We have to skillfully protect and defend people Trump has terrified, which means having a little bit of spine and calling bullshit when we see it.
—
George Saunders
Four Poems by Russell Atkins
- Who Is Michael Jang? Reviewed by Stephen Hilger
- Ben Lerner’s The Topeka School by Ryan Meehan
- Jack Briece’s Heterophonious Fool by Tyler Maxin
- Wioletta Greg’s Accommodations by Sean Gasper Bye
- Joshua Abrams & Natural Information Society’s Mandatory Reality by Ben Vida
- Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam’s The Sweet Requiem by Sabine Russ
- Natasha Stagg’s Sleeveless by Eugenie Dalland
Editor's Choice
- Korakrit Arunanondchai by Martha Kirszenbaum
- Antoine Catala and Dan Graham
- Atelier Bow-Wow Interviewed by Sunil Bald
- American Artist by Simone Leigh
- Jeff Bliumis by Hope Gangloff
- James N. Kienitz Wilkins by Mary Helena Clark
- Rion Amilcar Scott by Lincoln Michel
- Carmen Giménez Smith and Douglas Kearney
Interviews
- Portfolio by Lucas Blalock
- Sanssouci by Alexandra Gauss
- From Thirty Taken by Jesse Ball
- The Dead by Ayşe Papatya Bucak
- Two Poems by Eleni Sikelianos
- Two Poems by Matvei Yankelevich
- Four Poems by Russell Atkins
- Aplomb is the Most Tender Word by Sophia Le Fraga
- Box Without Head or Bottom by Son Ni
- To Go Local by Erica Cardwell
- just a note; artist to artist by ruby onyinyechi amanze & Wura-Natasha Ogunji
First Proof
Russell Atkins is a poet, playwright, composer, and editor from Cleveland. In 1950 he cofounded Free Lance, a black avant-garde publishing house and literary journal. Atkins’s only full-length collection of poetry, Here In The, was published by the Cleveland State University Poetry Center in 1975 and his chapbooks include A Podium Presentation (1960), Phenomena (1961), Objects (1963), Objects 2 (1964), Heretofore (1968), The Nail, to Be Set to Music (1970), Maleficium (1971), and Whichever (1978). He also wrote verse-plays including The Abortionist and The Corpse.
Atkins’s manifesto appears along with more than 100 poems, two plays, and a forward by Janice A. Lowe in the new comprehensive collection World’d Too Much: The Selected Poetry of Russell Atkins (CSU Poetry Center, 2019).
Related
The poet’s new collection of essays, Minor Feelings, threads intense friendships, “bad” English, and standup comedy into a meditation on the Asian-American experience.
The writers on indigenous ancestry, playing with language, and maintaining public personas.
Maybe // There is // A genealogy of suffering // How // This morning // I read // Minimalism is the aesthetic code of gentrification // Really I want to say // Make less art
Originally published in
BOMB 149,
Fall 2019
Featuring interviews with Korakrit Arunanondchai, Antoine Catala and Dan Graham, Atelier Bow-Wow, American Artist, Jeff Bliumis, James N. Kienitz Wilkins, Rion Amilcar Scott, and Carmen Giménez Smith.
