#lark is my favorite but i like drawing sparrow more

[gamsdoodles]

this is where dignity goes to die

[pleeborp]

Dndads headcannons in celebration of a new episode (not related)

• Glenn Close HAD nipple piercings. He doesn’t wear them any more, but he will gladly show pictures if asked.

• Daryl Wilson got so fucking confused watching Top Gun the first time. The volleyball scene was his favorite part but if you asked him why he couldn’t explain it to you.

• Ron Stampler eats erasers.

• Henry Oak Garcia paints nude paintings of himself and his beautiful talented wife Mercedes. They’re ranged from abstract to insane realism. None of the realisms are actually fully done yet bc he insists Mercedes deserves perfection.

• Ron Stampler fucking loved Lazy Town the show.

• Paeden went on to be happy and never die. It’s canonical, Anthony Burch told me himself.

• where the fuck is Yeet Biggley

• Henry likes to take photos of random things to “appreciate the Beaty of all my surroundings” and he prints them off and places it on a large mosaic he’s creating.

• Lark and Sparrow call it his “stalker wall” or more affectionately, his “serial k!ller wall”

• Scary Marlowe reads Warrior Cats. I personally haven’t, and don’t plan to but she reads the vibe of my friends that have.

• Normal draws fanart of all his friends and quietly ships them together. He used to be a hardcore gothcleats guy but he’s seen the chemistry between swiftkicks. (Don’t ship real people btw but he’s a hs he don’t know no better) He stoutly refuses to ship KickWorthy.

• Samantha Stampler is still alive and she’s kicking ass as a therapist. She doesn’t know about Terry yet.

• Carol, Mercedes, and Samantha meet up for book club regularly. They don’t actually read books Tho they get together to eat food and talk shit.

• Ron Stampler ate my homework.

[sweetestlittledarling]

The Songbirds Backstory

For @vesuviaweekly's prompt of many questions which I figured would be a good chance to finally hammer in the Songbird's backstory (my three sibling apprentices). Is this post going to be for me mostly? Probably, but I enjoy being creative and it's been sitting in my brain for a long while. So...yeah...(lol)

P.s. I have a bit more to this that goes into the game and beyond but Lord Tumblr only has so much space so I probably will have to post that at a later date.

Before the game even began...

Nightengale Fae, a student studying magic under her mentor Aunty Agatha, meets Arthur Dupont, the second son of a well-known magical family (with some dark ties to shadow magic). Against the wishes of both family and mentor, Nightengale and Arthur fall in love and get married in secret. To escape Arthur’s family, they flee the city.

Nightengale and Arthur settle on a small island only fishermen seem to know about called Dunlet, where there a small port town by the name of Winterville. Nightengale sets up shop as the town’s resident healer while Arthur took over the lighthouse which became their home.

They had their first child Robin, who seemed to have a magical talent right away. Robin seemed to draw magic from both his parents though Arthur told him never to use Shadow magic which was a specialty of Arthur’s family. Robin, wanting to make his parents happy agrees and instead focuses on light magic like his mother.

A few years later Nightengale discovered she was pregnant again, this time with twins. But Arthur got news that his brother wanted to meet with him to discuss family business. Scared of what his brother and/or family might try if he didn’t go Arthur decided to go, asking Robin to take care of everyone while he was gone. He never returned and is presumed dead.

Nightengale now on her own had trouble carrying the twins, Sparrow and Lark who nearly died in the birth. Robin, somewhat unknowingly, used his magic to save them, connecting them for the rest of their lives.

The kids grow up on the island with their mother, enjoying life and being together. The town folk help out by watching them as a thank you to Nightengale and her taking care of them. Robin was very grown up even at a young age, trying to help his mother as much as he could. He dreamed of traveling like his father but always felt the need to stay close to his family.

Sparrow grows into a smart young lady, who was nobody’s push over as she was always incredibly determined (which Lark later calls stubborn). She also enjoys the stories from the sailors, and they will often bring her books to read, her favorite being romantic stories of pirates and sailors.

Lark was noticeably quiet, often hiding behind his sister and letting her talk. He enjoys learning about animals though he also spends a good amount of time in bed as he was often sickly. Robin and Sparrow were always there to entertain him and they mostly play together because there are rarely any children on the island except them.

Robin has a dream one night of playing on a beach and meeting a blond-haired boy about his age. This is his first meeting with Asra in the magic realm though he doesn’t remember it when he wakes up.

One day a stranger arrives on the island that everyone is wary of. It turns out to be Arthur’s brother Bertrand and he has come to find his brother’s family. He tricks Nightengale into leaving the kids alone and tries to kidnap the twins. Robin intervenes and manages to wound Bertrand before he is wounded himself. Nightengale is able to intervene and save them.

Nightengale takes all three kids to the magic place where Robin is healed and Nightengale strikes a deal with the Magician. She offers her magic for the power to protect her children from their father’s family as she knew that she could not do it alone. The Magician warns that giving up one’s magic would mean death for one such as herself, but Nightengale knows it would be the only way to protect them. Robin and Asra agree to meet before they are sent back, and the children wake to find their mother gone.

A family friend takes them to Vesuvio where they are to live with a still bitter Aunt Agatha (she holds a grudge for a long time). Agatha begrudgingly takes the kids in and starts to build their talents in magic finding each other them being talented in various forms (Robin- Storm, which is water and light magic, Sparrow- Spirit which is connected to the heart and feelings of others with a little fire and ice, Lark- Living which is connected to nature and the world). She remains their caretaker for a couple of years before she has to take ‘retirement’ leaving them the shop and all that resides inside. The three struggle for a bit, trying to figure out how to run things on their own but somehow manage.

