I. and I

By Rodger Kamenetz

MAY 2023 | Poetry

Ayin Press produced Gerald Stern's last book, I., not long after his death in 2022 at age ninety-seven. This handsome amplified edition of a poem first published online carries a joyful foreword by Ross Gay, a brilliant preface by Stern, and a learned afterword by Alicia Ostriker. I.—which stands for Isaiah—in many ways explores the contemporary poetics of ancient prophetic inspiration.

Muse-ship: Pleasurable Resonances

By Doug LeCours and Julie Mayo

DEC 22–JAN 23 | Dance

On the occasion of Rail contributor and dancer Doug LeCours’s departure from New York, he and choreographer Julie Mayo convened for a conversation about their six years of work together through the lens of “muse-ness,” a reciprocal relationship of inspiration.

François-Marie Banier: Writings & Pictures

By Ann C. Collins

MARCH 2023 | ArtSeen

Francois-Marie Banier’s Writings & Pictures, a small yet ebullient sampling of nearly sixty years of artmaking, provides a snapshot of an artist’s practice that is as unconstrained as it is prolific. Persistently following inspiration and impulse, Banier refuses categorization and has worked in whichever collisions of medium and style best serve his continuous need to create.

Judah Schept’s Coal, Cages, Crisis

By Jarrod Shanahan and Abby Cunniff

SEPT 2022 | Field Notes

A crumbling strip of asphalt winds through the craggy countryside of eastern Kentucky, striated with power lines sagging in every direction. Wobbly pavement markings and errant skidmarks vanish at a hairpin bend buffered by low guard rails framing a rolling, sparsely tree-spotted expanse of hills. On one side of this road stands a roughly chiseled open coal seam, marking the remnants of a former mine. On the other, a bowed chain link fence capped in razor-wire announces the outer periphery of Otter Creek Correctional Facility. This remarkable image by photographer Jill Frank adorns the jacket of prison scholar Judah Schept’s Coal, Cages, Crisis (New York: NYU Press, 2022), confronting the reader with the book’s central preoccupations.