PAPER DOLL ALBUM
In my performance, Paper Doll Album, I strive to make the words tangible. I re-envision my poems as apparel although one word doesn't correspond exactly with one piece of clothing. The way something is described in a poem and the way it is sewn are different. I encourage the view to touch the clothes the way they would touch the pages of a book. Search for the words with your touch and become part of the poem.
Paper Doll Album will be performed at Bliss on Bliss Art Projects in Sunnyside, NYC on October 2.
This program is made possible by the New York City Artist Corps.
THREADS
Threads is an exhibition of art and poetry responding to each other and intertwining curated by Virlana Tkacz, Olena Jennings, Carlos Quijon, and Alejandra Fonseca. It will include artists from Russia, Ukraine, the US, Colombia, and the Philippines. Readings and related events are part of Threads.
The textile artists in this exhibition create new works based on poetry. The poems are heard in their original and translation during special events, but the true language of the exhibit is the art they inspire.
The first phase of the exhibition opened February 11, 2021 in Bogota, Colombia.
Above art by Ged Merino.
Read about Threads in Arrowsmith Vol XV: https://www.arrowsmithpress.com/volume-15
For a dress inspired by poetry see: https://firstindigoandlifestyle.com/2021/02/03/an-escape-from-solitude/
MEMORY PROJECT
Memory Project is a chapbook of poetry released thanks to Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
I sort through the memories that have been passed down to me and the memories that are
of my own experiences of family and place, bringing past memory into the
present. The performance included textile art and the photographs themselves, modified.
A video by Olga Mak was shown and there was culinary art by Olesia Lew.
November 18, 2018, Memory Project Reading and Exhibition,
Queens Farm, 73-50 Little Neck Parkway, Queens.
A second event, Memory Imaging was performed at the Red Barn in Marshfield Hills, MA. Olena Jennings read with poet Dzvinia Orlowsky and Sweet Wednesday performed. The barn was decorated with white dresses made by Olena, "The dresses represent those women who have been left behind. They are like maps that lead back to ghosts. They are a lost glove in the street."
May 4, 2019, Memory Imagining, Red Barn, Marshfield Hills, MA.
A third event, was performed at Bliss on Bliss Studio. Olena Jennings read poems and hung two dresses from the project.
September 7, 2019, Memory Project, Bliss on Bliss, Sunnyside, NY.
