in both print and electronic media such as The Red Room: Writings from Press 1, Laura Hird, The Hiss Quarterly, What Light, Dislocate, Poems Niederngasse, and The Texas Poetry Calendar. Vick has collage work upcoming in The Mad Hatter’s Review, and audio work in qarrtsiluni. His chapbook, Chaperons of a Lost Poet (BlazeVOX, 2009), received honors in the Ronald Wardell contest (Skidrow Penthouse) in 2008, and was nominated for the Pushcart. He currently resides in Minneapolis, MN. www.johnvick.org Tim Wise is an anti-racist writer and educator who lectures internationally on issues of comparative racism, race and education, racism and religion, and racism in the labor market. He is the author of five books, including Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (City Lights Books, 2010); Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama (City Lights Books, 2009); and White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Soft Skull Pr., 2007). He has contributed essays to 25 books, and his writings have appeared in dozens of popular, professional and scholarly journals. He graduated from Tulane University in 1990 and received antiracism training from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, in New Orleans. www.timwise.org Ryan Welsh has a B.A. in English and philosophy from Duke University. He received an M.A. in the humanities from the University of Chicago and is pursuing his Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from UNC-Charlotte. Currently, Welsh teaches English at Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC. Theresa Ann White is a native Floridian who identifies primarily as a poet. She’s been writing for many years and has been published in national magazines, literary journals and online content sites. Her poems have been published in numerous journals including Swell, Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly, Modern Haiku, Triplopia, Red River Review, Lily, Blue Fifth Review, Kaleidowhirl, and Red Booth Review. Her poem, “The Two Fridas,” appears in the anthology, Letters to the World, published by Red Hen Press. Ann’s poetry has been honored with a Pushcart Prize nomination and placement in national competitions including the Douglas Freels Poetry contest. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles in December 2008.

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C O V E R A R T Edward L. Rubin “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing or painting or just creating something out of nothing. I’ve always done it, and I imagine that I always will. I think it’s because I like to tell stories, or rather, I need to tell stories, and this compulsion profoundly defines me: who I am, how I am, what I am; it’s my job in life. So, I spend a lot of my time observing, noticing, watching, staring, and looking. I’m looking at colors, and hues, and textures, and spaces, and volumes, and light, and shadow; I’m looking at dogs, and cats, and buildings, and sidewalks, and trees, and water, and SUVs, and CNN, and everything else that’s right in front of me. And what do I see? Ambiguity. Drama. Tension. Humor. Contradiction. Sensuality. Mythology. Tragedy. Beauty. Rapture. Love. And God.” “I was born and raised in Los Angeles, but I’ve lived all over the place: Santa Barbara, where I studied art history; Berkeley, where I studied Architecture; Paris, France, where I studied painting and drawing at the Academie de Port Royal, and worked in an architecture firm; Long Beach, California, where I studied etching and lithography; Pittsburgh, where I received an MFA from Carnegie-Mellon University in Set Design for Theatre; New York, where I scrounged out a living as an assistant set designer and spent a summer making giant Garfield the Cat costumes; San Francisco, where I had an amazing studio at the Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyards, and also worked on films and designed Industrial trade shows.” “Returning to Los Angeles, I became an Art Director and Production Designer in Television, Film and Commercials, working on over sixty shows and earning four Emmy Nominations, including an Emmy win for Art Direction for THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY’S CINDERELLA, starring Brandy and Whitney Houston. Other Emmy nominations include ANDERSONVILLE, DISNEY’S ANNIE, and the Disney Channel’s RETURN TO HALLOWEENTOWN. During all of this, I continued to draw and paint, eventually settling on soft pastel as my medium of choice. I’ve been using them for almost twenty years.” “I am also a Licensed Professional Religious Science Practitioner (not Scientology), and a Volunteer Chaplain at Cedars Sinai Hospital. My spiritual path is the most essential part of my life, and I honor it through the practice of study, prayer and meditation. I am a proud member of Pacific Masters Swimming, and I swim all of the time. My intention, in my art and in my life, is to marry the mystical with the narrative, revealing the transcendent and healing nature of Love that is our divine inheritance. Please visit my website at: www.edwardlrubin.com.”

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