Politics

Donald Trump is Still a Threat to Our Democracy, and Artists Should Not Back Down
Arts & Culture / Dispatches / Politics / The Reading Room / Vol 3. No. 1

Donald Trump is Still a Threat to Our Democracy, and Artists Should Not Back Down

We all need a break. Despite the fact that the murder of George Floyd, among too many other Black Americans, jolted an important and overdue conversation about racial inequity to the forefront; we all felt drained from a year in which we lived through a deadly pandemic and an election […]

Image Credit: Grace Y. Williams,Trump: Metal and Bones, (2017). Bone, currency, synthetic evergreen, paper, metal, wheel, twine, coir. Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

In Praise of Sedition

“The police aren’t there to create disorder, they’re there to preserve disorder.” – Mayor Richard Daley, Chicago, 1968 “Anarchy is order; government is civil war.” – Anselme Bellegarrigue, France, 1850 This past summer, reacting to the mass nationwide uprising that erupted following the police murder of George Floyd (ironically, on […]

Image Credit: Grace Y. Williams, Trump: Metal and Bones, (2017). Bone, metal, rubber, tubing, cd, bullet, leather, paper, enamel. Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

Notes to Self and Other Poems

notes to self rant/ rally/ housework (III and) continuing. . . this is for all the traffic jammers and the head bangers, for fights over parking and jumping to the front of the line in your face, to hell with everybody else, “where’s mine?” “I gotta get mine!” too busy […]

Image Credit: Susan Bee, Anywhere Out of the World, (2019), 24" x 18", 30” x 24”, oil on linen. Courtesy of the artist.
Arts & Culture / Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

from Where Here Were We

June 24 Every once in a while well maybe not every when the wind is especially fierce there’s a rawness without sorrow or wound, shouted into storm, the low the high the good the bad. Well maybe not bad but it feels that way, like a slap across the face […]

Image Credit: Chiffon Thomas, A mother who had no mother, (2017). Embroidery floss, acrylic paint, and canvas on window screen, 57" x 44 1/2". © Chiffon Thomas.
Arts & Culture / Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

from A History of the Bitch (AHOTB)

Testimonial Testify For a time, in some places, only men could testify. “Testify” rooted with testes testicles. Tongue tied to crotch; talk of truth as— biology.                  Biblical Abraham had his servant swear a solid: “put your hand under my thigh, and I […]

Image Credit: Yashua Klos, Rise, (2015). Paper construction of woodblock prints and graphite on archival paper mounted onto unstretched canvas, 90" x 70". Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

68 Seats and More: Black Women and the Myth of American Democracy

Backs might have been breaking in Louisville, in Portland, and in Kenosha, when the ghosts of Black radicalism were called upon once again to bridge the chasm between the liberal democratic tradition of representative democracy and the radical demand for abolition democracy.1 By late summer 2020, that demand had municipal […]

Image Credit: Yashua Klos, Head Study 6, (2015). Paper construction of woodblock prints on archival paper, 8" x 8". Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

Method and the Horizon: On Christian Parenti’s Dirigiste Radical Hamilton

(for Mike Ladd) Modern politicians tend to fawn over entrepreneurs and disparage state action. But once in power, even the most radical free-market ideologues practice a form of bastardized Hamiltonianism. This reflects an important historical truth: capitalism is produced and reproduced by the state. –Christian Parenti, Radical Hamilton (174)1 Finally, […]

Image Credit: Henry Taylor, Rock It, (2008). 5 cardboard boxes (premium malt boxes), acrylic on foam mannequin head, wood) 36" x 12" x 80 1/2". © Henry Taylor
Arts & Culture / Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

The Danger of Cheer’s Resolve

Ruckus squawking overhead, each moment seagulls grousing as if the world were theirs. Somewhat out of sorts, a casual form slogs along the strand gazing at sky’s noise, a forceful finger lifted to the din, his gruff deliberate bark snarling BASTA! Awkward, slightly corpulent, no longer quickly springing up to […]

Image Credit: Charles Frederick, Shawangunk Mushroom, (2013-2020). Courtesy of the artist.
Arts & Culture / Climate / Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

Climate Catastrophes

the roses too/ bloomed red that year/ at the wrong time/ (far too early)/ a warning/ (which once again we refused to heed)/ thus against the fields of white frost,/ they were as though stigmata/ (breaking a holy flesh)/ earth signs, bloodletting/ animals at night/ injuring one another/ (my father […]

Image Credit: Nicole Peyrafitte, Karastic Action, France, (2016). Courtesy of the artist.
Convergence / Politics / Vol. 2 No. 4

High Tide of Activism

Anyone who lives near a large body of water can appreciate the power and majesty of the tide. It ebbs and flows, a preternatural breathing that radically affects everything and everyone around it. We set our clocks to it. We structure our lives around it. Our security as well as […]

Image Credit: Bethany Collins, Too White To Be Black, (2014). Graphite, charcoal, and latex paint on Arches paper 29 × 41 in. © Bethany Collins, Courtesy of Patron Gallery, Chicago.
Arts & Culture / Politics / The Reading Room / Vol. 2 No. 4

Be (In) Water: A Note on the Black Otolith

The first time that I heard the word “otolith” was in a brief video from the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London. In it, their “curator of fish,” James Maclaine, demonstrated the new scanning technology that would allow him to examine the undigested stomach contents of the Museum’s rare, preserved […]

Image Credit: Yashua Klos, Mask (Non-Functional) with Pyramid Headdress, (2014). Paper construction of woodblock prints on archival paper 60" x 45". Courtesy of the artist.
Arts & Culture / Politics / The Reading Room / Vol. 2 No. 4

Cultural Memory and Public Space: Dispatches from Canada

As in the United States and England, statues have been toppled and street names debated in Canada. The statue of John A. Macdonald came down in Montreal on August 29, 2020. Ma(d)Donald you ask? Well, in this case, the first prime minister of Canada (1867–1873, 1878–1891), associated with completion of […]