Leanne Dunic’s project for the 2019 Jack Straw Writers Program is a book of lyric pose called Wet that takes place in Singapore, inspired by the thick haze of forest fires during a writing residency. In her conversation with curator Kathleen Flenniken, they discuss rolling with the punches, the influence of nature, and the overlap between Wet and songwriting for Dunic’s band Deep Cove. “I guess, if I have some themes in my head and . . . some sort of topic I want to write about, I will write about it in all the ways I can write about it — So, songs or poetry or fiction or nonfiction.”

Music by The Bird Tribe Orchestra, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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2019 Jack Straw writer Christianne Balk spoke with curator Kathleen Flenniken about her series of poems of early 20th century voices inspired by her grandmother’s life as a young nurse serving in France during WWI. They discuss the importance of research in her writing, her background as a biology major, and inspiration taken from naturalists like John Muir. “I said, ‘You know, I don’t want to write papers. I want to enter these people’s lives and write poems.’ . . . And, so, I just started writing . . . inspired by their writings, and touching, perhaps, on things they never touched on in their writings but were autobiographical or emotional journeys that they took.”

Music by The Bird Tribe Orchestra, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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2019 Jack Straw Writer Samar Abulhassan’s poetry project unites several different bodies of work: in particular, a project called “Lena,” set near bodies of water. In her conversation with curator Kathleen Flenniken, they discuss the relationship between writing and listening, writing and movement, and the parts of our identity that sometimes stay hidden in the background. “How do we open up space for the parts that we send away or are just too way deep for us to even know that they are missing?”

Music by The Bird Tribe Orchestra, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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Jack Straw writer Rena Priest spoke with curator Kathleen Flenniken about her poetry project Sublime Subliminal, inspired by Jim Simmerman’s “20 Little Poetry Projects.” They discuss the richness of languages, where poems start, and expectations of identity. “In a way, language, using it for poetry or powerful prose that changes a person’s mind or changes a person’s relationship to the world, is like a type of magic.”

Music by The Bird Tribe Orchestra, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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Sylvia Byrne Pollack’s project for the 2019 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of prose poems written from the perspective of two fictional characters who deal with disability and mental illness. In her conversation with curator Kathleen Flenniken, they discuss Sylvia’s history as a scientist, her return to writing, and personification as a tool to grapple with one’s own struggles. “It’s been clear that if I want to be of service, one way I can do that is to use my poetry to talk about these issues and to, hopefully, pull back the curtain for other people so that they can see what it might be like to experience some of these things.”

Music by The Bird Tribe Orchestra, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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2019 Jack Straw writer Dianne Aprile spoke with curator Kathleen Flenniken about her memoir-in-progress on the story of her aunt’s long-held secret of rape and subsequent lobotomy. They discuss how Aprile’s background as a journalist helped her to uncover the truth of the story, the evolution of mental health, and where her aunt’s story fits into the #MeToo movement. “It began to make more sense to me, too, why she never wanted to tell and why nobody wanted to talk about it. It seemed just to be a part of what the society demanded at that time—There was no other way for her to deal with it.”

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Rachel Trignano’s project for the 2018 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of essays called Home[sic] that deals with family, memory, and the changing of truth over time. In her conversation with curator Daemond Arrindell, they discuss the intersections of storytelling, intimacy, and perspective. “You can have an intimacy and familiarity with your family and know them your entire life—I liken it [to] having your favorite mailman or something. . . . I’ve known you since I was x years old, I see you all the time, I enjoy you . . . I have no idea who you are.”

Music by Amy Rubin and Dawn Clement, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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Jack Straw Writer Daniel Atkinson’s contribution to the 2018 Jack Straw Writers Anthology, “To Know Your People Is to Know Yourself,” deals with the complicated interracial history of his Southern family. He spoke with curator Daemond Arrindell about George Walker, a founding father of the Harlem Renaissance; being “hired to ‘be diversity’ as opposed to ‘do diversity’”; and the Black history that goes beyond the month of February. “People, when they read what I write, they always say it’s got this anger to it . . . but . . . I am the Credible Hulk. I have matched my vocabulary with my rage. . . . Though it’s discomforting for you, that doesn’t make it wrong.”

Music by Amy Rubin and Dawn Clement, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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Sarah María Medina’s contribution to the 2018 Jack Straw Writers Anthology is a collection of poems from her poetry manuscript Oshun’s Daughter. In her conversation with curator Daemond Arrindell, they discuss the decolonization of art and its form, responding to music, and spontaneity on the page. “I’m not knocking the sonnet, but for me I feel like it’s a bit constricting,” she says. “I end up feeling like I can’t breathe by the end of it. So, I like to think about . . . my brother . . . he’s really into rumba, that is a more open-ended form where you can have the beat change and break and you can go in to bembé. . . . And I like to think about how we can do that on the page.”

Music by Amy Rubin and Dawn Clement, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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Jalayna Carter’s poems in the 2018 Jack Straw Writer’s Anthology are both a “report on human behavior” and a “love story to how humans cope.” In her conversation with Daemond Arrindell, they discuss being Southern, legacies, and exploring fear. “It’s great to be someone who people can look up to and say, ‘Oh, that person can handle it. That person is strong. That person is everything that I want to be.’ But it, ultimately, is a disservice to ourselves. I see people who are not able to admit that they are afraid and how that . . . tears apart their lives. I would love for people, black people and people of color who read this book, to know that it’s OK to be afraid.”

Music by Amy Rubin and Dawn Clement, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.

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