No Artist Left Behind Forgotten Artist Productions

Every season (fall, winter, spring, and summer), for the entire season, we put the spotlight on an artist on our website and all of our social media. We present them and their creative work. That's why we're here. That's why Forgotten Artist Productions was started. We feature artists who work in theatre, film, video, visual art, photography, literature, music, etc.
(The No Artist Left Behind project is on hiatus.)

The Spring 2016, Summer 2016, Fall 2016, Winter 2017, Spring 2017, and Summer 2017 artist is Robert "Maddadan" Wilson and his artistic endeavors! For the first time, we cannot label Rob as one thing. Yes, he is a musician, but this young man is so much more, and we are proud to know him, watch him, and support him. Maddadan represents what a true artist should be!

Let's cut to the chase!
Watch the Boss Man Official Music Video on YouTube, and get "Boss Man" by Maddadan/EVA FRESH CORP. on iTunes and/or Google play!
You won't be able to get it out of your head!
"Boss Man" is written, produced, composed, mixed, and mastered by Robert "Maddadan" Wilson and is part of the official soundtrack for the movie JAMAICAN MAFIA starring Paul Campbell.
Maddadan is also writing and producing a movie titled BOSS MAN to be filmed in 2016.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/boss-man/id1059828272?i=1059828630

https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=Bsapwppva5iedxmrbx3io7fga5i&tid=song-Tpxc7ozy4zq2isnth2tk7s22kri&hl=en

Robert "Maddadan" Wilson is a very talented and humble musician, artist, and young man who lives in New York. He is somebody that you want to keep an eye on. He's working hard, and any success that he continues to achieve will be greatly earned.

According to the EVA FRESH LABELS website:

"Although his music career didn't really start until the age of 20, Robert Alexander Wilson was heavily influenced by the arts, especially music. His diversity is leading him down a path to become a strong prospect in the music industry, not only in the genre of reggae, but he is capable of transferring his experiences and styles to other genres such as Dancehall, Rap, and R&B. His work is daring and unique.

Maddadan was born in the United States, but he was raised like a true Jamaican. Growing up, he was interested in art, music, film, and more. Before experimenting with reggae, he had success in the alternative rock genre as a guitarist in a local band. During high school, Maddadan transitioned from an alternative rocker to a dancehall phenomenon among his high school peers. This transition took him from the dance floor to the mic.

In 2008, Maddadan began performing, and continued doing so for years, at such venues and shows as Club Amazura and the GT Taylor Christmas Extravaganza. As a result, Maddadan was interviewed on radio stations like Hot 102, WAVS 1170 AM, Sun City Radio, Bess FM, Flame FM, and Irie FM, just to name a few. Maddadan's biggest supporters are his Strugglas and Strugglets, his true fans.

S.trive
T.ruth
R.eal
U.nity
G.od
G.ives
L.ove
A.lways

In 2010, Maddadan went from having one foot in the door, to making an international name for himself. He presented the tracks "This Prayer," My Mama," and "Chill Tonight" and began touring in the United States and Jamaica. In addition to his music, Maddadan went on to work in all sorts of mediums.

Now at the age of 26, Maddadan is a strong believer in turning your dreams into reality; he's a young man with a promising career who leads his own label company Eva Fresh Labels which is powered by EVA FRESH CORP. Maddadan produces a lot of his own work, but he is also helping other musician and artists to achieve their goals and desires.

Eva Fresh Labels - the birth of a company of young men and women looking to change the world with their music one song at a time. 2010 was not only the beginning of a record label, but a group of driven and unique individuals coming together as a family in the name of music. Located in South Side Jamaica, Queens, Eva Fresh Labels was nurtured by many, and in return, offered a lot of artists opportunities to be heard and seen and to grow as musicians when they hardly had any chances to do so. Over the years, Eva Fresh Labels has promoted many shows, artists, companies, and more. In 2015, after a lot of international concerts/shows, interviews, music videos, and recordings, Eva Fresh Labels which is powered by EVA FRESH CORP. is being recognized as the place where, with one step at a time, dreams can come true and be made into a reality."

You can contact and keep up with Robert "Maddadan" Wilson/EVA FRESH CORP. at:

EVA FRESH CORP/Maddadan Website:

http://www.evafreshlabels.com/

EVA FRESH CORP Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Eva-Fresh-Corp-126023927475586/

Maddadan Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Maddadan/

EVA FRESH CORP You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxwXEh-xMuv6tpe4XvfNfww

Maddadan You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Maddadan08

EVA FRESH CORP Twitter:

https://twitter.com/EvaFreshLabels

Maddadan Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MrMaddadan

Maddadan Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/maddadan/

Contact:

[email protected]

The January 2016 artist is Alex McFarlane and his art!

Installation: The City, Size: L20'xW5'xH3.5', Medium: Solid Graphite, 360 City Blocks, 9 Mega Structures, 1 Sky Scraper Zone.

