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Poetry 16 results
Janiece Jaffe’s onstage performances were “all-encompassing encounters,” writes Krista Detor. And each partnership in her countless collaborations was “an act of musical alchemy.” Above are longtime collaborators (left) David Gulyas and Curtis Cantwell-Jackson. | Photo courtesy of the Jaffe/Reardin Family

Eternal Sunflower: Remembering Janiece Jaffe
Krista Detor
Janiece Jaffe’s artistic journey “was powerfully informed by countless collaborations … each partnership an act of musical alchemy,” writes Krista Detor in this tribute to Bloomington’s legendary musical artist. “She was a uniquely generous and catalytic artist whose collaborations recurred over decades and whose memories will be cherished forever.” Click here to read Krista’s tribute to Janiece.
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While Matt Hart says his latest book, “FAMILIAR: via Walt Whitman, obliterated from the Spanish of León Felipe,” is a new work “that enacts/evokes some resemblances” to Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” he says the two poems are “wildly different” from each other.

New Poetry Book by Matt Hart Is ‘Reconceived’ Translation
Hiromi Yoshida
Matt Hart’s book-length poem FAMILIAR is called “a joyous obliteration” of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” by way of a Spanish version of Whitman’s poem by León Felipe. Local poet Hiromi Yoshida interviewed Hart about his work and specifically this book, which was published by an imprint of local publisher Ledge Mule Press. | Click here to read about Matt Hart and FAMILIAR.
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Artists and art advocates created the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington in 2010 to be a path for communication and a network of resources for members. Its recent focuses have been to connect with other arts organizations in the community, relaunch the online directory, and manage their space in College Mall, the Arts Alliance Center (pictured), which houses a gallery and a “Flex Space” for various projects. | Courtesy photo

Arts Alliance Mission to Connect Artists, Art Users, and Art Advocates
Emily Williams
Artists and art advocates created the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington in 2010 to be a path for communication and a network of resources for members. Recently, writes Emily Williams, the organization has focused on connecting with other arts organizations, relaunching its online directory, and managing its space in College Mall, the Arts Alliance Center. Click here to read Emily’s story.
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The pandemic has affected writers and literary arts organizations in unique ways in the past 19 months. Writer Hiromi Yoshida interviewed several writers and organization leaders to learn how they continue to work through the changes — and take their writing and organizations in new directions. The results are, she writes, inspirational and uplifting. | Illustration by Christian Bowden

Writers and Literary Groups Have Taken ‘New Directions’ During Pandemic
Hiromi Yoshida
The pandemic has affected writers and literary arts organizations in unique ways in the past 19 months, says writer Hiromi Yoshida. Several writers and organization leaders told Yoshida how they continue to work through the changes — and take their writing and organizations in new directions. The results, she writes, are inspirational and uplifting. Click here to read their stories.
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Recent mass shootings have ignited conversations about “the precarious ambiguity about what it means to be Asian American,” says Hiromi Yoshida, a freelance writer, editor, and diversity consultant for the Writers Guild at Bloomington. For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, the Writers Guild will feature four Asian American performers for the virtual edition of its First Wednesdays Spoken Word Series on May 5. “To be Asian, however American, is dangerous in this volatile post-Trump era,” Hiromi writes. | Courtesy images.

