Lightmaker.
\n\u201cLighting technician\u201d you correct me silently from the employee ID card
\nthe photo taken long before
\npandemic
\nwhen you sat at lathes and shaped quartz bulbs
\nlike those that pulsed outside
\ncasino walls
\nlullabies in arc lamps
\nyou learnt to fashion soup to nuts.
\nThey light up Cristiano\u2019s torso
\nand a Rolex watch
\nIn Times Square or above Route 22.
\nYou-and we-had gifts-no matter
\nYou keep shaping, drilling, goner.
\nYou keep shaping, drilling, believer.
\nKnurl the metal at its base.
\nThese diamond shapes
\nhold promise.<\/p>\n
This video poem re-envisions an immigrant woman\u2019s 35-year \u201dcareer\u201d in a disappearing\/disappeared, industrial, working-class Newark. I found the materials when cleaning out my mother\u2019s house after her death. The images of her at her lathe contrast with a movie camera whose lights might have been made by lamp technicians like her, but who were never \u201cstars\u201d of American films. This work sheds light on \u201dartisans\u201d whose jobs no longer exist. They contrast with \u201cvirtual\u201d ones created during the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lightmaker. \u201cLighting technician\u201d you correct me silently from the employee ID card the photo taken long before pandemic when you sat at lathes and shaped quartz bulbs like those that pulsed outside casino walls lullabies in arc lamps you learnt to fashion soup to nuts. They light up Cristiano\u2019s torso and a Rolex watch In … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"menu_order":74,"template":"","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reactions.nmtours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/works\/295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reactions.nmtours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/works"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reactions.nmtours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/works"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reactions.nmtours.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}