"In a sea of mimics, this poet is an original voice." -- Doug Holder, Ibbetson Street Press
"From the opener, "Warsaw Ghetto," a series of personal, powerful statements of identity by people involved in the struggle for individual freedom and human dignity from several episodes in history, to the devilishly inventive pair of poems that follow it ("Dancing With The Devil," in which the speaker declares that "I love dancing with someone who can really lead"; and "How To Meet And Dance With Your Death," a matter of fact how-to recipe for finding your destiny through excess), to the more lyrical work of "Mapping" and "He follows her...," there is something for everyone here, and Shmailo reveals herself here as a poet of great scope and skill...Throughout this album, Larissa Shmailo consistently delivers on the promise of poetry as an oral art form. Although I can imagine that the pieces included herein would work well on page (and would love to see more than a few of these, so I could read them as well), this is a testament to how well a poetry CD can work with careful attention to the details of the production. That the poetry itself is as strong as it is is the most obvious reason that Exorcism is as good as it is.---Tony Brown, Got Poetry?
"Shmailo reads with so much intensity, intonation, energy, in velvety and sensual voice, that to not hear this would be a missed experience....Shmailo is intense. She can shock, she can tickle, she can entrance. Shmailo poetizes devils with the same skill as she weaves words around God and Magdalene. Her poetry is as lushly sensual as it is cutting to the bone. This is about love and pain, birth and rebirth, fields of magnolias, and surviving the Warsaw ghetto... The slap of shock is appropriate. This is not merely strong performance, it is also strong in substance."---Zinta Aistars, The Smoking Poet
"Larissa Shmailo does not think small. On Exorcism, she is trying to do nothing less than exorcise the demons of human evil...While this is the overarching theme of the Exorcism (and it is, for the most part, a powerful and effective theme), it is not all that is going on on this CD. There are a number of individually powerful poems here, such as “The Gospel According to Magdalene,” “Bloom,” and “Abortion Hallucination.” They all fit, some tightly, some loosely, into the larger theme, but also stand well on their own."
---G. Murray Thomas, Poetix
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" The whole CD digs, though, bringing forth fiery, unorthodox, visceral imagery of the Devil and Magdalena, lovers and torturers and survivors. She crafts breath, rhythm, and rhyme, with a relaxed and dancerly demeanor and natural authority. Subtle music accompaniment and vocal multitracking. Highly recommended." --- Anne Elliott, Ass Backwards
EXORCISM is now available on iTunes, Amazon, at CDBaby.com (search Exorcism or go to my page at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shmailo2), www.thelostbookshelf.com, at The St. Mark's Bookshop in New York City, Target online, and other stores.
EXORCISM is Larissa Shmailo's second CD. Larissa has been published in Fulcrum, Drunken Boat, About: Poetry, Rattapallax, Big Bridge, Naropa's We, Lungfull!, MiPoesias, and many other publications. Her first poetry CD, The No-Net World, has been heard around the world. Larissa has received Critic's Picks notices for her readings and radio appearances from the New York Times, the Village Voice, Maud Newton, and Time Out magazine.
Larissa translated the Russian Futurist opera Victory over the Sun which was performed at the first Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and internationally; a DVD of the original English-language production is part of the collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art. She recently contributed translations to the noted anthology from Dalkey Archive Press, Contemporary Russian Poetry.
Larissa is public coordinator for the acclaimed annual journal Fulcrum and is proud to be a director of TWiN Poetry (myspace.com/twinpoetry) and TWiN East Coast, informal collectives of over 10,000 spoken word artists and their listeners. Larissa's chapbook, A Cure for Suicide, is now available from Cervena Barva Press. Watch this space for news of the new CD, Exorcism.
ARC AND HUE will be available at the NYC book party on Sunday, Sept.
20, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, New York, NY
10012. Between Houston & Bleecker, near the F & 6 trains.
Thank you for blessing me with your greeting. I came to your page this morning and filled my soul with your words. May The Great Goddess continue to invade your soul and your Muse.
NY was amazing in every sense of the word. I blogged a little story about it. I think you'd appreciate the magic your city blessed me with during my trip.
Thank you again for the loving energy.
Love and Blessings,
Maria
P.S. The Nuyorican was great.....not as wheelchair friendly as I had hoped, but the energy was fabulous. :-)
Tonight, April 21 10:00 PM EST tune in to hear our selected tunes and a live chat with Babs Martin on "Howl" with host Nik Beat on CIUT 89. 5 FM or streaming live on CIUT.FM from the University of Toronto. "Howl" streams live and you can listen on-line! If you haven't heard Nik Beat's "Howl" then you are in for an hour of great entertainment!
Congratulations to Larissa Shmailo and to Bobby Perfect for winning the prestigious New Century Music Award in the "Spoken Word Poetry with Music" category for 2009 !
from all your friends, fellow-directors and colleagues @ TWiN Poetry.
Congratulations to Larissa Shmailo and to Bobby Perfect for winning the prestigious New Century Music Award in the "Spoken Word Poetry with Music" category for 2009 !
from all your friends, fellow-directors and colleagues @ TWiN Poetry.
LS ~ Can't pull May 6th...court date on the 5th and Collected Poets Series (Genie Zeiger, Dorianne Laux,Kerry O'Keefe) on the 7th and I have to host. If you've already booked, I could come for a drive-by and then back up on the same day! I'd still LOVE to read w. you ... did a reading the other day and it was so effing fantastic that I really wished it was NY...Any others? ~ LB
Ya-ha! I am all over it like white on rice. Or is it Wonder Bread?! I have to be back up here to host Dorianne Laux and 2 others by 7p on Thursday though. Shit. I can sleep on the train/bus/whatever and then be fresh as a wilted daisy. We'll talk more as the time nears...until, Lea
subscribe to my blogs to check out when im hosting or attending new events or when im in the middle of a producition, or if im looking for artists i be looking for poets/actors/actress/dancers/singers/ rapers/ and etc, i be puttins some new poems up, some insprrational messages , gone start doing forums to get people oppionons on what happends in today societym and so on and so forth and do it to help me out need people like you to subscribe and make a respond out cause i put real stuff up no sugar coated stuff cause that how we will get a real reponse and get a real problem really soved thanks alot keep doing what you do......
ps if you can please drop by my page and sign the guest book only if u can on that part....J-RainN
Hi Larissa, I have enjoyed another fine year in this myspace universe we have choose to inhabit. In many ways it feels like family. A community of people sharing poem, art, music, ideas and thoughts. Thank you for making my life richer.
Enjoy these fresh days that lay at our feet, the horizon awaits us. -Duane Note: My last and first painting of ’08 & ’09.
