ART SPOKEN: Alise Versella places emotions and experiences into poignant, playful phrases. She is a member of the Barnegat Poets Society and a participant within the 2019 Painted Poetry exhibition on the Island library. (Provided Picture)
The third problem of SOUP CAN journal is out this Friday. The quarterly anthology of poetry and artwork is revealed by Chris Rockwell and mission coordinator Amanda Stewart out of their Little Egg Harbor condo.
SOUP CAN (which takes its identify from a viral video of President Trump) defines itself as an arts, poetry and tradition journal shining a highlight on visible artists, poets, writers, musicians and activists.
Rockwell has a hip hop background and is the vocalist for his band, the Chris Rockwell Collective. He additionally organizes open mic and pop-up occasions that draw spoken-word poets, musicians and comedians, all of whom be part of within the spontaneous creation of an interactive leisure expertise. The vibe is magic. An open mic is “a residing, respiration organism” that may change in a second, he stated.
The final Tuesday of every month on the Union Market Gallery in Tuckerton is “The Final Stand,” an all-performance artwork open mic emceed by Rockwell and loved by an enthusiastic group of regulars and whoever else reveals up. The microphone is open from 6 to eight p.m.
Anticipate to listen to name and response rituals, like when Rockwell asks, “Why will we do it?” (“For da tradition!”), and when somebody says they’ve a brand-new work to share (“New s–t!”), and a thunderous welcome when a first-timer (or higher but, an open mic virgin) is recognized.
Rockwell discovered his manner circuitously to his occupation as a hip hop poet, occasion coordinator and journal editor.
He’s all the time been a visible artist, a self-described illustrator – the type of child who’d sit and draw on the lunch desk at school. When he found drawing letters, he took an curiosity in graffiti artwork, which segued to hip hop tradition.
Graffiti is “the gateway drug to creating rap music,” he stated.
His household is initially from Brooklyn, and he recollects his father speaking concerning the avenue artwork he noticed within the subway.
The poetry open mics Rockwell attended in school gave him pause – “Oh, that is totally different” – and he was impressed, not solely to seek out his voice, however to fine-tune it till it sings.
For a lot of writers, he stated, poetry is a platform for larger points, for giving voice to concepts and a function better than themselves, for saying one thing vital in a lyrical manner. As a straight white American male, Rockwell feels he stands to study quite a bit from listening. His personal work is confessional, private, he stated. (Her face had home windows, too, and he would throw compliments like pebbles towards her each pane.)
Now, by drawing from his numerous swimming pools of assets from the overlapping artwork, poetry and music scenes, he has constructed a neighborhood of creatives and cultural explorers round himself. He ran month-to-month reveals at Café Enigma in Toms River in 2018 and at Sage Coffeehouse in Jackson in 2019.
SOUP CAN was an outgrowth of the void felt by many when the pandemic lockdown ceased in-person social and cultural gatherings. So, they determined to place their artwork and poetry in print. Rockwell reached out on Instagram to artists and poets he admires and posted in worldwide artwork and poetry teams on Fb, and shortly “submissions began coming in from all over the world.”
Because the ball received rolling on the journal, and as soon as it was protected and accountable to take action, Rockwell and his crew have began holding pop-up occasions once more. On Sept. 4 the Union Market hosted the culminating promo occasion of the SOUP CAN pop-up tour. It was an entire day of celebration that includes makers of phrases, music and artwork of all types.
This winter, he plans to livestream collaborative occasions with poets and painters.
At present the 4 retailers that carry SOUP CAN are the Union Market and Gallery in Tuckerton, LoFidelic Data in Belmar, Chamber 43 in New Brunswick and Ghost Harbor Artistic in Asbury Park.
The journal can be a automobile of help for nonprofit organizations that align with Rockwell’s worth system. CROPS (Communities Revolutionizing Open Public Areas) is one, for instance; founder Paige Vaccaro is a poet whose work seems within the journal.
“I have already got a want checklist of who I need in Concern 4,” Rockwell stated.
To see, study and listen to extra, go to soupcanmagazine.com and mrchrisrockwell.com.
— Victoria Ford
