Honoring James Leaf: a glittering collection of prose and poetry celebrating aesthetic praxis and communal creation
As the title suggests, this book is a meditation on a revolution of one. It chronicles James Leaf’s “revolution of one” to resist the exploitation and commodification of theater through the depoliticization of the art form. It is a testament to living fully and poetically, even amid bouts of mania and depression and to leaving a distinct imprint on the world before departing.
This collection is an amalgamation of emails, texts, poems, and pieces from writing workshops curated by James’s loved ones to create a small but tender assemblage of his life. The curators were clear that the pieces will be left as is, with minimal to no editing as a way to preserve James’s thoughts authentically. There is one clear idea that echoes loudly: art is nothing without the sum of its parts, and these are James’s.
Organized into four categories, Comrade, Theatre, Places, and Team Wristband, each poem or prose is imbued with poetic language and a voice that is impossible to ignore. A great example is one of the few pieces dedicated to a non-human subject, “Clara.” This ode to James’s elder canine companion, who is passing away, stands apart from the collection’s more justice-seeking works. Instead, it is a slow, heartbreaking meditation on loss: gentle, unhurried, and full of quiet love.
At the other end of the spectrum is “Yankee Doodle, Keep it Up,” a piece that powerfully embodies the collection’s justice-seeking spirit. Bold and incisive, it offers a sharp retrospection on the collective pseudo-ignorance that is often easier to accept than to challenge in America. The poem is not even interested in piercing this ignorance but instead putting a microscope to it. As the poem goes, “I could tell you how the country is all strip malls / And how we’re fighting wars for all these bad reasons / But you’ve heard that poem…”
Beyond just the piece’s subject matter, the short poems or vignettes often invite the reader to see the world differently as well. One prose section is dedicated to analyzing the play The Specials by Steve Bellwood from a director’s point of view, and it offers so much insight beyond the surface of the piece.
This collection is glistening, a buried treasure. It is thanks to the quiet devotion of James’s loved ones that these works now reach a wider audience, preserving the spirit and voice of this brilliant creator.
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