Thu July 28, 2022
Virtual Event: Joshua Burton feat. Vannessa Barnier and N. Cuzzi
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Join us on Thursday, July 28th at 6pm PT when Joshua Burton celebrates his chapbook, Fracture Anthology, on Zoom!
Register at the link ABOVE
On Fracture Anthology
In an interview with BBC, poet Sylvia Plath claimed that one shouldn't approach the poem in a narcissistic way, but take internal chaos or even madness and turn it outwards as a tool to shed light on issues larger than yourself, like the Holocaust or the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. I've attempted to take on a similar approach with my poetry.
In particular, I've taken on a poetry project that demands the attention and respect of sympathetic introspection. I began writing poems about my mother. When I told her of my interest in writing about her life, she gave me her journals she's been collecting for the past 30 years to turn them into poems. The idea was to capture her at her most honest and vulnerable and turn them into poems that accurately represent her in an authentic way, while also containing introspection that reaches beyond her personal experience. How Plath used events like the Holocaust as a way to reveal herself and to have herself in return reveal these events, I'm taking my mother's life and attempting to internalize them, because I believe she has taken on an emotional war within herself for decades. And my job as a poet is to place a mirror within myself and outside of myself as a way to reflect her experiences: being raped from the age of five by her older brother, dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, and dealing with post-partum depression.
Looking at Plath's statements in a contemporary lens, we see a lot of problems with her using war atrocities for the sake of metaphor. Along, with Plath, I'm aware of the potential troubles of a man writing in the voice of a woman who dealt with sexual abuse, even if that woman is his mother. Writing this collection has been a constant battle in that way. But my attempt in writing in her voice comes from my desire to get as close as possible to her to understand her and in return better understand myself. In many ways, I can never understand her experiences, but I am also of her, a product of her, and I carry pieces of her in me. So I feel the need to get near those pieces.
About Joshua Burton
Joshua Burton is a poet and educator from Houston, TX and received his MFA in poetry at Syracuse University. He is a 2019 Tin House Winter Workshop Scholar, 2019 Juniper Summer Writing Institute scholarship winner, 2019 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics fellowship finalist, received the Honorable Mention for the 2018 Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize and was a 2020 Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing finalist. His work can be found in Mississippi Review, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, Conduit, TriQuarterly, Black Warrior Review, Grist, and Indiana Review. His debut poetry collection is forthcoming in the spring of 2023 with the University of Wisconsin Press.
About Vannessa Barnier
Vannessa Barnier is a poet, collaborator, facilitator, instigator, and community organizer. Vannessa facilitates writing workshops, hosts the open mic series, Legible Intelligibles - a summer open mic poetry reading series in the park - and is the author of SAMPLE PLATTER (2021), a debut chapbook published by Gap Riot Press.
Cover and Inner Art by Colombian illustrator ZUMBAMBICO
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Register at the link ABOVE
On Fracture Anthology
In an interview with BBC, poet Sylvia Plath claimed that one shouldn't approach the poem in a narcissistic way, but take internal chaos or even madness and turn it outwards as a tool to shed light on issues larger than yourself, like the Holocaust or the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. I've attempted to take on a similar approach with my poetry.
In particular, I've taken on a poetry project that demands the attention and respect of sympathetic introspection. I began writing poems about my mother. When I told her of my interest in writing about her life, she gave me her journals she's been collecting for the past 30 years to turn them into poems. The idea was to capture her at her most honest and vulnerable and turn them into poems that accurately represent her in an authentic way, while also containing introspection that reaches beyond her personal experience. How Plath used events like the Holocaust as a way to reveal herself and to have herself in return reveal these events, I'm taking my mother's life and attempting to internalize them, because I believe she has taken on an emotional war within herself for decades. And my job as a poet is to place a mirror within myself and outside of myself as a way to reflect her experiences: being raped from the age of five by her older brother, dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, and dealing with post-partum depression.
Looking at Plath's statements in a contemporary lens, we see a lot of problems with her using war atrocities for the sake of metaphor. Along, with Plath, I'm aware of the potential troubles of a man writing in the voice of a woman who dealt with sexual abuse, even if that woman is his mother. Writing this collection has been a constant battle in that way. But my attempt in writing in her voice comes from my desire to get as close as possible to her to understand her and in return better understand myself. In many ways, I can never understand her experiences, but I am also of her, a product of her, and I carry pieces of her in me. So I feel the need to get near those pieces.
About Joshua Burton
Joshua Burton is a poet and educator from Houston, TX and received his MFA in poetry at Syracuse University. He is a 2019 Tin House Winter Workshop Scholar, 2019 Juniper Summer Writing Institute scholarship winner, 2019 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics fellowship finalist, received the Honorable Mention for the 2018 Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize and was a 2020 Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing finalist. His work can be found in Mississippi Review, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, Conduit, TriQuarterly, Black Warrior Review, Grist, and Indiana Review. His debut poetry collection is forthcoming in the spring of 2023 with the University of Wisconsin Press.
About Vannessa Barnier
Vannessa Barnier is a poet, collaborator, facilitator, instigator, and community organizer. Vannessa facilitates writing workshops, hosts the open mic series, Legible Intelligibles - a summer open mic poetry reading series in the park - and is the author of SAMPLE PLATTER (2021), a debut chapbook published by Gap Riot Press.
