pages from a darkroom

P a g e s F r o m A

D A R K R O O M

With Notes by JOSEPH A. W. QUINTELA

Copyright © 2011 Joseph A. W. Quintela All Rights Reserved Published by Deadly Chaps | Call Death COLLECT New York, NY: 2011 DCcollectDR|2a| Book Concept and #DARKROOM Notes by Joseph A. W. Quintela Text set in Calibri Cover Text set in Euphemia http://www.deadlychaps.com

A Note from the DARKOOM:

On Tuesday, 9 August 2011, at precisely 9:53pm, a small crowd was gathered in front of the entrance to

the KGB Bar’s Red Room Theater. In conjunction with Prudence Groube of COLLECT (www.collectnyc), I

had invited them there to begin an evening of art, poetry, and imagination. We called it the

DARKROOM. Standing at the top of the stoop, I began to read from a text that I had culled by blacking

out large portions of Allen Ginsburg’s America, excerpts from the Iraq War Log documents from

Wikileaks, and the 2003 victory speech given by George W. Bush. In juxtaposition, the blackened texts

became an indictment of the American culture of warfare. I was followed by Nicholas Moore who read a

playfully serious blackout poem from A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. He was followed by Mariana’s

poetic celebration of the photograph. As we read, passing revelers stared, some even stopped, a few

even stayed. Then, our poems read, we led the crowd up into the Red Room Theater, which COLLECT

had transformed into the DARKROOM.

Three wrapped gifts had been placed at the center of the stage. Nicholas, Mariana and I each took one,

presenting them to the audience, slowly unwrapping them to reveal three texts: James Joyce’s Ulysses,

The Complete Works of W.B. Yeats, and a collection of Irish newspapers. What no one knew was that we

had spent the afternoon cutting out every page from their bindings. Suddenly, we began to scatter the

floor with pages.

For the next hour, we taught anyone who wished to do so how to create blackout poetry. Others

decorated photographs of the audience that we took with a Polaroid camera. Others simply watched as

three live painters worked on the stage. A few did all three. At the end of the hour, the poets and I read

all the work that had been created out loud. Our delight was palpable in the room. Collected herein are

the pages of blackout poetry created by the audience that night. I have juxtaposed them with a series of

tweets I gave after the event, reflecting on the meaning of our DARKROOM. It was an invigorating

experience, working with poets, some of whom had never before considered themselves poets, yet

nonetheless created work that challenged my own notions of blackout poetry.

Their gifts, I share with you.

JOSEPH A. W. QUINTELA

15 August, 2011

NEW YORK

Dissection is celebration in the #DARKROOM. Heresy is celebration in the #DARKROOM. Questions are

celebration in the #DARKROOM.

The act of reading is the act of writing. #DARKROOM

Where is the artist? In the Pen or in the Page? #DARKROOM

#DARKROOM is playfool. #DARKROOM is polyliteral.

What is said is the photograph of what was said. #DARKROOM

Sacrament or sacrilege or sacrifice? #DARKROOM

Deliver us into #DARKROOM, for in #DARKROOM there is light.

I re-wrote a book tonight. #DARKROOM

I woke up in a #DARKROOM with pages for my blankets.

I re-wrote in the #DARKROOM and the #DARKROOM re-writes me.

Working in the #DARKROOM, the negatives caught my eye.

In the #DARKROOM, the finger leads the eyes.

What is lost in the #DARKROOM is gained on the page.

A shape, a rule, even a game can write upon the page. #DARKROOM

You have created so that I might destroy. I have destroyed so that we might create. #DARKROOM

#DARKROOM mantra: Shatter, Demand, & Reassemble. Shatter, Demand, & Reassemble.

The art of losing isn't hard to master. #DARKROOM

For we all are born of a #DARKROOM.

In the #DARKROOM, every corner is a stage.

In the #DARKROOM, even silence has a voice.

A gap in the line...as if you were chosen. #DARKROOM

And then there was a #DARKROOM and then it was good.

FIN