Issue 50 | September–October 2017
Letter from Issue 50 guest editor Ricco Siasoco
The collective “I” in Issue 50 of The Critical Flame is one of protest, of comedy, and, hopefully, of the zeitgeist. As the guest editor for this issue, I’ve attempted…
Conversations: DéLana R.A. Dameron with Marcus Amaker, Kendra Hamilton, and Randall Horton
DéLana R.A. Dameron’s second collection of poems Weary Kingdom (2017) is part of the University of South Carolina Palmetto Poetry Series, edited by Nikky Finney. Dameron’s debut collection, How God…
A New Monument
Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, VA was, until recently, named Lee Park. In 1917, Paul Goodloe McIntire donated the land for the park, as well as the 26-foot monument of Robert…
Metropolitan is Still There
You used to go to Metropolitan alone. You were 21 and it was the closest gay bar to where you lived in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. It was a good place if…
Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Decentering Whiteness in Seattle
There was a talk going on about Black Lives Matters at the Seattle Center. For better or for worse, I suppose lately there is always a talk going on about…
Literature is not an Object: Toward an inter-“Activism”
“Leap and dance, ye living buildings—” —Shaker hymn I’m not writing this, and you’re not reading it. Because, how am I going to describe it, the beloved unspeakability, especially of what…
Conversations: Paul Lisicky and Eileen Garvin
Eileen Garvin: The Narrow Door is a beautiful meditation on the writing life, on friendship, love and loss. Reviewers have described it as a love story, an elegy, an apologia…
Conjuring Green with Natalie Diaz
This is the drill when it comes to poetry workshops: print out enough copies of your poem, read it to a room full of strangers, and engage in a sort…
We should all be more like Steve Martin
I got the chance recently to see a performance of Steve Martin and Martin Short’s new comedy tour “An Evening You Will Forget For the Rest of Your Life.” And…