KOLAJ LIVE ONLINE
Poetry on the Wall: Fragment as Verse
Thursday, 14 May 2026, 7PM EDT (2300 UTC) on Zoom
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How does work at the intersection of poetry and collage operate on the gallery wall? In the exhibition, “Fragment as Verse,” on view at Kolaj Institute Gallery in New Orleans through 16 May 2026, we bring together twelve artists, poets, and writers whose work provides us an answer to that question. Kolaj Institute’s PoetryXCollage project explores and documents the intersection of poetry and collage through a series of residencies, workshops, exhibitions, and PoetryXCollage, a printed journal of artwork and writing that operates at the intersection. In 2026, we hosted two artist residencies, the virtual “The Elusive X” hosted by Jennifer Roche and the in-person “Fragment as Verse”. Each brought together poets and collagists to make artwork and consider how artwork and writing situates itself at the medium. “Fragment as Verse” is the first exhibition of the PoetryXCollage project.
During this edition of Kolaj LIVE Online, we will hear from some of the artists in the exhibition. “Each artwork, we believe, situates itself at the intersection of poetry and collage but they also raise some questions for us. Is this a poem? Is this collage? How is this a poem? How is this a collage?” wrote exhibition curator Ric Kasini Kadour. “This artwork raises questions about the nature of poetry, the nature of artwork, and how these cultural expressions are understood by viewers.” Kadour will offer a virtual tour of the exhibition and artists will share their experience of the residencies that what they think about work at the intersection of poetry and collage.
Knoxville, Tennessee author and artist Anika Toro will speak about her floating mobile of twelve double-sided collages and visual poems. Lancaster, Pennsylvania artist Caitlin Downs will speak about how her work draws on the poetry of the urban landscape. We will hear from Silver Spring, Maryland poet, artist, and scholar Leslie Polk about her larger ekphrastic project that will include a collection of seven spoken poems and a play. McMurray, Alberta, Canada poet and writer Jamal-e-Fatima Rafat will speak about not finding herself represented in the material library and her response to that. Brooklyn, New York artist and writer S. Erin Batiste will share the story of her Paper Bag Belle series and update us on the special issue of PoetryXCollage she is guest editing on Radical Black Feminists Poetry & Collage. The process of Olympia, Washington artist Teri Bevelacqua is rooted in poetry and writing. She will share it with us. St. Paul, Minnesota artist Adriana Gordillo will speak about how she uses photography, collage, and poetry to share her experience of being a woman without children. And Chicago, Illinois writer and artist Jennifer Roche will share what she learned facilitating The Elusive X Artist Residency and speak about her choice to use the game Jenga as a substrate for her collage poem.