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Ekphrastacy: Members Show 2020, “Havana, Cuba, Old Quarter”

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The color of our joy

by Damien McClendon

after

Havana, Cuba, Old Quarter

by Jeneen Hobby

 

I pick up my son

Spin him, turn

Around, upside down

Hold him

By his ankles

His laugh floats

from his smile like bubbles

He smacks my belly

We both burst

Share a popsicle

Stick out

our painted tongues

The color of our joy

 

Jeneen Hobby, Artist:  My vocation as a photographer began at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. There I practiced black and white photography, but later took up color. I use Nikon professional cameras and lenses. I use a light hand in post-processing with Adobe Lightroom. I do not subscribe to the philosophy of overworking an image: I like to let the world present itself to my camera as I find it, not to overly manipulate it. As such, even though I engage in experimentation with respect to composition and perspective in the field, I do not significantly alter the original image at home in front of my computer. In this way I consider myself a descendant of the High Modernist movement of mid-20th century photography, with an emphasis on documenting the world in its hard realism, highlighting deep contrast, emotion, surprise, illumination, and critical thinking inherent in an image that speaks for itself.

 

Damien McClendon, Poet: Damien McClendon is a poet based in Cleveland, Ohio. A Youngstown native, McClendon moved to the Cleveland area when he was 13. He is a recent graduate of Kent State University, where he majored in Pan-African Studies. He now lives in Cleveland and works in schools and for non-profits doing community organizing that focuses on social justice issues. He is also a recipient of the 2018 Cleveland Arts Prize On the Verge fellowship for literature. McClendon’s work speaks to the experience of being a Black father, artist and teacher in one of the country’s most poverty stricken cities. Heights Arts’ Heights Writes Community Team awarded the Cleveland Heights Poet Laureateship to Damien McClendon in April of 2018. During his tenure he participated in and helped produce Heights Arts’ Ekhphrastacy Artist Talk and Poets Respond series, and performed various outreach programs in the community.

 

 

Please enjoy this video for Ekphrastacy April 2020 in Response to Members Show 2020:

 

To learn more about our current exhibition, Members Show 2020, click here:

To learn more about our Literary programs, click here:

Most of Heights Arts’ programming is free! If you would like to show your support for our poetry programming you can text to give HERE, or learn the many ways you can support us HERE.

 

 

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