twelve months of art & literature

VERSO / 7 was a monthly subscription box sent out monthly over the entirety of 2021. This project was a gathering of work commissioned from 24 poets, visual artists, zinesters, comic book writers; folks from the Netherlands, the US and the UK; emerging artists and even a poet laureate. We created moments of intimacy, pleasure and connection for our readers during an otherwise hellish moment. For one mother of three in Amsterdam, receiving VERSO / was a monthly reminder for her to be still and take time for herself. VERSO / arrived as a birthday gift between friends in different countries kept apart by COVID; a subscriber in Tennessee asked to be connected to a maker in Amsterdam to express her appreciation for their work on apologies back in March; and now even my mom has a little bit more clarity what it is I actually do. 

I had the pleasure of working directly with each one of the 24 artists selected for our 12 month subscription of art and literature. I’m so grateful for all I learned from these collaborations. Like how to shape work for print and mail and how to talk about and care for the creative output of others. I also learned how to do the nitty gritty stuff like arguing over discussing paper size and weight, margins and bonding with my not-so-friendly neighborhood print shop. How scary and stressful it can be to ship things at scale during a pandemic, always crossing my fingers and toes, saying a little prayer that they’d arrive on time and intact. 

So much happened last year. I moved homes, quit my job, started an MFA program, celebrated my son's 10th birthday, mourned the loss of folk too numerous to name. In the chaos, VERSO / became ritual, a meditation, an accumulation of energy. The monthly subscription model created a structure that required consistency and order. Every month became a practice of care and creativity, a practice in presence, rhythm, and diligence. When my co-editor Anna Arov and I sat down each month to stuff and stamp colorful envelopes and bundle each piece of art with thread, the whimsy and play of it all felt like resistance.

VERSO /  revealed to me the possibilities of my own imagination. That I could have a vision and mobilize my community around its manifestation. That it was possible and necessary to spread love in tangible, meaningful, small ways. And that a projection of beauty into the future in the midst of a whole lot of ugly was worthwhile.