PLU Presents featuring Alison Grace Koehler

PLU Presents enters its 9th week of artistic endeavour - this time featuring the lyrical and multi-talented Alison Grace Koehler.

The Parisian lockdown has been eased, but the pandemic continues. That means house parties where guests bring hand sanitizer instead of wine, and picnics where the blankets have been thrown down at prudent distances. It means we’ve grown tired of only seeing eyes eyes eyes and hearing words muffled behind masks. We need people, trees, family, and cash almost as much as we need our health. So we buzz like flies trapped between panes of glass.

Note the journal-like quality of Alison’s pieces - the history of the lockdown, through a poet’s eye, dissected into its components: griefs tiny and vast. Throughout, colour. We enter the world of the stained-glass artist. A meticulous world of care and confession, of paint and reassembly, of brass fastenings, of shards.

“Walk and bake and do not slip into any death. It will come, welcome or unwelcome.” Alison’s recently published book is a visual and literary gem. Contact her here to get a copy of Stained Glass Poetry.

The pandemic will not continue forever; nor can PLU Presents. This is, unfortunately, the last episode in this format, before we change shape once more. A huge thanks to all the artists who enjoyed this virtual incarnation of the open mic, and for contributing work. It has been an honour to join the artistic conversation that these videos have captured, both the ludicrous and profound.

For a taste of the latter, wait until the end of the video and see Elia Cohen, host of the episode, break out the guitar for a special song. It almost feels like he’s playing just for you.

“Creative work can be lonely work,” muses Elia Cohen, singer/songwriter and PLU heartthrob, his large soulful eyes radiating warmth and acceptance.

List of artists: Alison Grace Koehler (feature), Elia Cohen (host), Matt Bryden, Emily Ruck Keene, Veronica Charnley, Vivienne Vermes, John Hicks, Gracie Bialecki, Veronica Charnley, Ed Bell, Véronique Marco