A friend and student of Thomas Merton, Ernesto Cardenal is a Catholic priest in Nicaragua. A proponent of Liberation Theology, Cardenal served as Minister Of Culture in the Sandinista government. The story goes that Rev. Cardenal wrote this poem right after reading, in an article in Time, of Marilyn Monroe’s death. For my part, I …
The Brentwood Anthology Poems by members of the Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange edited by Judith R. Robinson and Michael Wurster LUMMOX Press, 2014 $15.00 Since re-locating from Boston to Pittsburgh in 2009, I’ve noticed a commonality among Pittsburghers: they like creating against a rough background. They like growing art out of the soot, finding alternative beauty …
Friday evening kicked off a weekend of events that honored African music and dance, and African diaspora. Presented by The Legacy Arts Project and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Dance Africa returned to Pittsburgh for its fourth year. Founder of Dance Africa, Dr. “Baba” Chuck Davis, started the show with a tribute to the “elders” in …
proxy Poems by R. Erica Doyle Belladonna, 2013 $15.00 For a while now, we’ve been a society fascinated by the use of science as a lens to scrutinize human emotion. The practice dates as far back as The Twilight Zone, but more recently has been taken up by writers like Margaret Atwood and Brenda Shaughnessy. …
Many professional dancers studied their craft in a college or university setting where students are often expected to create their own work in choreography and composition classes. The environment is supportive and helpful, with feedback from professors and peers. But as in all art forms, we improve with practice. Some choreographic skill is honed in …
Fugitive Colors by Lisa Barr Arcade Publishing, 2014 $24.95 Set in Europe on the cusp of World War II, Lisa Barr’s Fugitive Colors is the story of Julian Klein, a boy who breaks free from a culture and lifestyle not conducive to his art by moving across the Atlantic, from Chicago to Paris, to grow …
I first learned about treachery when my family moved the 3 miles from our small house and farm on U. S. # 19 to a sixteen room house in Mill Village the summer I turned eight. I don’t exactly remember reading that word, treachery, or hearing the word, treachery, used by my parents, but somehow …
Neighbors Poems by Jay Nebel Saturnalia Books, 2015 $15.00 Perhaps what remains most poignant for the reader after studying Jay Nebel’s Neighbors, winner of the 2014 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize, is reverence for what many of us may deem mundane: the everyday. The 3-bedroom colonial next door we pass by without a thought. The freshly …