2021: letter-ish words by emily neblock.

 

(Submitted on October 8, 2021; sunflower photo by Emily Neblock)

 

Dear All,

While pondering what to say for this 7th anniversary of Frank Wolfe's passing, it occurred to me that Frank represents very well what I value most in this world: Realness. He was who he was and did not try to be anything else. The world we live in is sorely without such quality, and yet it is that quality that matters the most of all...at least if we want to live in more of a utopia than a dystopia. This world is currently afflicted with the greatest division, depression, ire, uncertainty of future. People need people, people of a quality that used to be more common. People need reassurance and trust, but instead what surrounds us is so often fake or suspicious, untrustworthy, empty of morals, or upsetting without any promise of true communication or resolution. The world is in a bit of a sorry place in many ways. We desperately need Frankness. We need art and honesty; we need cultural commentary from peaceful hearts. We need comedy and levity. We need inspiration and humble-spirited endurance. We need authentic people. Where are all the Franks? If Frank were here, he would be coming up with jokes about the ridiculousness, trying to live his heart's dreams, and thinking compassionately about every person alive, what their realities are and why they do what they do. In a world of division and confusion, these are the only things that will show us the true path forward, and ground each of us to the floor of our true human reality...or help our feet find it again if it has been a long time since we knew its safety.

 

Emily Neblock is a musician and so much more that it hardly fits into words. We love her a whole darn lot!

2021! october 7 & 7 years in missing frank kelso wolfe.

today is 7 years since we lost frank kelso wolfe of royersford borough, montgomery county, pennsylvania, to suicide on october 7, 2014. we miss him so incredibly much, even more in recent months. 2020 and 2021 have been brimming with lessons we feel frank would want us to be easy on ourselves in sifting through, but it often takes conscious effort for that, and we're not always in the most aligned of head-space or heart-space to remember this. life nowadays feels like the most complex it's been for many of us in a while, and it's been doing a whirlwind on our mental health, our bodies, and our bones.

please check back soon for more updates, as we cannot keep up with the world anymore (we still have submissions to post from 2020!), but we will be welcoming ongoing submissions here, with the same process as last year. please feel free to submit even before we can update further here. we welcome your words, your art, your music, your heart on a digital page.

there will be no direct date or physical open mic, the same as last year (we miss steel city coffeehouse & brewery! please support this local business); this is a more creative form of our usual annual event and will be ongoing so that art and words can keep pushing forward with no deadline.

see 2020 submissions info here until 2021 info is updated, but again, it will be the same process, so hopefully that's helpful for everyone, in how it's difficult to for us to keep up, but we're doing our best, like so many of us are right now in our exhausted existences. expect more edits ahead in this post for the 2021 memorial open mic in blog-form nowadays for frank. and thank you for taking the time to visit, to read these tossings of language in the seventh annual memorial open mic, now in blog-form for the second year, since last year kinda basically threw everyday life upside-down.

 

 

<3 

 jen & emily