Posted on August 17, 2016
There's a monster hiding behind the black rocks and boulders. If you knock them down you will see its face, covered in shiny dark eyes. Its fur is white with black spots covering its body. Its claws burn into your flesh, leaving large melting, gaping holes that drain you. You heal quickly, though you still have a scar. You write down what has happened to you using india ink. The ink leaves dark blots on the page you're writing on, and you begin to notice a pattern in your day. Black dots.
Eleanor, age 12
Kalmia Strong is an artist, librarian, curator, and community arts organizer. She received her MLS and MFA from the University of Iowa. Collaboration is an important part of her practice and she has worked with a filmmaker, a choreographer, several poets, and numerous other individuals and organizations to create books and public art projects and produce exhibitions and other art events. Kalmia is the program director at Iowa City art space Public Space One, where she works to instigate and support experimental, cooperative, and community-based art practices and resources. She is the Book Arts Editor at Prompt Press.