Abridged presents its first issue of 2020 featuring a multitude of poets and the artwork of Megan Doherty, launching at the GTG’s Late Night Art evening for March. Come and pick up a copy!
Persephone’s tale churns with ambiguity. It is the myth of natural cycles, of regeneration after death as she rejoins the living for Springtime. But it is also the story of how violence has the capacity to change things irreparably. Pluto’s violence is traumatising, his capture, rape and implantation. Every year, like a ritual depression, Persephone returns to the darkness, and the earth loses the will to live. It is a story of the environment as much as it is a story about the power dynamic between men and women, adults and children, and a story of adolescence: the traumatic negotiation of sexual maturity, protection and independence, innocence, rebellion and responsibility. It is a story of the complexity of consequence through time. With “climate crisis” the word of 2019 and #metoo cries still resounding all around in a world dominated by political bravura, extended adolescence, awareness of trauma and fear about the future, Persephone’s churning details continue to echo.
Image: (c) Megan Doherty
Abridged is supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.