On the eve of the celebration of the arrival of the new empress, the family meets Asra, a tarot card reader who they adopt as one of the family. Realizing Asra’s innate magical talent, Robin begs Asra to help him teach the twins. Asra agrees and moves in with the family. Not long after Asra and Robin begin dating. Their life is happy, though Asra often times disappears for lengthy periods of time leaving Robin feeling once again abandoned and frustrated at being the only one who stays.

Sparrow and Lark as teenagers start to discover themselves. Sparrow struggles with romantic love and self-love as she goes through many love interests (of all genders). Her longest romance is with a man named Freddy who promises marriage but ends up sailing away. She is still incredibly defensive of her family earning her the nickname ‘Guard Dog’ which she both loves and hates.

Lark is dealing with his gender identity as well finding his voice. As he gets older, he comes out of his sister’s shadow and discovers that he can be strong, though he still deals with anxiety and worry. He tries to hide his feeling behind a cocky attitude and pranks which are the bane of everyone’s existence.

As the plague sets in, they are determined not to lose their home again, even at Asra’s insistence that they run. Robin and Asra have a massive argument with ends with Asra leaving and Robin feeling regretful.

Sparrow, wanting to help, gets a job with a local doctor, Julian. She learns much in her time with him and develops a bit of a crush on the doctor (though it wasn’t the right time for either of them). She ends up getting sick and travels to the Lazaret. In the Lazaret Sparrow tries to use the skills she had learned from Julian to make people more comfortable before succumbing to the plague herself.

Lark, angered by his sister’s death, went to Julian in furious anger, blaming him for everything. He was taken to the Lazaret, alone and scared, wishing he could go back to being happy again.

Robin was the last to go, lost without Asra or his siblings. Before his death he managed to visit Asra in a dream, trying to apologize for what had happened and to say goodbye. This spurred Asra to return to Vesuvio, but it was too late.

Years later Asra managed to take a hold of the spell that would bring back the Songbirds (by hijacking it from Lucio lol), but it wasn’t strong enough to bring back all three and it was impossible to bring back just one. Wanting to fix all the pain, Robin sacrificed most of his magic weaking himself severally but allowing the Magician to bring back him and his siblings. They all awoke in their home, unaware of their deaths and having very scattered memories of the past.  

So it begins...

[kaseyskat]

many of yall either already know this or probably could've guessed by my general thoughts and census in this fandom but! i am putting this here for the record: i strongly, STRONGLY believe lark was the one training hero with sparrow's biggest crime being encouraging/actively letting it happen, and here's why.

one of my favorite things to do with media and like. god especially dndads? is connect puzzle pieces of information, draw connections between scenes and base my thoughts entirely around my conclusions. not taking stuff at face value is my entire MO! i think it's fun to analyze situations and the characters and use prior information to figure out Why they are doing what they are doing in any given scenario. because of this, my favorite characters tend to be ones who aren't usually given that nuance in their respective fandoms, and it's definitely a big part of why i gravitate towards sparrow so much! i do feel like most of sparrow's actions get taken at face value without thought as to WHY he's acting the way he does in canon, something that is afforded to most of the other kiddads pretty easily.

because of this, when hero was first said to be the chosen one and speculation about her birth began to circulate, i reevaluated the canon material, reflected, and made a decision of what i personally believed to be true as shown in canon prior to this episode. and that decision, ultimately, was this: the twins trained hero because she was born to be the savior of the world, but lark was the one who really took charge while sparrow is ultimately the one to put a stop to it. so far, as of ep37, this opinion of mine has not changed.

"but nyx, hero blames them equally!" i know this! and i'm not saying sparrow is blameless in the matter, i just personally believe that his involvement was mostly limited to things like. taking hero places. bandaging her wounds when she got banged up in training. being COMPLACENT but not actively the one to train her. and, ultimately, when she was unhappy and this was going to ruin her, it is sparrow who recognizes this and puts a stop to her training before it can change her as a person, because it is sparrow who has seen the consequences! first with grant, and then with lark.

and ultimately, to me. to me! it makes sense. i love lark to pieces, i find him fascinatingly complex, but i feel like sometimes his treatment in the fandom... varies a lot? from the treatment sparrow gets? and i think there is something Very Real about lark being the leader of hero's training. for one, we know that lark wanted normal to be trained as well, even offering to teach him "valuable skills" in the very first episode of season 2. we know he disapproves of the way sparrow parented normal- not because sparrow's a bad parent, but because he was too SOFT. sparrow says lark is the one in charge of violence, and lark seems to be the ringleader of the kiddads entirely- at least, when it comes to the doodler. and sparrow as a character is defined by how much he caves to pressure, how much of himself he hides in favor of being more like lark, even if it means doing things he doesn't agree with.

and, we know that lark doesn't blame sparrow for the doodler. he only blames himself, he says as much to normal when pretending to be sparrow at papa john's. it would make sense for his character if he took charge with hero, wanting to be responsible for her so that he's still the one handling the doodler and not sparrow. sparrow, of course, feels differently, but all that means is that he lets it happen! not that he's the one who actively encourages and trains hero in things we KNOW sparrow doesn't agree with, like killing animals.

this has gotten so long and so wordy but its been sitting pretty heavy on my chest for a few weeks now: it really bothers me that we are willing to take anything sparrow does at face value - hero was trained so it HAD to be entirely sparrow, he married rebecca so they HAVE to be in love even though they got married at 19/20 at the latest - while lark and the other kiddads are explored and given nuance. sparrow is such an interesting character BECAUSE of how different he truly is from lark, and the way his guilt over letting hero's training happen manifesting in him trying so hard to protect the teens from the same fate is just SO INTERESTING and i hate how he gets bashed for assumptions?

so yeah, that is my 2 cents SHFKDSHFSDKFH agree with me or disagree, it's really all for fun anyways, i just hope that someone sees this and understands the Pain i have gone through ahaha

[abeinginsand]

Thinking about this AU again Lark and Sparrow are going to a private school here with a dorm that they share. They usually go home on the weekends as the Oak Garcia home is only a short bus ride away. Anyways, wanted to go into the 'Into the Spiderverse' part of the story below.

