|
SongCrew is proud to present Larissa Shmailo. Larissa has two CDs showcasing her excellent poetry. Her first CD is The No-Net World and in it, Larissa takes you on a trip -- all of you: lovers, the struggling, the passionate, the mad and the quintessentially sane -- all around the globe and through every type of human experience. Larissa has been published in Newsweek, Rattapallax, American Translators’ Slavfile, |
|
Lungfull!, Medicinal Purposes, Street News, and other publications. She has read at Barnes & Noble and other bookstores, for the Writers’ Harvest against Hunger, at the Langston Hughes Residence, at the Knitting Factory, and on WBAI and WNYE among other venues. She received “Critic’s Pick” notices for her appearances from the New York Times, the Village Voice, and nydailynews.com. |
|
The No Net World |
|
Listening to poet and translator Larissa Shmailo’s latest spoken word CD is almost like attending eighteen short plays in the span of forty minutes. Like the best plays, each poem tells a compelling story of human struggle, in which characters fight (and routinely fail) to obtain such basic necessities as food, shelter, liberty, even love. Like the best plays, her poems also crackle with breathtaking language, which in the true tradition of the tragedies of which she speaks almost sound as if they could be sung (indeed, in some cases they almost are). Shmailo’s expert understanding of the close relationship between poetry and drama, music and language, and the primal human need to just hear a really, really good story make The No-Net World a truly unique contribution to twenty-first century American poetry, and a CD worth listening to frequently and carefully. |
|
Larissa Shmailo ...really knows how to write, how to read, how to present her poetry. She is masterful in the wonderfully rhythmic "Johnny I Love You Don't Die"...Shmailo's album is thoughtful, entertaining, and bears repeated listens. |
|
Larissa Shmailo- her poem "Madwoman" with guitar on the track is pretty rad- if this isn't a Urban AntiFolk poet who is? Some of these posers just make like they've got street cred but this woman has walked on the wildside and now she lives to tell us about it. |
|
“How My Family Survived the Camps,” [is] the strongest, the most important poem here, and one which clearly is based on personal (or at least familial) experience, and one which carries great emotional power. In it she describes the combination of luck and ingenuity that enabled her family to survive the Holocaust. The key poem on the CD, it gives by far the best realization of her running theme, that how we react to what happens to us is as important as the events themselves. |
|
Exorcism |
|
Exorcism, Larissa Shmailo's second poetry CD, displays the remarkable range and electrifying vitality that have won her admirers worldwide.
Following the release of The No-Net World, Larissa Shmailo returns to her deepest poetic origins, and from there, reveals an ascendancy that will mystify and astound.
Begin your Exorcism.
|
|
The whole CD digs, though, bringing forth fiery, unorthodox, visceral imagery of the Devil and Magdalena, lovers and torturers and survivors. She crafts breath, rhythm, and rhyme, with a relaxed and dancerly demeanor and natural authority. Subtle music accompaniment and vocal multi-tracking. Highly recommended.
Anne Elliott
|
|
Larissa Shmailo, a New York based poet, has recently released her second CD, "Exorcism" (SongCrew Records, 2008). On "Exorcism," Shmailo runs the gamut from straightforward political work ("Warsaw Ghetto") to more lyrical and evocative work ("Bhakti" and "Mapping"), with much of the work being backed by well chosen music that always enhances and never overwhelms. Friday, October 24, 2008 |
|
Larissa Shmailo does not think small. On Exorcism, she is trying to do nothing less than exorcise the demons of human evil...Shmailo explores the nature of the spirit world, and its power over us. She draws on a variety of religious traditions (Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism) and their universal belief in such a world, independent of our material existence...In all of these poems, she asserts that there are forces beyond our material lives which are able to influence, guide and, yes, redeem us.
G. Murray Thomas |
|
ä |
