Author: Almost Dorothy

I'm not real, but I'm a writer.

Persepolis: The Historical Notes (a speculative Podcast/VodCast Series)

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#Assignment: Script and record a three-part speculative podcast/vodcast series that reflects upon and enriches our understanding of Persepolis’s and Satrapi’s impact on Iranian culture and Western culture from the point-of-view of ___________________ (a person/organization/etc) 200 years in the future. 

#Objective: Like The Historical Notes in The Handmaid’s Tale, your series will enrich the reader’s understanding of the events and central issues of late 20th-century Iran and the broader impact on the Middle East and the World (as they relate to the novel). Although your work will be a work of speculative fiction, it should align with Satrapi’s intent and address some of the major issues of her time. Each podcast will be 5 – 8 minutes long for a total of 15 – 24 minutes (3 podcasts/vodcasts). Podcast/vodcast should focus on a particular theme or area of interest that emerges from the book. 

*Speculative fiction is a broad umbrella category of fiction that encompasses all the genres that deliberately depart from realism or from strictly imitating ordinary reality, instead presenting supernatural, futuristic, and other highly imaginative realms. *It’s not science fiction. 
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#Goal: to speculate on Satrapi’s impact on Iran culture and Western culture and to experiment with writing from alternative points of view. 
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PRE-PRODUCTION GUIDE: 

  • Familiarize yourselves with the novel Persepolis. Take note of its key themes and characters, esp. Marji’s existential crises, and their intersection with Iranian and Western politics, imperialism, theocracy, democracy, and empowerment.  
  • Research Marjane Satrapi’s activism and art post-Persepolis. Uncover her ethos and build from there.
  • Research the recent history of Iran and speculate on a possible future.  

PRODUCTION GUIDE: 

1. Plan Series: Brainstorm, Outline, Point of View, and areas of focus. 

2.  Write Script: Write the script for each episode of your podcast series. Ensure that each episode explores different issues related to the novel. The script should be 4 – 6 (double space–see podcast or screenplay script template) pages per podcast. 1-page generally equals 1 minute of recorded time. (That’s 1-page using the podcast script format. See the link below.) See the format below. *Celtx is a free online script-writing software that can make your life easier. Link here: https://www.celtx.com/ 

3. Record your podcast series. Each episode should be approximately 4 minutes in length. Edit the recordings to enhance the overall audio quality. Consider background music, sound effects, and pacing to create a compelling listening experience.

Meta

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Meta, from The Ars Magna for the Manifold Dimensions of z, joined the Danish Underground Resistance during the Nazi occupation of Denmark during WW II. Her role in the resistance is unclear, but she paid the ultimate price for her work undermining their stranglehold on her homeland.

“For most non-Jewish Danish prisoners, the period between their arrest and their arrival at a concentration camp was often more traumatic than the actual camp experience. Prisoners suspected of resistance work were subjected to solitary confinement, interrogation,  and torture. Death and permanent impairment  followed, even if they were subjected to no further  hardships in the camp.” —Richard Petrow, The Bitter Years 

An Excerpt from The Ars Magna for the Manifold Dimensions of z: “…The Gestapo may have tied her legs and arms to a hook on a wall; they may have tied her legs and arms to a pallet; they may not have bothered to tie her up at all; they may have pummeled her sex organs with rubber blackjacks; they may have penetrated her sex organs with rubber blackjacks; they may have just used the raw beastly power of their hairy fists. There is no record of this, but Meta’s hair never grew back, and she could never bear children again.”


Order here.

Meta

Ars Magna for the Manifold Dimensions of z

“Daring and brilliant, Neil De La Flor’s latest book, The Ars Magna for the Manifold Dimensions of z, is a big kick in the rear to absurdist theater. It stars a very tough Meta, a member of the Danish underground.”

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Pre order today @ JackLeg Press.

“Daring and brilliant, Neil De La Flor’s latest book, The Ars Magna for the Manifold Dimensions of z, is a big kick in the rear to absurdist theater. It stars a very tough Meta, a member of the Danish underground. “If my head had been cut off,” says Meta, “you would’ve been next.” The book explores “parallel worlds that are unaware of the other, but are layered atop of each other like minks or foxes wearing stoles and fur coats.” Characters pursue each other through five acts, a series of emails, and an epilogue invoking Minkowskian Spacetime – I won’t go there, but wow! De la Flor dives deep into meta-Meta-mind.”

 ―  Terese Svoboda 

Coming soon from Jackleg Press.

New Poem: Life Is a Mystry

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Check out my new collaborative poem with Maureen Seaton “Life Is A Mystery: A History Without Answers”. It’s up at the Columbia Poetry Review.

