“Everything is possible to him who wills only what is true! Rest in Nature, study, know, then dare; dare to will, dare to act and be silent!” -Eliphas Levi
There is a lack of ceremony taking hold in the world that is at once relieving perhaps and yet somehow also bereaving. Our ancestors relied on daily tradition to carry them through each year. Today years pass according to the calendar alone, with little thought to phases of the moon or the changing of the seasons. Our disconnect from the world around us also creates a disconnect within ourselves, ripping us further from the current of the universe.
Kamilah Aisha Moon is a poet who lives and works in Decatur, Georgia. She has just returned from five weeks in residency where she was working on her third book of poetry. Kamilah is also an adjunct professor at Agnes Scott College and is looking ahead to the fall semester. It is important to the poet that she never rush her work and so she allows herself time to complete each volume. Kamilah also writes essays and is working toward a volume of collected work. To hear more from her, including live readings of her poetry, listen to the complete interview.
Kadar Brock is an artist from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC. He is at work on paintings, “scraping them, sanding them, beating them up,” in his own words. He is preparing for a pop-up exhibition in November in LES NYC put on by the Chicago-based gallery that represents him. Brock’s work are large scale. He has always been interested making his paintings correspond to human body-size. He intends the viewer to feel as though they could walk into the painting or put their arms around it. To hear more from Brock, including his new-age spiritual research and ritual practice as well as his nascent series based on the concept of affirmations, listen to the complete interview.
A Few Words to Keep in your Pocket:
Reconnect to the pulse of the world around you and allow it to flow through you and from you.
Interviews are available on iTunes as podcasts, and for Android please click here. All weekly essay pieces in a shareable format are here. The full archive of interviews here.
Books to Read
What are you reading? Add your titles to our reading list here. More information about the works of Kamilah Aisha Moon can be found here. Kadar Brock is reading New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought by Wouter J. Hanagraaff.
Calling all artists interesting in spending time in the French Riviera – Cassis Artist Residency is currently accepting applications from international artists. Residency runs from mid-November 2019-mid-March 2020, though artists are welcome to choose their own duration of residency period. Artists receive one meal a day and pay a small fee to stay at the facility. Collaboratives are welcome. For full details and to apply, visit the website. Deadline is August 11.
Deadlines
Weekly Edited Grant and Residency Deadlines – review the list here.
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Brainard Carey is an author, artist and educator. He is the director of Praxis Center for Aesthetics. He has written six books for artists; Making it in the Art World, New Markets for Artists, The Art World Demystified, Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius, Sell Online Like a Creative Genius and Succeed with Social Media Like a Creative Genius.