Rich and surprising and pleasing to the eye, Issue No. 5 of the stylish and socially conscious Journal of Aesthetics & Protest is out now. The journal is a collective, non-profit, L.A.-based web and print publishing project edited this time around by Cara Baldwin, Marc Herbst, and Christina Ulke, who write in this introductory editorial: "This issue is also an investment into our understanding that we can
incrementally stand on solid ground through honest communication. We
can get together and identify what is possible, to find where solid
action within particular contexts can become real."
Here is the list of contributors. I'm listed among them, linking to my interview with Mexican crime-and-gore photographer Enrique Metinides. Enjoy the extended Q-&-A here. There are also some good web-only specials at the site.
Early in the issue, in an intriguing interview by Arturo Romo, novelist Sesshu Foster has this to say about his hometown hood of City Terrace:
The 14 lane section of the 10 freeway that runs through the City Terrace and Hillside Village sections of LA is said to have strange effects on commuters---melding of the senses, strange visions, unexpected heart attacks---what is your experience with this?
I was growing up in City Terrace when the state exercised eminent domain over the homes of friends of mine in grammar school and they were forced to move so that the freeway could be widened, to---I thought---16 or 17 lanes. Maybe the commuter bus lanes have reduced it again. If freeways are the petroleum-fueled arteries of our civilization, and you stand on the Eastern Avenue overpass at rush-hour overlooking 14 to 17 lanes, all a vast exhaust-spewing parking lot, are these clogged arteries just a poetic metaphor? Or are these REAL METAPHORS for actual threats that kill millions? Now that you mention it, my uncle blacked out for a moment driving on the 10 just before the Eastern Ave. off-ramp and a specialist told him he probably had a heart attack. As Dr. William Carlos Williams stated, "Poetry may not be news, but men die every day for lack of what they'd find there." Family practice physician (and major American poet) his entire professional life, the doctor practiced what he preached.
The journal is available to order online and is being distributed to independent book stores in the Los Angeles area.