Monday, April 28, 2014

echolalia: on voice, again, by Elizabeth Hassler


[Image: Word cloud that holds the poem below, in reddish lip form.]


echolalia: on voice, again


You talked me into
the inside of your heart, using your lips
to mask strange diction. These were

cadences I'd only heard
in movies, before. And I was meant

to diagram the dangers in your mouth?
You loved me, you said; you loved
people with disabilities. You knew

the word transfer, no
matter the assumptions
you would make about my disabled

voice. Of course I knew
yours was a cruel dialect,

but I loved to learn a language
and build skill in my tongue.

Some days, I could speak as you
better than myself---

We both know life is pain,
girl. I'm brilliant. Don't
you think I'm brilliant? You're here now;
I'm not allowed to die.

(And other phrases that forced me
to talk you down
from the bridge of
your mouth.) I held

your mouth to my lips,
while your mouth drank the sea.

Regardless
of inflection, I hold taken voices
between my teeth. My mouth is easily talked into
certain accents, and I wonder

how best to hold your tongue
years later. This, because my voice
is forever

best sung on borrowed rhythms:
rushing winds and pocked half
-moons and the stuttered

enunciations of a rising tide.



~Elizabeth Hassler

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Behaviorism Everywhere, by Ib Grace


(content: graphically physical language)


Behaviorism Everywhere


Muscles taut and trembling;
Guts churning in
Sweat drenched innards,  
Mixing with blood
From secret lacerations
Of a million mental pains
I do not know how to cry out—
But it’s nothing to you
Because I am “nice.”

The medical masters say
Behavior is everything:
I am only what they observe.
A to B to C—
There’s nothing to see here
Move along—
Agency and self are illusory
If they are disabled.

You know this is wrong
Yet apply the same
Standards to me:
I do not cut so must not bleed.
I am not cruel so must not feel.
The least I could do
Is tell you all my business.

Oppressor and oppressed
Confessor and depressed
Stop stressing. See:
Pressed from all sides
I now declare I care
With raring equanimity.
All y’all can take a knee,
Kiss my stoic kindhearted ass
Equally. You choose for you
And I for me.

I am in here.


-Ib Grace


(Thanks to Mark Utter for that last line.)


[This visual is a PowerPoint slide by Lili, labeled "The Most Fundamental Law of Behavior is that CONSEQUENCES DRIVE BEHAVIOR." The heading states: "LEARNING THEORY: OPERANT CONDITIONING." Below this, there are three columns. A stands for 'antecedent', B for 'behavior' and C for 'consequence'. The C and the A have arrows pointing to the B. Underneath the behavior is a small dog, labeled "BOOGIE'S BEHAVIOR". Underneath the consequences header you have "how the behavior works (or doesn't work for Boogie). "good stuff happens; increased behavior, Bad stuff happens, decreased behavior," etc. Underneath the antecedents you have pictures identifying cues, commands, environment, etc. such as "mom calling" and "click and treat" and so on.]



Monday, April 7, 2014

"Bipolar Disorder Has Its Ups and Downs" by David Feingold

[This is a three part visual installation. First piece of the triptych above looks like a blue devil head on a stick reminiscent of a lollipop, where the stick comes out of the devil's ear. The devil has red eyes and perhaps tongue. The tongue of the devil on the stick appears to entwine with the tongue of a person whose bright red perhaps lipsticked lips we see to the right of the pic along with partial nose and chin. Editor reads femme-presenting here, gender other than that unknown. It is not clear whose tongue is shown, either, whether the possessor of the lips, or the devil-head. Background is hot and warm red and gold tones, not unsuggestive of fire. Water or saliva in a beaded stream of two or three droplets comes from their mouths.]

[Second visual: on a bright Tabasco-red background are repeated over and over again these words the artist pulled verbatim from a website. "In persons with bipolar disorder hypersexuality is often the most troubling and challenging symptom to cope with." The words are arranged into a shape of a large ball with an...arrow...pointing upward to the top left of the screen. The effect is visually quite...Freudian.]
[In this final visual, we have the same color of Tabasco red in the background and the same general shape of the ball and arrow in the background. The arrow is now drooping downward into the lower left of the visual field. The sentence repeated to comprise this graphic shape is: "Low sex drive can be a result of side effects of medication taken to treat bipolar disorder."]

David's bio reflects an eclectic education, including a Bachelors in Art Education, Masters in Visual Design, Masters in Social Work, and a Doctorate in Education. His combined interests blended seamlessly in his recent visual/textual self narrative dissertation, "Beyond Words: Discovering the Bipolar Impaired Self through Visual Imagery," from National Louis University.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

~~[wo]maniFEST[ival][the big]0~~neuroqueer: nodes fer uh Grammuh C, by Phil Smith


~~[wo]maniFEST[ival][the big]0~~        
neuroqueer: nodes fer uh Grammuh C

1.
neuroqueer.
neu      roq       ueer.
new     rock     uhr.
neuro   queer.
neuro   queer.  ya        hear?
neuro   queer.  ya        here?
                        we’re   hier      (not archy)
                        in da    blogosphere
            makin’ a new   grammar.

