That Night, The Moon Said: I am Your Birthmother Now

Author: samroxaschua
Date: 2022-04-18
Categories: Uncategorized

I thought I’d share this image that sits on my desktop table in my studio. I created it one of those nights when I wasn’t able to tap into shift and movement in my adoption struggle. I find that a balance of story-sharing, self-parenting work, contemplative writing and drawing has helped me in navigating and translating the world around me. In this drawing, I was accompanied by the moon, which in way gave me comfort the way nature does. I hope you enjoy it. It’s a snapshot of tenderness that we seek from ourselves and from others. If the moon can be my birthmother now, I’m alright with that. I’ll take any path that lights up the night.

Listening to Angle of List by Loscil – https://youtu.be/yPetcrT2Wtg

The Highest Octave of Reason and Mattering

Author: samroxaschua
Date: 2022-04-16
Categories: Uncategorized

Sometimes I Write,
sometimes I write.

A friend noticed that I haven’t shaped my writing into poems for quite sometime now. I’ve just been filling a square on a page, writing from left to right leaving 1.5-inch margins on all sides. The last time I shaped a poem in its left-justified standard stanza-ed look was before my mentor’s death in December 2020. I believe it’s ok for poems not to lean their backs against walls from time to time. Sometimes, it’s even it’s ok to write poems without spines or eyes, or ears or a mouth. Sometimes its enough to rest your face on a piece of paper and let the weight of things you struggle with just be, as is—heavy. Sometimes it’s ok to begin a sentence with a comma. Wherever you are, start there.

The Highest Octave of Reason and Mattering

Listening to Artificial Light by Rainer Maria – https://youtu.be/IHojo0fjIa0

5 New Episodes – Dear Someone Somewhere – Audio Letters Podcast

Author: samroxaschua
Date: 2021-10-11
Categories: Uncategorized

[ ON AIR ] New poems are up on Dear Someone Somewhere – Audio Letters Podcast • Listen to a poem in response to Walt Whitman, Manila, how I used to pray, and how I once ate the moon. Enjoy!

• A Response To Miracles After Kissing The Floor Where Your Body Turned Into Paper, Rock, And Scissors
• It’s Quiet Now, Leave The Door Open
• The Man Who Ate The Moon
• O, Maynila
• A Photo of Paul Klee Holding A Frame In His Arms

Creative Heights Grant • Portland Chinatown Museum

Author: samroxaschua
Date: 2021-10-06
Tags: artist-in-residence, residency
Categories: Uncategorized
My mother’s dress from a video installation.

Creative Heights Grant

I’ve been selected for an 8-week Artist Residency at the Portland Chinatown Museum along with Portland artists Alex Chiu and Shu-Ju Wang. I’d like to thank Horatio Law, PCM, and Oregon Community Foundation for this incredible opportunity.

I feel deep gratitude and luck to be given permission to have full access to artifacts, historical documents, docents, specific community members, businesses, and historians for this residency. I can’t wait to see what transpires and create an audio/visual installation, write new poems, and asemic calligraphy–all in response to artifacts and history.

My excitement for this project begins with this question in mind: If you give inanimate objects a tongue and a mouth to speak from, what would they say? There will be a series of talks prior to the exhibition in 2022, Summertime.—I’ll be in Portland every other week ( November – January) so if any of my Portland pals want to swing by to see my process, say hello, or make plans to hang out. I’d love it. 🙂 I’m fully vaccinated.

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Photo: My mother’s dress for an video installation.Listening to Breather by Chapterhouse – https://youtu.be/HG4-Tantvhc