“Monster Theory”

Posted on October 1, 2021 • Words by W. Todd Kaneko • Art by Jennifer Moses

Collaborators Q&A: Poet W. Todd Kaneko: I think monsters are something that captures the imagination of a lot of artists, but the monster in the broadside is way scarier than the monster in my head when I was writing the poem. Artist Jennifer Moses: The poem precipitated a dive into my own relationship with my father yet again. He is a heroic, formative, and comforting person to me but also quite mysterious, with many secrets of his own. Someone real whom I know well but a specter at the same time. When I read the poem with the image beside it, perhaps the motif of “presence and absence” was foregrounded.

Poet W. Todd Kaneko is the author of This is How the Bone Sings and The Dead Wrestler Elegies. A Kundiman fellow, he teaches creative writing at Grand Valley State University. Artist Jennifer Moses lives and paints in Boston. She has been included in exhibitions across the country and throughout New England and is currently represented by the Kingston Gallery in Boston.

Tagged: Family, Fear, Myth / Legend, Painting: Acrylic, Parenting / Parenthood

“Exhibit A”

Posted on May 1, 2019 • Words by Kaylen Baker • Art by Jennifer Moses

It’s the 2019 Switcheroo! We received amazing, varied, inspiring submissions of writing in response to Jennifer Moses’s painting—now we’re thrilled to present the final winning collaboration.

Collaborators’ Q&A: Artist Jennifer Moses: After this pairing the painting has more layers of meaning for me and it makes me wonder if I would have come up with a similar image had I been responding first to Kaylen’s writing…I might have. Writer Kaylen Baker: I may have gone to a darker place with the words. Or rather, my narrator is at odds with what she’s looking at, which creates a dissonance between emotion and reality.

Artist Jennifer Moses lives and paints in Boston, where she is currently represented by the Kingston Gallery. She is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire. Kaylen Baker is a writer and translator. Originally from Hawai’i, she graduated from Columbia University’s MFA program and now lives in Paris, where she’s at work on a book of fiction.

Tagged: Painting: Acrylic, Prose Poem / Flash Fiction, Romance / Anti-Romance, Switcheroo

“Afterlife: Ursus Arctos”

Posted on October 1, 2015 • Words by Susanna Mishler • Art by Jennifer Moses

Collaborators’ Q&A: Poet Susanna Mishler: The faint images of bears seem to both liquefy and radiate from the center of the piece. This makes the bear figures very mythic and shape-shifting. Artist Jennifer Moses: I love the poem line by line and the last line the best. There is so much imagery, color, and good words to bounce off of.

Poet Susanna Mishler’s collection of poems, Termination Dust (Boreal Books/Red Hen Press), was a finalist for a 2015 Lambda Literary Award. Artist Jennifer Moses is a painter living in Boston.

Tagged: Animals, Ecopoetry, Painting: Acrylic, Pastoral / Anti-Pastoral, Philosophical Meditation

“Corazón con parque y niños”

Posted on October 1, 2013 • Words by Eunice Odio • Art by Jennifer Moses

Collaborators’ Q&A: Translator Keith Ekiss: This is “visual Odio.” The lines and colors flow and don’t appear to have any point of origin or termination, they curl and drift like smoke or blood. Artist Jennifer Moses: Oddly enough the poem in English translation evoked an abstract response conversely the Spanish translation seemed suited for a figurative narrative approach.

Poet Eunice Odio (1919-1974) is considered the leading Costa Rican poet of the twentieth century. Translator Keith Ekiss is the author of Pima Road Notebook (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2010) and the translator of The Fire’s Journey (Tavern Books, 2013) by Eunice Odio.  Artist Jennifer Moses is a painter living in Boston.

Tagged: Childhood / Youth, Painting: Acrylic, Spanish (language), Translation

“Heart with Park and Children”

Posted on October 1, 2013 • Words by Eunice Odio & Keith Ekiss • Art by Jennifer Moses

Collaborators’ Q&A: Translator Keith Ekiss: Maybe I’m romanticizing the original Spanish, but Odio’s poem seems more mysterious, more secretive than my translation. This is a shy poem. Artist Jennifer Moses: I think trying to approximate a sensation or image in relation to language is similar to a translation.

Poet Eunice Odio (1919-1974) is considered the leading Costa Rican poet of the twentieth century. Translator Keith Ekiss is the author of Pima Road Notebook (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2010) and the translator of The Fire’s Journey (Tavern Books, 2013) by Eunice Odio.  Artist Jennifer Moses is a painter living in Boston.

