n / a

I am a proud recipient of a 2012 Alternative Exposure grant 

from San Francisco's visual arts nonprofit Southern Exposure

in support of n/a : an emergent art space for the Bay Area 

queer community opening later in the spring, 2013.

Meet all the grantees tonight at Southern Exposure

6-8pm 3030 20th St San Franisco

f a u s t

saturday the 19th i participated in small press traffic's poet's theatre, 

a festival of avant-garde plays by poets. i performed a small role in 

In A Word, Faust, written by ish klein and directed by kevin killian.

the event was held at counterPULSE. X

a n o t h e r n e w y e a r

The Forest

At night
under the trees
the black snake
jellies forward
rubbing
roughly
the stems of the bloodroot,
the yellow leaves,
little boulders of bark,
to take off
the old life.
I don’t know
if he knows what is happening.
I don’t know
if he knows
it will work.
In the distance
the moon and the stars
give a little light.
In the distance
the owl cries out.

In the distance
the owl cries out.
The snake knows
there are the owl’s woods,
these are the woods of death,
these are the woods of hardship
where you crawl and crawl,
where you live in the husks of trees,
where you lie on the wild twigs
and they cannot bear your weight,
where life has no purpose
and is neither civil nor intelligent.

Where life has no purpose,
and is neither civil nor intelligent,
it begins
to rain,
it begins
to smell like the bodies
of flowers.
At the back of the neck
the old skin splits.
The snake shivers but does not hesitate.
He inches forward.
He begins to bleed through
like satin.

Mary Oliver

2 1 s t c e n t u r y

opening tomorrow

darin klein + friends present, with suzanne wright:

the third annual queer pile-up! and the release of

21st century queer artists identify themselves #4


the show runs november 26 - december 1, 2012 

at foryourart / 6020 wilshire blvd los angeles, ca

t c

torreya cummings / strangefamiliars / at southern exposure

"There is, as will appear later, an element of undergoing, 

of suffering, in its large sense, in every experience. 

Otherwise there could be no taking in of what preceded. 

For "taking in" in any vital experience, 

is something more than placing something 

on top of consciousness over what was previously known. 

It involves reconstruction which may be painful." 


John Dewey

w e d , a p r 7

here is where i'm from: that humid sound outside your window, leaves and children passing during the day, frigid morning, kitchen in dark. turn off the radio. blast the car with mountain orange air. laying against the sharp angle of your back, grass finds its way between my toes. remember that apple: the one we took for a ride that time. let's begin again and again.