Visiting the delightfully upscale and vibrant neighborhood of Roma Norte recently — the location for Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-winning film ROMA — my wife and I settled on dinner at Yemanya, which is known for its creative and intriguing blend of South American, tropical Mexican and Caribbean cuisine. When we arrived early one evening, we were …
Review: Trumpets in the Sky by Jerry Garcia Trumpets in the Sky by Jerry Garcia comes back again and again to the wonder of the world when you are focused on the sky. In the preface, he tells us that he has always been fascinated by “things in the sky” (12), which was also the early …
Alexis Rhone Fancher and Cynthia Atkins’s Duets Duets by Alexis Rhone Fancher and Cynthia Atkins is the result of a friendship and collaboration between the two poets. Each of them responded to Fancher’s photography and the result is a collection that captures the anxiety and inward-turning that we, or at least I, have felt over …
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Anchor by Rebecca Aronson Rebecca Aronson’s third book of poetry, Anchor, is a gorgeous collection of ruminative observations born of her experiences with the final illnesses of her parents. Reflecting on her father’s loss of balance and her mother’s loss of memory, Aronson’s poems contemplate the inexorable pull of gravity that destabilizes her father physically, …
Review of Glyphs by Martina Reisz Newberry Dear God, point me to a myth, that will raise my cherished dead and bring them back to me, bright, iridescent as the stars. — (“On The Anniversary Of Marianne’s Death”) Los Angeles poet Martina Reisz Newberry is a seeker. In her latest (sixth) collection Glyphs, she asks …
Review: River Woman, River Demon by Jenn Givhan What I especially loved about Jenn Givhan’s gripping new novel River Woman, River Demon was the blending and seamless explanation of magicks, how Givhan sustained and ratcheted up the tension incrementally, how names have power and meaning, and yes, even the unreliable narrator who depicts mental health struggles …
Aruni Wijesinghe’s 2 Revere Place Aruni Wijesinghe’s 2 Revere Place is a collection about the home where the poet spent her early childhood. Like any place wrapped in the memory of childhood, 2 Revere Place for her has a mixture of pain and joy. What we remember, of course, tends to be the very best …
La Mirada Theatre’s revival of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein is a certain cure for the post-pandemic blues. This hilarious send-up of the Mary Shelley classic never seems to lose its irreverent vitality. Director Jeff Whiting lets loose his performers to go straight for the belly laughs and the result is outright therapeutic hilarity. Brooks’ brilliant …
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Review of Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry, Donald G. Evans and Robin Metz, eds. Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry is the brainchild of Robin Metz, who gathered work for years before cancer finally led him to join forces with and ultimately pass the project on to the poet …
Poetry Review: Nightmares & Miracles by Michelle Bitting Michelle Bitting’s Nightmares & Miracles goes straight into the center of things that matter, but that is not surprising. Bitting is a poet who never wastes our time. She helps us to understand what is magic and horrible in our world as the title of this collection suggests. …
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Poetry Review: A Burning Lake of Paper Suns by Ellen Webre I move as deer, as jackrabbit in hawkflight, A red-breasted bird, a bonfire of oak and holly. I harness the sky with a cinnamon broom. I sweep away the blighted root, the sorrow choke. I make a speech of suppertime, bring milk and …
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Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. —Carl Sandburg Poets are, if nothing else, fantasists. But, as Delmore Schwartz reminds us, in dreams begin responsibility. Good Harbor is, first, a book rooted in Home and Tenancy and Fatherhood. Decency is the subtext, or ethical behaviors we’d class as decent. In the poem “Lockdown”—about …
“Saudade”: Review of Through a Grainy Landscape by Millicent Borges Accardi by Angele Ellis Saudade is the most Portuguese word to make its way into the English language, so rich and nuanced that it is nearly untranslatable. Wikipedia takes this stab at definition: “…a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for something …
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Recently poet Susan Tepper got together with poet Gloria Mindock to talk about destruction, hearts, and Gloria’s new poetry collection Ash, which is based on true crime stories. Here’s what they said: Susan Tepper (ST): Yesterday, when I asked if you’d like to talk about your multi-prize-winning poetry collection Ash, the tragedy at the Highland Park …
Like so much of his earlier work, Richard Loranger’s Unit of Agency exposes what is there for us to see if we would just open our eyes and look. He discusses what is dangerous, wrong, and painful in the United States. He shows us how and where corruption has hurt the nation while questioning the …
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