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Playfulness & Pretend Light the Dark in ‘Our Dark Academia’ Poems

Chess pieces, a white queen and a white knight, in front of a sunset

Adrienne Raphel’s new poetry collection, Our Dark Academia, deftly blurs the lines between performance, play, and identity. Seemingly autobiographical and written throughout the “Pandemic years” (2020-?), the poems in this collection are delicately and surprisingly interwoven.

Motifs like an upcoming birthday, a lost piece of jewelry (a family heirloom), and an addiction to online shopping spiral throughout the poems.… read more.

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Camille Dungy’s Urgent Ecopoetry from the Sixth Extinction

Camille T. Dungy was born in Denver but moved often. It is no surprise, then, that the poetry in her collection Trophic Cascade is filled with motion and displacement. Sometimes the displacement is due to travel and adventure, sometimes flight. Even what might seem stable or rooted, like an overflowing collection of Sports Illustrated magazines in the poem ‘Still life,’ is painted as precarious or fleeting.… read more.

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The Collaborative Effort Inherent in George Balanchine’s ‘Serenade‘

Serenade is Toni Bentley’s intelligent, expansive, and beautiful exploration of George Balanchine’s signature ballet.

FF2 Guest Post by Martha Anne Toll

I have been a balletomane since childhood and have read what I can on the subject. My debut novel, Three Muses, forthcoming in September, features a prima ballerina, Katya, as a main character.… read more.

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‘Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls’ Asks Even Bigger Questions

“It’s about damn time.”

That’s the first thought that came to mind after I watched the first episode of Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls on Amazon Prime. This binge-worthy reality series—which has been nominated for numerous Emmy nominations including in the Outstanding Competition Show category—follows a group of 13 aspiring plus-size dancers.… read more.

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‘Goodbye, Petrushka’ Strikes a Gentle Chord with Indie Audiences

If there’s one person who made the most out of quarantine, it’s Nicola Rose. As the world shut down, Nicola powered up. Reaching out to her friend, producer Tierney Boorboor, Nicola declared it time to go big while staying home. Tapping into tools like Zoom and sheer tenacity, Goodbye, Petrushka made it to the screen.… read more.

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Make Them Feel the Feeling: Candice Wuehle’s ‘Monarch’

A white crown floats on a blue background

A creepy doll-face with pink lips and green eyes; the cover of MONARCH by Candice WuehleI could describe Candice Wuehle’s debut novel, Monarch, in a hundred different ways, each as enthusiastic as the last.

Jessica is a teenager in the “middle of the middle”—her father, Dr. Clink, is a professor at a Midwestern University; her mother, Grethe, sells Tupperware (sort of).

Jessica is like a lot of teenagers—she spends an absurd amount of time studying herself in a mirror.… read more.

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