Monday, November 28, 2011

Making Morning Poems








 


Making the Book: Morning Poems by Justin Kinkel-Schuster



 This Thursday, Saint Louis Projects and JKPublishing will be releasing the first book of poetry by STL musician Justin Kinkel-Schuster. We're having a release party at Off-Broadway, featuring 2 of our favorite bands: Alley Ghost and The Skekses. We've also got some of the best performers around reading between sets. Alongside Justin's inaugural performance as a poet, Brett Underwood will be ranting and raving, and local poetry guru Ann Haubrich will recite works from Bob Reuter's upcoming memoirs. We'll see you at 8 pm.

Here's some behind-the-scenes snapshots of how our team created this finely-crafted chapbook.





Each book will feature a unique set of end-sheets carefully cropped from books salvaged from a local thrift store. Architectural schematics, beautiful old photographs from textbooks on American geography and fauna, and diagrams of the mysteries and wonders of science compliment the book's content quite aptly.




Project editor Ellen Herget uses her trusty huntin' knife and a pattern made from a club crackers box to individually chop each endsheet.







It ain't easy when you gotta have 200.








Artist Danielle Spradley carved this gorgeous block print for the cover, and then printed each sheet by hand. This is one of her first test prints on white paper.












Publisher CJ Smith then printed the insides of the book on our many sets of trusty refillable inkjets. He collated the works by hand, arranged them between the end-sheets and cover, and placed 3 steel rivets on each margin to bind the book. The result is rustic, elegant, simple. We know we have done our job when the description of the book's physicality matches the quality of the writing therein. Please join us and grab a copy. Each book is unique, and each page has been touched by our hands.









Thursday, November 10, 2011

Morning Poems Release Party




Theodore Frontman to Release First Book of Poetry




The Saint Louis Projects is set to release the first collection of poetry by Theodore's Justin Kinkel-Schuster with a rock show at Off-Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue). On the evening of Thursday, December 1st, sets from popular local acts The Skekses and Alley Ghost will buttress readings from Kinkel-Schuster's new book Morning Poems.

A refreshingly raw and modern work, Morning Poems captures the beauty and sorrow of an impoverished southern childhood: blackberry bushes and sharp bricks; kind women with missing teeth; the complicated workings of flawed family relationships. Editor Ellen Herget praises its lyrical, conversational style, noting that “each piece is delicately laid out with precision, and the heartsick honesty of the stories only serves to make their emotional content more exquisite.”

 
Elegantly bound with simple steel rivets, the handmade book boasts a screen-printed cover by Danielle Spradley of Dubble Dutch Editions. Morning Poems will be on sale for the first time at a special release price of $9. Special guest star Ann Haubrich will also be reading the works of musician and photographer Bob Reuter, whose collection of short stories is forthcoming from SLP (a division of JKPublishing). Cover charge for the show is $7. Doors are at 7:30, starts at 8.


                                                                      


an excerpt from



 Bottle Dancer



Talk shit, get hit

is what her wallet reads
(she bought it at the Hustler club
which is where she works
she started out as a cocktail waitress
but you know how it is)
I notice it as she takes it from her purse
to pay for the 3 framboise beers she’s buying
for herself and the liter can of High Life she
insists on buying for me
she tells me I am a cheap date
and I agree
Cash is king and she’s got it figured out

As we walk toward the door
the rack of porno mags catches her eye
and we stop to exchange wits and test
each other’s experience and predilections
I wait for her
and she opens with something about
one of the cover models’ tits being too big
much tamer than I’m expecting and
a relief, if I’m being honest
I tell her that when it comes to sex
I’m pretty normal, no weird shit for me
thank you very much
just regular old fucking, but good
and I sense she’s relieved, too
or maybe disappointed

In the car on the way to her place
she tells me her last boyfriend
got her pregnant and left her
but it was alright because she ended up miscarrying
and anyway he was a heroin addict

I am just about ready to head home alone
but what the hell
she already knows
I am a cheap date
and we are almost there