SoundPages
SoundPages is produced by Jack Straw Cultural Center as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. This podcast features interviews and live readings from artists in the Jack Straw Writers Program. Each year a series of twelve episodes is produced featuring the current Jack Straw Writers and curator.-
Resee - Erin Langner
Erin Langner’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Program is a collection of essays in which she uses works of art to reflect on her time growing up in the Chicago suburbs. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they discuss how the music from her adolescence inspired her project, why objects can be vessels for truths, and how her experience as an art critic helped shape her intentions as a writer. “Understanding yourself is a way of becoming a better citizen, becoming a better parent, becoming a better member of the community, and becoming the best person that you can be.”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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A Grito Contest in the Afterlife - Vincent Rendoni
Vincent Rendoni’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a poetry book titled A Grito Contest in the Afterlife that celebrates the lessons he’s learned from his elders. In his conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about his origin story as a storyteller, his inspirations as a writer, and the way he finds elation in morbid moments. “If anything, the joy and whimsy comes from death . . . This will all end, so who cares if your parents don’t like what you write or who cares what people think. Do what makes you happy, because it will conclude.”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Constraints and Jumping Off Points - Emily Parzybok
Emily Parzbok’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of essays centered on female archetypes. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about how her relationship with these archetypes has changed over time and the grace in telling complicated stories. “I think I often want there to be confusion and messiness, but of the kind that isn’t painful, of the kind . . . that just really leaves space for the mystery of being human.”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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As Long As You Need Holding - Jessica Gigot
Jessica Gigot’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a poetry manuscript in response to ecological grief. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they discuss the unique aspects of ecological grief, the lessons she’s learned about nurturing from being a farmer and a new mother, and how the ideas in her previous poetry collection Feeding Hour led her to her new work. “Just that that change is happening and not knowing how that’s going to affect the world that I know now or the community that I know now, I can’t grieve that loss yet, it hasn’t happened yet . . . it fills me with a lot of different feelings, and I think that’s where this work is coming from.”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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The Absurdity of Life - Helen Anderson
Helen Anderson’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of short stories living at the intersection of the recognizable and the uncanny. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about the writers that inspire her, maintaining relationships in the age of social media, and what she thinks makes for funny writing. “To be really funny, something should have a strong foundation in a sort of truth, as sort of something we recognize about ourselves or the world.”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Are We Asking the Right Questions to Our Stories? - Julie Feng
Julie Feng’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a collection of poems in the framework of the Hakka hill song that layer themes of love, labor, and leisure with themes of deeper cultural contexts. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they delve into Hakka hill songs, centering people’s desires versus centering their traumas, and moving away from stories that reinforce violent constructions. “I want my poems to be like little protest songs in a lot of ways, little riots in some ways.”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Entropy - Danielle Hayden
Danielle Hayden’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is an essay collection titled Entropy that delves into both the different identities that she holds and the identities that are trying to find her. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about the challenges of witnessing oneself, the beautiful and ugly truths in her writing, and the dark night of the soul that instilled a sense of urgency in her. ”I’m talking about some things that are taboo . . . but there are other people who feel like I feel. And so I want to kind of say, ‘Hey, you’re not the only one.’”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Every Poem Is Its Own Kind of Music - Jory Mickelson
2022 Jack Straw Writer Jory Mickelson’s ekphrastic poetry project deals with queerness, art history, and the imaginative connections between things. In his conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they discuss Jory’s process for researching art pieces, a photograph of genderplay from 1891, and the challenges that come with writing ekphrastic work. “I want to think about, how can I present different little songs for each piece.”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Everybody Is Redeemable - Katharine Strange
Katharine Strange’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a snarky memoir that explores the PTSD that came with her decision to get married and move to the UK when she was 22. In her conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they delve into Katherine’s comedic style of writing, the ways she stays motivated, and the theme of empathy that comes through in her writing. “In my writing I like to make fun a lot, but I try to always leave room to see the humanity, even in people who are kind of more antagonistic.”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Writing Towards a Better World - Ally Ang
Ally Ang’s project for the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program is a full-length poetry collection they call an offering to their ghosts and ancestors. In their conversation with curator Michael Schmeltzer, they talk about the importance of documenting for future generations, processing feelings of loneliness and anger, and the discipline of hope. “Even when I am writing from a really dark and seemingly hopeless place, I do try to tap into that joy, that levity, that hope, and that kind of helps me feel like I am building something.”
Music by Ran Park, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
