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.
Dry Splash
All these years we’ve been worried about
the sea levels rising,
when what we should have paid attention to
was the fresh water levels falling.
Long-forgotten riverbeds...
Abandoning Reasonskittering propositions
declare love
a superstition
damned to believing itself
we choose not to control
the burning breakdowns in logic
we’ve opened between us
Love, Past Continuous
there are no forevers
for...
The Bending
There are whales in the sky. The last of the day’s sun presses upbrilliant, flat, white bellies; the higher-ups’ downward pressure, astrongly moral...