Writers Guild Spoken Word Series: Observing Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Hiromi Yoshida
For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May, the Writers Guild at Bloomington is featuring four Asian American performers for the virtual edition of its First Wednesdays Spoken Word Series on May 5. Writer Hiromi Yoshida wrote a preview of the event for LP. “To be Asian, however American, is dangerous in this volatile post-Trump era,” Hiromi writes. Click here for Hiromi’s article.
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Love to See It: Culture & Words Getting Us Through This Thing Called Life
Jennifer Piurek
How does pop culture help us express what it is to be human? Jennifer Piurek will explore this and other themes in her Limestone Post column, “Love to See It” — her take on why trends, words, and various art forms help us “both navigate the world and care about life experiences different from our own.” Click here to read Jennifer’s first column!
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Abattoir Gallery Challenges Racist and Pandemic Conventions
Ian Carstens
Abattoir Gallery, at 4th and Rogers streets in Bloomington, will exhibit across mediums while maintaining a safe space for LGBTQ+, Black, and brown people, says its lead curator, Gnat Bowden. Writer Ian Carstens attended the soft opening and says Abattoir “is an open door to the streets of Bloomington to challenge its anti-Black, anti-LGTBQ+ realities.” Click here to read about Abattoir Gallery.
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Cristian Medina, a poet, cook, IU researcher, and chess leader from Arica, Chile, moved to Bloomington in the mid-2000s. Pictured here, Medina sits at his desk at the Indiana Geological and Water Survey. | Photo by Chaz Mottinger

Big Mike’s B-town: Cristian Medina, Scientist, Poet, Chess Leader
Michael G. Glab
Cristian Medina, a poet, cook, IU researcher, and chess leader from Arica, Chile, has found plenty to keep him busy since moving to Bloomington in the mid-2000s. LP columnist Michael G. Glab talks to Medina about his hometown — bordered by ocean, mountains, and desert — geology and climate change, his work founding Cardboard House Press, and more in the latest Big-Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.
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In writer Ann Georgescu’s third article on HOPE, an IU mentorship program for youths in juvenile-detention facilities across Indiana, she looks at how one of the young women used poetry to get her through the long days of incarceration. Her poem "Big Brother" was published in "Law and Disorder: An Undergraduate Journal in Special Education and Law." | Limestone Post

Expanded HOPE: Juvenile Offenders Write Poetry to Cope with Incarceration
Ann Georgescu
In writer Ann Georgescu’s third article on HOPE, she looks at how one of the young women used poetry to get her through the long days of incarceration. HOPE is an IU mentorship program for youths in juvenile-detention facilities across Indiana with a mission to help break the school-to-prison pipeline for juvenile offenders. Click here to read the full story.
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Writer Michelle Gottschlich says literacy operates on the question, “Does my level of reading and comprehension empower me?” She shows us several ways people in our community are being empowered, such as by using the Monroe County Public Library Bookmobile (pictured here). | Photo by Michelle Gottschlich

Beyond Reading, Adult Literacy Is Survival
Michelle Gottschlich
Literacy is survival. It’s a housing application, a citizenship test, health insurance, a job that can support a family. Writer Michelle Gottschlich says literacy operates on the question, “Does my level of reading and comprehension empower me?” She shows us several groups helping to break down the barriers to literacy — and empowering people in our community. Click here to read the full story.
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Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde is a scholar, an egungun (an ancestral priest in the Yoruba Orisa tradition), a healer, a poet, a teacher, and a birth and postpartum doula. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Abegunde, Writing to Heal
Michael G. Glab
Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde has been given many names, each one representative of her own history, her family’s history, and her Yoruba cultural heritage. And, like her names, Abegunde’s work represents the personal and the historical. LP columnist Michael G. Glab talks with the poet and scholar about her work with healing and social justice. Click here to read the full story.
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Writer Ross Lockridge Jr. (RLJ) killed himself on March 6, 1948, just two months after his book "Raintree County" was published. Pictured here, RLJ is signing autographs at an L. S. Ayres department store in Indianapolis on January 20, 1948. This is the last known photograph of RLJ. | Photo by Robert Lavelle, "The Indianapolis News." Photographs from raintreecounty.com are used with permission of The Estate of Ross Lockridge, Jr.

Ross Lockridge Jr., a Great American Tragedy
Doug Storm
In 1948, Ross Lockridge Jr. died by suicide in Bloomington just months after his best-selling novel, Raintree County, was published. In 2014, Doug Storm interviewed two of Lockridge’s sons for Interchange, his show on WFHB. Here, Storm writes about the sons’ conflicting opinions on the suicide and the assessment of Raintree County as the Great American Novel. Click here to read the full story.
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