The group art exhibition at Stelo Arts (June 6-September 7, 2024) included works by twelve of A Mouth’s contributors: Stephanie Adams-Santos, Samiya Bashir, Jennifer S. Cheng, Carolina Ebeid, Nadia Haji Omar, Christine Shan Shan Hou, Vi Khi Nao, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Monica Ong, Paisley Rekdal, Sasha Stiles, and Anna Martine Whitehead; plus a De-Canon Library display containing other books (for browsing) by many of the contributors to the anthology. The exhibit is a spatial-poetic, multimodal extension of the print publication of A Mouth Holds Many Things, an enactment of literature reaching, literally, beyond the page. Experience of book and exhibit together creates an enhanced, multi-faceted, multi-sensory experience of “reading.” We had a robustly attended opening reception on June 6th, with about 200 folks coming through—many thanks to all who have spent time in this space this summer.
We are very grateful to Stelo Arts and Shir Ly Grisanti for hosting our exhibit and for the generous support of the whole Stelo team. We are especially appreciative of the installation design guidance of Marcelo Fontana, and grateful to the whole install team (marvin parra, vy maldonado, Anthony Wylem) for their dexterous hands, eyes, and minds. Their support and collaboration enabled this exhibit to be more than we could envision on our own. Big thanks also to Sharita Towne and Ilish Bath of nun studios for printing risograph exhibit materials and artwork prints; and to the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) for print ephemera support via their re/source residency fellowship program.
We are thankful also to Jeff Alessandrelli and Adie Bovee of Fonograf Editions, for partnering with us to put this collection out into the world. We are very proud of this book and so glad to be able to share it with others. We think of the book itself as a social space, a floating, asynchronous conversation between the works/contributors in the collection that (we hope) will spark further conversations around hybridity and amid/about other hybrid writer-artists. See a complete list of the 36 contributors here.
The book is available direct from our publisher Fonograf Editions as well as via the usual online retailers.
We are delighted to have excerpts, reviews, interviews for A Mouth Holds Many Things appear in:
Poetry Society of America - A Mouth Holds Many Things - Excerpts by Diana Khoi Nguyen, Cindy Juyoung Ok
The Poetry Project Newsletter #277 (Summer 2024) - “A Mouth Holds Many Things: A Conversation in Centos” (arranged by Dao Strom & Jyothi Natarajan)
Full Stop - Interview with A Mouth Holds Many Things editors Dao Strom & Jyothi Natarajan (interview by Justin Duyao)
Full Stop - A Mouth Holds Many Things review by Justin Duyao
BOMB Magazine - A Roundtable Discussion with Diana Khoi Nguyen, Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng, Monica Ong, and Sasha Stiles (mod. by Jason N. Le)
Poetry Northwest - A Conversation with Stephanie Adams-Santos, Jennifer S. Cheng, and Cindy Juyoung Ok (interviewed by Dao Strom)
LitHub - A Mouth Holds Many Things foreword by Dao Strom
Cleveland Review - Video Poetry Excerpts by Samiya Bashir and Carolina Ebeid
Poets & Writers - review in "The Anthologist: A Compendium of Uncommon Collections"
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Our stay at Mile Post 5 has been a phenomenal experience. We have enjoyed having a large space to ourselves in which we’ve been able to not only exhibit the entire (and continually expanding) collection of books, but create a space where we’ve hosted readings, offered writing workshops, provided room for meetings, and enabled writers and artists of color to interact with each other, as well as the local community. Here’s an overview of what' we’ve done this summer.