Critical Acclaim for Linda J. Albertano
by Suzanne Lummis
After we’ve noted that Linda J. Albertano thrived in Los Angeles as a force of nature and fount of mischievous intelligence and performative creations; after we’ve remarked upon the ways she seemed always larger than life, as well as––at 6’4” –– taller than most; after we’ve marveled at her triumphant career in the edgiest art despite being silenced, abused and exploited in Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian foster homes during much of her youth…
We must not omit this. She was funny….
Linda Albertano, a force of nature, a woman of integrity, a singular voice of unimpeachable honesty. A goddess who rose from childhood trauma and created art that left audiences breathless. She was my friend. Always.
A deeply compassionate and transformative performance artist and poet-writer, Linda J. Albertano was without peer. It is impossible not to be touched by the magic of her boundless humanity and love for all.
Whether you knew Linda from her utterly original performance art, or from her Kora playing, or from hearing her read, or from simply spending time with her in conversation, she was always truly a poet. She breathed life into language, and expanded our sense of what is possible. She has left her poems as a gift to us all, and for that I am truly thankful. They will continue to transform the imaginations of all of us who encounter them.
abbi page
Recipient of the first annual Beyond Baroque Linda J. Albertano Fellowship
abbi page (they/she) @crabbicakes is a Jamaican American interdisciplinary writer, filmmaker, and performer. Their creative, critical-theoretical practice explores “the unimaginable metaphysics of black livingness” (Tiffany Lethabo King). They graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Africana Studies and Literary Arts, with honors as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellow. They’re pursuing MFAs in Creative Writing and Film/Video at CalArts where they also work as a peer writing tutor and a teaching assistant. They’re a recipient of the Truman Capote Literary Trust Fellowship and the Ethel Robinson Award for Creative Research, as well as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and The Haus of Glitter Performance Lab. They are the inaugural Beyond Baroque Linda J. Albertano Poetry Fellow.
On the Life of Linda J. Albertano book excerpt
Favorite Memories of Beyond Baroque by Linda J Albertano
In trying to squeeze into the cultural and social shapes around me, I’d accumulated more rejection than seemed healthy or necessary. So, as I’ve revealed elsewhere, I embraced Jean Cocteau’s contrarian philosophy of art. In my first incarnation of Cocteau’s credo, having tossed the conventions of songwriting into the trash bin, I appeared at SPARC, Venice’s Social and Public Art Resource Center.
My debut there earned me a “Pick of the Week” for an upcoming event in Santa Monica. However, a few days after I’d rolled out my songs without rules, the booking agent from At My Place called to tell me I’d been permanently banned from the club once they’d witnessed my unorthodox performance.
This news should have left me as shattered as a broken window in an abandoned, self-recriminating room. Instead, I was buoyed by internal vindication. Dennis Cooper and Benjamin Weissman had been in the audience that night and had invited me to perform with Bob Holman at Beyond Baroque! It was a last-minute cavalry rescue, just like in the movies!!
That was only the first of many memorable moments. God lifting the roof of a serial killer’s domicile in Dennis Cooper’s vivid novel. Benjamin Weissman’s wry wit and ability to wield language like a drum major’s baton: twisting it, turning it and sailing it into the air in the most unexpected ways. Scott Wannberg’s lively birthday celebration mobbed, as it was, in the lobby and up the center stairs. Pam Ward’s delicious laughter. The ubiquitous Doug Knott.
Modiano, filling the room with urgent reasons to support Beyond Baroque and the poets it hosts. And, at the same time, making us all glad, glad, glad to be a part of it!
The stunning documentation of LA poets by Mark Savage and, again, by Alexis Rhone Fancher. The Poetry Wall. Pegarty Long’s Philomenian. The literary and musical musings of Brad Kay and Suzy Williams. Prince Diabate’s Beyond Baroque concert, in which LA’s West African denizens rose from their seats to dance elegantly and shower him with paper money, as is their custom. The citywide “Noirfest” masterminded and curated by the inexhaustible Suzanne Lummis. ANY of their own poems as read by Michael C. Ford or Laurel Ann Bogen.
Presenting one of two versions of Steve Goldman’s birthday poem “Several Self-Gestapos…” Performing countless times with the other Nearly Fatal Women, Laurel Ann Bogen and Suzanne Lummis. It finally happened – we had to turn away the audience because of extreme overcrowding! Jim Fleck, the lighting and sound technician who always answered the call, was truly one of us.
Dada Fests and Dada Poets, and those who make it happen, Kat Georges and Peter Carlaftes. SA Griffin’s poetic observations, modern yet timeless, human, surprising, full of heat and heart. His miraculous ability to create and hold a sacred space for the community of souls at Beyond Baroque. David Zasloff’s soaring and whimsical, profound and profane eulogy for Austin Strauss. And, of course, the vibrant incantations of Richard Modiano, filling the room with urgent reasons to support Beyond Baroque and the poets it hosts. And, at the same time, making us all glad, glad, glad to be a part of it!
