viz.

Image Credit: Screenshot, http://greatgatsbygame.com/

All you beautiful little fools, let's have a mid-week party, shall we? In the spirit of good times, I'll draw your attention to the fact that, this week, what we talk about when we talk about Gatsby has changed. I'm not refering to the upcoming film, which will star Leonardo Dicaprio and Carey Mulligan. No, I'm talking about the video game version of the classic novel! Like ol' James Gatz himself, the game has surfaced from complete obscurity only to become the talk of the town. (According to internet buzz, the game was found at a yard sale.) Unless you've been living under a rock, you've likely seen this little gem already. Surely, your lit nerd or gamer friends have posted a link on facebook! In case you haven't taken a peek yet,  play a few rounds here.

Image Credit:  Screenshot of viz. 

This past week, I had the privilege of listening to Susan B.A. Somers-Willett, Natasha Trethewey, and Kwame Dawes give a reading/ panel at AWP on their work that I have discussed in recent posts (here and here). The panel was moderated by VQR editor Ted Genoways and also included the poet Erika Meitner who is currently collaborating with a photographer on a project involving Detroit. I'm preparing a longer, related post to appear in the coming weeks, but, in the meantime, I've been thinking about issues of representation raised by those pieces and how the combined effect of literary and visual gazes transforms the stakes for subject, viewer, poet, photographer, and editor.  In that frame of mind, I'm re-booting Andi Gustavson's provacative post on the power dynamics of documentary films that feature children.  Writing about Born into Brothels, Andi is concerned with how "the viewer is invited into the film in a position of power." Surely, such a consideration can be extended to the "readers" of these projects. 

In continuing to focus on the intersection of poetry and visual media, I refer back to my post from last fall concerning the "docu-poems" of Susan Somers-Willet and Natasha Trethewey. Similarly, the poet Kwame Dawes is working in this hybrid medium with very moving and memorable results.

Image Credit: "Don't Touch My Flag," Library of Congress  Prints and Photographs

Greetings, all. In my last post for this semester, I'd like to continue on the poetry track down which I've been more or less rambling. Lately, I've noticed the growing frequency with which both poets and larger institutions are using visual media to bring poetry to broader (usually younger) audiences and to augment the form of the reading experience. I've also thought about how some of these techniques can be added to my own pedagogical practices.

Image Credit: Ellen DeGeneres, Kauai, Hawaii, 1997, photographed by Annie Leibovitz via NPR

At the end of October, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. opened “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.” The new exhibition features gay and lesbian artists and portraits of prominent figures in the gay community.

Video Credit: "Women of Troy," Susan B.A. Somers-Willett and Brenda Ann Kenneally, In Verse

H/T to Noël Radley for introducing me to this project

Last week I posted several video animations of poems read by their authors as part of a recent project by the Poetry Foundation. Today I’d like to draw your attention to In Verse, a series of “documentary poems” put together using the resources of Association of Independents in Radio, Incorporated and Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR).

"Mulberry Fields" by Lucille Clifton Image Credit: Poetry Foundation

Some treats for your Monday! Because we all need a little poetry in our lives…

Image Credit: screenshot from Target Austin, via TAMI 

H/T: Dr. Randi Cox, Stephen F. Austin State

Recently I attended the Cold War Cultures conference here at UT and had the pleasure of attending several especially provocative panels. Of particular interest was a talk by Stephen F. Austin State’s Dr. Randi Cox’s on Target Austin, a 1960 PSA film that localizes the threat of nuclear war by imagining an attack on the Texas capital.

Image Credit: Scouting magazine, via Gizmodo

The poster from the Boy Scouts of America’s Scouting magazine is all smiles and no foolin' about its anti-illegal downloading message, but can you take it seriously?

Image Credit : Timothy Schubert

As Cate’s post from last week illustrates, while we continue to be affected by the events of 9/11, we’re also faced with the task of interpreting an expansive and wide-reaching 9/11 memorial culture.