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…

My poetry book, White Stockings, is available on lulu.com, however, I’ve been creating a series of cinepoems based upon it. The video below is my first attempt, using my own still photos from a “White Stockings”-inspired photo shoot in 2015. It was created in iMovie, before I started tutoring myself in Adobe Premiere.

The Master Plan—an investigative documentary that explores the methods through which Russia influences the domestic policy of the Baltic States—was successfully screened at The Music Box Theatre in Chicago on November 13, 2017, and in December at the Chicago Ukrainian Cultural Center. The film explores how Putin’s propaganda machine has been implemented in the Baltic…

I’m very honored to be published in the Vilnius Review this month! The editor—Marius Burokas—was recently interviewed in a local Lithuanian arts and culture newspaper, Bernardinai, mentioning the growing desire of poets and writers in the diaspora to bridge the gap with their native counterparts. Marius was kind enough to mention me as one the poets in the…

Happy to share that one of my White Stockings poems has been shortlisted (among ten finalists) for the Berfrois Poetry Prize.

So Spuyten Duyvil is putting out a sizable anthology of some extremely talented and activist voices in poetry today. So grateful to be included in this book. Resist Much, Obey Little Anthology

I’m so pleased to announce that Rain Taxi has published an interview by Michael Stephens about White Stockings. Interview here

Recently published in VIDA. Essay about White Stockings and conflict in Ukraine. Essay here.

Honored to be featured in this article in the Vilnius Review alongside many contemporary Lithuanian/American/Canadian writers. Many thanks to Violeta Kelertas! Article here.    

Back in March, I was interviewed for The Conversant by Virginia Konchan. We discussed my new poetry collection, White Stockings, identity and displacement, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Interview here.  

Since 2004, Ukraine has been locked in a struggle with Russia to maintain autonomy—be it via puppet government officials, propaganda, or bloodshed. To date, more than 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have died defending their right to be independent. As a Lithuanian-American with some Ukrainian roots, I am deeply disturbed as I watch this series…

I’ve been tirelessly working on a new poetry manuscript called White Stockings for the last year (since the unrest erupted in Ukraine). As a Lithuanian-American, I strongly support Ukraine’s right to independence. I stand with many in the Baltic countries who are banning together to back the Ukrainian people. My contribution is small, it is an artistic/poetic…