BY JOANNA C. VALENTE
Here's some reads, tunes, & other goodness you don't want to miss:
Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote "'You’re talked to as if you are a junior' – employees on workplace racism" over at The Guardian:
"In her recent review of race in the workplace, Baroness McGregor-Smith found that people of colour are much more likely to be overqualified for their jobs than white counterparts, who often advance up the ladder of promotion with ease. In other words, BAME talent is not necessarily lacking in abundance, but it is seriously lacking in support.
It is a statement that resonates with Esther. “They’ll never make you more senior,” she says. “When you ask, ‘Why aren’t you giving me a more senior role?’, they just put up blockers and say, ‘Well, we do know you wanted to go to the next stage, but we don’t think you’re management material.’ I have graduates who work with me who, after two years, are in the same position as me. They tell me straight up: ‘I don’t have to answer to you.’”
Rachel M. Cohen wrote a piece called "Why Education Isn't the Key to a Good Income" at The Atlantic:
"Deborah Menkart, the executive director of Teaching for Change, agrees that Rothstein’s research supports what teachers have long known from their own experience on the front lines. “I think it also affirms the focus,” she said, on having “children not just see schools as a ticket out of poverty, as a way to ‘rise above’ your community, but as a way to [be] agents for change within their communities.” “Part of the problem,” she adds, “is that the whole conversation around education has become so focused on helping individuals ‘escape’ their bad circumstances, rather than helping them become part of the solution.”
Laura Page has a poem up at Yes Poetry:
"We play with deformity. We gore. We grandmother."
Esteban Rodriguez has a poem up at Yes Poetry called "Ciudad":
"the protagonist to the middle of an alley,
where he – part-citizen, part-part-time
investigator – stumbles upon a chalk outline,
and, aware of the obstacles and adversaries
behind him, lies down and contorts his limbs
to fit within the lines of that drawing,
wondering if the moon, peeking above
the polluted buildings, will find his body
as sufficient evidence."
Kallie Falandays has poetry up at Sidereal Magazine:
"Eat is not a metaphor. It’s what the body does to it that hollows."
Emily Paskevics has three poems up at Occulum:
"And silence: this final
cold-shouldering
of what the heart hardly wants,
but is still left wanting."
Caseyrenée Lopez has a piece called "Making Fire Out of Ice" at Tap:
"the first time i kissed a girl and meant it, i pretended it meant nothing. i invited her into my mouth while i searched to give her something precious. i spontaneously placed my right hand between her legs and when she moaned i felt myself get wet for the first time."
Kenyatta JP Garcia has a poem called "Rain" in Inknode:
"Rain, it erodes mortar and
takes foundation
from the houses
we wish to forget.
It’s the ocean
that’s never angry
with us."
Leza Cantoral was interviewed at Lit Reactor:
"I wrote mostly poetry before discovering Bizarro. The genre appealed to me because I felt like I could do anything and let my imagination run wild. It made storytelling so much fun. I went to my first Bizarrocon years ago and that is really what got me wanting to write Bizarro. It was exciting meeting writers and publishers that I could talk to. I felt like it was something I could have fun doing. Bizarro reminded me of my favorite genre, Surrealism. The Surrealist French and Spanish poets are a huge influence on me. I love Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud. I had always wanted to be part of a cool art scene and Bizarro seemed like that kinda scene. I think of Bizarro as the Chaos Magick of fiction."
Michael Wasson has a book coming out from YesYes Books called "This American Ghost":
"Let the garden
remember fire for it is you
who will dress the wounds
of this place. Let another god
forget you were ever born.
Let light begin &
blackout from remembering
flesh as a touch to tell you
the skull once kissed the blood
laced with warmth
held a body in place years ago."
Chelsea Wolfe's new album "Hiss Spin" just came out this month:
Tori Amos came out with her new album this month called "Native Invader":
The Frightnrs' single "Looking for My Love" came out with a new mix called "Lookin'":
Ricky Garni has a short fiction piece up at DUM DUM Zine called "The End":
"Don is a funny name, but I like to know people who say “My name is Don.” Ed is a good name, as is Thomas, Fred, which rhymes with Ed but not with Ginger, Montague and also Wilhelmina are not good names. Meaning: Ginger and Montague are not good names. Ed, however, is a nice name and a nice person, like Thomas, but not Tommy, as it Montague but not Monty, you can tell so much from a name but you never know what it is that you can tell until it becomes clear.
I hate my name. Like all people who hate their own names, I also hate other names. I do, however, love all the names of the planets. Someday I want to have nine dogs and take them out at night and say: “That’s yours up there next to the sparkling one that’s falling” and then they will bark or howl."
Artist Michael Alan has been hosting live art performances where models are painted on with glow in the dark paint, via Bedford + Bowery:
Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. They are the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Sexting the Dead (Unknown Press, 2017) & Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016), and is the editor of A Shadow Map: Writing by Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM, 2017). They received their MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Joanna is the founder of Yes, Poetry and the managing editor for Civil Coping Mechanisms and Luna Luna Magazine. Some of their writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Brooklyn Magazine, Prelude, BUST, Spork Press, and elsewhere. Joanna also leads workshops at Brooklyn Poets. joannavalente.com / Twitter: @joannasaid / IG: joannacvalente