We’re taking a moment to recognize Kansas City’s wordsmiths.
Taken from KCPT’s “Arts Upload,” which has amassed an impressive collection of local poets reading their own works, “Spotlight” gives Flatland a chance to catch up with the artists. We find out what they’re up to and get their take on what to watch in the local and national art scene.
Ezhno Martin | “Liberated (Lady Clothes)”
I still am KC Proud.
I am working on a DIY chapbook series that features local writers as well as myself under a new imprint called EMP. I’ve already published five books of poetry, have a novella I am getting ready to print, and am hoping to add more fiction and branch out into non-fiction soon.
I got married to the indispensable Jeanette Powers at Poetic Underground’s Second Wednesday “Pound Roar” (which I hosted as well) at The Uptown Arts Bar (Her vows blew mine out of the water).
Brent Easton Ellis provides perfect satirical bliss for those with a profound distaste for consumerism. Skip the movies, all the charm, wit, and insight is lost in translation, and all the viewer is left with is the brutality.
Make it back to my birthplace of New York. Read on stage. Make a joke about the Knicks the audience understands and empathizes with.
Alyssa Smith | “Manifest Destiny”