Alex McFarlane is a very talented sculptor and painter who has been working at his craft for many years; he exhibited regularly in New York City galleries throughout a thirty year career but continues to regularly show pieces in exhibits.

Alex's Artist Statement:
Solid graphite has been seminal to my art - dark, impenetrable and psychologically dense. Using architectural imagery with solid graphite has provided me with a vehicle for a narrative statement. Later, the industrial walls expanded the narrative by being both pictorial (a view through a window) and literal (the canvas surface is the wall). Later still, the narrative became a traditional pictorial canvas with the figure central to the statement.

Alex says this about his sculpture in an article by Reece Alvarez in the Lewisboro Ledger, "I guess I am much more narrative by nature. My sculpture, for example, is small architectural images made out of solid graphite — very dark, very mysterious, very Orwellian — and I think has a certain amount of storytelling in it.”

Alex is represented in many corporate collections including General Electric, Prudential, and Morgan Chase, public collections including the Aldrich Museum, the William Benton Museum, and the City of New York, and private collections including Theirry Despont, Mary McFadden, Martin Margolis, and J Patrick Lannan.

Some of Alex's notable awards include the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, New York Foundation for the Arts, New Jersey Commission on the Arts, Fellow of the Augustus St. Gaudins Foundation, and Artist in Residence, Weir Farm Historic Site.

Also, Alex has been reviewed in Arts Magazine, Art Forum, and the New York Times.

In addition, Alex earned an M.F.A. from Columbia University (NY) and a B.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art (MD). He has taught in many institutions, but currently, he teaches painting, drawing, and watercolors at Silvermine Guild/Arts Center in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Alex is also trying his hand at playwriting, and his play BIRDS SHOULD FLY FREE was presented at the Connelly Theater in lower Manhattan as part of the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival.

Forgotten Artist Productions is proud to call Alex a friend and mentor, and he was gracious enough to be a producer on our theatre production of WHERE ART LIVES.

You can contact and keep up with Alex McFarlane at:

http://www.artistmcfarlane.com/

[email protected]

Alex at our 2014 Launch Party/Fundraiser.

The December 2015 artist is Lauren Brickman and her acting/improvisation/writing!

Lauren Brickman is a very talented New York based actor, writer, and improviser.

Lauren can be seen performing around New York with her improv team (hashtag)highclasshookers. Also, she can be found performing with Story Pirates. In addition, she performs at Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre's Maude Night.

Lauren is the co-creator, co-writer, and co-star of the web series SITTERS, and she has appeared in commercials for Smart Car and MTV Europe.

On stage, some of Lauren's favorite credits include Flora in "27 Wagons of Cotton," Little Sally in URINETOWN, and most roles in new plays.

Lauren has produced several original collaborations including the plays Hair of the Dog and L!F# Happens.

Lauren holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of Iowa and a B.F.A. in Acting from Adelphi University. She is also an educator at such places as Queensborough Community College.

What we've presented here doesn't even scratch the surface of what Lauren's accomplishing. Be sure to keep an eye out for Lauren Brickman; she's very talented, very entertaining, and going places.

You can contact and keep up with Lauren at:

[email protected]

http://www.laurenbrickman.com/

https://twitter.com/labrixx

https://www.facebook.com/lauren.brickman

http://ucbcomedy.com/user/31609

http://brickburnsproductions.tumblr.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-brickman-8720771a

Lauren (second from the right) performed in a staged reading of WHERE ART LIVES at the Forgotten Artist Productions' December 2014 Launch Party/Fundraiser.

The November 2015 artist is Roberto Bonazzi and his poetry/writing!

General Critical Praise from the Wings Press website:

Thanks to Robert Bonazzi for writing so enthusiastically about the poetry of Latin America, especially his insightful essay on César Vallejo.
—Octavio Paz, 1990 Nobel Prize Winner in Literature

[Bonazzi is] not only a remarkable poet but an important critic.... These are real essays that dig deeply in ways that most critics never do.
—John Howard Griffin, author of Black Like Me

Roberto Bonazzi’s new book, Outside the Margins: Literary Commentaries, was published by Wings Press in September 2015.

According to the Wings Press website, "San Antonio Express-News poetry columnist Robert Bonazzi gathers twenty years of reviews and profiles, essays, and articles in Outside the Margins...This is a major collection of his most important essays and reviews for the past two decades." Outside the Margins: Literary Commentaries is one of many books being published by Wings Press to celebrate their 40th anniversary on November 14, 2015.

