Litmus Press

Litmus Press is a program of Ether Sea Projects, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit literature and arts organization.

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Litmus Press nears almost two decades of publishing in 2019. We’ve shifted greatly in shape and scope over time, but we continue to invest in poetry and critical inquiry as vehicles toward collective healing and community building. With public arts support dwindling as the Trump administration wages war on cultural interchange; we hope you will consider making a contribution or purchasing a Litmus membership for the new year. Any amount will help sustain and increase our production, promotion, and distribution of new and forthcoming publications, as well as help us continue to create freely accessible resources. Please visit the link in our bio for more info on ways to give. 💙 #nonprofit #smallpress https://www.instagram.com/p/BqQXrZbHEFW/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=u8tvxynpx85p

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"DEAD YOUTH, I adore you, and I have personally vouchsafed for you here at my maternal bosom, even though I am a very hunted man. Mine may not be the safest of bosoms in which to hide your lean, rodentine faces." #tbt to Nov. 2014 when Joyelle McSweeney's DEAD YOUTH, OR, THE LEAKS was published. #History: Joyelle McSweeney was the winner of the FIRST Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers for DEAD YOUTH, OR, THE LEAKS. "Dead Youth self-identifies as an 'intentionally badly-wired allegory' (perhaps a misallegory) that attempts to recall into consciousness events that have been culled out of sight. Miswiring in this case is used to construct a necessary slippage in resemblances: Dead Youth is a play built on the ignored or revised histories of its characters, and its loyalty to history is as strong as our shaky remembrances and popular media retellings of it." — A guest contributor from Entropy https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781933959245/dead-youth-or-the-leaks.aspx #innovated #playwright #LeslieScalapino https://www.instagram.com/p/BqQWJcBHFZ0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=129pv05r5embs

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BEWILDERED BY LOVE AND LONGING

Gentle now, doves

of the thornberry and moringa

thicket, don’t add

to my heart-ache your sighs.

Gentle now,

lest your sad cooing

reveal the love I hide,

the sorrow I hide away (p.6)

Throughout Bewildered there is a wounded heart, grieving lost love, searching for it again. We see the efforts of translation to preserve aspects of the culture of the original language. These translations searching for the balance between what has to be sacrificed—in this case the rhyme scheme of the Arabic that cannot be replicated in English, and what must remain—the arc of the love poems, the longing for a supreme being, the delve into minute and grand aspects of human emotion inherent throughout. 

From this interview with Michael A Sells and Simone Fattal: 

Michael: So the cycle starts with bewilderment and it ends with it. My view is that this concept of bewilderment is central for all Ibn ‘Arabi’s thought, and it comes up again and again in the poems. There is bewilderment because one does not understand what is going on. And there is bewilderment because this is the place where one is confronting things which for human beings are essentially bewildering because they are at the boundary point between the finite and the infinite. That is what great love is, and that is what the religious path is.

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The Leslie Scalapino Lecture in Innovative Poetics and The Pratt Institute MFA in Writing welcomes Tisa Bryant Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 5 p.m.! In Search of a Free State: Black Womanhood in the Archive of Dreams Drawing from close reads of cinematic depictions of Black women and her own research on enslaved women in Barbados, Tisa Bryant explores the promise of literacy and the power of speculation as she contemplates the encounters, hazards and complicated yield of writing alongside the archive as a way of reckoning with dreams. https://www.pratt.edu/events/event/14246/ #lecture #event #pratt #tisabryant #lesliescalapino #archive #dreams #blackwomanhood #literacy #power https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp5B6qwnjHh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1bi4eqc7syf5g

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Running through the mid-term election, the SWERVE flash sale is on now, 11/2-11/9 vis Small Press Distribution! Use the code “SWERVED” to get 25% off THE SUPPOSIUM. AND DON’T FORGET TO VOTE NOV. 6TH!! . . . . . . . . . . . #sale #spd #thoughtexperiment #poetry #art #sound #suppose #flashsale #smallpress https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpz10XQHq98/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=118fcnhylsnuz