2.
see, dere’s a Grammar A (Weathers, 1980). Dat’s da grammar uv white people   priv     leged
                                                                                                                        privy   ledged
                                                                                                                        shit      rocks
            old white dead men     upper                          class
                                                dey ain’t got no           class
                                                dey don’t have to
                                                dey above all dat, knowutmsayin?
                                                head uv da                   class
                                                dey above da               class
                                                dey da ony                  class
                                                dey de FINE da           class
                                                dey create da               class
                                                deys n mein                 class
                                                                                    class    ic
                                                                                    class    ick
                                                                                                icky     poo
                                                                                                ick       shit

stan                                                     dard     english
the       language that made the            r-word
the       langue
the       tongue
                        slidin’ around, slippery
                        in they mouth
                        leering, ogling, staring
                                                                        eng       lish
                                                                        ing       lish
                        tongue of white people
                        tongue of privilege
                        tongue of power
                        tongue of         control ling      us
                                                            ing       lish
                                                controlling       us
                        locking             us                                up
                        lock     king     us                                down
                        lock     queen   us        in                     back     wards
                        lock     cock     us        outta da           fore      ground
                        lock     cunt     us        into da             out       side

eng       lish
ang       uish
ang       lish
the langue of the Angles
the langue that made               right                 angles
                                    and      str8ght             lines

                        no room for     queer               lines
                                                bent                 lines
                                                out                   lines
                                                out                   liers
                                                                                    these cannot be          
imagined
                                    drawn                                      (and quartered)
                                    painted                        in Grammar A.

Grammar A is the grammar     of         binary
                                                of         het
                                                of         two dimensions
                                                of         a single Euclidian plane that while     
extending         forever
                                                                                                            goes                 nowhere

3.
see, dere’s a Grammar B (Weathers, 1980).            dis da   grammar
                                                                        grandmudder
                                                                                                uv        hipsters
                                                                                                            cool cats
                                                                                                            hot sax
            bits                  and
            pieces              and
            fragments        and
            parts                and

it repeats itself
it repeats itself
it repeats itself
it repeats itself                        and others       little complex loops forward and back

sentences that go nowhere sidewise around and around and around painting circles and songs and stories and pomes about the day and night in counter-hegemonic dialects,     mixing it up
messing it up messinwidit

Grammar B is da grammar uv             exploration
                                                            finding the edges
                                                            discovering the boundaries
                                                            describing the margins
                                                                                                            but       it remains binary
                                                                                                                        it remains het
                                                                                                                        it remains planar
it understands the edges of the plane, may even live there, but does not go beyond
it remains caught up in the      meaning-making
                                                meaning-receiving
                                                            of the given structures of the dominant
                                                                                                            dominating
                                                                                                                                    hegemony.

3.
Now Grammuch C, see, dats a hole new ting.
Neuroqueer
New rock we’re
Neo rhizomatic {who} we are
                                    creates da        Grammuh C
Gramercy (Park)
grant mercy on we see
granmudder sea           (great ocean waves
                        huge tsunamis
                        crawling across da       world
                                                            whirled
                                                            wired, weird
                                                            word)
Grammuh C, se[a]e,    under
                                    over     stands
                                                sits
knowsvlike no udder grammah dat     the politics of the flesh are the roots of power
                                                                                                                                                                                    (Le Guin, 1995, p. 158).

neuroqueer makes Grammah C.
creates it.
builds it.
speaks it.
da gnu wurd.
a noo langue.
a nui tongue, slipping slowly and cairfully ovar sweet new flesh.     licking
                                                                                                            licking
this Grammah C          iz outside da margins
off da map
nah:                             dey iz no map
                                                                        it works
                                                                        it feels
                                                                        it loves
                                                                                                in three dimensions
nah:                                                                                         in more:           a multiverse
                                                                                                                        the polyverse
                                                                                                                        a poly amorous verse
            uh many imagined       cross
                                                inter
                                                trans
                                                            not one
                                                            not da udder
                                                            nod      even inbuhtween
                                                                        odd
                                                                                                but a gnu notevenimaginedyet
poly    amorous          verse
many                           pome-making  tongue-entwined         langue
                                                            leg-entwined
a new writing
a new writhing
a new exciting
a new inviting
a new delighting          language
                        tongue languishing
                                    languid
                        body    sandwiching
                                                            cultural way uv be-ing.           nod a pidgin
                                                                                                            nod a dialect
uh hole new weigh uv             being with each other
                                                speaking to each other
                                                living with each other

neuroqueer
makes                          Grammuh        C.
insists on                     Grammuh        C.
demands                      Grammuh        C.
a revolution for           Grammuh        C.
                                                                        Grammuh C eliminates           racism
patriarchy
                                                                                                                        ableism
                                                                                                                        hegemony
                                                                                                                        classism
institutions
                                                                                                                        heterosexism
                                                                                                                        capitalism
                                                                                                                        all da udder isms.

fuck yo Grammar A.
we gon bury dat shit.
cuz “all alphabets are prisons” (Z. Richter, personal communication, March 27, 2014).

neuroqueer
makes     Grammar   C.



Impossibly, References
Le Guin, U. (1995). Four ways to forgiveness. NY: HarperPrism.
Weathers, W. (1980). An alternate style: Options in composition. Rochelle Park, NJ: Hayden
Book Co.


[Pic of the mobius strip or infinity or sideways eight in rainbow tones on black square with words neuro queer.]