Here is a partial list of authors reviewed in the book:

Rumi, Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Federico García-Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, Nicanor Parra, César Vallejo, Ángel González, Enrique Lihn, Marjorie Agosín, Oscar Hahn, Mahmoud Darwish, Aziz Shihab, Samih al-Quasim, John Updike, Robert Bly, Carlos Fuentes, Thomas Merton, John Howard Griffin, Vassar Miller, Robert Burlingame, Donald Hall, Lorenzo Thomas, Jane Hirshfield, Jack Myers, Michael McClure, E.A. Mares, Robert Peters, William Kloefkorn, Glover Davis, William Pitt Root, Leonard Randolph, Margaret Randall, Elroy Bode, Ronnie Dugger, Angela De Hoyos, Naomi Shihab Nye, Robert Flynn, Rosemary Catacalos, Paul Christensen, Bryce Milligan, Alexander Maksik, Palmer Hall, Clifford Thompson, Jan Seale, Janet McCann, Jim LaVilla-Havelin, David Lee, Meena Alexander, Francisco Hernández, Tad Cornell, Jenny Browne, Wang Ping, Hafez, Ann Waldman, Carol Coffee Reposa, Carmen Tafolla, James Hoggard, John Phillip Santos, Wendy Barker, Geoff Ripps, David Ray, Tony Zurlo, Dave Oliphant, Jessica H. Lopez, Octavio Quintanilla, Hermine Pinson, Sofia M. Starnes, David Parsons, Reyes Cárdenas, José Antonio Rodríquez, Marian Aitches, Andrew Glaze, Chip Dameron, Darrell Bourque, Pablo Miguel Martínez, Michael Gilmore, Joseph Trombatore, Alan Pogue, Michael Nye, Norma Farber, Sybil Pittman Estess, Mo Saidi, Trey Moore, Natalia Treviño, Bonnie Lyons, Laura Van Prooyen, Jasmina Barrera Velázquez, Maxwell Geismar & Leticia Garza-Falcón

You can learn more about and purchase Outside the Margins: Literary Commentaries at:

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Roberto's recent poetry in The Scribbling Cure: Poems & Prose Poems (Pecan Grove, 2012) and Maestro of Solitude: Poems & Poetics (Wings, 2007) constitute a selected volume. Maestro of Solitude was a finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters Poetry Award.

Learn more about and purchase Maestro of Solitude: Poems & Poetics at:

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About Roberto and his work in Maestro of Solitude: Poems & Poetics from the Wings Press website:

"These are dialogues between the clockwork of ego and timeless solitude, between earthly intimacy and the death of loved ones; lucid discourses on global politics and besieged communities; and witty takes on poetics and the arts. Never sanctimonious or glib, these spare, well-crafted poems draw upon the slow gathering wisdom of late middle age. "The soul's solitude is keenly felt in Bonazzi's poetry, especially his newer work," writes literary critic Paul Christensen in West of the American Dream. "He was following arguments that go back to roots of modernist experiment which turn on a profound distrust of words as having been appropriated for political and commercial use. Language was no longer the medium of free expression but an exploited means for showing the workings of one's consciousness. Some words didn't work any longer, like freedom, justice, truth, even love. The challenge was to not only loosen syntax from its old eloquent formulas, but to space out the words, calling attention to their peculiarities, their density and life as objects, as things, and not as the subservient noises by which self made its claims. One thing you hear most insistently in Bonazzi's lyric impulse is the desire to escape from self, to liberate language from its entrapments in selfish, instrumental logic."

Christensen ranks Bonazzi among the unsung heroes of modern American poetry: "If one were to attempt to put Bonazzi somewhere in the literary mountain, you would have to assign him a place near the peak, where the air is thinner and the paths are all trod by mountain goats and a few wizards and geniuses. He has taken poetry to its limits of subtlety, where sense nearly but not quite gives out into silence and awe. He is a Yield sign to those who might otherwise want to step on it and hog the road and declare self the triumphant virtue. He says no, and he points the way toward the ascetic life, and to his own, which is austere without being self-consciously hermetic or saintly.""

Roberto reads for Maestro of Solitude: Poems & Poetics:

Author of the critically acclaimed Man in the Mirror: John Howard Griffin and the Story of Black Like Me (Orbis Books, NY, 1997), Roberto completed Reluctant Activist, the authorized biography of John Howard Griffin, in 2014.

As Executor for The Estate of John Howard Griffin, he edited these Griffin titles from Wings: Black Like Me (50th Anniversary, 2011); Prison of Culture: Beyond Black Like Me (2011); Available Light: Exile in Mexico (2008); the novel Street of the Seven Angels (2003). For Orbis: Scattered Shadows: A Memoir of Blindness and Vision (2004) and Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas Merton (1993). For Latitudes: Encounters with the Other (1996) and Pilgrimage (1985). These titles, plus Griffin’s The Devil Rides Outside (1952) and Nuni (1956), are Ebooks from Wings.

