Coming Soon: "Bloom In The Whirlwind"

Level Ground is excited to announce Blooming In The Whirlwind, a forthcoming series of nine original short poem-films offering thoughtful, challenging and ultimately hopeful reflections on how we may continue to “bloom in the whirlwind” of this turbulent year. The project will culminate in a digital film festival and poetry reading on October 10. 

After holding an open call for poets and filmmakers in July, a team of talented and trusted curators from the Level Ground community carefully reviewed and evaluated each submission. From this process, an eclectic set of 19 artists—10 filmmakers and nine poets—was selected to take part in Blooming in the Whirlwind.

The selected filmmakers are Andrés Vazquez (he/him), Anthony D. Frederick (he/him), Andrew Neel (he/him) & Alex C. Smith (he/him), Labkhand Olfatmanesh (she/her), Leila Jarman (she/her), meredith adelaide (they/them), Rich Johnson (he/him), and Taree Vargas (she/they).

The selected poets are Christina Brown (she/her), Daniel Binkoski (he/him), DeiSelah (she/her), Ilgın G. Korugan (they/them), Jireh Deng (she/they), Karly Kuntz (she/her), Madeleine St. John (she/her), Noor Jamal (she/her), Simone Tetrault (she/her), and Tamisha Tyler (she/her).

Co-created by Level Ground Collective artist Andy Motz, Blooming in the Whirlwind takes its name from a line found in the poet Gwendolyn Brooks’s 1968 classic, “The Second Sermon on the Warpland.” Writing in 1968—a year of upheaval and tragedy in America that certainly rivals 2020—Brooks encourages readers to “conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind.”

In keeping with Level Ground’s mission of producing creative collaboration within and across different artistic mediums, each film will be created entirely through a dynamic process of active dialogue and mutual cooperation between poet and filmmaker. Level Ground paired each poet with a filmmaker (or filmmaking duo) who will partner with the writer to create a two- to five-minute short that offers a visual reflection of the source poem. Once completed, the films will be made available for viewing online. Stay tuned as more details will be announced in the coming weeks.