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poems by alexis sikorski & music by sean burnette

1/30/2017

 

 THE LIGHTBULB CONSPIRACY BY ALEXIS SIKORSKY 

we were astronauts and
beekeepers;
archaeologists and mechanics;
overseas teachers
getting drunk off communion wine
in a theocratic country with no believers. 
I was the blowhole in a whale and
the trash heap at sea
I was a groundbreaking invention
hidden under planned obsolescence 
you were the vitamin C I took daily and the cold I caught anyway
you were a ferris wheel showing a child the world at the top
we were
forks coming off of screaming rivers and
diving into sidewalks holding handprints that weren't ours 
throwing rotten eggs into ditches because what else would we do with them and 
what else was there to do?
I filled a cracked bucket with jell-o and left it on your porch because 
I knew you'd know what I meant
you painted a face around the hole I punched through the wall because 
you knew I'd send a picture to my mom
we recited mournful monologues on the bruises in our bananas
we played pianos with our toes
we pinched the sun between our fingers
we were lost. we weren't alone.

FLUX (POEM) BY ALEXIS SIKORSKI/ INSTERSTELLAR ROMANCE (ALBUM) BY SEAN BURNETTE

1
this is the day before.
I kicked a sock off while I was sleeping.
stood by the door,
several doors,
and I did not leave the house.
 
2
it was the green shirt from yesterday
oversized load-
ing like this truck stopping traffic
in the dead of nowhere
when I expected to be going 
fast
 
3
there it is.
an expectation, rightly so--
but I can't help thinking if I blink
it'll disappear.
 
4
or I'll disappear.
employing cryptic coloration when
no one employs me.
but there it is.
so there I go.
so here I go.
go.
Go,
omg, GO.
 
5
this is the closest I'll get to no man's land,
and I'm proud to say I'm terribly impatient.
 
6
the song you'd play at 00:00
sunglasses and a scarf out the window but
you still have your breath
 
and a mission,
an appointment:
 
with the end of the world
and you're ready,
you're so ready

7
but now you don't know what to think.
I don't know what to think.
I don't know,
but maybe I'll
find
soon, I do.
if you do.
fucking threw off my plan, you did.
(as if I'd ever had one)
 
8
God, 
I'm acting like a stereotype.
if I'm the thinker,
I'd better get going now.
 
9
it's best to travel with strangers--
they're not strangers by the end.
but then give it one week post-
and you'll be strangers again.
 
10
I don't know how to work a pay phone
but I'm out of service
and so is my ride.
 
can't talk, 
 
11
was hanging off the back of a bus.
am I supposed to be stability?
this land is at too much of a slant.
like, I'm rolling down this hill right now;
he said he'd meet me at the bottom.
 
12
but did he?
it was like when this kid said I couldn't climb,
so I went up the tree in his backyard
and bridged it over to the roof.
I sat up there all day until he
walked out with his sister.
I hit him in the head with at least
forty-five acorns.
 
13
I rolled down then too,
but this time I didn't
break my arm.
I somewhat resemble juggled
fruit, however.
 
14
nope, you're wrong.
I'm not good at staying
put.
where am I even going?
 
15
gravity hurts.
I'm not getting any closer.
I don't know what you look like anymore.
maybe I should cut my hair.
it's where I carry my stress.
 
16
it wasn't long enough to donate.
 
my flip-flop broke 
so I threw it out the car 
window into a ditch.
you didn't know my name.
but for a week there,
I was really good at running.
 
17
shit's getting weird.
a rabbit ran between my legs.
maybe I should've downloaded that gps.
 
I'm holding my keys between my knuckles.
 
a plastic cutout of an explosive device 
hangs from my palm
"I'm the bomb"
 
18
so the power's out,
but only on the right.
chill, it's just like that boathouse behind the meridian center--
keep your head down and your peripherals open,
and you'll be fine
even if you're alone
and a little lonely.
 
I found a hermit crab in a seashell.
it didn't pinch me.
 
19
this guy really has an agenda against trains.
like, a crazy-ex-boyfriend-bordering-on-
crime-of-passion agenda.
he makes really good mac & cheese out
of the back of his pickup though,
so it balances out.
 
there's a streetlamp over the hill--
 
20
nope, it was a neighborhood 
watch guy with a flood-
light.
I proved I wasn't a hooligan with 
my high school transcript.
damn university wouldn't accept
an unofficial copy
and I'd never taken it out of my
pants pocket.
 
