By Taylor Murrow 2-Cent’s website describes the organization as a “PBS documentary, an SNL skit, and an In Living Color spoof all rolled into one.” And as awesome as that sounds, they’re really much more. They’re a group of young men and women who came together and decided that the current literacy situation among youth … 2-Cent’s LISTEN! Literacy and Arts Festival, May 21 at Noon
By Nathan C. Martin Fifty years later, we’re still trying to piece together the phenomenon of the 60s—what elements were involved in that volatile time? And what can we learn from its triumphs and failures? The further we move from that point in history, the better our understanding of the context in which it occurred … Historical Nuts and Bolts: An Interview with Karen Tei Yamashita
I wrote a piece for Pelican Bomb about Loujon Press in terms of its aesthetic achievements (and failures) as a fine-press/artistic publisher. Here’s an excerpt: The short-lived but mighty Loujon Press has become a legend among New Orleans literary circles. Admired for its publication of prominent writers at the tail end of the Beat Generation … The Artistry of Loujon Press: Part 1
Portrait by Lisa Asagi R. Zamora Linmark’s new novel, Leche, follows a Filipino-American named Vince as he returns to Manila for the first time after living in Honolulu for 13 years. The satirical tale touches on issues from dictatorship to borderlands identity, pop culture to queer culture. In the excerpt below, Vince has just arrived … Excerpt: LECHE by R. Zamora Linmark
Local poet David Rowe is raising money to fund an upcoming tour to promote his new collection, Unsolicited Poems, along with the new letterpress literary magazine Dorado, both published by Verna Press. Check out the project’s Kickstarter page and kick in a few bucks, or you might see David down on Frenchmen with a typewriter … The Unsolicited Poetry Tour
Michael Kimball will embark upon a reading tour of the Southern United States toward the end of this month and has just added a stop in New Orleans, at the Antenna Gallery, on June 9. Kimball is the author of three devastating books, the most recent of which, Us, came out in the U.S. this … This Just In: Michael Kimball and Blake Butler at Antenna, June 9
From The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913-1946. “Baby Woojums” is Stein, “Papa Woojums” is Van Vechten, who was a writer, photographer, and Stein’s literary executor. To Carl Van Vechten Postmark: 21 February 1935 The Roosevelt Hotel New Orleans, Louisiana My dearest papa Woojums Here we are still in New Orleans, … New Orleans in Passing: The Letters of Gertrude Stein
By Nathan C. Martin Open City magazine launched when I was seven years old. It ceased publication in February after a 20-year run. In his elegy to the magazine in the Wall Street Journal, editor Thomas Beller, who is now an assistant professor at Tulane, wrote about the thirty-somethings who approached him at the last … The Circus Ran for a Little While: Thomas Beller on the Life and Death of Open City Magazine
New Orleanian (by way of Tuscaloosa) Nik De Dominic is editor of the lit. website The Offending Adam, which has just released a Tuscaloosa Issue in support of his alma mater’s tornado-ravaged town. From TOA: This week, The Offending Adam pauses our usual publication schedule for a specific and important purpose. We are presenting a … The Offending Adam TUSCALOOSA ISSUE
Wonderbread-white New Jersey cultural reporter Ben Westhoff embarked upon a journey into the heart of Dixie to extract stories that illuminate the precipitous rise of Southern Hip Hop. Not precisely a cultural critic, Westhoff employed candid interviews and embedded observation to attempt a description of the lives and worlds from which the genre emerged. The … Down White Boy in the Dirty Dirty South: Ben Westhoff Talks Southern Rap at Garden District Books Monday, May 2
