The editors' introduction to the 7th printed issue of Bourgeon, which quotes George Balanchine who wrote, "many of us are more easily entertained if we have in advance some information about an art that happens to be strange to us.”
To the degree that we as artists prepare the audience to see the world in stereotypes, we perpetuate a society that only knows how to know through separation. Whose identity is it anyway – ours or the audiences? Whose character is it anyway?
Rob Bettmann responsed to Loren Ludwig: "A poet could say that the English language is the language of oppression, the language of Columbus, Nixon, Bush, Rumsfeld and whatever that guys name is on Fox News. But you could equally say that English is the language of Audre Lorde, Nina Simone, and Bell Hooks."
What has been really beautiful with this project is that there are so many similarities between the stories that I hear – nationally and internationally.
Tyrant-Poem
IWe will shake our bodies like animals abandoned in the forest,and the moon will sing lullabies for thedead;the dead who were mine and did...
New Day, New War
dawn breaks over dust—jets thunder into IranIsrael’s warning
missiles cross at dusk—sirens bloom in BeershebaTel Aviv trembles
bunker busters boom—America joins the fraycall...
Glass Houses
We hide behind glass—thin, trembling breath,shattered silence,each crack a raw wound,a secret bleeding light.Truth fractures us—yet in jagged breaks,strength flickers, trembling,not a mask,...