Firstly, wanted to mention these conversations with Rae about an AU of this AU where Terry Jr. is the person who couldn't be saved. They are here and here with the second link being Rae's art and convo of their Spider Normal and my Spider Sparrow meeting! :] In the dorm room, the twins took apart the bunk bed and put their beds together. They have a ton of posters, fairies lights, and other decorations. One window and two lava lamps. The lamps were from Glenn for a birthday. Other than Lark, only their parents and Nick know about the secret. Nick found out when Sparrow kept missing their new Glenn close trio jam sessions.

Nick got curious and happen to see Sparrow go into an alley and come back as spidey wolf. In a mix of outrage and confusion, he is about to go confront his friend. Lark stops him and calms him down. I think nick secretly blames the hero for not stopping the villian that killed his dad. He just never talked about that with his mom or anyone else though.

Feels wrong that Sparrow is that same hero, even more so because he now knows why Sparrow couldn't save Glenn. The friend group was altogether helping nick pack up his dorm for the summer that day. He was always very last minute with packing (the anxiety, the adhd, the teen urge to not do what you should do...etc.) Still was excited that Glenn was going to pick them all up with the tour bus and bring them to the Oak Garcia for a big summer party with all their families. There was a villian attack, cars piling up, his dad never made it to them.

The whole realization is a lot, too much actually. Lark calms him down at first but he's clearly still dealing with it all for awhile. Sparrow and Nick do eventually get closer again though. This is where the spider verse comes in. One night, the twins were having trouble sleeping so they were talking quietly into the night to distract themselves. Lark, surprisingly, falls asleep first and Sparrow watches him sleep for a little while adding more doodles to their sketchbook. They've been working on this sketch of Uncle Glenn and as he used to say "and my three favorite punks". The 'punks' being Nick, Sparrow, and Lark of course. The green and blue lava lamp on the table nearby is the only light, the curtains closed on the lone window. Until suddenly, specks of reds, oranges, and grungy purple scatter across the paper. Sparrow looks up at the ceiling and there's a swirling vortex glitching in and out above them. Top hat (the radioactive spider) is scampering wildly around its enclosure. Said container starts floating up, Sparrow's gasping and reaching out and starting to float too. Something grabs the teens legs right as their arms passed through the portal, those limbs feeling like they've been torn apart and put back together multiple times....and its hurt, its hurt, it hurts-- Lark is the one grabbing their legs though, always a light sleeper, and at least there's some comfort in hearing a defiant, "I'm going with you. Nothing's going to separate us! Ever," before the twins, the spider, and the spiderwolf suit get dragged completely into another realm.

Nick comes into their messy dorm room to find them missing. Holds up the sketch book page. Its dad and his three punks. Maybe its colored in wetness now too but whether thats from knowing his friend drew this or being scared about the twins disappearing is unclear. Either way, he also notices a little drawing of stick figures floating into a portal.

Nick ends up working on a way to get them back with grant, tj, and Morgan who seem to believe him about the "they didn't run away, I think they got abducted by aliens!" It's absurd sounding, yet Morgan hears so much of Glenn in that idea and it's part of why she's so willing to go with it. Other part being that she loves her kid more than the world itself. She is also the one to convince Mercedes and Henry that there's still hope too... --- The twins end up in an alternate universe and they experience the glitch symptoms since they don't belong there. Except, they manage to make a device that can slow the glitching down with tech they stole. It only works on one person at a time though and needs charging. They both insist the other sibling should be the one to wear the device, arguing pretty intensely--dare I say even attracting public attention when they are rough-housing in an alley. A lady stops them both...this lady being their mom but also clearly not their mom somehow. She looks older than the twins remember and was that a little toddler in her arms? They are in a universe that's closer to the canon world (sorta) +Omega dads as villains +the s1 dads have a heroes guild (daddies hq) +the s1 kids are adults (late 20s?) (some of them have sided with the villains, some with their families) +Birdie exists but earlier than in canon, Lark doesn't associate with the family anymore/doesn't know much about her, Sparrow is around but has become pretty disenchanted about the hero life (like Peter B Parker except he still has a good relationship with Becca). Lark joined the dark side. TJ also joined Lark by the way due to Terry Sr Vampire being a key component in this world too. +Glenn did die in this au, but like in canon he came back. He may have come back wrong though. He was a villain for a little bit, thanks to Willy shenanigans. Morgan is also gone, so Nick was taken in by Mercedes and Henry for a few years. Things are still kinda bumpy between Glenn and Nick though the love has always and continues to be there. In one of the bonus talks about s1, Anthony mentions how Bill would have helped the dads with Glenn at the court house. Willy would have caught him though. ANYWAYS, I have mixed feelings about Bill as a person but I liked that point a lot. That he cared enough to try. In this AU, Bill helps his son escape being under evil influence successfully. Probably at the cost of his life because Willy is very unforgiving (and petty). +Also I think Hero, Taylor, and Lincoln are little kids here (but Normal and Scary haven't been born yet). Nick is not an absentee dad here since there's no FBI equivalent situation. Not sure Jodie exists in this au, but always open to suggestions.