Roberto wrote Afterwords for the Penguin editions of Black Like Me (2010 and 1996). His writings on Griffin have appeared in The New York Times, Motive, Bloomsbury Review, Social Issues in Literature, Southwest Review, New Orleans Review, The Texas Observer, and The Historical Dictionary of Civil Rights. He is featured in a film documentary on Griffin, Uncommon Vision (a 2010 DVD produced by Morgan Atkinson and aired on PBS stations). His work has appeared in 240 publications—in France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Peru, Canada, and the UK. In 2011, he contributed to articles on the 50th anniversary of Black Like Me in Smithsonian, Washington Post, Times of London, The Guardian, BBC News, New York Jewish News, Texas Monthly, and The Texas Observer. His interviews on Griffin have been aired by the BBC and NPR.

Video celebrating the 50th anniversary of BLACK LIKE ME:

On Roberto's MAN IN THE MIRROR: THE STORY OF JOHN HOWARD GRIFFIN AND BLACK LIKE ME
(Critical Praise from the Wings Press website):

Robert Bonazzi takes readers behind that mirror for a fascinating look at a remarkable person, and it is the life and character of Griffin that makes this book irresistible and stimulates curiosity in the humane concerns of Black Like Me.
--Booklist

In this beautiful and stirring portrait of John Howard Griffin, Robert Bonazzi has given readers a sensitive and poetic understanding of the moral pilgrimage of one of the seminal writers and prophetic figures of our century. Bonazzi's portrait is more than a fine literary work. It is also a gift of grace to a nation more racially divided than at any time since Griffin was alive. Those of us whose lives were changed by Griffin's act of witness will, of course, be grateful; but it is the generation now in school and college that will be most thankful for this work, for it is they who will be making the next pilgrimage.
— Jonathan Kozol

On one hand, the awful racist days of the 1950s and 1960s produced attacks by police dogs, riots, assassinations and lynchings. On the other, it was a time when humans of good will had clear goals and strong leaders. African-Americans could easily identify the targets, for the evils of Jim Crow and segregationist laws and enforcers were clear. And it was time when white Texans of conscience like John Howard Griffin did not remain silent. In these ambiguous days before the millennium, nothing seems very clear, but books like Bonazzi's Man in the Mirror help us to return to the intellectual and moral issues that compelled people like Griffin and help us to understand the distance between then and now.
—Mark Busby, in Texas Books in Review

An earnest, adulatory discussion of the classic exposé of racism (Black Like Me) and the memorable life of its author, John Howard Griffin. Bonazzi, who published some of Griffin's writings at his Latitudes Press and is possibly the world's only Griffin scholar, deserves credit for explaining, albeit briefly, the fascinating events that shaped Griffin's character as a crusader against racism. . . . The bulk of Bonazzi's tome is a summary of that work, with copious quotes from Griffin's own words, which remind one of just how skillful a prose stylist he was. . . . In quoting from other of Griffin's works and playing up his intellectually rigorous Catholicism (he was friends with Thomas Merton and Jacques Maritain), Bonazzi places Black Like Me within a lifelong quest to understand and share with others his religious ideals of humanitarianism and mercy. . . .
-Kirkus Reviews

Through interviews and close readings, a portrait of Griffin as a compassionate man deeply committed to social justice through love emerges.... Bonazzi's book gives us a fascinating portrait of an important personality in American history.
-Publishers Weekly

Black Like Me is considered a classic on race. Robert Bonazzi's critical study of Griffin's experiment, Man in the Mirror fills in Griffin's back-story and is an excellent contextual companion.
—Bernadine Evaristo, in The Times of London

Bonazzi's exploration, sensitive and profound, marks him as one who understood that John Howard Griffin's actions went far beyond the popular notion of daring to slice into the underbelly of American racism. This beautifully written study of Griffin and his transformation, in its seductive way, makes one believe that the journey of one man can be the journey of a people. It is a journey eminently worth taking.
— Bishop Cyprian Lamar Rowe, in the National Catholic Reporter

Latitudes Press was established (1966) by Roberto when he was a graduate fellow in English at the University of Houston. He began the press with the magazine, Latitudes, along with literary friends Dan Robertson, H.C. Nash, and Leslie V. Metts.

In 1988 Library Journal called Latitudes “One of the finest imprints in the country.”

Latitudes Press was the longest surviving independent literary press in the Southwest, until ceasing publication after the death of co-publisher Elizabeth Griffin-Bonazzi. The press published 112 titles from 1966 to 2000, receiving grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines, Translation Center of New York, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Latitudes Press (1966-2000)/International Authors in Translation:
Rafael Alberti, Juan José Arreola, Ingeborg Bachmann, Carlos G. Belli, Jorge Luis Borges, Cecilia Bustamante, Haroldo de Campos, Ernesto Cardenal, Rosario Castellanos, Paul Celan, Antonio Cisneros, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Salvádor Elizondo, Lourdes Espínola, Oscar Hahn, Angela de Hoyos, Renaldo Hinojosa-Smith, Macedonio Fernández, Carlos Fuentes, Stanislaw Lem, Enrique Lihn, Jacques Maritain, Gabriel García-Márquez, Augusto Monterroso, Julio Ortega, José Emilio Pacheco, Octavio Paz, Elena Poniatowska, Julian Ríos, Jaime Sabines, Severo Sarduy, César Vallejo, Gabriel Zaid, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and St. John of the Cross.

