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.
art opening
instead of a gun
you use a camera
amputees
are your subject
/these poor people/ you say
the walls of the gallery are dark
prints pinned neatly under spotlight
//life...
LACUNA
Another sun unfurlsover chewing gumcanyons, long gnawedby your foothold.
A corpus colossus,hippocamping: you couchin fault lines, hammockedwhite matter.
Stroke mewith each toss-turn —a neuron-starved bender.
Hypoxia will...