Lots of stuff going on and the younger twins don't find all this out all at once either. For now, they spend much of their first week stuck there sneaking that special device onto each other daily.

Mercedes and Henry are perplexed but also 'wow isn't just so nice to have their beautiful twins around again'? They missed all the noise and adult Sparrow barely talks to them anymore. Henry only sees adult Lark on the battlefield, hurts more each time. Never giving up on trying to convince him to come home though or at least always says that the door is always open if he or Sparrow need a place to rest etc.

Sparrow Spiderman AU

Radioactive wolf spider bites teen Sparrow who was definitely playing with said spider beforehand. Spiders and wolves are just so friend-shaped after all, so of course a wolf spider would be as well! Feel like Sparrow named the spider Top Hat (not sure why other than silliness) and the spider sticks around like Nick jr on Glenn's shoulder

Powers listed below:

Barely noticeable fangs normally but all teeth turn razor sharp temporarily for combat etc cold resistance/minor ice and plant magic? cannot make webs but can high jump half mask, floral and wolf theme (yes their mask has wolf ears...and probably fluffy leg warmers/arm warmers) Who is the person Sparrow couldn't save? I was thinking about Lark but that lead to a villain route. Maybe that is a villain the twins face off against at some point--would be an older Sparrow. But for the main au, maybe Glenn? Close-Freeman and Oak Garcia families are really close here! Glenn's like a fun and mischievous uncle to the twins. Helping teach them how to drive recently too. Lark, Sparrow, Nick, Grant, and Terry are still friends. Nick's been a friend to the twins since childhood, they met Grant in middle school, while Terry is a new transfer student. All of the teens are in the school's adventurer's guild. Its a dnd club that Henry founded when he was in school. Sparrow took over the mantle and brought the club back into existence. Lark brought the 'literally sneaking out and adventuring like when we were kids but more intense' part into things. They lead the club together but Lark doesn't want to be held responsible for dealing with faculty etc so he's a normal club member on paper. I think it could be fun if Lark swaps places with Sparrow sometimes as the spiderhero, did he get bitten too? Possibly and/or maybe the two have a bunch of gadgets for him to use. Added shenanigans...Lark and Sparrow can communicate telepathically sometimes (after both were bitten). At some point Lark does make his own costume, but the two still have fun switching around as usual. Both Nick and Glenn still dislike spider here and while Sparrow was plenty mischievous regarding that info as a kid (and Nick also brought up snakes in revenge), they are pretty...worried about either of them finding out about Sparrow being part spider now.

[koszmarnybudyn]

As always my thoughts on the latest episode

(SPOILER WARNING FOR EPISODE 15 OF DUNGEONS AND DADDIES!!!!)

So my theory that we are going to have paraleal to season one arcs of saving the dads/kids was right (i hope Normal gets to bond with his family and Sparrow gets to redeem his actions)

I just made a magical girl Hermie design and you are telling me I got to change it to fit with the new two face asthetic!?! Despicable!!!

I love how Normal doesn't know if he likes Hermie or not yet, (also Hermie is smooth as fuck for soneone who just got burned on half of his body and face)

Link and Normals friendship is the best and i hope we see more of it (also it will be intresting to see how Links feelings on Hermie chage if Herm and Normal start dating)

I hope Hermie and Normal do start dating, and if it happens sonewhere in this arc i want to see Sparrows reaction

I am so excited to get more of the Oaks (also its nice how they were first in season one and are again here, i wonder how the papa pizza thing is tied to their family problems and stuff)

Taylor kind of sucked this episode (for me Normal and Link were the stars) he was just kind of useless or even made things worse, and so was Scary (i am still on the fence if i like her, like i enjoy here charakter and i know she is written to be annoying but it is working and sometimes i wanna scream at her to shut up and be a better friend)

I really liked Link and Normal helling Hermie toghether and becoming closer (and we learn both their favorite color is blue which is fun)

Also Kristen (fantasy high) 🤝 Normal

Being confused on their identity and sexuality

I hate that Normal got a stupid little mustache cause now i will have to draw it and it looks rideculues on his baby face

Good news is i get to actually show my Lark and Sparrow designs in a way that is actually relevant. (Lark smiling is kind of terrefiaing)

The spider boys bit made me laugh so hard it hurt, it was not very plesant

I thought of tanjiro from demon slayer when Normals thick skull was mentioned.

Also I tweaked my Link designs haircut slightly because before it was a nightmare to draw so maybe now it will be a bit easier.

Normal deserves to rage sometimes and so does Link, just a little anger for my favorite boys

[brooklynmuseum]

Closing out National Poetry Month, our Spring Interns paired some of their favorite poems with works from our collection. We hope you enjoy!

— Jeffrey Alexander Lopez, Curatorial Intern, American Art & Arts of the Americas

Image: Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1724-1770). Page From Haru no Nishiki, 1771. Color woodblock print on paper. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Peter P. Pessutti, 83.190.1

from Citizen: “Some years there exists a wanting to escape...” [Excerpt] By Claudia Rankine 

/

I they he she we you turn only to discover the encounter

to be alien to this place.

Wait.

The patience is in the living. Time opens out to you.