Latitudes Press (1966-2000)/English Language Writers & Translators:
Elliott Anderson, Russell Banks, John Barth, Charles Baxter, Robert Bly, Elroy Bode, Charles Bukowski, William Burford, Ewing Campbell, Cornelia Cody, Marvin Cohen, Paul Christensen, Mary Crow, T.H. Cornell, E.C. Curtsinger, Chip Dameron, R.H.W. Dillard, W.S. DiPiero, Stephen Dixon, Louis DuBose, Ronnie Dugger, Clayton Eshleman, Welch Everman, Ruth Feldman, Yitna Firdyiwek, Robert Flynn, Robert Fox, George Garrett, Herbert Gold, Alvin Greenberg, Steven Ford-Brown, John Howard Griffin, Donald Hall, Russell Hardin, Robert Hazel, Juan Hernández-Senter, Archibald Henderson, John Herndon, Judy Hogan, James Hoggard, Forest Ingram, Halvard Johnson, alTom Keene, James Kimble, Jane Kopp, Karl Kopp, Greg Kuzma, Denise Levertov, Kenneth MacLean, Samuel Maio, William Matthews, Janet McCann, Thomas Merton, W.S. Merwin, Arthur Miller, Vassar Miller, Bryce Milligan, Amado Muro, H.C. Nash, Naomi Shihab Nye, Dave Oliphant, Robert Peters, Marge Piercy, Sonia Räiziss, Margaret Randall, Marvenea Rainwater, Jan Randolph-Rich, David Ray, John Reeves, David Riedel, Del Marie Rogers, Henry H. Roth, Rainer Schulte, Charles Simic, Amelia Simpson, Gary Snyder, Michael Sofranko, Sheryl St. Germain, Brian Swann, Harry Taylor, Henry H. Taylor, Paul Trachtenberg, C.W. Truesdale, Mark Van Doren, Gordon Weaver, Rachel Weiner, Clifton Wiles, James Wright, Rudolf Wittenberg, David Yates, Bill Zavatsky, and Mario Zúñiga.

Born in New York City in 1952, Roberto has also lived in San Francisco, Mexico City, and several Texas cities. Currently, he lives in San Antonio, Texas, writes a column on poetry, Poetic Diversity, for the San Antonio Express-News, and reviews for World Literature Today.

Roberto prefers the solitary life of reading, writing, and listening to classical music and jazz in a studio in San Antonio. He has lectured on human rights, racism, and modern literature at universities in Canada, Mexico, and the US. He has performed the poetry of Spanish-language poets and his own poems at venues in New York City, Toronto, Mexico City, San Francisco, New Mexico, and all over Texas. His lectures, readings, and interviews have been broadcast on PBS and BBC radio outlets and distributed on video and audiotapes in the UK and the US.

He taught literature at universities and community colleges, including University of Houston, Texas Christian University, Tarrant Community College, as well as in public schools in New York and Texas. Besides editing titles by Griffin, he has edited two books by Jonathan Kozol, Vassar Miller’s Selected and New Poems, and anthologies for New Rivers, Wings, and Latitudes presses.

A dedicated advocate of literary artists and independent imprints, Roberto has reviewed titles, nearly 100 titles since 2004, in his Poetic Diversity column for San Antonio Express-News and for World Literature Today. He is a member of the NAACP, The Authors Guild, and The Texas Institute of Letters.

The literary archives of Robert/Roberto Bonazzi and Latitudes Press are archived in The Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Other papers reside in the archives of Thomas Merton, John Howard Griffin, and Mark Van Doren at Columbia University in New York; at The Thomas Merton Center, Bellarmine College, Louisville, KY; in the Wallace Fowlie Collection at Duke University; and in the Maxwell Geismar Collection at Boston University.

This presentation by Forgotten Artist Productions only scratches the service of Roberto Bonazzi and his work, so we encourage you engage in further research to learn more about this man and artist. Roberto has become a very good friend of Forgotten Artist Productions, and we are so blessed and thankful for his guidance and mentoring. Knowing Roberto and studying his work helps us to better understand ourselves as human beings and artists.

Poet Naomi Shihab Nye in The Texas Observer writes: “Robert Bonazzi is a legendary figure in Texas letters. Author of Man in the Mirror: John Howard Griffin and the Story of Black Like Me, he has published poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews in a huge variety of publications—from The New York Times and The Village Voice to Hearse and The Idler. Bonazzi has inspired many of us over the years with his deeply honest literary life, his integrity, authenticity, and caring, disciplined work. His poems are a gift to our pages, and he has always been a gift to this state.”

