Recommended Reading: three poems about depression by Alexandra Wuest.
“Stay busy / Take time for myself”
Citizen on the Stage
Claudia Rakine's Citizen: An American Lyric, which won the Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and was included in our own list of "Nine Books for the Post-Ferguson Era," has been adapted for the stage, and previews are beginning in Los Angeles. Graywolf, the independent press behind Citizen, The Empathy Exams and On Immunity: An Inoculation, has interviewed the playwright behind the adaptation about the project and his process. As he explains it, "what makes the book—and the theatre piece—unique is that they expose and illuminate the small, sometimes unintended, and unconscious acts of everyday racism. Subtle, insidious, soul-crushing."
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Last words
Japanese director Satoshi Kon died last Tuesday at the age of 46. His last words, a rambling text that his family uploaded to the Internet following his death, have just been translated to English: "Everyone, thank you for all the truly great memories. I loved the world I lived in."
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Color in Poetry
Recommended reading: "What is Color in Poetry" by Dorothea Lasky for Poetry. It's a lengthy article but a thoughtful one, and, as a bonus, it includes some of Lasky's childhood poetry. Pair with our earlier post about reading teenage poetry to crowds and you've got a theme for the day.
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The Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Poets wants to build The Bridge, a social networking site aimed at connecting student poets with mentor poets. The idea is that students could find mentors for less money than a workshop or writing program might cost, and that mentors would be able to get paid without having to locate a hard-to-find teaching job. You can get a fuller idea of the plan on the organization’s IndieGoGo page.