Gently Stalking Janice-Katie
(an encore presentation of the live show at the Chicago reading series, Reconstruction Room)
curated by Kathryn Regina
“I am Mrs. Beck,” said the older woman uncertainly, throat moving. She stared at Janice-Katie. “And you are…?”
Janice-Katie laughed, as if carefree. She said, “I am Janice-Depressive, you know, like ‘manic-depressive’?”
Mrs. Beck frowned.
--excerpt from The Girl with Brown Fur by Stacey Levine
Stout women with a hatred of twilight are difficult to trail. But a character as curious as Janice-Katie is worth an ardent shadowing. In her book of short stories The Girl with Brown Fur, Stacey Levine reveals a glimpse of this moonfaced outer space hater: Her face is so wide because of her stomach medicine. As a child she believed that the sun is the size of a person’s hand. Spring is the time she feels most alone, and she carries herself as if in need of coddling. Don’t you love her? Don’t you want to discretely follow her vehicle, keeping at least two cars between you? So do we. That’s why our group of gumshoe writers, artists and musicians have been gently stalking her en masse. And my god, have we got stories to tell. Tune in everyday to Wunderkammer to learn all about the previously undiscovered life of one of fiction’s most beguiling characters: Janice-Katie.
Always stalking,
Kathryn
P.S. The Girl With Brown Fur will be officially released by Starcherone/Dzanc in May 2011. Verse Chorus Press also just re-released Stacey's novel Frances Johnson. Highly recommended!
It's Obama Art Week
by Della Watson
But Barack Obama is more than just the 44th President of the United States. He is a muse. You need only take a look at blogs like the Obama Art Report (or stop by your local Urban Outfitters) to find the biggest image-making frenzy since Che hit t-shirts. And it's not just professional artists and clever marketers who are inspired. Schoolchildren are doodling Obama art in their notebooks, senior citizens are sketching his likeness, and my neighbors are painting Obama murals on their houses (the photo above was snapped in Berkeley, California).
Posted at 08:43 PM in Art, Commentary, Theme Weeks, Wunderkammer, Wunderkammer News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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