News at Eleven: It had never occurred to me to do

anything as daring as [Pascale] Petit's inhabiting of Kahlo's person. On the one hand, it could be deemed presumptuous, but to me, from the first of the 52 poems, it was an act of love, of passion for a fellow artist's achievement.

Consider that first poem:

I am what the water gave me,
a smoke-ring in a jar,

the braided rope
my ladder-to-the-light,.

We are all what the water gave us, of course, but this pronouncement, which sounds not a little like the august voices of Black Elk and Chief Joseph, among other Native Americans, announces that this is going to be a ride for dear life. As was Frida Kahlo's career.

from The Student Operated Press: Artist Frida Kahlo Paints Her Life in Words With The Help of a British Poet
then Pascale Petit: US launch readings from What the Water Gave Me (Black Lawrence Press)

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