Mrs. Eaves, the first typeface I fell in love with…

It’s hard to overstate the impact Emigre magazine had on my graphic design training. Beyond being the purveyors of a distinct typographic style that embodied the age I grew into design, the magazine hosted the critical discussion of design as a deeply rhetorical practice that was unavailable anywhere else, and sadly, has been clearly lacking since its demise in 2005 (well worth the read!).

Emigre recently announced that their collection of beautiful type specimen catalogues are now available online as downloadable pdfs. Taken together, they form a great overview of the foundry’s history, and more generally of a distinct period of graphic design exploration (not that their typefaces have lost their relevancy today).

Collect them all!

The cold-blooded execution of Troy Davis last night in Georgia greatly upset me, as I’m sure it did hundreds of thousands of people around the world. It’s a saddening and enraging reminder of the injustices perpetrated in order to maintain a system of privileged power and the inherent racism of the criminal justice system in the US.

In collaboration with the Howl Arts Collective, I quickly designed this poster in solidarity with his struggle, also drawing the link between Davis’ execution and Stephen Harper’s position on capital punishment, a clear warning sign of the growing violence of the policies of this Conservative majority.

Download the poster in English and French, and please spread widely. A great miscarriage of justice was done yesterday in Georgia. Let us redouble our efforts for a more just world, where the death penalty no longer exists and these decisions might be based on at least a shred of humanity instead of blind faith in a corrupt system.

No justice. No peace.

Read more on the Howl Arts website.

As part of the global initiative 100 Thousand Poets for Change, I’ll be doing a short reading for the Montreal event at Hurley’s pub this Saturday afternoon. From the 100TPC website:

The first order of change is for poets, writers, artists, anybody, to actually get together to create and perform, educate and demonstrate, simultaneously, with other communities around the world. This will change how we see our local community and the global community. We have all become incredibly alienated in recent years. We hardly know our neighbors down the street let alone our creative allies who live and share our concerns in other countries. We need to feel this kind of global solidarity.

I’m very excited to be participating in this important event, where I’ll be reading an excerpt from the latest fugue, which in itself brought together the words of many disparate writers from across the world. Hope to see you there.

From the epigraph ‘stolen’ from John Berger:

Every form of contestation against this tyranny is comprehensible. Dialogue with it is impossible. For us to live and die properly, things have to be named properly. Let us reclaim our words.

This is written in the night. In war the dark is on nobody’s side; in love the dark confirms that we are together.

Facebook event here >>

Link preview article here >>

We’re very excited to announce the third edition of the Howl concert series, Thursday September 15th at Sala Rossa, featuring Kaie Kellough (spoken word), Matana Roberts (saxophone) and Matthew Shipp (piano). These unique, uncompromising artists will perform solo sets that will expand our understanding of contemporary music while paying tribute to the historic, spiritual, and liberation roots of American jazz.

Matthew Shipp — Art of the Improviser

>> RSVP and more info on Facebook here

The Howl concert series has gained a lot of momentum since our first performance at l’Envers last December. We aim to continually highlight fiercely independent art and culture, and draw strong links between it and the important social justice work being done in Montréal and beyond.