21
I am underwater.
I am everything.
I have it all.
 
my hands--
 
22
they almost got me to stay.
that's all I'll say.
 
you'd think a place called 
paradise would have more 
porch swings.
 
23
do not park your car
in Austin, Texas.
no matter what you do 
you're wrong.
 
24
a dreaming dog.
the way their legs kick;
the way I'm kicking myself rn.
bought a phony ticket.
face down on the airport tile.
 
25
in sync.
two toothbrushes by the sink.
we can't seem to sink.
we.
ha, wow--
we.
 
26
but then again, everything always does seem to fall apart.
✱✱✱
Picture
Alexis Diano Sikorski is a polyamorous half-Filipino. She likes dogs, looking out of windows on airplanes, and caffeine. She is really bad at wrapping presents. She was probably a sailor in a past life.
Picture
Sean Burnette/Space Boy is an astronomy major and music-maker in Gainesville, FL.
He has a rad telescope.
Ask him about the absurd.  
Don't ask him about astrology. 
https://space-boy.bandcamp.com/

acetate afternoons by jenna jarvis

1/30/2017

 
though luck be a fuccboi tonight
like a fake nail your Lightning
press on
americans like afternoon games
hockey on the tv like gay marriage
or polyamory
some people are rly into it
when i hear Grimes sing italiano
mobster lookin so precious
i cringe evidently but think of you
who cut ur fangs on Angelfire
in this age we’re all culturally
catholic that is to say liberal
minded
but your grandparents’ ornate
tomb should be on an aesthetic
microblog
i’ve known a number
of people who wear large
acetate frames even more be-
spectacled graphic designers
(ur my passion)
i don’t know anyone
else who listens to Pulp
the only other Melvins fan was
this guy in high school whom i
crushed on then detested
if they released a new vinyl
called warpussy
then we should all tag ourselves
as pestilencepussy faminepussy
deathpussy
luck must be the latter becuz
it’s all cyclical when it comes to art
deco windows or
vaporware
✱✱✱
jenna jarvis is a writer whose poetry has appeared in such publications as ottawater, the Puritan, and Keep This Bag Away From Children. her poem "syndical not synecdochal" secured an honourable mention for the Puritan's 2014 Thomas Morton Prize. she is currently writing a chapbook of poems about pokémon go.

[untitled] by Caterina Merenda 

1/24/2017

 
i am proud of her.

she used menstrual blood
as war paint, smearing her face with the
vengeance of a warrior.

and she pranced throughout the
golden coast and along the ocean’s shore,
exploiting this beautiful

thing called

being a woman.
✱✱✱
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Caterina Merenda is a first generation American of Italian and Mexican descent. Born and raised in Chicago, she attended DePaul University where she earned her BA in Advertising. Appreciating various forms of art, she plays the saxophone and writes creatively in her spare time. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

creations by alyssa giannini

1/23/2017

 
Alyssa creates all sorts of amazing things. We've chosen to feature her Femmes & Flowers coloring book zine, but click on through to her portfolio or shop at the links below for some more wonderful work!
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Alyssa Giannini is a Lancaster, PA native living in Olympia, WA. Her Femmes & Flowers Coloring Book zine took over 60 hours to illustrate, proving to be the most involved zine she's worked on in her half a decade as a zinester. She is passionate about creating, caring for plants, snail mail, diy music and dad jokes. You can buy this zine and many others in her etsy shop, and check out her portfolio for a glimpse at her other work, or to commission some art.

this is what the sun sounds like by kaylee jeong

1/21/2017

 
This is what the sun sounds like

when it believes it will never die. How we think

the moon will never fall back around. How we ease
time between us like a glove off Orion’s hand. Look―

even a black hole looks like two stars they can’t match to a god.
The first time I heard a quasar was to hear the clock counting heartbeats

and then why did you count them on your skin?
Two girls trying to know each other by the joining of their hands sounds

like something they will never know through telescopes.
there is so much hollow in the way our fingers touch. And here,

the streak across the stars that we thought had all the answers. We asked it
to be our miracle, heard it breathing. I didn’t know

that was the wish you never got. And there,
we found it: the place where they theorized the universe was lonely

because it was your voice that wandered off the walls. That is what
they call comet. The way the horizon whispers

when we have half­closed ourselves to sleep. The way I went
to my knees two days later when I heard the world fall,

two years later I rise enough to hear it collapsing out.
I swear somewhere these voices know you by name. I swear

I hear you searching. I swear I hear your heart in radio waves.
✱✱✱
Kaylee Jeong is a high school poet from Portland, Oregon who is still trying to know her way with words. Her work has been featured in the Rising Phoenix Review.

girl plus ___ project by emma banks

1/18/2017

 

WHAT IS GIRL PLUS ___?

