by Paul Vogel
Consider this a provisional attempt at paying tribute to visual poet, artist, collagist, and essayist David Baptiste Chirot. David’s Wisconsin friends Tom Hibbard, Matthew Rethaber, Zack Pieper, and I are sorting through boxes of art and reaching out to those who knew him. For now, the world still has Geof Huth’s exemplary piece from 2005, “There is Nothing but Sunlight and Shadow in the Open Street.” There is a feature in Jacket2 by Jerome Rothenberg (jacket2.org/commentary/david-baptiste-chirot), and his work is featured in numerous anthologies. Look it all up, obviously, but don’t limit yourself to Google. David’s work spans the nether regions of the internet, and were it not for resources like the Wayback Machine digital archive, it might vanish forever. I fear much of it already has.
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