Contact Roberto Bonazzi at:

[email protected]

The October 2015 artist is Craig Fox and his comedy!

Craig Fox is a very talented comedian and actor that presently lives in Woodside (Queens), New York.

In 2009, Craig earned a B.F.A. in Drama from Adelphi University in New York, and in 2012, Craig earned an M.F.A. in Acting from UC Irvine in California.

Craig has performed in many stage and film productions as an actor in the last few years, but presently, his passion and artistry lies in stand up comedy.

For the last few years, Craig has been advancing his craft as a stand up comedian; you can find Craig performing in some of the top comedy clubs, Stand Up NY for example, in New York City any night of the week. Craig's act is energetic, honest, entertaining, and funny. Craig has developed a comedic style and/or stage persona, but there is a lot of variety in his act because he incorporates his acting ability by presenting lifelike characters.

Craig also hosts his own weekly comedy show titled FoxandFriendz at The Village Lantern located at 167 Bleeker Street in NYC. There is an open mic that starts at 6 PM, and Craig and his very talented comedian friends do a show at 8 PM; Craig regularly has a line up of great and talented comedians every week.

Forgotten Artist Productions would like to feature the following promotional video about Craig and his work. Please follow the link to check out the video and support what this very talented performer is doing. Not only is Craig Fox talented, passionate, and dedicated, he's also a very kind and generous human being, and Forgotten Artist Productions is proud to call him a friend.
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Craig also contributes his talents by teaching a variety of classes at the New York Film Academy.

You can get in touch with and/or keep up with Craig at:

[email protected]

Facebook Craig Fox Comedian
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Facebook FoxandFriendz
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Twitter Craig Fox @CraigFoxComedy
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The September 2015 artist is Ben Pease and his poetry!

Ben Pease is from Ludlow, Massachusetts, but he has lived in Brooklyn, New York for the last few years. Ben just celebrated his first wedding anniversary in August, and he lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the poet and artist Bianca Stone.

Ben holds degrees from Emerson College and Columbia University. He is currently an Assistant Professor and the Coordinator of The Writing Center at ASA College in New York City.

One of Ben's passions and priorities is writing. Ben's poetry has appeared in BOMBLOG, jubilat, Salt Hill, MAGGY, Paperbag, notnostrums, and SUPERMACHINE, among others, and he frequently gives readings of his work. Ben's first full-length collection of poems, CHATEAU WICHMAN, is forthcoming from Big Lucks Books. CHATEAU WICHMAN is a collection of poems, but as a whole, the book tells a story with one main character and a small group of strong secondary characters. Here are two selections from the work:

Reprinted from:

Brooklyn Poets
since 1855

POET OF THE WEEK
BEN PEASE

December 15-21, 2014

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Chateau Wichman VII

stuck in a game
of hot potato
between rapture and dismay
The Wichman found
both hands
burned
heard a knocking
definitely at his door
felt his heart at once
expanding
and shrinking
as when one squeezes
a water balloon
too hard off-center

was The Wichman’s
great desire
realizing itself
or was this all a cruel
dream or joke
put on by these
Sage Editors
who only bothered him
with scraps of potential
propaganda
kept mentioning how he
possessed THE MANIFOLD
MIND
which didn’t interest The Wichman
in the slightest
though it assured him
the Sage Editors understood
The Wichman himself
was mythologically
inadequate as is

most recently The Wichman
found a slip of paper magneted
to the fridge which he read aloud

memorize this

Here Men From The Planet Earth
First Set Foot Upon The Moon
We Came In Peace For All Mankind
Neil A Armstrong
Astronaut
Michael Collins
Astronaut
Edwin E Aldrin Jr
Astronaut
Richard Nixon
President
United States Of America

but The Wichman wasn’t thinking
too hard about all this
he happened to be
staring at the front door
he always failed
to lock
its hinges the same
as any other
today they glided open
as if strung with pearls

a most high
a most radiant
light bore through it
like a hole carved
into the heart
of a mountain
to illuminate
the dwarven king’s grave

even though the hallway
was windowless
and without any kind
of light rigging
The Wichman
would claim
til the day he died
he could only
make out
a silhouette
of a woman

she irritated him
she repulsed him
she made rise
the crest
of his right eyebrow

a woman
a woman
with a potato-juice
tan dressed in a (unfortunately
for The Wichman’s aversion
to red) rosebud
negligee with
a gumball-machine
gold necklace
reading DAPHNE
in foxtail cursive

The Wichman had seen this name
freshly affixed
in red embossing tape
on the buzzer downstairs

Daphne caressed her arms
as if she were rolling up her sleeves
and said “why don’t you come over
for a smoke”
The Wichman would never
decline an invitation
but stipulated “I will only
go as far as the threshing floor”
he received a metal cigarette
in his palm and thought “who
can behold these two hands
of mine
who can steady
this [manifold] mind?”

