Editor’s Note:

Solid foundation, sound structure, and vision—key components of any worthy story, of any significant work of art, perhaps of all righteous creation.

The importance of structure and foundation is certainly a prominent theme in this issue of FORTH. We’ve been fortunate to feature best-selling author T.C. Boyle, whose dynamic construction of story and character is masterfully evident in his fiction. In this issue, we’ve published an excerpt from Boyle’s novel The Women, which happens to center on renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the building and breakdown of Wright’s intimate relations. Forth editor Julia Ingalls also interviewed innovative architect Eric Owen Moss, whose prolific art and philosophy inspires a bold and beautiful message about the magnitude of structural composition.

Forth Issue #5

Editor’s Note:
I know, I know. For any publication, especially in Los Angeles, the practice of putting a celebrity on the cover seems predictable. But the notion of celebrity is not what interests me here; rather it’s what the talent represents. Those who have found great success at a creative craft yet need more, who can’t stop the winds of imagination as they pour through other mediums, challenging themselves, keeping themselves young, firing up old dreams and new hallucinations. Indeed, living, breathing examples of artistic success.
To me, presenting the artwork of John Lithgow is a proclamation: Look! Here is …

Editor’s Note:
Welcome to the color-rich dusk of Los Angeles Literature and Art, where “we are all shadows in the night,” as Marco Mannone reminds us in his feature story. Certainly the idea of being alive though shadowesque is a common theme throughout this issue of Forth. Of course, the motif resonates in Marco’s “Shadowscene” piece about cover artist Ellei Johndro, who has her photographic eye on the electrode of an underground art-party collective, not only documenting, but also creating a young art phenomenon in the hills of Hollywood and beyond. And W.C. Jennings, in his investigation of California’s spending problems, …

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.

The air’s growing hot again in Southern California, and the political climate is boiling to a degree it hasn’t reached in years. Unemployment is nearing 10%, layoffs and foreclosures are soaring, and there’s a new face in the White House—suddenly and surprisingly the new home of Hope. The nation has been screaming for change; we’re at the bottom of the barrel, with nowhere to go but up…generally speaking. What a great time for new ideas! What a great time for a new magazine on the arts… What are we: Nuts?!