History
The unraveling and retelling of history.
The poet on her new collection and how a person lost to history can survive in the imaginary possibilities of art.
Out, like fireflies, from the inter-dimensional, / silver disks at edge of picture hover over Hillary / with swaddled child, John Podesta counterpose beside her, / in a painting I’d like to paint, had I been a painter, / trading in detail from the too-smooth desert
All monuments commemorate the same / falsehood The gilt is genuine and we feel it right / at the surface of our discontent / Anger like so many lustrous mounts softens / in the rain And stallions and generals must periodically be / re-gilded recommitted to as if / as an abiding law of man / Though if we are honest it is the law that fails us / along with what we can abide
The citizen investigator as poet.
The novelist on the enduring AIDS crisis, the resonance of the Lost Generation, and writing her way around questions.
We are street people. Nomadic by nature. We are the grandchildren of poor, adventurous strangers. Our living radicalizes their legacy.
The Invention of Ana novelist on the manipulations of narrative, being submerged by fiction, and the protagonist as STD.
Ville Kumpulainen is a photographer living and working in Helsinki, Finland. In his new book, Out of Sight (Hatje Cantz, 2017), Kumpulainen manipulates archival images to solidify the tenuous connection between present and past, attempting to fill the gaps left between himself and his history.
The Argentine filmmaker on colonialism, recreating history, and Zama.
A film investigating memory and history, premiering exclusively on BOMB, with a brief interview by Alex Zafiris.
From Super PAC to supernova, two artists view photographs through the lens of time, and time through the lens of colonialism.
Broken, the madrilenial butterfly finally suckles / from the dime blood at the ankle of the tube sock.
500 billion years ago—the dark touches itself in the dark and experiences something like ecstasy. Except that ecstasy isn’t a feeling yet—the sensation is just kind of sharp and warm. Afterwards, the dark feels happy and breathless. Afterwards, the dark feels lonely.
The playwright discusses his formative years, rejuvenation of historical material, and how race is coded into theatergoing itself.
The hymn for the time is bone on bone. / One man’s anthem slaughters another. / I know you’ve seen it all before— / a boy born wrong is opened up by the law
The writer of Bunk on American hucksterism, racism, plagiarism, and why we believe what we want to believe.
Featuring selections by Jaime Manrique, David Grubbs, Molly Surno, Lynn Melnick, Lucio Pozzi, and more.
Featuring selections by Justin Taylor, Shelly Oria, Mary Walling Blackburn, Kevin Killian, Barry Schwabsky, John Freeman, and more.
Vast plates shifted littler ones / with constant sounds and heat terrible / Then there was a cleft and so a river