The opening, between you and you, occupied, zoned for an encounter,

given the histories of you and you—

And always, who is this you?

The start of you, each day, a presence already—

Hey you—

/

— Halle Smith, Digital Collections Intern Catherine Green (American, born 1952). [Untitled] (West Indian Day Parade), 1991. Chromogenic photograph, sheet. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, 1991.58.2. © artist or artist's estate 

Ode to Enchanted Light by Pablo Neruda

Under the trees light has dropped from the top of the sky, light like a green latticework of branches, shining on every leaf, drifting down like clean white sand.

A cicada sends its sawing song high into the empty air.

The world is a glass overflowing with water.

Consuelo Kanaga’s black and white photograph captures a dazzling, yet fleeting moment from everyday life. Three textured glasses cast shadows whose patterns are almost kaleidoscopic in effect. We can imagine Kanaga passing by her kitchen table, as she is brought to a halt to take a closer look at, and ultimately to photograph, the simple beauty generated by the play of light and everyday objects. The close-up scale of this image emulates the singularizing framing techniques deployed by Surrealist photographers, who also took parts of everyday life and blew them up in the photographic frame, thereby encouraging their viewers to look at life around us from a different angle. It is a way of saying: Here, take a closer look. Viewing the world with wonder, along with the joy that this act brings, are encapsulated in Pablo Neruda’s poem Ode to Enchanted Light. The speaker observes the way light passes through trees and creates enchanting patterns. He not only observes, but feels the beauty in the simple details of life, from the way light falls from the sky, to the sheen of leaves, to the buzzing of cicadas. Approaching life through such a hopeful lens evokes a glass-half-full perspective. In fact, the speaker is so hopeful that he believes “The world is/a glass overflowing/with water.” I think Kanaga would have felt the same way. 

— Kirk Testa, Curatorial Intern, Photography Consuelo Kanaga (American, 1894-1978). [Untitled] (Glasses and Reflections). Gelatin silver photograph. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Wallace B. Putnam from the Estate of Consuelo Kanaga, 82.65.25

Easter Wings By George Herbert

Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,

      Though foolishly he lost the same,

            Decaying more and more,

                  Till he became

                        Most poore:

                        With thee

                  O let me rise

            As larks, harmoniously,

      And sing this day thy victories:

Then shall the fall further the flight in me.

My tender age in sorrow did beginne

      And still with sicknesses and shame.

            Thou didst so punish sinne,

                  That I became

                        Most thinne.

                        With thee

                  Let me combine,

            And feel thy victorie:

         For, if I imp my wing on thine,

Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

Easter Wings by George Herbet and Martin Bach’s flower vase from the Brooklyn Museum’s Decorative Arts collection reveal the interrelationship between form and function. In Easter Wings, Herbert strategically varies the line length to create an image that enhances the meaning of the poem; when you turn the poem on its side, it resembles the wings of a bird, of which are symbolic of the atonement of Jesus Christ. In doing so, the author is not only telling us his message, but he is showing it visually as well. Similarly, the vase takes the visual form of its function. Its floral design amplifies the meaning of the object, as the vase is meant to hold flowers. In both instances, we see how aesthetic properties of a work echo the meaning and function of the work itself.

— Amy Zavecz Martin Bach (American, 1862-1921). Vase, ca. 1905. Opalescent glass. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Alfred Zoebisch, 59.143.16. Creative Commons-BY 

I am the Earth (Watashi wa chikyu) [Excerpt] by Kiyoko Nagase, Translated by Takako Lento

I am warm, moist soil  I am a single supple stalk  I draw my life  all the way up into corollas of wild berries on the roadside 

I am amazed at  a breast of water welling  to flow into the inlet of a muddy rice paddy  I am amazed at  myself being  hot steam blowing fire and sulfur up  from the bottom of the great ocean, deep indigo.  I am amazed at  the crimson blood flow  covering the earth’s surface in human shape;  I am amazed that it swells as the tides ebb and flow, and gushes out monthly under distant invisible gravity … I am the earth.  I live there, and I am the very same earth. 

In the four billionth year  I have come to know  the eternal cold moon, my other self, my hetero being,  then, for the first time, I am amazed that I am warm mud.

The vivid imagery conjured up by Kiyoko Nagase’s poem is beautifully visualized by Emmi Whitehorse’s painting. The emphasis on deep Earth tones and abstract corporeality in both the poem and the painting really creates an intense metaphysical link between the environment and the self.

— Amanda Raquel Dorval, Archives Intern Emmi Whitehorse (Navajo, born 1957). Fire Weed, 1998. Chalk, graphite, pastel and oil on paper mounted on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Hinrich Peiper and Dorothee Peiper-Riegraf in honor of Emmi Whitehorse, 2006.49. © artist or artist's estate

Seventh Circle of Earth by Ocean Vuong

On April 27, 2011, a gay couple, Michael Humphrey and Clayton Capshaw, was murdered by immolation in their home in Dallas, Texas.