Reprinted from:

notnostrums 6

Ben Pease

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Chateau Wichman XII

The TV flickered on startling The Wichman out of his thinking man pose. He couldn't tell how he got there, if he was beside or outside himself or why every channel had nothing but a black screen and the thrum of a female operatic choir. The Wichman tried to mute the damned thing but the voices rose out of various antique radios he at one time liked to collect. He picked up the phone to complain but the voices were there too. He went to his closet to find a hammer or book suitable for smashing, but the voices came from all directions, filled every appliance in every house and flooded the streets so The Wichman decided he had no choice but to sit back and listen, and he might as well watch too. The Wichman enjoyed staring into the black screen, it reminded him of when the world all at once spoke to him. The screen flashed white, an American Flag flapping in the wind, then the voices in unison broke into speech.

There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the universe.
For lack of a better name,
I call it The Wichman.

A street sweeper shoots down one side as the cars one by one return to their parking spaces. The voices return to a thrum, cut to the replay from the football game, the ball end over end sailing upwards until it is freeze-framed within the moon, the female choir again compelled to words.

The moon allows things to happen.
She shapes events as they come.
She steps out of the way
and lets The Wichman speak for itself.

Above the freshly re-parked cars, a red and blue cyclone parallel to the ground rushes through the air. The crowd waiting at the bus stop scatters into nearby bars and shops, those stuck in their cars crouch beneath steering wheels and cover their heads with their hands. The Wichman stands prominent in the middle of the street, looks around dazed, smiles. The far-winged bluebirds sound out from the aviary double helix and cheer The Wichman. The cardinals chip-chip with delight. Drowning the incessant drones of the choir, the birds whirlpool around The Wichman, each cardinal intertwining with a bluebird, filling the street with feathers, blinding the camera until all is again white. The American Flag waves across the screen, and the songs of the birds are stilled in favor of the choir:

The moon does her job
and then stops.
She understands that the universe
is forever out of control,
and that trying to dominate events
goes against the current of The Wichman.

Ben has also created a few video poems using selections from CHATEAU WICHMAN; this series is titled Chateau Wichman: Blockbuster in Verse. Here are two samples from that work:

Ben is currently working on his epic full-length book FUGITIVES OF SPEECH. This is also a collection of poems that makes a longer story. Ben said this about the creation in an online interview for Brooklyn Poets, "FUGITIVES OF SPEECH has a large ensemble cast with six main characters and a lot of others who pop in and out. The work combines poetry, drama, home movie scripts and prose and takes place in my hometown of Ludlow, MA from 2003-2004. One of the characters is also a psychic who occasionally travels into the minds of people living when the town was much younger. It's a study of how place affects people, and it documents a group of friends trying to be creative in a community that doesn't prioritize that kind of thing at all." Here is a samples from that work:

Reprinted from:

BORT QUARTERLY

Ben Pease

from Fugitives of Speech

Book 1: Ludlow Resevoirs V.

Book 2: Fools of Inconsequence VIII.

_

Ludlow Resevoirs V.

hushed voices from the dark side
of fate’s rotunda curved or rushed

to Mallender’s ear if he liked it or not
elusive notes of the future

Mallender placed his abilities
on the spectrum of clairvoyance

nowhere near the galaxy-spanning
prescience of Paul Atriedes and co.

from the Dune universe but also never
had he encountered Dead Zone nightmares

of a thousand hands upon him
each hand another grim certainty

Mallender instead saw his gift
as similar to Peter Boyle’s character

in the X-Files episode
“Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”

where a serial killer hunted down
all variety of seers soothsayers and mystics

but Clyde Bruckman stood out
as the most believable

(not only in his admiration of Scully)
but once in someone’s presence

an accurate vision
of their death became clear

the closer the person the closer the fate
Mallender began to say (to himself)

and though Mallender could only see
immediate futures of no particular importantance

they all lingered in his mind
each future a two-tone chorus

in a gallery of voices
thus Mallender cherished Jo-Ann Fabrics

for the low-tide possibilities
of its customers

old folks with nothing to bar them
from 5 hours with their “NORMAL

is only a setting on the dryer” needlepoint
midwinters of mile-a-minute afghans

even the “pine on black” holiday napkins
that never quite make it out the linen closet

crazy quilts of dead men’s shirts
all provided Mallender something soft

and certain where he could rest
his over-stimulated mind

Mallender could see Jean walking back
as she did every Thursday

from the outdoor ATM
slipping the $20 into her front-apron pocket

he could smell that party sized-pizza
half double cheese half combo

sub hamburg for the pepperoni
sub onions for red onions

what the occasion Mallender was not certain
but it was vital that he eventually be invited

to find purpose for his visions
he had to go and make a new friend

Ben has also created a video poem using a selection from FUGITIVES OF SPEECH:

Ben Pease is also a board member of the Ruth Stone Foundation, which is currently in the middle of a major renovation of Ruth Stone’s home in Goshen, VT. Ben's wife, Bianca Stone, is the granddaughter of Ruth Stone, and Bianca was appointed as one of the trustees of Ruth Stone's estate.

