Tangent, a poem by Alise Alousi 2011
Denise Brady, USA
| Denise Brady, artist,
Bradypress, Omaha, Nebraska USA In making this book - swirling strips of Arabic text that read al-Mutanabbi Street with cotton pulp in the vat, setting the poem in Gill Sans and title in News Gothic Condensed, folding and cutting the Somerset text paper, pasting Indian marble paper and Japanese silk cloth to boards, sewing the book - my hands seem not so far removed from the hands of others I imagine on al-Mutanabbi Street. Hands writing a poem, hands turning pages, hands lining up books on a shelf or laying them out on a cloth-covered table, hands tipping a cup of tea, pointing out a passage in a book, or following a line of text. Working with my hands, I come to understand that ideas and connections are passed hand to hand. Made in response to the call "to 're-assemble' some of the 'inventory' of the reading material that was lost in the car bombing of al-Mutanabbi Street," this poem is a reminder that the violence on al-Mutanabbi Street took the lives of individuals who, like each of us, were traveling through this world, turning in particular circles of place and time and family. Through language, through writing, through books, we understand that what is personal is universal. It is my hope that al-Mutanabbi Street will thrive again with the cycles of life. Book Produced for the Project: Tangent, a poem by Alise Alousi Alise Alousi is an Iraqi-American poet living in the Detroit area. The book is 6 x 6 inches in size, completed in November of 2011. It is a single section set and printed by hand, sewn with handmade endsheets into cases of paper and cloth over boards. The endsheet paper was made by the book artists from recycled fabrics with paper inclusions that read in Arabic "al-Mutanabbi Street". The edition size is 40 copies. Twenty-five copies were made available to those who donate to Doctors Without Borders and eleven copies remain to date (March 2012). (See http://bradypress.wordpress.com/tangent/ for details.) Denise Brady is an Omaha book artist and poet currently working as coordinator of the UNO Art Gallery. Since 1984 she has produced hand made limited editions of poetry books and broadsides under her imprint Bradypress. She has published more than thirty limited editions and promoted book arts for many years through the Nebraska Book Arts Center. She has taught graphic design and book arts classes and workshops through many local organizations and institutions. She holds an MFA in studio art from the University of Nebraska Lincoln and a BA in philosophy and English from Upper Iowa University.  bradypress@yahoo.com http://bradypress.wordpress.com/tangent/ www.unomaha.edu/nbac/dbhome.html |
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