The publishing press of sister site Beir Bua Journal. We publish experimental / avant-garde / vispo poetry pamphlets.
Setting up a pamphlet press was an obvious step after loving the community and success of Beir Bua Journal.
This press is a treasured experience as we can contribute to Ireland’s avant-garde cultural landscape. Is there money to be made from a press…..who knows – there’s something worth far more: community, lifting the profile of experimental poets, adding to the Irish timeline of avant-garde publishing. And reclaiming the title that was formulated to diminish my people – the Paddy Irishman will unit us all – a sisterhood through art.
During the first wave of art’s avant-garde movement Ireland was still under foreign rule, our people with no legal access to public education. While some countries left a blazing trail upon the avant-garde word – Ireland and her Roman Catholics were in survival mode not fit for art – the high art of the avant-garde.
As a womxn, raised Roman Catholic, I know one thing to be true, “Look here, comrade, there’s no such thing as an Irishman, or an Englishman, or a German or a Turk; we’re all only human beings.”
Sean O’Casey’s play, The Plough and The Stars tells of the absurdity of war, power, identity, nationality, and religion. He wanted of us to ignore the gutter and realise we are all side-by-side looking at the stars.
What the avant-garde is for me….a nod to O’Casey but a reminder for us all to feel that togetherness and make our gutters home. The stars are dead.
The stars are dead?
The stars are dead. And yet no grave stone holds their name…we are made of stardust – what does that make of you and I?
Absurd, isn’t it…Life.
Let’s make fun of it through art.
Beir Bua