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“...restoration of love as rigor . softly cutting one another . space inside . spirited and spiritual response . ...” from SWERVED in Joan Retallack's latest title, THE SUPPOSIUM: Thought Experiments & Poethical Play in Difficult Times. Running through the mid-term election, the SWERVE flash sale is on now, 11/2-11/9 vis Small Press Distribution! Use the code “SWERVED” to get 25% off THE SUPPOSIUM. @spdbooks AND DON’T FORGET TO VOTE NOV. 6TH!! . . . . . . . . . . . #sale #spd #thoughtexperiment #poetry #art #sound #suppose #flashsale #smallpress https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpr9hVmnsuM/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1z0o5qpy6rxe

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The Leslie Scalapino Lecture in Innovative Poetics and the Pratt MFA in Writing welcomes Tisa Bryant Wednesday Nov. 7th 5pm! Higgins Hall Auditorium, Pratt Brooklyn Campus November 7, 2018   5:00 PM - 7:00 PM In Search of a Free State: Black Womanhood in the Archive of Dreams Drawing from close reads of cinematic depictions of Black women and her own research on enslaved women in Barbados, Tisa Bryant explores the promise of literacy and the power of speculation as she contemplates the encounters, hazards and complicated yield of writing alongside the archive as a way of reckoning with dreams. @prattmfawriting . . . . . #lecture #event #pratt #tisabryant #lesliescalapino #lesliescalapinolecture #archive #dreams #blackwomanhood #literacy #power #cinema #higginshall (at Pratt Institute) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpm1QN_HENN/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=skffm36c7qm2

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Michael Sells and Simone Fattal talk about a new translation of Ibn 'Arabi's famous cycle of love poems, 'Translation of Desires'.

‘Translation of Desires’ (Tarjumān al-ashwāq) is one of the world’s great works of mystical poetry. A cycle of 61 poems addressed to a beautiful but elusive beloved, it has been one the most widely-read works of the Andalusian mystic/philosopher, Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi (1165–1240). Even today, 800 years after its composition, its extraordinary imagery and sentiments continue to inspire artists and musicians not only within the Arab world, but also in the West, where it has become known largely through the early 20th century translation of R.A. Nicholson. This year has seen the publication of new translations of 46 poems, under the title ‘Bewildered’, by Michael Sells, The John Henry Barrows Professor of Islamic History and Literature at the University of Chicago, who has spent a lifetime on their study. Jane Clark and Cecilia Twinch talk to him, and to artist and publisher Simone Fattal who has produced the book for The Post Apollo Press.

Cecilia: Michael, these English versions of poems from Translation of Desires have been a work in progress for you for many years now, since the 1980s. What is it about the book that fascinates you?

Michael: It is the poetry of loss and longing from the classic Arabic tradition of love poetry, although it also represents a very distinctive development of that form. One of the things that makes it appealing is that it is based on a very sophisticated psychology of love. It expresses all the moods of a lover, all the ways in which he or she becomes almost different people in relationship to the beloved. This makes it a master work of a poetically-sensitive treatment of love.

Cecilia: Do you feel that this is something timeless that people today can relate to even though the poetic form is unfamiliar?

Michael: Definitely. One of the reasons that I have not included a long scholarly introduction or lots of notes in the translation is so that people who like to read good literature – and even people who think that they don’t really like poetry because these themes are in other forms of literature; they are in music, they are everywhere – will be able to read a poem and say: “I don’t know where this place is or who this person is, but I can see the brilliance of the images, and the beauty of the sound quality.” So they can be brought into this world of extreme delicacy and passion.

