Description

Landmarked by LOVE Park, the Chinatown arch, Molly’s Books, Harry’s Occult Shop, Ned Smyth’s World Park installation at 12th and Filbert, the Divine Lorraine Hotel, and the Mummer’s Parade along Broad Street, roiling with a cacophony of signage and speech–CAConrad and Frank Sherlock’s poem expands to accept everything Philadelphia is or can be. Written collaboratively after daily walks through its streets, THE CITY REAL & IMAGINED unfurls as a natural extension of friendship and living as poets in this shared place.This updated and expanded edition features an afterword by Thom Donovan and a front cover photograph by Zoe Strauss. About the authorsCAConrad is the author of nine books of poetry and essays, the latest is titled While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books, 2017). A recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Literature, they also received the Believer Magazine Book Award and the Gil Ott Book Award. CA is currently working on a (Soma)tic poetry ritual titled, “Resurrect Extinct Vibration,” which investigates effects the vibrational absence of recently extinct species has on the body of the poet and the poems. They teach regularly at the Sandberg Art Institute in Amsterdam, and their books, essays, films, interviews, rituals and other publications can be found online at caconrad.blogspot.com.Frank Sherlock is the author of Space Between These Lines Not Dedicated (ixnay press), Over Here (Factory School), and a collaboration with Brett Evans entitled Ready-to-Eat Individual (Lavender Ink). Ciudad Santuario (translated by Carlos Soto-Román), was published by Das Kapital Books in Chile. Poems beyond the page have found their forms in installations/performances/exhibitions, including Immigrant Alphabet, Organize Your Own: The Politics & Poetics of Self-Determination, Refuse/Reuse: Language for the Common Landfill, Kensington Riots Project, Neighbor Ballads, PACE, and The B. Franklin Basement Tapes. Sherlock is a recipient of the 2013 Pew Fellowship in the Arts for literature, and the 2014-15 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.