Wanda Phipps with Virlana Tkacz translated a timely play by the Ukrainian poet, Lesia Ukrainka, called Forest Song. Over the summer, a version of the play using other sources as well, A Thousand Suns, was performed by the Yara Arts Group for three nights across the street from where I live, in the community park and garden, La Plaza Cultural. It was the ideal place to put this play on. There was music, live actors, film and photography too. Every part of this open air performance enhanced the others and made it an enchanting whole.
I had not seen Wanda in over a year so afterward I gave her a great big hug and she gave me her latest book of poetry, Mind Honey, with cover art by Yuko Otomo, a perfectly beautiful cover. I opened the book the next day, really enjoyed the poems, and called Wanda to see if we could arrange for her to come over one night and record, which is exactly what we did a week later, and then settled down afterward for shrimp gumbo and a glass of white wine.
Where does my mind end and yours begin? That’s an underlying question in Wanda’s Mind Honey. What is prepared by this one is enjoyed by that one. It is creation that brings us together, and in the poems, there are sensual answers, wonderful to hold and listen to in the Vimeo below. Enjoy
Three poems from Mind Honey
Mind Honey is published by Autonomedia. You chan check it out here:
You can check out Autonomedia here:
You can check out the Ukrainian poet, Lesia Ukrainka, and Yara Arts Group’s production of A Thousand Suns below:
Wanda Phipps