Visionaries
Now We Bow Our Heads: Interview with Poet Ralph Pennel
But I believe that we all, at the very least,
should have some. Beauty, that is.
Maybe even just a little more. That
even in a poem about beauty
we must be moved to see its two sure hands
and how our own fit perfectly inside them.
The Ungraspable Shadow
“If you look at my work, you will notice I hide my models a lot. And because I hide them. I am able to show more.”
~ Photographer Jonathan Mechanicus, Netherlands
The Natural Tension Between Creativity and Constraints
“Math is inseparable from nature, from us; and, as the search for numbers went on for thousands of years, numbers represent the human search for knowledge. “
Read MoreCloser to Wildness: Interview with Oregon Artist Irene Hardwicke Olivieri
“I realize that many people might never read what I write in a painting, but I like knowing that if they do, they might find something interesting, like the text in one painting describes how to raise caterpillars, another describes aphrodisiac recipes from around the world. When I’m working on a painting about something deeply personal like family secrets, the text happens organically – I’m feeling, thinking, painting.”
Read MoreSam Roxas-Chua, Eugene, Oregon: “Poetry is a Raft”
“Poetry is a raft for me. A safe raft that allows me to go into great depth and explore all the scary stuff. To make sense of what happened. Because if I wasn’t able to make sense of what happened, I would be mute.”
Read MoreJohn L. Stanizzi, Poet: “Teaching didn’t do anything for my soul. It gave me a soul.”
“Teaching didn’t do anything for my soul. It gave me a soul.”
Read MoreMarwa Alnajjar, Amman, Jordan: “We defend our artworks with our fists and our crazy courage”
Countries in the Middle East vary a lot. for instance, there is a great difference between Dubai and Afghanistan, but professional women are oppressed all over the world in many ways. I myself have faced a lot of obstacles being a woman artist, yet I knew that women can do everything men could do. The more men have told me, “you can’t do that,” the more I had to prove them wrong. I had to hold it up for all women who looked up to me to be brave and courageous. We defend our artworks with our fists and our crazy courage. When you have guys that disrespect you, you’re gonna have to teach them a lesson, otherwise they are going to keep walking all over you. I’m sorry, but that’s the way it is out there; it’s not easy. But this also reflects views of the art world in general.
Read MorePenelope Scambly Schott: “It is the human condition to be in love with language”
More women than you might think have turned to prostitution to survive; sometimes it’s called marriage.
Read MoreThe Place for Unhappiness: Interview with Bulgarian poet, Peycho Kanev
I am part of the Balkan tradition. All of these dark memories are part of me, they are inside my blood, inside my mind. They dwell inside me. And, of course, they become part of my poetry, too.
Read MoreCensorship and the Sins of Omission: The Plight of the Independent Presses
But there is another type of book banning – a banning by omission, rather than commission – that goes unnoticed. Marketplace censorship, the de facto banning of books by independent presses that don’t have advertising budgets, or distribution deals with one of the few book distributors who have a virtual monopoly on distributing to bookstores and libraries.
Read MorePostcard From Pakistan: Cross-Cultural Friendships Drown Out the Silencing
Many American friends might be even surprised to know that despite a big public outcry about US drone attacks and high civilian casualties, a large number of Pakistanis don’t blame or hate the American people. They understand that Americans are as much victims of this present ‘war’ as we are. This understanding, this acceptance, is born of the deep spirituality permeating most of our society.
Read MoreCensorship in the High School: Missing the Point About What We Deem Offensive
This was no student vandal…much worse. This was the work of one of my colleagues.
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