Fall Colors and Sounds Come with Broadsides on Metro Trains and Buses!

Clarence White, clarence@saintpaulalmanac.org

612-267-9036

SAINT PAUL (Sept 1, 2017) The brilliance continues with IMPRESSIONS artists and writers as Saint Paul Almanac unveiled the third round of broadsides on Friday, September 1 at Java Express in Saint Paul’s Union Depot. These IMPRESSIONS come in time to greet the autumn colors proud with six more beautiful broadsides from six local poets and six local visual artists who created the literal and visual images. 

With funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, through its Knight Arts Challenge grant, Almanac is working with 24 writers and 24 artists to publish and produce six broadsides each quarter, 24 broadsides for the year, inside trains and buses and on train platforms and bus shelters in the metropolitan area. Each quarter 200 IMPRESSIONS of the broadsides are created and published. Each broadside is a unique poster of a local poet’s poem combined with a local artist’s work as a reflection of that poem.

“The uniqueness and impact of the IMPRESSIONS concept is the ability to provide an opportunity for Metro Transit riders to view powerful visual and literary art unconsciously and consciously, individually and interactively, and in balance with the ride,” said Saint Paul Almanac Board Chair Metric Giles. “It’s the Saint Paul Almanac and Metro Transit working collaboratively to connect people directly with art. It’s a way to bring art straight to the people.”

Featured broadsides in this release are:

“Orange Chicken” written by Maddie Schumacher with visual art by Leah Bedford

“Clouds” written by John L. Smith with visual art by Genevieve Hess

“When Everything Was Everything” written by Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay with visual art by Koua Yang

“I wish to lay before this world the last universal ancestor” written by Molly Sowash with visual art by Rosemary Davis

“How to Explain Death to Your Daughter” written by Katie Vagnino with visual art by Sydney Willcox

“Fractures” written by Lucas Scheelk with visual art by Justin Terlecki

Broadsides are posted in Metro Transit trains and buses and at bus and train stops throughout the metropolitan area. We continue to be grateful for support from Knight Foundation, Metro Transit, Intersection, and the City of Saint Paul Cultural STAR Program for this grand project.

Maddie Schumacher is an American studies and urban studies student at Macalester College. As a queer woman of biracial heritage, she finds refuge in expressing her anxieties, fears, and victories through spoken word poetry. She also loves building forts with her three younger siblings and eating rice.

Leah Bedford feels this opportunity to create a visual work inspired by the words of another artist is perfect for her because she paints intuitively from the heart and her work authentically expresses her feelings and captures her emotions. Her paintings are colorful, full of texture and movement.

John L. Smith is a grad student at Hamline University. His piece was written for a Landscape and Memory class in spring 2016.

Genevieve Hess believes each individual has a unique perspective and constructs hers through her art. Her paintings are inspired by beauty in humanity and the artistry of color. She hopes to portray balance between strength and delicacy, femininity and drama. Her prowess as an artist is often shown in striking images of women who evoke strong yet fragile feelings in the observer. These paintings are more emotion-based than conceptual, bringing beauty and aura to the space and mind they occupy.

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay is a Lao American poet, playwright, and cultural producer. She is best known for her critically acclaimed, award-winning play Kung Fu Zombies vs. Cannibals (Mu Performing Arts). Vongsay believes in creating tools and spaces for amplification of refugee voices and explores and shares these narratives through poetry, theater, and storytelling.

Koua Mai Yang is a Hmong American female artist exploring Hmong identity in drawings, paintings, and textiles. Inspired by Hmong history and traditions, Yang’s current work re-images Hmong textiles and clothes to explore the tensions between the preservation of Hmong cultural objects and the reproduction of Hmong culture in America.

Molly Sowash is a recent graduate of Macalester College who loves writing poetry, growing food, and singing in her trio, Mama Caught Fire. She feels grateful to live in a city that appreciates and supports artists and writers so heartily.

Rosemary Davis is a photographer and writer. Her undergraduate degree in visual communication (photography, film, and video) from the University of Minnesota provided a foundation for 25 years of work in film and video production. Interests include architecture, documentary films, and book arts. Rosemary tends a large, overgrown garden.

Katie Vagnino is a poet and educator originally from St. Louis. She holds degrees from Yale University and Emerson College and has taught creative writing since 2010. She is a visiting assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and also teaches workshops at the Loft Literary Center. She currently resides in Saint Paul.

Sydney E. Willcox is a narrative painter, potter, printmaker, high school art teacher, and parenting partner of six. She loves stories of transformation and aspiration. In this time of great change, color—transparency—glow grabs attention and can restore hope. She seeks to encourage the way light streaming through stained glass windows illustrates story and prayers.

Lucas Scheelk are a white, autistic, trans, queer-identified poet from the Twin Cities. Lucas uses they/them/their pronouns. They are the author of This Is a Clothespin (Damaged Goods Press, 2016). Aside from poetry, they advocate for neurodivergent representation in Holmesian adaptations. Lucas can be found on Twitter @TC221Bee.

Justin Terlecki is an artist living and working in Saint Paul. Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, he graduated from Youngstown State University in 1997 earning a BFA in painting and printmaking. He has exhibited his work regularly in the Twin Cities since moving to Minnesota in 1998. In 2009, he received a Jerome Fellowship for Emerging Printmakers through Highpoint Center for Printmaking. This fellowship funded a series of prints inspired by his travels to India and Spain. His work is included in the permanent collection of the McDonough Museum of Art and many local and national private collections. He is currently represented by Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis and has been exhibiting there since 2011. He lives in the Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative.

Make an IMPRESSION in your home or office!

Prints of any broadside can be purchased for $20 each (including shipping and tax!) or you can buy a  bundle of all 6 broadside prints for just $100.

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