Life is a Mystery: A History Without Answers

Life is a mystery. It rhymes with history, which rhymes with kiss and
something else.

Life is a mystery because when I try to figure out how the toad turned gold then climbed the door to my doorknob and hung there as I went in and out as if his feet were made of tape and he was more beautiful than even a flame tree in summer, I can’t

Read the entire poem

FREE EVENT: CAPTURING FIRE | SATURDAY, June 20, 2020 @ 2:00 PM

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Over at Reading Queer, we’re adapting to the pandemic to ensure that queer voices are heard no matter what’s going on in the world. To that end, we’ve expanded our Writing Academy where we hold free writing workshops every third Saturday of the month. This coming Saturday, June 20th, you can jumpstart your writing with queer spoken word artist Regie Cabico, who will also headline the inaugural Candela Literary Pride Festival. Capturing Fire will be a virtual poetry writing workshop for the LGBTQ community and allies. Zoom link & password will be emailed to you 24 hours before event. RSVP here: Sign me up! 

For Pride Month, we’ve just announced the Candela Literary Pride Festival,a series of virtual readings, performances and workshops celebrating Queer Resilience and Protest during the 2020 Pandemic. Receive a schedule of events when you sign up 💁🏼 here. 

On The Occasion of His Birthday, Whitman

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Brian Clements invited Maureen Seaton and I to contribute to Every Atom, a project he curated to celebrate Walt Whitman at 200. (Read Brian’s introduction to the project here.) Maureen and I had some reservations about celebrating Whitman. Despite his queerness, he was racist. You can find stark reminders of that in his work. (Read about the controversy at the Poetry Foundation here.) You can read our contribution to his legacy at the North American Review or check it out below.

On the Occasion of His Birthday, Whitman

Whitman was a Gemini, loyal and easy-going.
Also nosy, untidy, and prone to prevarication.

He was gold, a wall of forevers, a tidy room
inside a house with one room. He fractaled

into plots of synesthesia and chutzpah, a man
in a time of many men, a time inside a time.

When he pivoted and sang, the ya-honkiness of
his voice swayed men into hats and talismans,

footholds, and spotted hawks. He lay on his
deathless bed and left the world glowing.

Memories of The Vagabond

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Grateful to have a new poem and photograph published in the Best American Poetry blog for the Florida summer series curated by Emma Trelles. This poem remembers clubbing in the semi-old days at The Vagabond co-owned by the great Carmel Ophir, who defined the Miami club scene for a decade or so. I miss those nights. The Vagabond is now a high rise under construction or soon to be under construction. The gentrification of this city carries on, but it’s history cannot be erased, at least for now. It lives in the light and rats that populate this town. Keep on dancing people. Keep on dancing.

Read the poem here: Enjoy.

Read about The Vagabond here: Miami Herlad.

These are the messages I’m sending to you | 60” x 40” | Neil de la Flor

Miami Poetry Teachers Institute: Turning Up The Dial: Poetry Through Play by Neil de la Flor

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This Tuesday, June 25th I’ll lead a poetry workshop for teachers during the Miami Poetry Teachers Institute at the New World Center. The five-day event is hosted by The Poetry Foundation and its primary goal is to help teachers “to develop lesson plans to bring back to their classrooms.” During my one-hour workshop titled Turning Up The Dial: Poetry Through Play, I’ll focus on using elements of chance, game theory, collage, collaboration & magic. (I promise no spells will be cast that can’t be unbroken.) We will read traditional, experimental poems, non-literary texts, such as science and math books, and we will listen to music. We’ll use these resources to create new works in solo and collaborative actions. Teachers will gain vital classroom tools, tips and a cache of writing games (prompts) that to bring back to their classrooms and, hopefully, encourage students (of all ages) to find their unique expression. Continue reading “Miami Poetry Teachers Institute: Turning Up The Dial: Poetry Through Play by Neil de la Flor” →

Donate to Reading Queer

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Help me raise $5,000 before November 15th and fuel the future of queer literary culture in South Florida. Support life-affirming programming by and for the community @ readingqueer.org/donate

Meet Parvati Villarba, Programming Director @ Reading Queer.

“Reading Queer has taught me that Queerness transcends race, gender, sexuality, and class— by which it is an umbrella term for many concepts, cultures, and the universal groups it affects. The organization has always allowed for my voice to be heard. Through the intimate workshops curated, I’ve encountered communities that tenderly brave the twilight of an exclusionary world— only to find the beauty in their inner and outer selves. I owe my self acceptance to Reading Queer and the writers that have come along because of it. Thank you.” —Parvati Villaraba.

#queer #lgbtq #donate #literature #givemiamiday2018