Ephemera Literary Inspiration (Iss. A.3)

(Creativity and Motivation Weekly)

April 21,

Welcome to the Ephemera Newsletter, lagunak! (Basque for “friends”).

Tiny languages intrigue us, tiny moments in time—a week of spring summer see-sawing—tiny techniques with huge impact, the world of microcosm that asks mastery of writers in effort of bringing voices into their fullest realization. This week we’re thinking of samples, of borrowing, of found art, in a way, layering our new over an old. Artist Jenny Holzer and musician Nas give us a lot to think about with regard to intertextuality, new meaning, and expert borrowing. We’re chalk full of zines (internationally themed), prizes/opportunities, bonus jobby-jobs, and more book recs from the 33 1/3 series. Please also note our #friend of ephemera offering mentoring for writers; also we hope you’ll check out our sponsored residency. Our aim to inspire and contribute to a healthy writing life!

We can’t not obsess over this letter’s artist and musician; we’re scent-enhanced vultures and these artist’s techniques are our bloodletting scavenge. Really, we’re way more pretty and preened, and our finds are willingly given, but dire metaphors do make for effective mnemonic devices. And we ought to keep devising means by which we can enhance our skills. So, let’s focus in on repurposing, on exquisite borrowing, and make sure we develop abilities that permit practice of these imperatives. We’re in an imperative mood! Hence, a call to share our letter, and to flatter friends & colleagues and stir up dialogue. Please note: We appreciate your presence!

We whoop at your support: Books. Books!

Eskerron (Gratitude!).

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~We’re so happy you’re here!~

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Featured Music: Nas’s Illmatic

New York City rapper and son to musicians Nasir Jones, aka Nas, launched a debut album called Illmatic in 1994 and immediately shot to the top of the rapping hierarchy. It’s full of lyrical ingenuity, truth, auto-mythology, and gritty detail. Nas’s flow is unforgettable. What we’re considering is how the lyrics play over the music, particularly the sampling. There’s a similarity in artistic eye, in technique to our featured artist. Now, we’ll readily admit that the techniques used in making rap are not entirely akin, as you’ll see, to Jenny Holzer’s art below (projecting words on to a public architecture), or maybe they are of kin, cousins to. The idea is that something preexisting that’s known and has structure is sampled and thus re-contextualized with…