The first month of the New Year is winding to a sleepy-eyed close; most folks have long since shook the Holiday hangover and found solace in the quiet lull following a freshly-minted year. But let us not grow bland as we settle into a comfortable grind! After a healthy Holiday hibernation, Sarabande Books’ 21c Reading Series is bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to spice up your Monday nights once more. The 2012 series premiere starts tonight at 7:30pm, and poets H.L.
Poetry is often relegated to the dustiest shelves and the farthest reaches of our thoughts; a genre most readers slogged through begrudgingly in high school and promptly dismissed on the other side of the diploma. Poetry is “stuffy” and “irrelevant”, perhaps even, dare I say it, “fussy”. But these stereotypes are true misnomers to the good name of The Poem, and deft poets, such as David Hernandez, easily vanquish such tarnishes. Hernandez’s latest collection of poems – published by Louisville’s own Sarabande Books &ndas
When prowling through the aisles of a bookstore, on the hunt, it is easy to become mislead. Prominent displays feature an alluring array of colorful covers and beguiling titles, innocently situated to whet your appetite and ensnare your senses. I have been caught in this marketing trap numerous times, my friends. Lured into some fantasy by my own overactive faculties and then woefully disappointed by the actual words on the pages. But my foray into Caitlin Horrocks’ written world wa
A trip to The Bookstore can sometimes be a daunting endeavor in that ever-elusive quest for the right read. Bibliophages thirsty for their next word-fix often crumble in the face of the thousand titles vying for their attention on the shelf. Which to choose? Which venture to risk?
The term “hysteria” can trace its rather curious roots back to the ancient Greeks. Often attributed to Hippocrates, “hysteria” began its journey to the modern English lexicon as a term used to describe the movements of a woman’s uterus as it flew about her body, causing disease and driving her wild. A fun fact. While it is now clear that the female womb remains stationary, the idea of the wild or “bad girl” still remains an alluring taboo in our society. Grabbing misbehavior by the horns, Louisville poet
What is your identity? For many of us this is a loaded – and perhaps very sensitive – question. Humans construct their individual senses of Self from a myriad of different places and experiences. We all have very unique feelings about the structure and meaning of a person’s distinctive identity; definitions are hazy at best. In the case of 21c’s current art exhibition, Cuba Now, the idea of cultural identity takes center stage.
Tonight is the final poetic march of the Red Penguins. The vermilion little sentinels will guard the gates of art for one final venture of poetry – at least until next year. Sarabande Books’ popular series will bow out for a winter sleep after tonight’s reading; the poetically hungry among us must simply make do with the healing salve of cookies and coats and all the caramel-covered commercialism of the coming holiday season. Fill your belly, save your mind is the trade-off, I believe. Leading the charge for this last evening are poets Nicole
Reading a play can sometimes amount to a starched, odd experience. As a reader you are inhaling the bones of imagined action, the skeleton of the movement and dynamic words of the actors on stage. Sitting alone in a chair digesting directional prompts and character expressions is an entirely different interaction with the story and mood of an on-stage performance. Humor and body language bring renewed subtly into the dialogue; we realize the vision as a viewer. Much the same can be true for the work of the poet. Hearing the words vocalized on stage brings those
“Art has, at its core, a highly individual, stubborn regard for truth. And only a few truths are pretty. ” The idea of “Truth” is often used as a bright and shining banner in regards to morality, justice and faith. An idiom easily blended with other pillars of virtue and carved into marble on federal buildings. But as Sallie Bingham bluntly reminds those of us who live in the real world: “…few truths are pretty.
