I’ve only used zoom once so far during the past month and one week of quarantine. It was with a small group of friends and it felt very awkward to me because there really wasn’t a whole lot to talk about as we’ve all been staying in the house.Two friends got into a deep conversation…
Author: ArtRoot's Writer-In-Residence
The ArtRoot Writer-In-Residence (WIR) project is an initiative founded by ArtRoot, a collaboration of artists and arts advocates who are determined to reinvigorate Racine, WI through the arts. This project is supported by the Racine Literacy Council, and funded through a generous grant from the Osborne & Scekic Family Foundation.
This project seeks to spotlight Racine and Kenosha’s dynamic literary community while encouraging, supporting, and advocating on behalf of writers at all stages of their careers.
Zines of Racine 3: Esteban Colon
Esteban Colon is technically a citizen of Kenosha, but he’s been entertaining and enlightening Racine poetry nights for years with his laments on life, love and how Dr. Suess might interpret Poe’s classic, Tell Tale Heart. I purchased his 2010 work, Between Blue Lines back in November at The Racine Krayzine Fest.The layout invokes the…
Books of the Pandemic part 2
Hello again, I apologize for the long wait for another post. It’s just been very hard to stay focused when you have no real deadlines to speak of. With that said, I’ve been trying to keep myself busy by reading books semi related to our current crisis. Last time, I reviewed Dharma Bums and Jonathan…
Books I have been reading during the pandemic part 1
By Jenny Maurer Hello, The pandemic has no doubt been very hard on all of us and we’re desperate to fill time until at least April 24th or early May. Some people are watching netflix films while others are working on novels. As for me, I have been working on a Simpsons puzzle and reading…
Zines of Racine: Dan Nielsen
Dan Nielsen’s 5x5x26: A Fives & Faces Alphabet is part stand up routine and part somewhat confessional poetry. His prose jumps between Steve Wright like one liners: “Never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry and never go energy drink shopping when you’re tired”; to darkly funny almost confessional poetry: “It’s best not to show too…
Reflections on the Matcha tea Latte
By Jenny Maurer Today was going to be the day I interviewed someone for the Zines of Racine feature, but with the virus emergency, the person chose to be interviewed via email. Hence, I have decided to instead write a brief lament on a matcha tea latte. I have tried most of the lattes and…
A brief lament on the mango Kulfi ice cream from the Kabab and Grill:
by Jenny Maurer Kulfi has long been a popular treat in India and the Middle East. A creamier version of ice cream, Kulfi is slow cooked and stirred rather than whipped. This process makes the treat more flavorful and sweeter. Today, I tried a mango flavored Kulfi and it was very promising. Upon unwrapping the…
Drive Like Jehu: influential Emo in San Diego
By Jenny Maurer Last time, I discussed the Bay Area guitar hero Sarah Kirsch and today, I am sticking with the California punk theme as the weather is slowly getting warmer. This time, we are moving to a southern part of the state, namely San Diego. It’s home to skate punk ambassadors Blink 182, the…
Descendents’ I don’t wanna Grow up
By Jenny Maurer There’s a good argument to be made that the California pop punk band The Descendents helped usher in the conservative Men’s rights activist culture of reddit and 4 chan with their debut, Milo goes to College. While extremely catchy, the album contains many angry diatribes about women considered unattractive (“I wanna be…
Sarah Kirsch: a guitar hero of Bay Area punk scenes
Throughout the history of Pop music, there have been many famous musicians who started out as members of other bands; Dr. Dre was a member of the dj group World Class Wrecking Crew before starting a solo career while Eric Clapton honed his guitar skills as a member of Cream in the late 1960s. There…
ArtRoot Writer-In-Residence 