Dallas Voice

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2

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                                       4

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________________________________________________________

As if my finger, / tracing your collarbone / behind closed doors, / was enough / to erase myself. To forget / we built this house knowing / it won’t last. How / does anyone stop / regret / without cutting / off his hands? / Another torch

streams through / the kitchen window, / another errant dove. / It’s funny. I always knew / I’d be warmest beside / my man. / But don’t laugh. Understand me / when I say I burn best / when crowned / with your scent: that earth-sweat / & Old Spice I seek out each night / the days

refuse me. / Our faces blackening / in the photographs along the wall. / Don’t laugh. Just tell me the story / again, / of the sparrows who flew from falling Rome, / their blazed wings. / How ruin nested inside each thimbled throat / & made it sing

until the notes threaded to this / smoke rising / from your nostrils. Speak— / until your voice is nothing / but the crackle / of charred

bones. But don’t laugh / when these walls collapse / & only sparks / not sparrows / fly out. / When they come / to sift through these cinders—& pluck my tongue, / this fisted rose, / charcoaled & choked / from your gone

mouth. / Each black petal / blasted / with what’s left / of our laughter. / Laughter ashed / to air / to honey to baby / darling, / look. Look how happy we are / to be no one / & still

American.

Ocean Vuong’s “Seventh Circle of Earth” has persisted as one of the great, affective moments of poetry in my life since I first heard Pádraig Ó Toama’s gorgeous reading and discussion of it on his podcast, Poetry Unbound. I decided to pair Vuong’s poem with Mary Coble’s Untitled 2 (from Note To Self) because both works are urgently immersive into the violence and experience of LGBTQ people in the U.S., and for how each work uses text and physicality to address presence, pain, and erasure. Vuong’s poem is actually footnoted to a quote from a news article about a gay couple murdered in Texas. The page is thus blank, absent of text. The reader has to sink below the main stage, the accepted space of word and story, to find the voices of this couple and the depth of their story’s tenderness, eroticism, and utter devastation. Coble’s piece foils the structure and effect of Seventh Circle of Earth by taking what was subverted by Vuong—text and the narrative of violence—wholly to the surface. Her photograph captures her own legs tattooed without ink with the names of LGBTQ individuals victimized by hate crimes. I cannot help but think of Franz Kafka’s short story “In the Penal Colony,” in which prisoners’ “sentences'' are inscribed by the needle of a “punishment apparatus” directly onto their bodies. I was struck by how the curator’s note for this photograph describes Coble’s artistic endeavor here as “harrowing.” The needle in Kafka’s short story is indeed called “The Harrow”. The noun harrow is an agricultural tool that combs plowed soil to break up clumps of earth and uproot weeds and clear imperfections. The verb to harrow means to plague, and in the story’s original German the verb for “harrow”, eggen,  is also translated as “to torment”. Kafka and Coble conflate these definitions of “the harrow” in their respective works: they use a needled device, like the true noun definition, as an instrument of torment because of someone else’s idea of punishment and justice. Here, violence is brought to the surface, intimate in as much as we are brought right up to the artist’s skin and into the presence of her and her community’s pain. Together, one can see how each creator physicalizes their respective artistic space to tell the stories of LGBTQ people, of what is tender and harrowing, below the surface and written into the skin. 

— Talia Abrahams, Provenance Intern, IHCPP Mary Coble (American, born 1978). Untitled 2 (from Note to Self), 2005. Inkjet print. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, 2008.10. © artist or artist's estate 

To my daughter Kakuya   by Assata Shakur  

I have shabby dreams for you   of some vague freedom   I have never known.   Baby   I don't want you hungry or thirsty   or out in the cold.   and I don't want the frost   to kill your fruit   before it ripens.   I can see a sunny place  Life exploding green.   I can see your bright, bronze skin at ease with all the flowers   and the centipedes.   I can hear laughter,   not grown from ridicule   And words not prompted   by ego or greed or jealousy.   I see a world where hatred   has been replaced by love.   and ME replaced by WE   And I can see a world replaced                                       where you,   building and exploring,   strong and fulfilled,   will understand.   And go beyond my little shabby dreams. 

This poem is featured in Assata Shakur’s memoir, Assata: An Autobiography. It details her hope for a better world that  her daughter can grow up in. This poem is positioned in the book when Shakur is facing increasing prosecution as a result of her  activism and affiliations with the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation army. Being written more than 30 years after this picture  was taken, the poem summons me to think about the trauma that many Black women face and how much of that trauma gets passed  down to their children. The black and white photo of a mother and daughter provides a nice visual to the poem. “The image of a Black  mother and child sitting on their luggage reflects the little-discussed history of segregated transportation in the northern United States. Through the 1940s, Penn Station officials assigned Black travelers seats in Jim Crow cars on southbound trains” (Brooklyn Museum). The photograph of train passengers waiting outside of Manhattan’s Pennsylvania Station especially echoes the verse “I don’t want you  hungry or thirsty or out in the cold.” The overall optimistic tone of Shakur’s poem alters our relationship to the image as we imagine  the mother pictured above hoping for the exact same things

— Zaria W, Teen Programs intern Ruth Orkin (American, 1921-1985). Mother and Daughter at Penn Station, NYC, 1948. Gelatin silver photograph, sheet: 13 15/16 × 11 in. (35.4 × 27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mary Engel, 2011.22.3. © artist or artist's estate

Crunch.  By Kailyn Gibson 

I retch as a mass of sinew lies between my lips.  The sensation is unbearable.  Fortunately, the jar of flies has gone missing again. 

Slowly, surely, and yet never sure at all,  the quiet of buzzing rings through the in-between. 

It is a symphony wrought from blood and bone. 

Saliva drips from bleeding, hungry gums,  And the crunch of glass echoes the grinding of molars.

If I proffered a sanguine smile, would masticated shards look like teeth?  Would they gleam just as prettily?  

The flies ring,  and the rot calls. 

