Art, Readings, & Reactions

an annual collaboration w/ArtSpan + Modern Eden

jun.22.17 / other worlds

Danny Thanh Nguyen • NCN • Claire Light • Na’amen Gobert Tilahun (curator)

RSVP

june.16.16 / portraits of friends

Jason Bayani • Keith Ekiss • Dean Rader • Brynn Saito • Tess Taylor (curator)

july.2.15 / superhero / curated by Carolyn Cooke

Brynn Saito • Jay Santa Cruz • Ahmunet Jessica Jordon
Randall Babtkis • Jason Magabo Perez

june.5.14 / fairy tales: the test of time

Nate Waggoner + Carolyn Ho • Denise Benavides
Lucy Tiven • Kwan Booth • Colin Winnette

 

 

As part of vitriol 2, QL did a blind, submission-based ekphrastic project:first selecting two works of visual art and then the writing in response:

Dreaming shadows lie along roots in the courtyard,
leaves splaying sunlight into puppet theater.
Leaf cutter ants,
drying clothes dripping,
papaya ripening on their vines.

A few white feathers strewn about the yard.
Two dark bloodspots shimmer among them.

Esperanza is crying in her dark cool bedroom.
Her abuela is washing lemons in the kitchen.
Doña Palacio’s wet hands attract feathers
as she heats water for soup.

Isidora hears her daughter crying
from her bed in the room by the courtyard.
Her head aches,
and she nestles her fever further into the pillow,
listening to her child weep for a friend.

– “Soup” by Karim Quesada-Khoury

Say, young chap

Looks so smart
so decked out

put your piston down

so ready to bore into
the muzzle of this gun

Ah, from our foundry I see
We will be taking it back

that collar snug and high
the plume outrageous

Yes, a good one, excellent caliber
does the job

what arrogance in the locks
such restraint in the recoil

Time to come along
review your allegiance

– “Surrender” by Sandra Wassilie