Editorial: LEVEL UP! Gratitude, Growth and Other Goings On in the Exit Strata-sphere
There is a poem I wrote in the early spring that describes the moment of meeting, and attraction, as... cellular intelligence, as when
my electrons got all jumpy-like
from first you walked in the room
recognized yours like an overdue reunion
refugees from the counties of each other
and I bring that up now because, metaphorically, our Exit Strata electrons have been getting all jumpy-like a hell of a lot recently.
Far beyond a one-to-one connection, this piece posits a theory of interpersonal co-evolution that I've been tossing around lately -- one that suggests that we instinctively recognize our creationary comrades: those who will make our world and life a better place, who will inspire us, challenge us, and help us evolve.
This electromagnetic impulse, lets say - the biological inclination to draw this person or these people into your self or your environment - becomes/grows into "love" with WORK: because even chemical reactions require catalysts, and require the appropriate conditions for full realization.
We come to love those people who bring this original impulse into being -- through the ultimately selfless act of commitment to another person or group of people. We appreciate and feel in our very bodies how awesome it is that these people stay with us, and give of themselves and their energy again and again.
So we're going to start out with a big hearty THANK YOU. Oh man.
We love you people.
We love our contributors, the people who come to our events, the people who write us email, the people who chat with us at our tables -- and we get all jumpy for you.
You know why? Because you make us believe in what we're doing, and you show us that YOU believe in what we're doing. You let us know that it supports and inspires you. That it is encouraging and enabling and growing your work and your connections and your community. And because altogether, we're feeling like we've, well, LEVELLED UP. To a new Strata.
Let's hear it for 2012! Did you know it's the United Nations' Year of Cooperatives? I think that "country of eachother" those lines channel an understanding of is, in fact, the collaborative, cooperative future we are building here together.
IT'S a FAMILY AFFAIR: Get to Know Exit Strata's Poetry Festival Team
AWESOME CREATORS: The Poetry Society of New York Builds a Festival (and a Dream)
The poetry landscape in New York City can be confusing to navigate, especially given its ever growing diaspora of splinter cells.
Despite the density and scale of creative energy feeding this array, the experience of this fragmentation is often that of participation in one or a number of small groups, working in isolation. Sustaining these communities takes constant effort and commitment on the part of not only those who choose to plant the seed of reading series, magazine, or so on, but also from those who support and participate in these efforts -- and in many cases there is a fine line between success and utter exhaustion, the point at which sustenance seems too dear a price, and in which community feels like a utopian fantasy.
Sometimes, it takes a certain kind of vision -- one that steps back, out away from these stands of trees, to see the verdant, expansive forest -- to help empower a return to joy and belief in our work, and in the strength of our creative community.
If you're here, you know this is a mission near and dear to our hearts. That we exist primarily as a creators community, a network, and a platform for mutual expression, appreciation, collaboration, dialogue, interdisciplinary exploration. Our work is, ultimately, an exercise in the self-actualization of a viable cooperative for growing value. But we know we cannot do this alone, and so we are always searching for allies, comrades in the fight for viable abundance....
Taking Stock/In Stock :: Editorial Updates AND at a Bookstore Near You
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clockwise from top left: Exit Strata PRINT! vol. 1 "brownie", PRINT! vol. 1 limited edition, blood atlas (DeSilva-Johnson), obsolete objects in the literary imagination (Pinder), limited edition vol.1 broadside[/caption]
You know how, just when you think that everything is about to slow down, and you're going to have time for all the things on your To-Do-list, which is looking more and more like an epic poem? And then, you know, it doesn't slow down at all?
Yeah. Then.
Well, that's kind of how it's been since the print launch...
AWESOME CREATORS :: SPRING PREVIEW
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With Poetry Month recently ended, I find myself having separation anxiety from the influx of lovestuff our 30/30/30 series was made of. I've been excited to note that our poetry community's efforts have been making the rounds -- that connections are being established, gratitude circulated, and love received amongst circles of readers, friends, our terrific contributors, and many of the profiled poets, as well.
Of course, to everything there is a season and by no means does April's close equate an end to Exit Strata's commitment to mutual appreciation. In fact, it gives us an opportunity to shine more, and well deserved light on our ongoing AWESOME CREATORS profile series, the inauguration of which slipped in on little cat feet amidst the Poetry Month festivus.
What a bunch of awesome folk we've got in the bullpen to introduce to you this season! We could not be more excited, and since I've always been the kind of kid who wants to wear ALL her new clothes RIGHT AWAY I just *had* to share.
I've given you mini preview schpiels here, in case you want to w(h)et? your whistle.
You can look forward to conversations with:
RICHARD EOIN NASH : RED LEMONADE, SMALL DEMONS
ANNA BARSAN/JESSIE LEVANDOV: SIGNIFIED
NICK LEAVENS : THE CLAQUE
JOSEPH RIIPPII
VELCROW RIPPER : OCCUPY LOVE
POETRY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK / NY POETRY FESTIVAL
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WOOHOO!