Cover and Inner Art by Colombian illustrator ZUMBAMBICO
Join us on Thursday, July 28th at 6pm PT when Joshua Burton celebrates his chapbook, Fracture Anthology, on Zoom!
Register at the link ABOVE
On Fracture Anthology
In an interview with BBC, poet Sylvia Plath claimed that one shouldn't approach the poem in a narcissistic way, but take internal chaos or even madness and turn it outwards as a tool to shed light on issues larger than yourself, like the Holocaust or the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. I've attempted to take on a similar approach with my poetry.
In particular, I've taken on a poetry project that demands the attention and respect of sympathetic introspection. I began writing poems about my mother. When I told her of my interest in writing about her life, she gave me her journals she's been collecting for the past 30 years to turn them into poems. The idea was to capture her at her most honest and vulnerable and turn them into poems that accurately represent her in an authentic way, while also containing introspection that reaches beyond her personal experience. How Plath used events like the Holocaust as a way to reveal herself and to have herself in return reveal these events, I'm taking my mother's life and attempting to internalize them, because I believe she has taken on an emotional war within herself for decades. And my job as a poet is to place a mirror within myself and outside of myself as a way to reflect her experiences: being raped from the age of five by her older brother, dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, and dealing with post-partum depression.
Looking at Plath's statements in a contemporary lens, we see a lot of problems with her using war atrocities for the sake of metaphor. Along, with Plath, I'm aware of the potential troubles of a man writing in the voice of a woman who dealt with sexual abuse, even if that woman is his mother. Writing this collection has been a constant battle in that way. But my attempt in writing in her voice comes from my desire to get as close as possible to her to understand her and in return better understand myself. In many ways, I can never understand her experiences, but I am also of her, a product of her, and I carry pieces of her in me. So I feel the need to get near those pieces.
About Joshua Burton
Joshua Burton is a poet and educator from Houston, TX and received his MFA in poetry at Syracuse University. He is a 2019 Tin House Winter Workshop Scholar, 2019 Juniper Summer Writing Institute scholarship winner, 2019 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics fellowship finalist, received the Honorable Mention for the 2018 Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize and was a 2020 Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing finalist. His work can be found in Mississippi Review, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, Conduit, TriQuarterly, Black Warrior Review, Grist, and Indiana Review. His debut poetry collection is forthcoming in the spring of 2023 with the University of Wisconsin Press.
About Vannessa Barnier
Vannessa Barnier is a poet, collaborator, facilitator, instigator, and community organizer. Vannessa facilitates writing workshops, hosts the open mic series, Legible Intelligibles - a summer open mic poetry reading series in the park - and is the author of SAMPLE PLATTER (2021), a debut chapbook published by Gap Riot Press.
Cover and Inner Art by Colombian illustrator ZUMBAMBICO
read more
Register at the link ABOVE
On Fracture Anthology
In an interview with BBC, poet Sylvia Plath claimed that one shouldn't approach the poem in a narcissistic way, but take internal chaos or even madness and turn it outwards as a tool to shed light on issues larger than yourself, like the Holocaust or the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. I've attempted to take on a similar approach with my poetry.
In particular, I've taken on a poetry project that demands the attention and respect of sympathetic introspection. I began writing poems about my mother. When I told her of my interest in writing about her life, she gave me her journals she's been collecting for the past 30 years to turn them into poems. The idea was to capture her at her most honest and vulnerable and turn them into poems that accurately represent her in an authentic way, while also containing introspection that reaches beyond her personal experience. How Plath used events like the Holocaust as a way to reveal herself and to have herself in return reveal these events, I'm taking my mother's life and attempting to internalize them, because I believe she has taken on an emotional war within herself for decades. And my job as a poet is to place a mirror within myself and outside of myself as a way to reflect her experiences: being raped from the age of five by her older brother, dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder, and dealing with post-partum depression.
Looking at Plath's statements in a contemporary lens, we see a lot of problems with her using war atrocities for the sake of metaphor. Along, with Plath, I'm aware of the potential troubles of a man writing in the voice of a woman who dealt with sexual abuse, even if that woman is his mother. Writing this collection has been a constant battle in that way. But my attempt in writing in her voice comes from my desire to get as close as possible to her to understand her and in return better understand myself. In many ways, I can never understand her experiences, but I am also of her, a product of her, and I carry pieces of her in me. So I feel the need to get near those pieces.
About Joshua Burton
Joshua Burton is a poet and educator from Houston, TX and received his MFA in poetry at Syracuse University. He is a 2019 Tin House Winter Workshop Scholar, 2019 Juniper Summer Writing Institute scholarship winner, 2019 Center for African American Poetry and Poetics fellowship finalist, received the Honorable Mention for the 2018 Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize and was a 2020 Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing finalist. His work can be found in Mississippi Review, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, Conduit, TriQuarterly, Black Warrior Review, Grist, and Indiana Review. His debut poetry collection is forthcoming in the spring of 2023 with the University of Wisconsin Press.
About Vannessa Barnier
Vannessa Barnier is a poet, collaborator, facilitator, instigator, and community organizer. Vannessa facilitates writing workshops, hosts the open mic series, Legible Intelligibles - a summer open mic poetry reading series in the park - and is the author of SAMPLE PLATTER (2021), a debut chapbook published by Gap Riot Press.
Cover and Inner Art by Colombian illustrator ZUMBAMBICO
show less
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