"girl plus ___ is a project that aims to explore spaces & the women that live there. i started this photo series as a way to share my girl gang with the world. all of my friends were doing really incredible things, spreading light in their own way and fulfilling creative endeavors that spoke to them, and it felt like someone outside of our circle should know. it’s a cool thing to create a little corner of the internet for “your kind of people,” and then make connections beyond that. definitely something i had not taken advantage of prior to this project! 
​

i really hope that with these photos and interviews, readers/viewers can visit the world of each person, make connections, bridge the gap, and hopefully see a little bit more of their own potential in the process. what started as a fun side project has become much more purposeful, and i’d love to keep moving in that direction. as always, i’m super thankful for each visitor and whatever impact (if any) these stories have on their lives. my beginning statement has always been the most important truth of this project and i think it’s the best way to give you the gist: we embrace both the mundane & the extraordinary. each person is a tiny, incredible star in the universe. ​"

EXCERPTS FROM GIRL + BROOKLYN

head over to http://girl--plus.com/ for more photos and interviews from brooklyn, austin, manhattan, dallas and san luis obispo.

christina

at the whitney museum of art, meatpacking district, manhattan

i spent my first month in new york roaming around the city aimlessly, totally solo and without a clue. enter christina: the saving grace i met one sunday after church who heaved me out of my solitude and into the frenzy that is her nyc social life. 

christina is currently in grad school at colombia studying arts administration, & she'll probably be running coachella and acl one day so keep an eye out for this one...she's rad.

"After working as a fashion/lifestyle publicist for a couple of years, I decided I needed a change. So I went back to school. It has been amazing. I feel like I'm exploring new interests and possibilities I had never considered. I am excited about the future. However, having to do homework after thinking I was done with that part of my life can be annoying, but it's only for a short time. I'll deal."

where are you from? I spent my formative years in Cincinnati, OH, but I also claim Houston, TX and Richmond, VA. It depends on who I'm talking to.

what do you do? I am a graduate student at Columbia University studying Arts Administration, which is basically a nonprofit business management degree with a focus on the arts. I'm hoping to work in music festival planning and programming one day, but recently I've been obsessed with idea of working at the Brooklyn Museum or BAM.

style is...mixed prints, bright colors, funky African prints.

i start every morning…by checking my horoscope. If it's positive, it's like a pep talk. If not, I'm like these are all lies! Haha

one thing i couldn't live without...my planner. I'm a Virgo...

3 women i admire: Erykah Badu, Solange Knowles, and Cipriana Quann of Urban Bush Babes on the basis of their style.

i am most well-known for...being the social coordinator for my friends. I really enjoy bringing people together.

vintage is...for mixing with new pieces.

i like it when girls...can accept a compliment without feeling the need to reciprocate or deny it. It really is an art.

i like it when guys...are feminists.

lipstick...should be bold/make you feel bold.

the best outfit i ever wore...navy loose top with white polka dots tucked into my favorite high-waisted paisley pants with black booties. I wore it to the BK Museum Artist Ball recently, and I got compliments all night long. I felt like the belle of the ball.

everyday…is a new day.

the best thing about Brooklyn is...diversity. Diverse neighborhoods, diverse people, and diverse things to do. I can't get enough. 

currently reading: White Teeth by Zadie Smith

currently listening to: Mean Lady, Tei Shi, and Tennis

favorite phrase or quotation: "You are who you think you can't be."

i'll never forget...the day I moved to Brooklyn. August 16, 2012. 

i'll always...have my nose ring. I'd feel naked without it.

joy

at her home in greenpoint, brooklyn

joy is defined as "a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight; something or someone greatly valued or appreciated; elation." i think it's safe to say that, for anyone that knows her, joy is so far living up to her name. no small feat! 

truly, i've never met anyone that is so full of life and laughter. it's easy to photograph someone with so much gusto and i couldn't have enjoyed my visit to her home more. thanks for having me! 

"I have filled my room with things that make me happy. I like to call it my Tacky Nightclub. I have weird things everywhere, pink flamingos, SNL prints, a 7’ inflatable shark, a disco ball and a whole ton of color everywhere in between. You can find wigs and costume pieces under my bed just in case there is a parade outside that I need to run out and join.