The Ruth Stone Foundation is a nonprofit literary organization established to preserve Ruth Stone's literary legacy, and Ruth Stone's home will be used as a writer/artist retreat.

According to the Ruth Stone Foundation's website, "Ruth Stone was an American poet (1915-2011). The author of 13 books of poetry, Stone's honors and awards include two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Bess Hokin Prize, the Wallace Stevens Award, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Walter Cerf Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, and the National Book Award...The 1800's farm house in Goshen, VT (as well as a smaller house of the same time period on the property, and an artist studio), are in desperate need of repair. This is important for several reasons: The house is not only a Vermont historical landmark, but it is also a literary landmark. The contents of the house (including a huge library, papers, memorabilia, manuscripts, etc.) structure, and land, are all intricately linked to Stone's work. Indeed, her overall essence as a person. Many poets have come and gone throughout the years, written poems and shared works under that roof. Our vision is to not only appreciate that historical essence, but to invite artists to create in that same, sacred space. This is a unique opportunity to have an intimate, functional museum of a one brilliant woman's muse, for poets and artists to experience for themselves...The RSF is currently in the midst of a massive undertaking to rescue Ruth Stone's beloved home from crumbling to the ground. For now, all money will go towards saving Ruth Stone's house and creating a writer's retreat. This includes architectural work, contractor fees, building materials, public facility renovations, landscaping, etc."

To learn more about the Ruth Stone Foundation, their intititives, or how you can contribute, visit the Ruth Stone Foundation website at _

Ben is a founder and an editor of Monk Books.

According to the Monk Books' website, "Monk Books is a poetry press founded in October 2010 with a mission to make books as deliberate and artful as the texts within. We publish the best of contemporary and out-of-print poetry in limited-edition chapbooks."

Monk Books is also creating initiatives as part of the Ruth Stone Foundation, and you can learn more about those at the Ruth Stone Foundation's website.

Works published by Monk Books are:

NAVIGATIONAL CLOUDS
by Alina Gregorian

DEATH & DISASTER SERIES
by Lonely Christopher

ANIMAL SPIRITS
by Tom Healy

NOTES ON MELANCHOLIA
by M. A. Vizsolyi

WICHMAN COMETH
by Ben Pease

THE FORMAL FIELD OF KISSING
by Bernadette Mayer

MYSTERY AND SOLITUDE IN TOPEKA
by Mark Strand

To learn more about Monk Books, visit their website at _

This is only a very small sample of Ben Pease and his work. There is so much more to discover. Please, visit _ to learn more about Ben Pease and his work.

You can also keep up with and contact Ben Pease at:

Ben Pease Facebook

Ben Pease Twitter @BenjaminPease

Ben Pease Instagram sirpeasley

Ben Pease YouTube

Email Ben Pease at [email protected]

The August 2015 artist is Michael (Mike) Hoskins and his photography!

Mike is a very talented photographer who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and he specializes in the subject of trains. Mike taught himself photography to document the trains, but his creativity developed over time.

Mike says, "I want people who might not necessarily like trains to see some value in this subject and work."

Mike has spent many years studying and working on his craft; he is a very skilled photographer, but he continues to experiment with his photography. For example, he recently has been playing around more with foreground in a shot.

Mike loves for viewers to see a shot in color with all the vibrancy, but he also likes to present the same shot in monotone and with effects. Experimenting with effects allows Mike to highlight the clouds, sunset, snow, and nature surrounding the trains and subjects in order to present an even more dramatic shot.

Mike has been inspired to capture shots at night as a result of viewing and studying the work of O. Winston Link.

Mike's statement that truly reveals how he feels about the medium is, "The photographer's soul is reflected in the work!"

One Track Mind

Photos by

Michael (Mike) Hoskins

You can always keep up with or reach Mike at:

Micheal Hoskins Facebook

Train Frame Photography (Facebook)

Mike is also an active participant in the Facebook Group
Norfolk Southern Atlanta Based Railroading Operations

Mike's Email Addresses:
[email protected]
[email protected]

Forgotten Artist Productions loves Mike Hoskins and his work!

One Track MindPhotos by Michael (Mike) Hoskins

Short Video of The Photography of Michael (Mike) Hoskins

One Track Mind

Photos by

Michael (Mike) Hoskins