Response to beforehand (Belladonna* Chaplet #131)
Response to beforehand (Belladonna* Chaplet #131) by Cecilia Vicuña
by Isa Anastasia Rivas
This work is in response and homage to Cecilia Vicuña's beforehand. It is part of an ongoing mixed media (both drawings and writings) project that I'm working on, called the Sclerotic I. That project is about my Multiple Sclerosis, discussing it in relation to the intersections of culture (specifically my Boricua culture), ecology (as represented through topography, and discussions around pollutions), and dis/ability. Vicuña's own conceptual work often interweaves conversations around environmentalism, culture, language, and precariousness/ephemerality has been a great inspiration in my own project and I hope for her to continue to be that inspiration as my project develops.
Isa Anastasia Rivas is a poet, playwright, & Brooklyn College MFA graduate from Los Sures, Brooklyn. Dedicating her work to the hardship, traumas, & political struggle within the Boricua Diaspora, especially the LGBTQ+ (Boricuir & Trans) communities within it. Isa helps lead several projects including: The Titere Poets Collective, La Esquina Open Mic, & La Cocina Workshop! She have published her work through several magazines, including The Acentos Review, The Poetry Project (Footnotes), Inverted Syntax, Tilted House, & also appears in several anthologies, such as piel de arrecife and The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext. Her plays have been featured in the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe Theater Festival & the Downtown Urban Arts Festival. Follow her @Isa_Writes.
