Taking the Pledge by M.A. Banash

M.A. Banash was born and raised in PA and has lived in the Carolinas for the past twenty years. He writes poetry and short fiction. His work has appeared in Poetry Quarterly, SurVision, The Blue Nib, Micro Fiction Monday, Crack the Spine, and The Cobalt Review.

Art: Waiting for the Story by Tony Rickaby

Tony Rickaby studied at St.Martin’s School of Art in London. Recent exhibitions include Journeys, Jewish Museum, London; Poetry in Visual, Aveiro Museum, Portugal; The Story So Far, W3 Gallery, London; Urban Environment, Jakbox, London and Re-Cognition, Ponte de Lima, Portugal. Visual poems in Empty Mirror, Small Po(r)tions, Tip of the Knife, Shuf, M58 and Ink, Sweat & Tears. Writings in Skelf, North of Oxford, Futures Trading, foame: and experiential-experimental-literature. Recent books are Detours, Urban Directions and Unnoticed. www.tonyrickaby.co.uk These photographic works are part of a project walking around his neighbourhood in South London, looking at its uncherished and unregarded buildings and alleyways. He digitally substituted signs, adverts and directions with his own ‘messages’: certain things he noticed or the actions of passers-by or overheard fragments of their conversations or else his own responses to or memories of these places. He tried to reproduce as closely as possible the original fonts, whether printed, sign-painted, handmade or scribbled. He aimed to tell alternative stories about these fragments of the city, adding mystery to their presence.