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KRISTINE ESSER SLENTZ

Phantom Pain is an erasure project of The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom of the Opera has been adapted across many types of media, including text, stage, and film which this project will work to include. The story portrays Christine, an orphaned woman who becomes the toxic obsession of the Phantom. By selecting and mapping particular words, images, and music from the source texts, this project will rewrite the story from one of love to one of someone overcoming abuse. Phantom Pain is a reclamation for Christine and those who identify with her.

 

KRISTINE ESSER SLENTZ’S work oftentimes strives to focus on the feminine human experience. In her previous publications, SLENTZ examines the impacts sexuality has on gender and queer perception through the redaction of documentation, experimental poetics, and hybrid artwork. While predominately a poet, she often incorporates other mediums to better communicate these conversations. She wishes to inform and influence these topics to those who seek to know more and those already in these communities with introspective knowledge and positive attributes. 

of me

think

             think

remember 

please promise

once again 

to take 

 

                                                                       spare me

                                                                    or remember 

 

stop          think 

                              think the things

seen don’t                         think

              think

                              think

think

silent resigned 

imagine me

too hard

to recall 

look back

             think never

when                                  think 

                                (Bravo!)

it seems 

young and 

innocent fade 

 

                                                                                                          fade

 

please promise

sometimes 

                           think

over

those heavenly amongst us                 – my friends

we promise to burn in a fiery glory –

hallelujah 

 

be weak, hungry, lonely

             again

pain, loss, sorrow

 

I love

           I love

I love

 

birth      is about all sorts of things

bonfires             bigger than money 

you know we can afford it

 

His way, don’t have a bonfire 

want something bad    – pray to Jesus 

kind things, I get them

that's all

talk of forget 

fears               I’m here

 

harm me 

freedom

dry side to guard

 

say love

every 

waking

summertime

 

promise

shelter safe 

– find fears __

behind always 

~share love~

 

solitude here

anywhere 

 

go too

 

each morning 

I love me 

that’s all 

 

that’s all.

KRISTINE ESSER SLENTZ is the author of woman, depose (FlowerSong Press 2021) and the forthcoming artist book The Archives (Kintsugi Books 2024). She is originally from northwest Indiana and the Chicagoland area. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) from City College of New York (CCNY) where she is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor. KRISTINE has been a Pushcart Prize nominee, finalist in the Glass Poetry Chapbook Contest, Flash Fiction Contest finalist for F(r)iction, and recipient of a CCNY English Department Teacher-Writer Award, Rifkind Fellowship, and former Poets Afloat resident.

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