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July 5th, 2009
From the desk of Marco Mannone, Executive Editor
To to desk of Jeremy Pollack, Publisher
Jeremy,
As I write this I am questioning the need to lose one’s mind in order to celebrate their Independence from Great Britain. Surely we can let dead dogs lay? I’m aware that’s not the expression, but it accurately sums up how I feel after 37 beers and one shot of Jager. Alcohol shoulder never be free under any circumstance, especially ones that are defined by planned explosions. And by never free I mean “always free”. How I drove home last night is a matter …

Contrary to what you may have learned in school, civilizations are not remembered for their architecture or their ceramics or their journalism, for that matter. Instead, cultures will always be remembered for their ability to host a top-notch party, a party that can be seen from space. Such is the mission of Mindshare. Billed as an evening of “enlightened debauchery,” Mindshare is the closest thing to a landing pad I have seen in 600 years. By landing pad I mean runway, and by runway I mean something similar to the Nazca Lines pointing the way into the Incan Citadel of …

Editor’s Note:
I am so excited about this issue of FORTH. To present work from both internationally-acclaimed poet Elizabeth Alexander—featured poet at President Obama’s Inauguration—and the Westside-based poetry duo Steve & Sekou national slam champions—we had to expand our page-count to give our readers such literary giants. The message from each poet about how literature and the arts can change the social climate is both bold and inspiring to say the least.

If you weren’t pounding the crowded Abbot Kinney pavement this June 5th in the gorgeous dusk of a Venice First Friday, you certainly missed a wildly growing phenomenon in the Westside’s art hub.