— Kailyn Gibson Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917). Portrait of a Man (Portrait d'homme), ca. 1866. Oil on canvas. Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 21.112 

Excerpt from Autobiography of Red A novel in verse by Anne Carson

7. If Helen’s reasons arose out of some remark Stesichoros made either it was a strong remark about Helen’s sexual misconduct (not to say its unsavory aftermath the Fall of Troy) or it was not.

8. If it was a strong remark about Helen’s sexual misconduct (not to say its unsavory aftermath the Fall of Troy) either this remark was a lie or it was not.

9. If it was not a lie either we are now in reverse and by continuing to reason in this way we are likely to arrive back at the beginning of the question of the blinding of Stesichoros or we are not.

10. If we are now in reverse and by continuing to reason in this way are likely to arrive back at the beginning of the question of the blinding of Stesichoros either we will go along without incident or we will meet Stesichoros on our way back.

11. If we meet Stesichoros on our way back either we will keep quiet or we will look him in the eye and ask him what he thinks of Helen.

12. If we look Stesichoros in the eye and ask him what he thinks of Helen either he will tell the truth or he will lie.

13. If Stesichoros lies either we will know at once that he is lying or we will be fooled because now that we are in reverse the whole landscape looks inside out.

This excerpt comes from Appendix C of Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red, a novel in verse. A translator and classicist herself, Carson mixes fact with fiction in her unconventional retelling of the myth of Geryon and Hercules, beginning with a roundabout introduction to the poet Stesichoros. Autobiography presents a captivating example of recent Queer projects that take up Classical material as their basis. A fascination with the Classical past has pervaded our modern conception of sexual identity politics, down to the very etymology of the word “lesbian.” In this fascination, I see the same desire to capture Classical imagery as cultural heritage which has also pervaded American museums, albeit with significantly different aims. The fresco pictured above comes to mind, which passed through many collectors and was even purchased by the museum before anyone pegged it as a modern piece—not an original Roman fresco. John D. Cooney, a 20th century curator of our Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art collection, wrote that “the unclad and somewhat winsome charms of the lady [probably] diverted objective glances.” Both in the case of the fresco and Carson’s novel, the “unclad and somewhat winsome charms” of the Classical past shape and reshape our understanding of history.

— Kira Houston, Curatorial Intern, Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art Modern, in the style of the Roman Period. Part of a Fresco, early 19th century C.E. Clay, paint. Brooklyn Museum, Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, 11.30.

Late Fragment by Raymond Carver From A New Path to the Waterfall, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989.

And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.

— Shori Diedrick Brackens (American, born 1989). when no softness came, 2019. Cotton and acrylic yarn. Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by The LIFEWTR Fund at Frieze New York 2019, 2019.12. © artist or artist's estate

Jaguar By Francisco X. Alarcón

some say                                    dicen que ahora                  I'm now almost                           estoy casi extinto       extinct in this park                      por este parque    but the people                            pero la gente who say this                               que dice esto don't know                                 no sabe that by smelling                          que al oler   the orchids                                 las orquídeas in the trees                                 en los árboles they're sensing                          están percibiendo  the fragrance                             la fragancia of my chops                              de mis fauces  that by hearing                          que al oír the rumblingc                            el retumbo of the waterfalls                        de los saltos  

they're listening                         están escuchando          to my ancestors'                       el gran rugido   great roar                                  de mis ancestros

that by observing                      que al observar     the constellations                      las constelanciones     of the night sky                         del firmamento 

they're gazing                           están mirando at the star spots                       las motas de estrellas    on my fur                                  marcadas en mi piel that I am and                            que yo soy always will be                           y siempre seré the wild                                     el indomable

untamed                                  espíritu silvestre living spirit                               vivo de esta of this jungle                            jungla

While the author of the poem speaks about animals, their words can also speak on behalf of the erasure of indigenous peoples in South America. Much like the jaguar, indigenous traditions and culture are very important to life in South America. Despite their marginalization, Indigenous peoples throughout the Andes used coca leaves to help with the altitude. The use and cultivation of coca are criminalized throughout most of South America despite it being essential to indigenous cultures. This vessel was used to contain lime which would activate the coca leaves.  Much like the jaguar, indigenous traditions are also faced with endangerment despite being woven into the fabric that is Latin America. Through the opposite man and woman figures, the vessel shows the duality that is important to the Quimbaya people which is still relevant to Colombians today.

Aunque el autor del poema habla sobre los animales, sus palabras también comunican el sentimiento común de la supresión de los indígenas en Suramérica. Con la mención del jaguar, se puede entender en el poema que la cultura y las tradiciones de las personas que son indígenas son sumamente importantes para la vida en Sudamérica. A pesar de su marginación, los indígenas en Los Andes utilizan la hoja de coca para ayudar en la altura de las montañas. El uso y el cultivo de la hoja de coca fue criminalizado (penalizado) a través de Sudamérica, aunque su uso para los indígenas era vital y esencial para su cultura. Este recipiente que se utiliza contiene limón lo que activa la hoja de la coca. Similarmente al jaguar, las tradiciones de los indígenas siempre estaban en peligro aunque estuvieran entrelazadas en las telas de lo que sería Latinoamérica. A través del hombre opuesto y las figuras de mujeres, el recipiente muestra la dualidad de lo que es importante para las personas que son Quimbaya, algo que todavía hoy es relevante para los Colombianos.

— Jeffrey Alexander Lopez, Curatorial Intern, American Art & Arts of the Americas Quimbaya. Poporo (Lime Container), 1-600 C.E. Tumbaga. Brooklyn Museum, Alfred W. Jenkins Fund, 35.507. Creative Commons-BY 

[ma-lark-ey]

Lark headcanons to piggyback off my Grant headcanons B) I don’t have as many for Lark which is weird considering I took his name. 

