two poems from a rind

These poems are the beginning of a book-length manuscript that explores the natural world as a recorder of lost history and lineage. Clicking on each poem below will pull up a PDF of the full text of the poem. Photo...

Climate Patinations

This series of three bronze pieces displays a range of coloration created by different climates throughout the US. Bronze is unique for its durable and documentative qualities. It has the ability to carry information into the future, which is why...

Daybook

This is a serial poem in short parts, a skinny slow intense work documenting a period of personal and national catastrophe, grief, and loss. First month: Finn and I share a desk: home means propped windows, tax papers, old notebooks...

Hues of Origin

The idea behind the triptych “Hues of Origin” was born when I considered the concept of reincarnation. This is a fascinating but complex subject, and it is a bedrock of many unanswered questions. In these pieces, I seek to portray...

Selections from ‘Godsnack’

These poems exist within a larger manuscript called Godsnack, in which I explore the intersection of feminism, godliness, and pop culture. Godsnack is indebted to many female pop culture icons of recent decades—from Siouxsie Sioux and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, to Fiona...

Levain

A soil with a beating heart. A leaven that is a seed of Earth. The Earth that is the beginning. Impression in clay that shows the energy of the Earth. Thoughts from artist Zuzanna Michalska on her piece Levain How...

Puncture

An actor is forced to confront his sexuality after being cast in a short film which blurs the lines between fiction and reality. “He’s not really alive, is he?” You’re thirty-two and work the front desk at a ritzy spa...

Okaerinasai: Finding my Identity in the Months of May

The Zen master and poet Eihei Dogen wrote an essay called Uji, Being-Time, which is essentially, about the non-separation between being and time. They are one in the same. Being, as in action, is time, and time, being. The totality...

Insomnia, Four Voices

Insomnia works off a simple set of rules. I pick up a random book, open to a random page and select a snippet; repeat until finished. It’s interesting to me how the voices arise out of such a process, also how...

‘Desire-Production’ and ‘Object / Image’

Desire-Production and Object / Image are a thematic mix, engaging with intersections of literature, technology, and environment. Desire-Production Within what terms do you imaginethe church in your hometown, assuminga small town, assuming a churchtown. Something rough that could touch you...

Drawings by Emanuela Iorga

In my drawings, I interweave real-world environments with fantastical, imaginary spaces. It’s not a conscious attempt—at least not in the beginning—but I arrive there gradually, following one shape, then another. My sister, who’s also a painter, tells me I’m creating...

Ruth Again

This poem is part of a ‘resurrections’ project to summon ancient and mythical women into present day, in the hopes that inhabiting their feelings, fury, and patience will bring new understanding. I bleed out of every memory of you. You...

Everything Is Impossibly Annoying

Everything is Impossibly Annoying is an experimental piece inspired by Anna Karenina, Grief is the Thing With Feathers, and Vine compilations on YouTube. Told in three parts, it follows a boy, then a young man, who seeks friendship from an...

Travelling Inward 5

Monoprint on paper. This piece comes from the continuous search for my Inner Self. The more art I create the more I feel that different aspects of my personality are amalgamating for a higher purpose. Thoughts from artist Cristina Iorga...

“Ovid” and “Teotihuacan and Us”

At the center of my forthcoming book The Leniad is a sprawling epic about a fictive character’s exploits in sex, travel, and the daily world of capital. On either side of this epic are short, intense poems that shape-shift. “Ovid”...

Subterranean

A short story about a couple spending a weekend in a seaside town, where their future will be decided. It was too cloudy for much of a sunset, but the forecast was hopeful. They walked from the station along the...

New World Recycling

New World Recycling is part of a larger series of poems that examine / explore the decay and danger within a rural, often forgotten landscape; the harm within the intimate (here, of queer intimacy); and the haunting presence and aftershocks...

Exquisite Pain: The Visual Album

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, artist-turned-activist Convict Julie is an interdisciplinary, all-encompassing artist. As a songwriter, producer, and performing artist, Convict Julie shares her lived experiences through her music, creating empathetic connections with her audience through themes of mental health, Blackness,...

abstract zeitgeist

Akim is above all else about visually perceiving and visually expressing himself. With his works he explores the interplay of analog and digital technologies through intuitive abstract visualizations of his experience of the world. This playground, free of form and...

Hope

The fourth work from the Ecxtasy collection. “Hope” is about putting your trust back into the universe. It gives one the ability to see who is trustworthy and who is not for a short period of time. About Ecxtasy Collection...

Stalactites

This essay explores seeing and being seen. The essay uses a trip to a water cave to look at my own ability to adapt to a new environment and my inability to fully see the place I was living.

Opera Intensives: A Three Act Essay

"Opera Intensives: A Three Act Essay" is a braided memoiristic essay that explores my experiences with singing, a failed potential relationship, and critically examining the Western European classical music canon.

The Jesus Delusion

The tragic event of Miami’s Surfside condo collapse (June 25, 2021) symbolized an ongoing change contested by pundits for years, the sort of tectonic change that can only be properly acknowledged in retrospect, once a critical mass of expert and...