Tagged: Childhood / Youth, Painting: Acrylic, Romance / Anti-Romance, Spanish (language), Translation

“Landing Under Water, I See Roots”

Posted on March 1, 2013 • Words by Annie Finch • Art by Jennifer Moses

Collaborators’ Q&A: Artist Jennifer Moses: I was inspired to think about the undercurrents of things and how there is a private embedded subtext in our brains in our chests. Poet Annie Finch: It surprises me to be reminded that “Landing Under Water, I See Roots” is, after all, a poem about the possibility of connecting with people, about the spectrum of human connection.

Poet Annie Finch’s newest book, Spells: New and Selected Poems, is just out from Wesleyan University Press. Artist Jennifer Moses is a painter living in Boston. She is also a professor of art at the University of New Hampshire

Tagged: Ecopoetry, Painting: Acrylic, Philosophical Meditation, Solace, Traditional Forms

2011 Haiku Year-in-Review

Posted on January 1, 2012 • Words by Peter Kline, Steven Brightman, & Jen Jabaily-Blackburn • Art by Kara Page, Caleb Brown, Jennifer Moses, & Kevin Morrow

NOTE: Inspired by Carrier’s Addresses and a deep commitment to public art, the HYIR is a special feature that debuted last year at Broadsided. Four artists created work in response to an event that for them dominated a season of 2011. We placed an open call for submissions of haiku that did the same. The art and the poems selected as finalists were posted online, and we asked you to vote on the winning combinations.

Poet Peter Kline’s recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Antioch Review, Southern Poetry Review, and elsewhere. He lives in San Francisco. Artist Kara Searcy is a multi-media artist from Iowa. She loves constellations, Jesus, and the word “ricochet.” Poet Steve Brightman lives in Kent, Ohio. His poems have been featured in Pudding House, Origami Condom, and A Trunk of Delirium. Artist Caleb Brown is an artist who works on software interfaces. He lives in Groton, MA with his wife, puppy and two tween twins. Artist Jennifer Moses is a painter living in Boston. She is also a professor of art at the University of New Hampshire. Poet Jen Jabaily-Blackburn is a recent graduate of the MFA at the University of Arkansas. A native of the Boston area, she lives in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts with her husband and their elderly hound. Artist Kevin Morrow is a native of Wisconsin who received his MFA degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand where he studied in the Contemporary Maori Department (Te Toi Hou). Morrow now lives and works in New York.

Tagged: HYIR, Photograph, Racial Identity / Colorism, Traditional Forms

2010 Haiku Year-in-Review

Posted on January 1, 2011 • Words by Anastasia Cafatti Mac-Niven, Andy Young, Marshall Muirhead, & Sam Ferrigno • Art by Caleb Brown, Cheryl Gross, Kate Baird, & Jennifer Moses

NOTE: Inspired by Carrier’s Addresses and a deep commitment to public art, the HYIR is a special feature that debuted this year at Broadsided. Four artists created work in response to an event that for them dominated a season of 2010. We placed an open call for submissions of haiku that did the same. The art and the poems selected as finalists were posted online, and we asked you to vote on the winning combinations.

Poet Anastassia Cafatti Mac-Niven is a 12-year-old girl from Chile, and a sixth grader at the International School Nido De Aguilas. Caleb Brown is an artist. He works on software interfaces and reads and walks and is going to make graphic novels someday. Poet Andy Young is the co-editor of Meena, a bilingual Arabic-English literary journal. Artist Cheryl Gross writes: “When asked about my work, I always equate it with creating an environment transforming my inner thoughts into reality.” Poet Marsh Muirhead lives on the Mississippi River near Bemidji, Minnesota. Artist Kate Baird looks for the distances and differences between places through drawing and painting. Writer Sam Ferrigno writes: “I’m 22-year-old student at the University of Connecticut studying journalism and English. I took my first creative writing class in the Fall of 2009 just as something fun to do.” Artist Jennifer Moses is a painter living in Boston.

Tagged: Childhood / Youth, Escape, Fear, Gender, HYIR, LGBTIQ+, Mourning, Traditional Forms

“Aphasia” (Laux & Moses)

Posted on November 1, 2010 • Words by Dorianne Laux • Art by Jennifer Moses

Collaborators’ Q&A: Artist Jennifer Moses: I liked the idea that one word born from some inner brain misfire could stand in for anything and still also be itself. Poet Dorianne Laux: I love this enterprise. Artists and poets have a long history of exchanging ideas, inspiring and igniting one another, celebrating and supporting one another, and this extends that grand tradition.

Poet Dorianne Laux’s fourth book of poems, Facts about the Moon, is the recipient of the Oregon Book Award. What We Carry was a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award. Artist Jennifer Moses is a painter living in Boston and teaches at the University of New Hampshire. She has exhibited her work throughout New England her most recent solo exhibition titled “A Line is a Straight Curve” was at the Kingston Gallery in Boston.

Tagged: Family, Gratitude