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For nearly three decades, from the early 1980s until 2013, Dr. Jonathan Zizmor’s skincare ads for his dermatology practice were a mainstay in New York City subway cars, touting treatments for various skin problems and displaying the doctor’s own slightly smiling visage. A 2016 New York Times article noting his retirement stated: “To know Dr. Zizmor is to know the city’s secret handshake, to appreciate its quirkier, more pedestrian pleasures that natives claim as their own.” What’s hyperlocal to where you live? Brainstorm some ideas of things that might qualify as local lore, your city’s secret handshake—perhaps some idiosyncratic window displays or advertisements, a distinctive element of the urban landscape, a quirk of the natural environment, or public street art. Write an ode to one of these items, to commemorate and share its pedestrian pleasures.
In this video, Nikki Giovanni reads a selection of her poems and speaks about her life and career for the Wright Conversations series hosted by the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit and PBS Books. Giovanni died at the age of eighty-one on December 9, 2024.
A.I.R. Studio Paducah offers residencies of two weeks to three months year-round to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers in the Lower Town Arts District of Paducah, Kentucky. Residents are provided with a private apartment and studio space. The cost of the residency is $700 for two weeks or $1,000 for one month. To apply, submit up to five poems of any length or up to 10 pages of prose, a cover letter, a résumé, a writer’s statement, and contact information for three references with a $25 application fee.
A.I.R. Studio Paducah, c/o Alonzo Davis, 4410 Oglethorpe Street, #609, Hyattsville, MD 20781. (202) 374-5650. Kay Lindsey, Communications Coordinator.
