Necessary Trouble

Gayle J. Greenlea

Artist Statement: 
Art has a unique ability, even responsibility, to wake people up, to help them engage emotionally with fearful and disturbing subjects, and hopefully, stir them to action. Pablo Neruda said, 'Poetry is bread' and a tool for justice. I believe language is powerful and that poetry can indeed play a role in justice-making, ‘good trouble’ and social change.  

Author’s Bio: 
Gayle J. Greenlea is an activist, political poet and counselor for survivors of sexual and gender-related violence. Her poem, Wonderland”, received the Australian Poetry Prod Award in 2011. She shortlisted and longlisted for the Fish Poetry Prize in 2013, and debuted her first novel, Zero Gravity, at the KGB Literary Bar in Manhattan in 2016. Her work has been published in IceFloe Press, San Antonio Review, Fevers of the Mind, The Wombwell Rainbow, Kalonopia, Headline Poetry and Press, Rebelle Society, St. Julian Press, A Time to Speak, and The Australian Health Review.