balmletter #1

Born Again Labor Museum May 28, 2020

Balmletter is the quarterly newsletter of the Born Again Labor Museum, published as an insert in Locust Review. Here is Balmletter #1. It was printed on a repurposed church bulletin purchased on ebay and distributed with Locust #2..

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Controversy Stage Left: The Tragedy of Edward Bond

Alexander Billet

Apr 29, 2024

Controversy Stage Left: The Tragedy of Edward Bond

Alexander Billet

Apr 29, 2024

Edward Bond died on March 3 a cumbersome cultural figure. Always controversial, but celebrated in the 1960s and 70s, no major British stage has taken on a new work from him in decades. He died as Israel inched into its fifth month of its massacre in Gaza. And he died at a time when theatre matters less than it has at probably any point in human history.

Alexander Billet

Apr 29, 2024

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The Call is Coming from Inside the House (Call for Submissions)

Locust Arts + Letters Collective

Jul 16, 2024

The Call is Coming from Inside the House (Call for Submissions)

Locust Arts + Letters Collective

Jul 16, 2024

As part of a reorganization at Locust, we are seeking art, poetry and fiction, but also non-fiction, essays and reviews for the upcoming issue. Fiction submissions should be less than 3,500 words. Poetry submissions should be less than four pages. Non-fiction submissions should be less than 5,000 words for essays and less than 2,500 words for reviews. Images should be submitted in jpg format at 300 dpi, and at least eight inches in one dimension, and be accompanied by the title, date, and materials used in creating the work.

Locust Arts + Letters Collective

Jul 16, 2024

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Alexander Billet

May 15, 2022

The Case for Critical Irrealism

Alexander Billet

May 15, 2022

In the face of this, appeals to normality are, in essence, the toxic optimism of American exceptionalism, the belief that America is somehow above time, above consequence. And though the reality of President Joe Biden has breathed some new life into this myth, make no mistake, it nonetheless wobbles like a drunk trying to walk a tightrope.

Alexander Billet

May 15, 2022

Alexander Billet + Adam Turl

Mar 21, 2022

Critical Irrealist Reading List

Alexander Billet + Adam Turl

Mar 21, 2022

A single mother is driving past an abandoned factory on her way home from a low paying job. She is hungry. Above the factory a billboard floats in the sky advertising a succulent feast. But it does not strike her — or us — that this is odd, that her hunger has manifested itself above the factory ruin in an image of unavailable food. When we step outside ideology we see this absurdism for what it is.

Alexander Billet + Adam Turl

Mar 21, 2022

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Adam Marks

May 11, 2024

In the Marshes

Adam Marks

May 11, 2024

“It snatched a dog two days ago, in Drapers Fields,” Detective Constable Habib explained back at the station to her superior, “right in front of its owner. They found its entrails wrapped around a lamppost on the High Road. It’s head was…”

Adam Marks

May 11, 2024

Alexander Billet

May 11, 2024

An Attic in Prague, 1939

Alexander Billet

May 11, 2024

Even in this cacophony, it’s the silence that unsettles most. If only because it won’t be long until it’s pierced again. Screaming, shouting, tires screeching, panicked footfalls, sporadic gunfire. If there were ever a silence that could threaten, a kind of quietude that, for a few seconds or several minutes, promises to split the skull of whomever steps in its way, this is it.

Alexander Billet

May 11, 2024

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