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Your poetry collection,\u00a0Scranton Lace<\/em>, is very specific in its invocation of place. Why write about the Scranton Lace factory?<\/strong><\/p>\n Margot:<\/strong>\u00a0Scranton Lace<\/em>\u00a0is the confluence of my aesthetic interests in obsession, narrative verse, and interarts collaboration. It begins with a landmark, the Scranton\u00a0Lace Works. Like most factories of that ilk, it was built for a specific purpose: to make lace and fine textiles.\u00a0When the factory closed in 2002, after more than 100 years of operation, it was as if time stopped. \u201cKeep Out\u201d signs were erected. But if you crept up close or snuck inside, as I did, life in The Lace was eerily on pause. It was empty, but it was neither living nor dead. In its state of abandonment, the factory began to take shape as metaphorical framework in which I could explore my internalized homophobia\u2014a structure I had erected in my youth as self-protection but no longer need. As I drafted verse about The Lace, starting with her architecture\u2014rooms, looms, and spaces in-between\u2014characters came to life and merged with my own memories. My goal with this book is to create an intimate yet expansive space for queer re-imagining.\u00a0Leitmotif in the project are origin stories\u2014the myths we own and the myths that own us.\u00a0While the work is an examination of patterns, the process of creating\u00a0Scranton Lace<\/em>\u00a0also felt like a necessary unraveling.<\/p>\n How did the difference between the Scranton Lace factory of the past and the Scranton Lace factory of the present show up in your poems?<\/strong><\/p>\n Margot:<\/strong>\u00a0The past and present spark and overlap in exciting ways. In my poems, Scranton is a known and unknown place.\u00a0As news broke recently about the demolition of The Lace and the redevelopment of the complex into a live\/work\/art village, I\u2019ve been wondering if there is such a thing as reinvention. Will it still be The Lace or will it be something else entirely? My challenge as the artist is capturing these competing tensions in poetic moments that also writhe and pulse with immediacy. I want these poems to drip with longing\u2014the exquisite torture of grasping what is just out of reach.<\/p>\n How do both visual art and language conspire to evoke this sense of place in your work? How do your (Margot\u2019s) words interact with your (Bri\u2019s) illustrations?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Bri:\u00a0<\/strong>I use Margot\u2019s verse and ideas as points of departure to craft images that deepen and expand the narrative. They may not always be literal depictions, but my goal is to add intrigue and texture to the in-between spaces. The illustrations offer visuals for the reader to engage with while also keeping the writing open to individual interpretations. These images also incorporate relief prints of lace that was originally created in the factory, physically rooting part of the artwork in Scranton and breathing new, reimagined life into the lace. In the case of the rosette poem, the illustration becomes part of the form itself; it weaves onto the text and shapes the way you can experience the words.<\/p>\n Margot:<\/strong>\u00a0Place in my poetry is evoked by mood, lineation, dialogue, and atmosphere. It is the grit under fingernails. The smell of rust in the rain. The roll of fog at dawn. It can and should be an evocation as well as an invitation. Vernacularity and detail help immerse readers in a specific environment. Place should also hold space for discovery.\u00a0Bri\u2019s artwork is an important element of place and the overall narrative experience. Her scratchboard illustrations are created through a process that is like drawing in reverse. She scrapes the ink away, line by line. The materiality of her images complements and contrasts the intricate softness of textiles.<\/p>\n What are your thoughts about the planned redevelopment of the factory site, including the<\/strong>\u00a0demolition of some factory buildings?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Margot:\u00a0<\/strong>The timing is interesting. The environmental remediation and demolition of The Lace (a complex of more than thirty buildings) began six months after this book was published. The book came to life as the factory prepared to die.<\/p>\n I will admit that I was crestfallen to learn that The Lace would be razed and redeveloped into housing, art, and retail space. It is selfish of me to mourn The Lace\u2014like the death of a character.\u00a0The craven part of me wants the factory to stay as it is in my memories and in the book, a trance of negative\/positive space. Like a haunted house in reverse, I brought my ghosts to the Lace.<\/p>\n A new chapter for Scranton Lace is definitely something to celebrate, though. The Laceworks Village is\u00a0a project that is \u201cturning the\u00a0abandoned blighted area into a new urban village.\u201d While I am cautioned by the use of the term gentrification in their marketing materials, I hope this initiative will contribute to the economic development of Scranton. (Learn more here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The dismantling of the Lace factory has made me reflect on my practice. While the redevelopment might inform the way readers interpret the art, I hope the emotional life of the poems gives the book an element of timelessness. Ultimately, I strive to create art that contributes to an evolving conversation.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In light of the planned demolition and redevelopment of The Lace factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, we caught up with the creative duo behind “Scranton Lace” to discuss if this recent news conditions or alters how they view their book and collaboration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.clemson.edu\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.clemson.edu\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.clemson.edu\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.clemson.edu\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.clemson.edu\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.clemson.edu\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.clemson.edu\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.clemson.edu\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.clemson.edu\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}