After Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition “Like a Hammer” at Seattle Art Museum (2019), I was inspired to continue exploring more deeply the pagan aspects of my Baltic culture. Gibson explores his own Native American heritage: his works include large and mid-sized figurative objects, text-based wall hangings, a selection of illustrious Everlast beaded punching bags, painted works…

When I wrote my 2013 collection, Professional Poetry, the poems were intended to speak to the value of the working person / poet through the lens of her/his/their “day” jobs and the artist localizing her place in this structure. I examined the commodification of poetry and the absurdity of “mktg” in this space. “I Am…

Another poem-turned-cinepoem from Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (now on Amazon) / Release 12.

My recent ode to #moscowmitch and his neo-Soviet benefactor, the aluminum magnate. Human Repair Kit

The White Stockings cinepoems will be screened at Chicago Filmmakers 2/1!

New cinepoem from my latest poetry book, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Secret Airplanes Press, 2018. Read more here.

The talented Elina Krima + inspo for this piece Walter Oltmann First cinepoem of the year explores what it means to wear the suits of natural instinct, still moving through familial separations (especially in light of children actually being cruelly separated from parents). This is perhaps the tip of fear we collectively recycle for the…

I am thrilled to announce that my White Stockings cinepoems—in collaboration with filmmaker & visionary / media artist Tess Cortés—have been selected as finalist for the upcoming Festival Fotogenia in Mexico City this December. FOTOGENIA is the first international film poetry and divergent narratives festival of its kind in Mexico City, promoting a space for alternative conception…

Spoon River Poetry Review has nominated two of my poems from my collection, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Secret Airplanes Press, 2018) for a 2020 IL Arts Council Award! In most countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is the government department responsible for state diplomacy as well as for providing for the country’s citizens abroad—often…

Back in 2005 (?!) I was a 30-something, passionate-struggling-copywriter-poet who began a diary-of-sorts on MySpace about my pending divorce. It was extremely painful, but also liberating and necessary in a very Buddhist-groundless way (in hindsight). Around that time, I was researching family stories passed down through old documents and interviews with my grandmother, and I…

YES! My White Stockings cinepoems will be featured in the Ready Freddy Film Festival August 24 at The Den Theatre. The festival highlights alternative and original work within the Chicago area as well as international work. 

Originally published on The Conversant (March 2016). Interview by poet Virginia Konchan. Conversant: In your own history, as a first-generation American of Lithuanian descent, you describe feeling a degree of alienation from your relatives who were born in Lithuania or Ukraine—or who had been through the war. Is there a healthy form of displacement—at least…

Poems from 2017 issue of Vilnius Review—so grateful to Marius Burokas for publishing them! A sample:— Citizen (Lina) I braided my hair until I found a bloody stalk,yanked up with a sharp breath, as if I’d drowned. My dreams of Gediminas:        his tungsten ribcage, fangs     flashing, corpus          blown apart, singular         carbon   flecks       …

I’m so pleased to announce that my White Stockings cinepoems (with collaborator Tess Cortés) have been selected for the Newlyn Film Festival (UK). We are finalists in the poetry film category!

Very pleased to have been included in this anthology which highlights Mekas’ work as a poet from Rail Editions. Poets Respond to the Poems of Jonas Mekas Message Ahead is a companion to the collection of poetry, Words Apart and Others, featuring twenty-one distinguished poets and critics, friends and admirers, reflecting on Mekas’s pioneering contribution to contemporary…

I’ll be showing my cinepoems from White Stockings at Uncommon Ground for Sinema Obscura’s monthly film premiere nights.

I wrote this poetry book from the perspective of a daughter of displaced people & how residual effects of trauma still linger intergenerationally. My family were immigrants who had a path, yet still had no guidebook to this place called America & all of her confusing ways. The book is mainly dedicated to protecting children…

In a few weeks I will be presenting my cinepoems from White Stockings at Stanford. Many, many thanks to visual artist Tess Cortes for her vision and aesthetic. She made each woman come to life!

I’m very, very excited to announce that this amazing documentary about visionary Lithuanian, George Mačiunas, leader of the Fluxus movement, will be screened February 20 – 26 at MoMA. Go see it if you’re in NYC! Bonus: listen for George’s mother’s voice in the film, you may hear someone familiar (my voice!). So incredibly humbled…

I’ve written and produced my final poetry book, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). It took roughly two years to write. After one year of a frightening, violating political climate and three years’ estrangement from my family, this book was a labor of necessity. MOFA is an epigenetic poetic diary that explores inherited trauma from my mother’s…

I want to sincerely thank Robert Hansen at Poems-For-All for publishing two of my poems as mini-books to be “scattered like seeds” into the universe.

Here’s a brief cinepoem teaser to re-introduce my poetry collection, White Stockings (2015/2016). I put this together in Adobe Spark in about 5 hours (my second attempt at video production/editing). I’m collaborating with an actual, real-life, super-talented visual artist, Tess Cortes (check her out, she’s quite amazing). I’ll be unveiling about 5-6 cinepoems at the AABS Conference…