- He’s the younger twin 

- mans SUCKS in a fight, he thinks he doesn’t 

- He’s that one kind in your grade who no one really talks to or is friends with, but no one dislikes. 

- always keeps stimtoys on him, always always always

- severely ADHD

- deffo has panic attacks (like his dad B) ) 

- He can’t handle much weight on top of him from the trauma of the pyramid. 

- He has some pretty noticeable scars on his arm, neck and legs from the incident, when people ask he quickly changes the subject. 

- He owns a chinchilla! her name is Snail. Sparrow has one named Slug! 

- He likes to write!! He writes a lot of short stories, and will churn out stories of Sparrow’s characters. 

- to go with that, Sparrow will draw scenes from the stories he writes. They’re a little duo. 

- They want to make comics when they’re older. Lark being the writer and Sparrow being the artist.

- Lark is really good at calming people down and mellowing out bad situations, it’s a skill he had to learn from how often Grant and Nick would have panic attacks after Faerun, and he wanted to help them. 

- He likes stirring the pot in politics classes. 

- he has a LOT of pent up anxiety, but doesn’t admit it. 

- If he’s not with Sparrow, he’s probably hiding out at a skatepark or a junkyard. 

- He’s trans masc because fUCK you. Self projection.

- He expresses his affection through gifts!! He likes making all his cool friends gifts to give them 

- He’s super socially awkward and doesn’t have many friends, even though he’s super charismatic. 

- If he can’t do comics as an adult, he wants to be a special ed teacher. 

- Lark will never admit it, but he is EXACTLY like his dad. 

- Lark and his partner (Finch, obviously. If you don’t know who Finch is.... Boy do I have a piece of fandom to introduce you to) adopt a kid at like, early thirties. You would never think Lark would make a nice parent, but he’s a more strict version fo Henry. Takes good care of his little guy. 

- The kid’s name is Dove 

- Lark’s comfort food are those shitty muffins you get in little tiny packs of four and ate as a kid instead of a real breakfast. 

- His favorite drink is... Whatever the fuck you put in front of him. 

- One time when he was little he brought Henry a glass of water that was left outside for days ( you know the kind I’m talking about ) and told him to drink it. Henry couldn’t say no. 

- Lark thinks a lot about what would’ve happened if he took over Oakvale after Faerun. He wonders how different life would’ve been. 

- He doesn’t get along super well with Autumn, but he makes a point to keep in contact with her. 

- Some nights, he’ll have a really bad panic attack and dissociate for a long time. Whenever he calms back down, he’s always protectively held in his dad’s lap in the living room floor with some kids cartoon on the TV, and usually Henry is mumbling to him about something. 

- Lark used to only drink with plastic straws (he likes to chew on them and his hands shake too much for him to use a glass), but he started using rubber straws in eighth grade cause he liked the taste of rubber more. 

- on that, his hands are always shaking like a mother fucker. The only thing he’s found that steadies his hands is cross-stitch. 

- He listens to folk punk (oh no) 

- If you get in the car with Lark, Hayloft by Mother Motehr WILL play, and he WILL go absolutely FERAL 

- He plays the drums!! 

- Whenever he gets drained in social situations, he’ll crouch. He’ll just *crouches down* and sit there. He’ll keep interacting with you normally and whatnot, but he likes being close to ground. 

- He sleeps to the side of his bed instead of in the middle so in case Sparrow has a nightmare and wants to climb in next to him he can :(( 

- Lark listens to Welcome to Nightvale and The Penumbra Podcast

- His favorite color is green! 

- His favorite video game is Forager

- Lark LOVES My Hero Academia, also watches a lot of short underground anime. He rarely gets into the big names, but MHA grabbed him by the throat and said “You’re gonna have the duality of relating to Izuku AND Katsuki, deal with it” and he said “Yes, Mr. ADHD and Depression, sir!” 

- Lark listens Its Okay (To Punch Nazis) - Cheap Perfume on repeat because it scratches a good brain itch, also yeah, he’d clock a nazi without flinching. 

- He has a playlist on Spotify titled “feral baby man” and it’s just a bunch of songs he legally has to scream along with

- Similarly, he’s that one friend with way too many Spotify playlists and all of them have hyper specific purposes. 

- A collection of them are Stimmy Stimmy, Oh No Emotions, UWU Vibey Shit, Whoever Put Crack In These Songs, Thank You For Your Service, HOIST UP THE THIIIIIING, and more. 

- He says a bunch of Australian and Irish slang and NO ONE knows where he got it from. (His favorite thing is to drop a new one and watch the confusion. The best one yet is Grant’s reaction to ridgey-didge of just “Literally what the fUCK did you just say??????”) 

- He likes sewing 

- Surprisingly, he likes soft music as much as he does really attention grabbing stuff. One of his favorite bands is Sleeping At Last

- He likes to have jam sessions with Nick :(( 

- He has a little sister! She was bro when he was around thirteen, and her name is Piper 

- he’s the bEST big brother. Okay? He sits with his little sister in his lap in his highschool years as he does Homework and teaches her about math and English to help him study it better. 

- He also reads her bedtime stories

- HE KEEPS HIS HAIR REALLY LONG CAUSE HE LIKES TO BRAID IT WHEN HE GETS ANSY AND DOESN’T HAVE ANY STIM TOYS ON HIM SEND TWEET. 

This is all I have to give you on Lark at the moment.