It feels pretty good to wake up every morning under a disco ball. I don't want my main environment to be serious. I want to laugh and for it to feel like it’s truly me, so a jumbled mess of crazy things that somehow maybe work together. It helps me feel more creative. I like how bright it is. My mood lifts when I’m in it. My whole apartment is like that though, bright. I don't have a closet and I used to not love that all my clothes are hanging on a rack in my room, but now I love it. It’s like art, but I get to wear it everyday. My favorite thing about my place though, is the amount of people that are in it. I feel like it is a great place for friends to come and hang and laugh. I always wanted to have a place that friends want to come to and now I think I do. So come over anytime!"

where are you from? Germantown Hills, Illinois.

what do you do? Wardrobe for film/ tell dumb jokes.

style is...whatever you feel like so that you are no longer naked

i start every morning…telling myself to freakin get out of bed already Joy!! 

one thing i couldn't live without...deodorant (being honest here).

3 women i admire: My mom, Tina Fey, My past professor Dr. Brunson.

i am most well-known for my...very loud voice…and laugh.

vintage is for...everything but underwear. 

i like it when girls...are unafraid to tell risky jokes.

i like it when guys...laugh at those jokes.

lipstick...I start with it on, but somehow it never stays.
​

the best outfit i ever wore...I have one of those very large t-shirts with a bikini painted on it, whenever I wear that and roller blades, I feel pretty damn good.

everyday…I watch something that will make me laugh, most likely an SNL clip.

the best thing about greenpoint is...the amount of old polish men always drinking on their stoops.

currently reading: Yes Please by Amy Poehler.

currently listening to: Killin the Vibe by Ducktails.

favorite phrase or quotation: “Life’s short. Stunt it.” –Rod Kimble aka Hot Rod (and every other line in that movie).

i’ll never...say no to ice-cream.

i'll always...stop for ice-cream.

tiffany

​in greenpoint, brooklyn

tiffany: one part production coordinator, one part editor, one part creator, all parts texan. she's a fellow austin ex-pat turned new yorker, incredibly busy 24/7, and has a funny obsession with this chris isaak music video (it's fantastic, if you were wondering).

she's also the creator/editor of voyeur, a personal project that takes a look at the daily lives of people via disposable cameras, so she's no stranger to the film game. lucky us... 

name: Tiffany Diane Tso

where are you from? Texas!

what do you do? I work in production for PHHHOTO and am the Features Director for LADYGUNN Magazine.

style is...better than fashion.

i start every morning...by trying to bargain with my alarm clock for more sleep. 

one thing i couldn't live without...laughter.

3 women i admire: My grandmother, for raising six children of her own and still having the generosity to take two more in. My mother, for coming to this country without much and making a career for herself. Women writers. 

i am most well-known for my...disgusting humor and tiny hands.

vintage is...forever.

i like it when girls...are chillers. 

i like it when guys...are Southern.

lipstick is...hard.

the best outfit i ever wore...was probably patterned.

everyday...is the worst/best.

currently reading: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

currently listening: to a lot of Wiz Khalifa.

favorite phrase or quotation: "From my rotting body, flowers will grow, and I am in them, and that is eternity." - Edvard Munch

i’ll never...smoke cigarettes.

i'll always...recycle.
✱✱✱
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emma is a writer & photographer currently living in new york city. 
you can see more of her work here: www.emmacbanks.com or say hi on instagram, @emmacbanks. 

2 minutes and 30 seconds by Marlena Chertock

1/15/2017

 
This is a cry for the eternity of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. This is a fuck you scream to the man who used that time to hold a knife to her throat at 10 a.m. on the train, told her to go to the back, unzipped his pants and put his demon dick inside her. For 2 minutes and 30 seconds, from Wheaton to Glenmont. This is a shriek to those who dared to keep this a secret. Someone was raped here. And will that change anything? A bellow of when will it finally be enough if it’s not enough when kids in school or the Yazidi girls are kidnapped and raped. A cry of how can we expect anything to change when a man with 4 daughters only thought of her as a place for his meat.
✱✱✱
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Marlena Chertock is the Poetry Editor for District Lit. Her first collection of poetry, On that one-way trip to Mars, is available from Bottlecap Press. Her poems and short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Crab Fat, Dear Robot: An Anthology of Epistolary Science Fiction, The Fem, Moonsick Magazine, and Paper Darts. Find her at marlenachertock.com or @mchertock.
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