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Image
Is for Sale!
Now that
we have your attention, we have to confess that Image is not for
sale in the way you're thinking. Rather, the whole website is now wired
for credit card purchases. Now you can stock up on back issues of Image,
purchase books, conference audio- and videotapes, posters, prints-even
register for our fall conference-through our new secure shopping cart
software. Either go to pages on our website such as tables of contents
for back issues or click on "Store" and then "Browse Shop"
to browse through the nearly 150 items you can now make your own. Keep
in mind one thing, though: online subscriptions are still being handled
through a separate system. That's because when you subscribe through our
site, your information goes directly and seamlessly onto our mailing list-a
convenience for you and for us. So get out that little plastic card and
put it to good use. The economy may be sluggish, but great art and literature
are always good investments. Right?
;)
Click here
to browse the store.
Griffin
Prize for Poetry/Concrete and Wild Carrot
Margaret Avison
FLASH!
Just as we were about to send off this newsletter, complete with the review
in the next paragraph of Margaret Avison's new collection, we got the
news that she has won the Griffin Prize for Poetry, the largest cash award
for poetry in the world. With characteristic bluntness, the 85-year-old
poet responded to the news: "This is ridiculous. I do appreciate
the occasion but what makes you write a poem is very remote from this
kind of honour." Image is grateful that we published her long
poem, "Other Oceans," in issue #30 (included in Concrete and
Wild Carrots, where she has kind words about Image in the acknowledgments).
And now, back to
our regularly-scheduled review:
 Inquisitive
and insightful, Concrete and Wild Carrot is the latest book of
poems by distinguished Canadian poet Margaret Avison. Two-time winner
of the Governor General's Award (Canada's most prestigious literary prize),
Margaret Avison speaks with a voice of curiosity and fascination. Her
biblical allusions are fresh, exploring scripture and parable with keen
observations. She stares unblinkingly at the moving world, delighting
in the strangeness of everyday events. Her poems are inspired by a trip
to the park, a birthday, an encounter with an ant. Avison is fascinated
with mystery-the poems are spattered with question marks in all the places
where we would expect to find conclusions. By embracing ambiguity, Avison
balances the ceaseless wonder of a child with the wisdom of a poet who's
been asking questions her whole life. Margaret Avison's sense of wonder
is apparent in these poems, as is her insight.
More from the publisher
here.
 Melody
and Metaphor: The Music of John Austin
John Austin was born in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, and began
writing songs at age thirteen. Soon after high school he moved to Chicago
and began performing on street corners and in subway stations. After winning
a national songwriting contest, Austin secured a record contract and began
recording his first album, with Mark Heard as producer. Backed by the
likes of David Miner, Buddy Miller, and Erin Echo, Austin's The Embarrassing
Young (1992) introduced the music world to an artist rich in both
melodies and lyrics. On the eve of an international tour to support the
album, while waiting at a traffic light, Austin was jumped by a street
gang and beaten with a baseball bat. Months later, after recovering from
a shattered right arm, he began opening shows for Vigilantes of Love.
A sparse second album--Authorized Unauthorized Bootleg--was released
in 1994, and remains an adrenaline-drenched document of a Chicago caught
in his rearview mirror. Austin lived out of his car after leaving Illinois,
ending up some time later in Atlanta to begin work on Byzantium
(1996). Acclaimed as a "do-it-yourself masterpiece" by Performing
Songwriter Magazine, the album showcases a fully backed Austin placing
his lyrics with such precision that it is only in stepping back for reflection
the listener sees in the mosaic of metaphor a piercing analysis of American
cultural and spiritual decay. Austin lived a year in Nashville, co-writing
songs for national acts such as Steve Hindalong, before returning to Atlanta
to write songs for Erin Echo's debut album. Austin's fourth album, the
self-produced If I Was A Latin King, was released in 1998. The
album revisits Austin's encounter with gang violence in Chicago, and is
filled with Latin rhythms and musical styles; it is a sonic and often
experimental concept album that cruises the back streets of violence,
love, death, and hope. That same year, Austin married Erin Echo. In 2002,
Austin released his latest album, Busted at the Pearly Gates. Described
as "part pop song-cycle, part roots-rock concept album," it
continues to prove that Austin is a vitally important singer/songwriter.
Visit John Austin
online at his official website.
 Final
Solution
Directed by Cristobal Krusen
The final
years of South Africa's apartheid system were overshadowed by an atmosphere
of escalating violence and cyclical bloodshed. This unhappy period serves
as the backdrop for director Cristobal Krusen's Final Solution,
a film that recounts the true story of Gerrit Wolfaardt, an Afrikaner
born and raised in a culture of extreme prejudice. The film traces Wolfaardt's
evolution from a nationalistic adolescent, to a violent neo-Nazi, and
finally to a law student who devises a "final solution" to rid
South Africa of its "black danger." His violent machinations
take a turn, however, when they are challenged by a sensitive African
pastor who urges Wolfaardt to examine his apparent fear of the world he
claims to hate. Final Solution is a film that investigates forgiveness
on both a practical and a metaphysical level. Through stark realism and
well-drawn characters, Krusen illustrates how reconciliation is always
the hard choice, the painful choice, but also the only choice that holds
out hope for the future. The film's message does not stay within the borders
of South Africa. Instead, Africa's turmoil-ridden countryside becomes
a microcosm for the world.
To order the film
on video or DVD, or to check screening times on PBS stations or in local
churches, go to the official
site.
Sweet
Jesus: Poems About the Ultimate Icon
Edited by Nick Carbo and Denise Duhamel
Forward by Dan Wakefield
Sweet Jesus is an odd and refreshingly lively anthology of
poems about Christ from the best of our contemporary poets. The book includes
many authors well known for their excellent work, but rarely noted for
the religious content thereof. Poems by Stephen Dunn, Kim Addonizio, and
others are included here. After reading them, one cannot help but be grateful
that the editors sought out such varying content and perspective. The
poems rage, laugh, wonder, and love as they reflect on Christ. The poems
here are rarely, if ever, pious. What they are is alive. They breathe
in moments with which any reader can identify. These poems, disparate
as they are, call out together by locating Christ in our world. He is
here, with us, in this mysterious life. These poems bear powerful witness
to that truth.
See it at Amazon.com
here.
 Continuing
Art Exhibits
Tobi Kahn, Sky & Water
Tobi Kahn's
Sky & Water exhibition will be on display May 4 - August 24, 2003
at the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College in New York. An acclaimed
painter and sculptor, Tobi Kahn was featured as Image artist of
the month last October. His work is on display in museums around the country,
including the Guggenheim museum in New York City. Sky & Water
is a meditative collection that includes some 85 paintings. They will,
no doubt, create a serene space for visitors to this exhibition—a
place to encounter, paradoxically, inevitable moments of disturbance and
turmoil within the serenity. Read a review
on this exhibit by Donald Kuspit. For driving directions and hours, visit
the museum website. For more on
Tobi Kahn, see his page on the Image
site.
Holy Russia:
Icons from the Collection of Francesco Bigazzi
This exhibition will
display late 19th and early 20th century Russian icons from a collection
based in Italy. Holy Russia represents the shifting styles of Russian
iconography during the turn of the century, existing as a blend of ancient
spiritual tradition and new style in iconography. View the collection
at the American Bible Society Gallery in New York City from May 16-September
6, 2003. For more information, see the gallery
website.
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