On a recent trip for an exhibition in Kansas City, we met artist and printer Nicholas Naughton who co-runs La Cucaracha Press, a compact new printing facility run by a really fun group of guys. We were so impressed by Nicholas' chapbook with poet Carmen Gimenez Smith that we decided to buy some copies on the spot to distribute through Half Letter Press.
For "Reason's Monsters", Naughton reimagines Goya's important "Disasters of War" through the pen of an artist reflecting on the disasters of America's present wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. Goya's vultures become American eagles, clawing and biting at the flesh of our victims. Each two-page spread combines a drawing by Naughton with a sharp poem by Gimenez Smith, including one - "Infidelity (11/13)" that invokes Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".
