Looking to advance conversation amongst political artists, promote quality literature, and respect the roots of orature, Barbara and I have set up a new imprint: Doveglion Press.
Barb’s first post Manifesto is already generating some nice discussion which is exactly what we’re looking for. I hear so many opinions about the state of political art in the United States today but I don’t see enough of them posted in public forums. Maybe it’s because a lot of these forums mistake “public” for “completely open without regard to anyone’s feelings” and “free speech” as “you can say whatever hateful/ignorant thing comes to mind.” Here is where curatorship is not just a CV line but an actually service to your community. However you define community.
I remember what Sheryl Luna and Reb Livingston commented here a while back, re: gated e-communities, how a user can block people from reading and participating in discussions, which I think is kind of a lazy curatorial style. Also, what Reb said about the kinds of blogs which have made easy transition to gated e-spaces. Just some things I’m currently thinking.
It’s definitely complicated in that I don’t like the idea of fully gated, closed off, restricted to some, please show your credentials at the door. No, that kind of gated is poison to poetry.
I am thinking of architecture. How people know intuitively how to act in a library versus how to act in a cafeteria, where both places can foster exchange of open ideas but in different ways. Consider the moongate, a simple inviting way to enter a new space but just by passing through it we know we are no longer in a completely open space but a space where we are in the frame, where our word actions matter. Denver’s Botanical Garden has a more detailed explanation of the moongate as punctuation here.