Author statement:
As a collection of linked pieces under two discrete poem headings, STRAP/HALO grew out of my fascination with the macro and microcosmics of inner/inter personal connection. Here, I approach the physical body as multitude, as a collection of cells/entities intimately involved with the reproduction of, care toward, communication with, and destruction of each other. I am interested in how this internal tension innately speaks to our larger collective politics and metaphysical discourses. These inquiries also find echoes in the age of the digital community; the halo of presences resonating in a dissolute and crumbling sense of inadequate temporality. Desire, as a compass point, scores these gaps and holes, holding an unforeseen utopic potential, and its lack. Both the sound and its source together, conjoined in an instant of impact.  

Bio:
Jamie Townsend lives in East Kensington, Philadelphia where he is organizer of the c/c reading series, and a co-founder and editor of con/crescent, a chapbook publisher & magazine focused on discursive essay / creative non-fiction. He is the author of the chapbook Matryoshka (Little Red Leaves; forthcoming) and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in various publications, including The Cultural Society, Gam, Wheelhouse, Volt, Elective Affinities, Jacket2, The Poetry Project Newsletter & TRY.