Poet Adeena Karasick Releases ‘I GOT A CRUSH ON OSAMA’ Video as Comment on Absurdity of Politics

April 15, 2009 - PRLog -- “Today’s politics have reached such a completely absurd level, I felt compelled to comment,” said Adeena Karasick of her new video I Got a Crush on Osama released today on YouTube to help promote her new book from Talonbooks, Amuse Bouche: Tasty Treats for the Mouth. The book is a delectable feast of her trademark poetry combining the obsessions of popular culture, politics and linguistic theory into a multi-layered banquet of language often humorous and wry, surprising and sometimes shocking in its juxtapositions, reflecting the often ludicrousness of the techno-saturated world we live in.

Karasick’s work encounters, reveals and finally resists the growing cornucopia of privatized fear that surrounds us through examining the media of among other things: safety manuals, menus and rules of etiquette – as well as her send-up of the seemingly innocuous Obama Girl video that was a hall mark of last Spring’s presidential race – to examine what is truly safe and sane, frightening and outrageous in today’s world.

“When being tortured, it has always been recommended that the victim think of the torturer with their clothes off or in some humorous posture in order to get through the ordeal, and I think that is true of being alive today. We need some humour to get us through life amidst economic meltdowns, terrorist threat levels, multi-billion dollar frauds and the pervasive politics of fear. Why shouldn’t poking some gentle fun at Osama bin Laden be a part of that therapy?”

She also adds that “it was a way of dealing with the violence that seems to surrounds us everywhere today. Creation, whether artistic or biological can itself be a violent act but one which can be cathartic and restorative rather than threatening and cruel.”

The video release is available on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_m6CkdkbUY  or by searching under I Got a Crush on Osama, Adeena Karasick or Osama Girl. Amuse Bouche is available from Talonbooks in Canada and from Northwestern University Press through the University of Chicago Press distribution group in the rest of the world.



Adeena Karasick (www.adeenakarasick.com) is an internationally acclaimed and award winning poet, media-artist and author of seven books of poetry and poetic theory: AmuseBouche: Tasty Treats for the Mouth (Talonbooks 2009), TheHouse That Hijack Built (Talonbooks, 2004), The Arugula Fugues (Zasterle Press, 2001), Dyssemia Sleaze (Talonbooks, Spring 2000) Genrecide(Talonbooks, 1996), Memewars (Talonbooks, 1994), The Empress Has No Closure (Talonbooks, 1992), as well as 5 videopoems all available on YouTube. Her writing has been described as "electricity in language" (Nicole Brossard), "plural, cascading, exuberant in its cross-fertilization of punning and knowing, theater and theory" (Charles Bernstein) "a tour de force of linguistic doublespeak" (Globe and Mail) and "opens up the possibilities of reading" (Vancouver Courier).  She is Professor of Poetry and Cultural Theory at City University of New York.

Talonbooks:

One of Canada’s most esteemed and long-standing publishers, Talonbooks publishes work of significant literary and cultural importance winning many national and international awards for its’ outstanding list of poetry, prose and plays. Talon’s list of authors shows the broad array of contemporary artistic diversity and excellence.

Contacts:

Adeena Karasick: 212-505-6531 adeenakarasick@cs.com

Talonbooks: Kevin Williams 604-444-4889 kevin@talonbooks.com

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Award winning Canadian/American poet and performance artist based in New York with 7 books published by Talonbooks described as "electricity in language" (Nicole Brossard) , "a tour de force of linguistic doublespeak" (Globe and Mail).