Talking Image Connection reading on May 12th

This April, ceramic artists Amber Ginsburg and Joseph Madrigal will set up Flo(we){u}r, a clay bomb manufacturing plant at The Soap Factory.  They'll make replicas of the terra cotta test bombs commissioned by ourmilitary in WWI.  During the war, pilots used the flour-filled bombs to calibrate their targets.  Amber and Joseph's bombs, filled with flour and seeds, will be launched to plant fields of flowers.

Saturday, May 12th, 8 PM

Flo(we){u}r Power

a TalkingImageConnection reading,

responding to Flo(we){u}r at the Soap Factory
514 2nd St. SE; Minneapolis, MN

Featured writers: Brian Beatty, Andrea Jenkins, MC Hyland, Michael Moore, Andy Sturdevant, May Lee Yang.  These readins always make me want to write, and the end result of this installation (planting flowers) is pretty awesome.  For more information about the reading, contact Alison Morse at  yackmor@talkimage.org.


Brian Beatty's jokes, poems and stories have appeared in many print and online publications. He's also the creator and host of mnartists.org's monthly literary podcast, You Are Hear. Brian's 2012 Minnesota Fringe Festival show is titled "Minimum Rage."

MC Hyland is the author of Neveragainland (Lowbrow Press) and the chapbooks Every Night In Magic City (H_NGM_N), Residential, As In (Blue Hour Press) and (with Kate Lorenz and Friedrich Kerksieck) the hesitancies (Small Fires Press). She lives in Minneapolis, where she runs DoubleCross Press and the Pocket Lab Reading Series, and works at Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

Andrea Jenkins, author of two chapbooks, tributaries: poems celebrating black history and Pieces of A Scream, is a Poet, Spoken Word and Performance Artist. Winner of the 2010 Naked Stages and Verve Grant(s) she co-curates the Queer Voices, one of the longest running LGBT reading series in the country. Most recently she was published in the anthology, Gender Outlaws II: The Next Generation.

Michael Kiesow Moore's work has appeared in Talking Stick 20, Water~Stone Review, The Rockhurst Review, Evergreen Chronicles, The James White Review and the book Losing Loved Ones to AIDS, among other publications, and his awards include a Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship. Michael founded and curates the Birchbark Books Reading Series at Birchbark Books and teaches creative writing at the Loft Literary Center. He also teaches classes on “Writing Peace into the World,” and founded the Loft’s Peace and Social Justice Writers group. http://www.michaelkiesowmoore.com/.

Alison Morse's poems and stories have been published in Water~Stone Review, Natural Bridge, The Pedestal, Rhino, Opium Magazine, mnartists.org and other places. In 2012, she completed a collection of stories about Kenyan social justice activist Wahu Kaara for the Women PeaceMakers Program at the Joan Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. She is also the 2012 "poet laureate" for the St. Paul JCC. Alison teaches English and runs TalkingImageConnection.

Andy Sturdevant is an artist, writer and arts administrator living in South Minneapolis. He has written for a variety of places, including mnartists.org, Rain Taxi, Art Review and Preview!, Mpls. St. Paul and in publications of the Walker Art Center and the Jerome Foundation. In addition, Andy writes a weekly column on arts and visual culture in Minneapolis-St. Paul for MinnPost. He also directs and host Salon Saloon and is co-creator of the Common Room at The Soap Factory. The results of Andy's solo and collaborative explorations and conversations about artmaking often take the physical forms of pamphlets, printed matter, books, and drawings. They also manifest themselves in ephemeral, site-specific performance and interactions. By the way, Andy was born in Ohio, raised in Kentucky and has lived in Minneapolis since 2005.

May Lee Yang is a playwright, poet, prose writer, and performance artist. She has been hailed by Twin Cities Metro Magazine as “on the way to becoming one of the most powerful and colorful voices in local theater.” Her theater-based works have been presented at Mu Performing Arts, the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT), Out North Theater, the 2011 National Asian American Theater Festival, the MN Fringe Festival and others. Her most recent works include Confessions of a Lazy Hmong Woman and Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star. She has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Performance Network, the Midwestern Voices and Visions Residency Award, the Playwright Center, the Loft Literary Center, and is a winner of the 2011 Bush Leadership Fellowship. In her 9-5 life, she works as the Executive Director of Hmong Arts Connection, a non-profit based in St. Paul, MN. Be sure to check out her website http://www.lazyhmongwoman.com/.