Such a treat to see Carmen Vegas’ eclectic art, discover this music space, read poems and stories, listen to piano and guitar and impromptu stand up. A fun, organic night.

A nice surprise to receive an award at the ALFA Art Gallery Awards for the photograph “Mystery.”

I love this anthology and what it represents and to have a protest poem included.

Buy it here.

punk

1. a loud, fast-moving, and aggressive form of rock music
2. a worthless person (often used as a general term of abuse)
3. an inexperienced young person
4. a criminal
5. substance that smolders when ignited
6. in poor or bad condition
7. to trick or deceive
8. to utterly defeat

How do you define “punk”? A collection of forty-one poetic voices ready to explode, PUNK gives us an examination of the nuances of this word. 

​Featuring work by the following writers:

Hanna Abi Akl • Isabella Basile • Catharine Batsios • Sonia Beauchamp • Michael McKeown Bondhus • Schyler Butler • Kenneth Cale • Brent Canle • Michael Chang • Adrienne Christian • Ashley Cline • Jason B. Crawford • Ann V. DeVilbiss • Justene Dion-Glowa • Matt Dube • Alexandre Ferrere • Christine Fojas • Cheryl Harrell • Kim Harvey • Juleigh Howard-Hobson • Naya Jackson • Carolyn Janecek • Shannon Kee • Erin Kirsh • Koss • Sarah Leavesley • Tanasha Martin • Liz McGrath • Paige Melin • Drew Pisarra • McCaela Prentice • Chris Prewitt • Anisa Rahim • E. Samples • Tiffany Shaw-Diaz • Kristine Esser Slentz • Olivia Thomes • Emily Uduwana • Sara Wilson • Phoebe Woofter • Zebib K. A.

New prose poem in Common Ground Review. Read it here.

how can you not this love this cover?

So excited to have poems in this new anthology titled New Moons featuring Muslim writers from N. America published by Red Hen Press and edited by Kazim Ali coming out this fall.

available for pre-order now. https://lnkd.in/eseKb8dq
#NewMoonsAnthology #MuslimVoices

New work will be on view based on Jersey City, close to home, and made during my week at the SMUSH 2020 Arts Residency in Journal Square. This series of photos features an annual dance festival that happens footsteps away from SMUSH Gallery.

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I had been taking photographs since high school but abandoned it for many years until I started traveling to India after college. Even then, I did not process the negatives or work with the images with such seriousness until I met Leandre Jackson, a brilliant photographer based out of Philadelphia. During all this time and for years to come, Leandre was a mentor, teaching me craft and encouraging me to keep shooting regardless of all else. See his work here.

Leandre was a senior paralegal by day at Community Legal Services, a nonprofit for civil legal aid for the poor. I was a law school intern entering my final year of law school. In between intakes for landlord-tenant matters, clients being evicted and suffering in inhabitable apartments, I consulted him about clients, and observed his images on the wall. One day I asked him about the photographs. When I told him that I took photographs too and he asked I share them, a beautiful collaboration unfolded. Leandre, Elizabeth Derickson, another photographer and former CLS housing unit paralegal, and I developed a group exhibit called “Living,” a collection of images portraying ordinary people from around the world and how they live.

In 2006, we exhibited “Living” in the Community Legal Services office in north Philadelphia together for the first time.

In 2008, we had a group exhibit in Chelsea, New York titled, “Look Close, See Far.”

In 2010, we shared “Living” at the Visual Legal Roundtable Conference at University of Pennsylvania.

In 2010, we also had another exhibition in the North Philadelphia office of Community Legal Services and this time with a Gallery Talk. Here are a few images by Leandre of me and Liz talking about our images.

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