Poetry & Disability Justice with The Poetry Coalition

Kundiman is once again participating in the Poetry Coalition's March-themed programming! The Poetry Coalition is a national alliance made of more than 25 independent poetry organizations across the United States dedicated to working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture and lives.

As a founding member of the Poetry Coalition, Kundiman presents programming on a theme of social importance each March. This year’s theme is “The future lives in our bodies: Poetry & Disability Justi...

Asian American Feminist Writing Workshop Archive

Asian American Feminist Writing WorkshopFebruary 2021–May 2021Presented by Kundiman & Asian American Feminist CollectiveThis program was made possible with support from Asian Women Giving Circle.The inaugural Feminist Writing Workshop was organized by Kundiman in collaboration with the Asian American Feminist Collective to foster a safe space for writers to explore the unique history of Asian American feminist writing and how it influences their own work. The workshop was an important part of Ku...

Kundiman Postcard Project

This year’s Kundiman Postcard Project will involve weekly prompts, helpful links, and lots of writing! Kundiman Fellows will be mailing one another one postcard poem each day while meditating on the theme of poetry and environmental justice. We hope to create a sense of community in these difficult times through the sending and receiving of physical mail. Join us by writing your own postcard poems and sending them to your loved ones! If you send a photo of your postcard(s) to julia@kundiman.org...

ROOMMATES Makes New York City Debut

ROOMMATES, the first full-length play by Brooklyn playwright Darcy Cagen will have its NYC debut in the Lion Theatre at Theatre Row for a limited engagement - playing just three performances: Friday, August 2 at 8pm; Wednesday, August 7 at 2pm and Saturday, August 10 at 8pm.Under the direction of veteran theatre director Cate Cammarata, this premiere production stars Olivia Buckley, Nancy Sinacori, G'Mario Charleston, *Mark Weatherup Jr., and *Gloria Sauve.The production features set design, lig...

Shinran Shonin, or, a Hidden Buddhist Statue by Julia Flasphaler

I first noticed the statue about a year ago, returning home from one of those long walks I could report to my therapist about—proof that maybe I was returning, that whatever brand of millennial mental breakdown I had experienced was real, but lifting. The large bronze statue looked down at me from its perch in front of the church. A placard read that it had survived the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. A few years later, it had been moved to New York as a symbol of peace. An angry red band near its...

Blue Notes, Orientation 2018

During daylight hours, I don’t look at the statues around campus much. Warmer bodies rush past me, off to class, to meetings, to whatever must be done today to graduate later, reminding me of my own duty to be scholarly.Only when night falls do I truly stare. Each statue then seems to embody a temporal moment, a snapshot, of the form infinitely suspended in an act between movements. I have all the time in the world to parse the depths of their expressions. I t takes darkness to appreciate the qu...

Iqraz Nanji

“I was trying to think of some talking points for this, but usually the things I say are so vulgar I would never want them in print!” Iqraz Nanji, CC ’18, jokes shortly after we meet at the Hungarian Pastry Shop one almost-warm afternoon. Between bites of bright yellow lemon cake, Nanji explains that his most outlandish comments are usually reserved for the “safe space” of The Federalist, a non-partisan, satirical newspaper on campus for which Nanji was managing editor his sophomore and junior y...

Blue Notes, April 2018

A wooden desk fades in from black, and a gloved hand delicately places a red rose in frame, forming an ominous triangle alongside a magnifying glass and burned out candle. The camera drifts to a leather bound book, where the words “A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY” glint golden on the cover. The hand turns the pages with all the self seriousness of the ghoulish Victorian mystery from which the video takes inspiration, finally revealing it’s title: “Murder in the Stacks.”Not to be confused with David De...

Trump administration is aggressively defunding pregnancy prevention programs

An authoritative update to a 2006 report on abstinence-only sexual education programs confirms that such programs fail to prevent pregnancy, waste federal funds and violate human rights. If only Trump hadn't cut $214 million in funding for teen-pregnancy prevention programs this past July while teen-pregnancy is at an all-time low.

The study, due to be published September 2017 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, confirms that Congress wasted $2 billion funding domestic abstinence-only-until-ma...

Watch: Patagonia ad calls out corporate takeover of public land

On Sunday, Patagonia released its first TV commercial since its founding 44 years ago. Rather than selling outdoor gear, the one-minute commercial comes out against the selling off of America's national parkland to private interests.

The ad features the clothing company's founder, Yvon Chouinard, who asks viewers to pressure Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to protect public lands. Zinke gave President Trump recommendations this week to shrink four outdoor national monuments, as a followup to Trum...

MORGANA VAN PEEBLES

Photography by Clara Hirsch
Interviewed by Julia Flasphaler

When did you start making art?
I can’t remember, honestly. When I was younger I wanted to be a writer because I thought that it would take me all over the world. I used to make these really extensive sketches of covers, but then when you went to open the book, the pages were just scribbled lines. My parents would ask me what the books were about and I would see it in my head - I would frame them in terms of actors and lighting. I think at...

Progressive groups fire back after Democratic Party puts out the welcome mat for anti-choice liberals

Progressive groups are fighting back by forming a coalition against Democratic leaders willing to fund anti-choice candidates in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections. NARAL, Planned Parenthood and Democracy for America issued a statement of principles arguing that a woman's right to choose is not up for debate in order to win votes from red-state Democrats. The growing debate exposes tension between the modern anti-choice movement, anti-choice Democrats and progressive groups that defend women's...