Call and Response: Collaboration at a Distance Round 8
In March 2020 when we went on lockdown due to the pandemic, the Shoebox PR team created “Call and Response: Collaboration at a Distance” as a way to stay connected and to check in with and support each other. We are now going into Round 8 and have enjoyed the process, experiences and friendships that we have made. The project draws on the tradition of Jazz and Exquisite Corpse as a way for the artists to ping pong creatively off of each other. We are looking forward to continuing on for as long as we are needed.
Please join us for the opening reception of the online exhibition via zoom Saturday November 7, 3-5pm pst.
Featured Artists:
Adrienne Cole, Randi Matushevitz, Alex Pinter, Susan Joseph, Ashley Violet Hester, Emily Wiseman, Brooke Metcalfe, Cat Christensen, Dellis Frank, Zsusanna Safranyos, Eva-Marie Amiya/Aazam Irilian, Faina Kumpan, Madeline Arnault, Holly Stuczynski, Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja, Joanne Le Cocq, Rhiannon Barry, Joe Price, Nina Zdanovic, Julia Pryde, Jody Zellen, Kayla Cloonan, Beatrice Antonie Martino, Kerrie Smith, Ibuki Kuramochi, Lark Larisa Pilinsky, Francisco Alvarado, Lina Kogan, Maryanne Christiansen, Luise Bolleber, Angela Brooks, Maria Sathaliya, Deborah Reilly, Marthe Aponte, Gamila Kovshilovsky, Michele Mekel, Brenda Oelbaum, Natasha Rudenko, Genie Davis, Pau Gold, Pascha Goodwin, rain lucien matheke, Kate Warren, sonji art, Ann Storc, Stacey Moore, Maureen Vastardis, Stacie Birky Greene, Kimberlee Koym-Murteira
Call and Response: Collaboration at a Distance Round 1 can be seen here Round 2 can be seen here Round 3 can be seen here and Round #4 can be seen here Round 5 can be seen here Round 6 can be seen here Round 7 can be seen here
Round 9 is open for participation through November 15 at 4pm pst. Info on how to submit is here
Cover image by Pascha Goodwin
Adrienne Cole and Randi Matushevitz
Alex Pinter and Susan Joseph
Ashley Violet Hester and Emily Wiseman
Brooke Metcalfe and Cat Christensen
Dellis Frank and Zsuzsanna Safranyos
Eva-Marie Amiya and Aazam Irilian
Faina Kumpan and Madeline Arnault
Genie Davis and Natasha Rudenko
2 Genie Davis
Still a Star on that Tree
I fluctuate
between hope
And none
of it.
My heart hurts.
I don’t know who I
love
any more.
Sorrow quivers
like a web
in the wind,
waiting
patiently to catch me.
My heart breaks
in so many ways.
The anger
is real and
tempered with
fear now
that things will
get impossibly worse.
This is all curse,
no blessing.
I can’t go back.
The only way out
is through
a vast uncharted
planet.
I think wherever I go,
I am already gone.
When memory turns
so do I.
There’s still
a star on that
tree.
But why?
4 Genie Davis
Come to This
Everything is darkness.
The dawn won’t come..
Until it does,
purple as a plum,
ripe as my heart,
before it grew
numb.
I wait
but want to run.
I lost so much,
I lost
wanting to love.
You are the destroyer,
shadow of the past,
winged warrior,
standing before
a dazzle of sunlight,
star bright.
And seeing only
blood.
You use him like a pawn,
eventually you’ll lose.
The curse echoes
generations,
you get to choose.
There is only darkness.
Will the sun persist?
You steal
you never treasure.
It has
come to
this.
6 Genie Davis
Peace
I sleep,
I read,
I mourn.
I weep,
I seethe,
I scorn.
I find no bone
too small
to chew.
I count the losses –
two by two.
I’m always choosing,
don’t you know?
I hold on tight,
but there you go.
Remember when
we once would laugh,
and view ourselves
in the looking glass?
When did the change
come, accepting it?
The chain,
the fetters,
the bitter wish.
My heart is empty,
one dull ache.
I give the night
my soul
to take.
I wake
too early.
It’s not enough.
Breathe in
the poison
in a rush.
Hurry, hurry
get on through.
The gate
Is closing.
Pass on,
you…
I speak,
I don’t.
I die,
I choke.
There’s no
going back
from this.
The final touch,
The last light kiss.
Off into
the black
abyss.
Peace.
8a Genie Davis
Put the pain away for now.
Follow the celebration.
Stop letting the anger
wash in waves,
let compassion
rule the day –
rue the day?
It’s dark,
but it’s shiny.
Paint each leaf, each tree, the whole town black.
It is in faith, not fear,
you find what you lack.
Hang onto that.
Don’t let the end of tunnel
pull you too deep in.
Don’t let death
take your skin,
leave only bones,
when there is a soul in you.
They can eviscerate the heart
but not that somatic part,
the organ that nobody sees.
I grieve, but perhaps through it all,
I still believe.
That it looks like
a party.
Like there’s something to
celebrate.
So I wait,
and wish I could see
what lies in the end,
in front of me.
10a Genie Davis
Trying
Put away the toys of childhood.
Put away the love you felt.
Put away pain and poison.
This is just the hand you dealt.
There’s no past or future, present
only just this sense of space
breathe they tell me
it makes a difference.
Play the game,
control the space.
Weep no more.
Move on and rest.
Put away the hope once given.
Put aside the memories.
Close the book,
don’t light the candle,
—yet the sparks dance
from your hands.
Stay in the dark.
Stay on the pillow.
Keep what was said
to yourself.
Trying.
Trying.
12 Genie Davis
I Was Alone
I was alone and you came to me,
so alone and you saw through me.
Just a ghost –
but you knew me.
Deep regret for all feeling,
wishing I was gone,
and yet I’m stealing
more minutes
as if hours
became words.
I couldn’t rest, couldn’t tremble
I am what I resemble –
parody of all that’s absurd.
There is no place to be,
not that isn’t me.
I lived this life before.
There was something to ignore.
But I couldn’t take it
Anymore
and now it’s done.
I was here
and I was there.
Now I’m not
anywhere.
Just waiting for today
to be the past.
None of this
was ever meant,
to last.
Like a lovely candle,
flickering to ash.
All of it is old
…was never young,
dreams
encased
in wax.
14 Genie Davis
Stone Angel
There is an angel made of stone,
Watching above my bifractured bones.
Me, dissected in the glass,
waiting for this time to pass.
I will heal, so I see.
minus a part of me.
When I don’t die
before I wake,
a piece of my soul still you take.
But yes you do and no I can’t,
repair the shattered looking-glass.
In the squares
I see the start,
the puzzle pieces of the
broken heart.
I set my course
through words of haste.
But yet the truth
is what I taste.
That this has been my destiny –
past life reshaped
but not lesson-free.
The shaman said,
the witch foretold.
Worn down over time
I grew too bold.
And now the stone angel waits.
Above the scattered grave
of tortured saints,
and me in my iniquity,
until the next life
visits me.
Holly Stuczynski and Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja
Joanne Le Cocq and Rhiannon Barry
Joe Price and Nina Zdanovic
Julia Pryde and Jody Zellen
Kayla Cloonan and Beatrice Antonie Martino
Kerrie Smith and Ibuki Kuramochi
