Bookseeds I

This collection supports and promotes awareness to the important mission and framework of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition's focus on the lasting power of the written word and the arts in support of the free expression of ideas, the preservation of shared cultural spaces, and the importance of responding to attacks, both overt and subtle, on artists, writers, and academics working under oppressive regimes or in zones of conflict, despite the destruction of that literary/cultural content. Nancy Bardos has had a lifelong pursuit of photography. In recent years, she has added mixed media and artists' books to her repertoire. Following course work at La Romita School of Art in Italy, she assisted in managing Gallery DeForest in Ashland, Oregon, co-hosting shows dedicated to mixed media and works on paper. Thus began a collaboration partnership with owner, Cathy DeForest. Besides work with visual arts, the pair started a winter series of poetry readings and a citywide happening every April called 'Poets on the Loose' to celebrate National Poetry Month.