From “61 / Tigris Song” 

I’m in love far gone With a girl from Ajyādī

Wrong, she lives within the black shell of my liver

In a diffusion of musk and saffron Beauty falls amazed. Bewildered (p.47)

Bewildered is available from SPD 

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Support LGBTQ Storytellers by donating to Lambda Literary! Each summer, Lambda Literary offers the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. This highly sought-after fellowship is the only residency in the world exclusively for up-and-coming LGBTQ writers. This retreat is a unique opportunity, which helps bring more LGBTQ storytelling to life. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpU2lP2H1Ci/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=z3xre52i290l

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important words from @omotarajames & @chaninicholas we need to do better. #Repost @omotarajames ・・・ I’ve been thinking and writing a lot today about how cisgender and patriarchical oppression is internalized bye non-white, non-male members of our communities and families and how we perpetuate it: through culture, values and just how it gets in the way of being able to be present or even acknowledge those of us in the room and at the table who don’t want or can’t live that life. Every day in every way. Blatant and insidious. #Repost @chaninicholas with @get_repost ・・・ Bringing this back from last spring ?! which feels like 50-11 years ago but still, now, and forever, FUCK THIS ADMINISTRATION. . . . . #MondayMood #HellNoToTheMemo #TransRightsAreHumanRights #AbolishTheBinary https://www.instagram.com/p/BpU0G21H_7A/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=16eflii6dlrss

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A cover truly representing of the beauty within this book. #Repost @susan_bee_1 ・・・ Cover to my book, Fabulas Feminae, with Johanna Drucker. Still in print from Litmus Press! @fredwardine @litmuspress #susanbeepainting #johannadrucker #litmuspress #fabulasfeminae https://www.instagram.com/p/BpUzeaonO3g/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=10sq4y3r5nke0

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TOMORROW NIGHT 8p @poetry_project Litmus darlings Stephon Lawrence ( @alphaheaux )& Phoebe Glick ( @phoebeglick )will be reading together. A night of magic not to be missed ✨🔥 (at The Poetry Project) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpNlA1lH56N/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1g6ftkbr55rbq

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Will Alexander has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry by Beyond Baroque! Will will be honored alongside Viggo Mortensen Sat. Nov. 10 in the Venice Arts Plaza and Gardens. Congrats Will! (at In the Venice Arts Plaza & Gardens) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpIPzilngc5/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15tf8w8hbbzys

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orchestration of the choral poem SWERVED straight from Joan’s kitchen table to the stage @thekitchen_nyc https://www.instagram.com/p/BpDFJSinXLO/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=14blkznyypta9

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Snippets from an amazing night at @thekitchen_nyc celebrating Joan Retallack’s THE SUPPOSIUM: Thought Experiments & Poethical Play in Difficult Times. Featuring an extraordinary convergence of Supposium participant-contributors: Adam Pendleton, Beverly Semmes, Charles Bernstein, erica kaufman, Evelyn Reilly, Fred Moten, James Sherry, Lauren Bakst, Omar Berrada, Simone White, and Tracy Grinnell. https://www.instagram.com/p/BpDAHgsHCD8/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vn1j4zvb7lyk

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On show until DEC. 7, Digital Trash raises questions about what counts as “trash” and how digital technology is impacting the environment. Jennifer Scappettone  and collaborators Abraham Avnisan and Judd Morrissey have an immersive installation in this show called LAMENT; Or, The Mine Has Been Opened Up Well. LAMENT is an interactive augmented and virtual reality work comprising poetry, documentary video and sound—the result of research into global networks of copper exploitation, technology, salvage, and myth. The crux of the piece is a historic miners’ strike of 1913 that took place on Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, site of the US’s first metal boom—and bust. (at Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bow9NBznR5C/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ia1ljpfdvhr2

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OCT. 15 — Don't miss this! An afternoon of thought experiments and a procedural performance game. Following the release of Joan Retallack’s book The Supposium: Thought Experiments & Poethical Play in Difficult Times (Litmus Press, 2018) is a celebratory performance featuring participant-contributors: Adam Pendleton Beverly Semmes Charles Bernstein erica kaufman Evelyn Reilly Fred Moten James Sherry Lauren Bakst Omar Berrada Simone White Tracy Grinnell, Litmus Press Founding Editor(The Kitchen에서) https://www.instagram.com/p/BohSxsCn-1F/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1en57j543uyh7