ASTRA PAPACHRISTODOULOU
I was introduced to Dr. Astra Papachristodoulou in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. I'd just completed a life-changing Veterans' Poetry Workshop at Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre in the UK. This workshop was under the direction of Dr. Niall Munro (Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Director of Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre), Dr. Jane Potter (Reader, School of Arts), and Susie Campbell (PhD Researcher at Oxford Brookes and poet). One of the techniques of the workshop was to provide female veterans with a [re]introduction to visual poetry. The entire event was a success, but this part of the workshop helped me in innumerable ways. To start, Campbell handed out a canister of crayons and asked us to work with mark-making in poetry. Visual poetry helped people with injuries process shock (PTS, MSA, MST). I didn't realize at that time just how much the language-processing part of my brain had been impacted by trauma. In addition to my experiences at war, I was also processing the challenges associated with my life as a military spouse during a conflict that stretched over two decades. War had quite literally [re]wired my brain. I learned through many years of therapeutic care, that I'd struggled both emotionally and verbally (not ideal for a poet). Homework for workshop attendees included using the lessons taught by our instructors once away from Oxfordshire.
When I returned to the United States, I feverishly went to work making visual poetry. I fell in love with the vispo method because I was able to communicate in ways which I thought were forever lost to me. I created ash poems which were added to our anthology 'My teeth don't chew on shrapnel: an anthology of poetry by military veterans (Oxford Brookes, 2020). Armed with my new tools, I started burning paper. I did this as a form of remembrance and called it "ash poetry". I posted a photo on social media to show Munro and Campbell my process and progress. To my surprise, Papachristodoulou liked my art and reached out to me! That introduction to Astra began a meaningful artistic kinship which has spanned half a decade so far. Astra probably didn't realize how much that spark of interest meant to me during those very challenging days. It still means the world to me that Papachristodoulou finds interest in my pieces of burned poetry fragments.
And this poetry kinship has developed over the years because of craft and collaborations. Looking at this space, it is apparent Papachristodoulou and I share some similar artistic values. Of particular interest to me are the moments our creative energy overlaps and ignites. For instance, I've created my own Resistencet Banners over the years because I was profoundly inspired by the Suffragette, Guerilla Girls, Bevrijdingsrok Nisseluer, and Nonggi movements and contemporary artists like Aram Han Sifuentes, Carolina Caycedo, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Julia Triston, Diana Weymar, Natalie Baxter, Shannon Downey, Bonnie Peterson, Kate Tume, Kandy G. Lopez, Kustaa Saksi, Malgorzata Mirga-Tas. Billie Zangewa, Susie Campbell, and Astra Papachristodoulou (banners below). I can see how the language of dissent through craft has helped us both to mind map the path forward for our sacred environmental and social movements."