The Love Ache by Frank Lutz
I can’t take her anywhere anymore.
Not out to eat
at her favorite places, nor to the movies,
nor to the opera,
nor on short trips
like to Santa Barbara,
nor to New York City;
nor to Europe,
nor to Africa,
nor back to Rome ‘
so I can finish
my Vatican project.
I can’t even hold her hand anymore. Before Covid hit
three years ago
we were planning Rome.
Then that plague
infected the world.
But as the world-wide infection
was subsiding,
in April of this year 2022
Linda discovered a lump
in her tummy.
Off to the doctors
and the limits they gave her,
no surgery, no radiation,
only chemotherapy.
And so – she elected not
to suffer incapacitated
Excerpt from “It all Began with Cherry Soup”
Two Souls Desperate to Connect
By Linda J. Albertano, Frank Lutz, and Elizabeth Raver, Ph.D.
From the day following Linda’s passing on September 13th until the end of October 2022, I dedicated six weeks to sorting out her business matters, artwork archives, and personal belongings. I have organized her archives for an art/poetry institution to use for public display and educational purposes.
By November 1st, I began my research into Afterlife communications and by the end of December 2022 I had read 14 books including works on Quantum Mechanics science, parapsychology, medical research, laboratory research, and books by Mediums on how they proceed with clients, or as they say in that discipline with “Sitters”, i.e., people who want to communicate with their DLOs. From January 2022 to May 2024, I have read another 45 books on the Afterlife science. I have taken online courses on different aspects of the Afterlife world, taught by American scientists, researchers, and Mediums from other countries.
Among my favorite professionals with various academic credentials, beside the aforementioned Elizabeth Raver, are researchers and authors C. Craig Hogan, an NDE’s and Afterlife researcher, and Gary E. Schwartz, professor at the University of Arizona and colleague of Hogan, Hillary Michaelson, a Medium and Founder and Director of the Los Angeles School of the Spiritual Arts, and Sonia Rinaldi, the physical engineer, researcher and technician who has developed photography that is capable of capturing images of DLO’s in the Afterworld, an amazing accomplishment.
The persons I have mentioned in the preceding paragraph are the very best in their fields with whom I have had contact. This includes the two Mediums, Elizabeth and Hillary, after I had dealt with several others. The personal research, reading and classwork I have done in the past one and one-half years are in line with my academic background. I have studied in six universities, including three in Europe (France, Italy, Germany), and graduated at the top of my class at UCLA, earning Summa Cum Laude honors, and induction into the academic society for top scholars, Phi Beta Kappa, and received a Graduate Fellowship. I have also done research in the Secret Archives of the Vatican, in Medieval History of the 13th Century; I have a Vatican Passport, for research. But it is not necessary for the average person to put as much time, effort and research into this science as I have done. What drove me is my passion and love for my dear Linda.
Poetry Diva excerpt
10-Point Plan for Female Emancipation
By Linda J. Albertano
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — ONE!
Linda: 1. Never pick up the tab. At least not until the earnings gap has closed. Remember — money is power, and you need yours to purchase assets. Wind Farms. Racehorses. Blue chip portfolios.
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — TWO! (coyly showoff diamond ring.)
Linda: 2. Take a tip from Marilyn Monroe! Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — THREE! (Rifle in a diagonal across body.)
Linda: 3. Equal rights! Did you say equal rights? We don’t need no steenking equality!! We’re not gonna settle for less than a buck for every 83 cents they get!!
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — FOUR! (Salute.)
Linda: 4. Draft women! Men already know how to fight. And women will at least think twice before nuking the planet.
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — FIVE! (Lunge, point rifle forward.)
Linda: 5. Gun control for men! Females only should be allowed to carry weapons. Let’s make the streets safe to walk again.
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — SIX! (Left hip out, hand on hip, coy.)
Linda: 6. And about walking those streets. Throw the prostitute-purchasing politicians in jail, and give hookers respectable high-paying jobs in the community!
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — SEVEN! (Cross legs, rifle shields privates.)
Linda: 7. Girls! Don’t have those babies unless you can afford them! Almost everyone gets divorced. Hardly anyone gets child support payments.
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — EIGHT! (Stab ground with rifle point.)
Linda: 8. Make your hip political boyfriend help with the dishes. Don’t be misled by self- serving rhetoric about the revolution happening first!
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — NINE! (Pledge allegiance.)
Linda: 9. Elect a female president! C’mon fellow women… sneak out and vote! Invite your friends to the party! We’re a clear-cut majority. Let’s rule the galaxy and all it’s inhabitants! Okay??
Dancers: LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT — TEN! (Rifle above head.)
Linda: 10. Only marry men with part-time jobs. You’ll have an income from the interest you’ve earned on the assets you’ve bought with the money you’ve saved by not going Dutch anymore. And the children need their fathers at home. The children need their fathers at home.
https://tribelamagazine.com/seth-cripe-taste-lola-wines-quality-handmade-wine-soul-authenticity-3/