Stephani Maari Booker's Blog, page 6
November 30, 2021
Essay: “Madness”
“Madness” is a graduate school-era rant, plain and simple. It’s wild, messy, pissed off, but there’s a lot of truth in it.
November 23, 2021
Essay: “The Sacred, the Ceremonial, and Substances”
As a longtime proud lightweight drinker, I’ve always been interested in people’s mores, values and practices when it comes to casual substance use. “The Sacred, the Ceremonial, and Substances” is a graduate school-era essay that explored some of my observations and my own values when it comes to mind-altering chemical use.
November 16, 2021
My second Brick Architect article
Six Lego figurines: two female minifigures and four mini-builds, from the 2021 City Advent Calendar
My first article for the Lego-centered website The Brick Architect was about the work of Canadian artist Ekow Nimako. My second article is actually a contribution to a collectively written review of all five 2021 Lego Advent Calendar sets. I got to review the City Advent Calendar, which meant receiving a free Lego set courtesy of The Brick Architect himself, writer Tom Alphin, to assemble. Mini- and micro-models are my personal Lego jam, so I’m delighted and honored to be part of this review.
November 9, 2021
Essay: “Ars longa, life ain’t shit”
This graduate school prose piece is based on the ancient aphorism “Ars longa, vita brevis.” The essay applies the idea to my life and purpose of making art and being alive.
November 2, 2021
Essay: “Scars” [CONTENT ADVISORY]
CONTENT ADVISORY: Discussions of suicide attempts, behavioral health conditions including PTSD, psychiatric imprisonment and self-mutilation, including cutting, piercing and tattooing. Graphic descriptions of cutting.
Another prose experiment from graduate school, a lot has changed since I first “Scars.”
October 26, 2021
Essay: “Fear and Desire”
“Fear and Desire” is a graduate school essay that reflected my struggle to reconcile what I wanted out of life to what life seemed to want out of me. Though my life has changed a lot since I wrote this, the basic message of it is still true.
October 19, 2021
Fiction: “Soul Train Time”
“Soul Train Time” is another fiction experiment from graduate school. Sadly, it’s based on a very true incident of adolescent violence.
October 12, 2021
My erotica story excerpt on The Good Bits
Illustration for my story excerpt on thegoodbits.com
The Good Bits is a website that publishes and promotes excerpts from erotica books. An excerpt from my contribution to the anthology Owning It: Embracing Our Bodies, Sexuality, and Power is now posted here.
October 5, 2021
Essay: “Lessons from a Coffee-Table Art Book”
My $4.95 large coffee-table art book, Matisse by Walter Guadagnini
I’ve been buying from the mail-order remainder bookstore Edward R. Hamilton Bookseller for years because they have great books, especially hardcovers, for mostly dirt cheap. I’ve amassed a good amount of art books in particular from ERHB because those kind of books can be costly at other booksellers. Years ago, back when I was still ordering from ERHB’s newsprint catalog, I got the notion to buy a large coffee-table book of works by the Impressionist artist Henri Matisse just because the works of his I knew were cool and the book was $4.95.
Once I got Matisse, I was so moved by what I read and saw that I wrote an essay about it, printed it, and then folded it and placed it between the pages of the book. I had no intentions of submitting it for publication; it was just a record of how much this impulse cheap buy impressed me. Now that I have my own blog, I can publish it here.
September 28, 2021
Poetry: “My Romance”
“My Romance” is a poem/spoken word piece I wrote as a teenager. In this work, I was trying to portray what I now know is called “intrusive thoughts,” a symptom of PTSD, depression and anxiety, among other conditions.
