Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Number 1

I watch him carry my mother up the stairs as if she is the thinnest piece of glass,

She is full of cracks.

I turn on the shower, a waterfall of memories.
Rubber ducks in the tub as we pretended to be mermaids.

My mother huddles in the shower, scared and...

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your short story about?

It's a deceptive tale — subtle, misleading, designed to lead the reader astray. The true meaning only reveals itself in the very last line. To explain more would be to unravel the twist, and I wouldn't want to st...

Performed by Val Cole

https://youtu.be/68IL8F1Fu1s

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Once,
There was a poor little boy
Not poor in coins,
But in comfort.
Not poor in food,
But in love.

He had a mother
Who held a bottle
Tighter than her children,
Who traded bedtime stories
For silence
And babysitters.

She didn’t know
T...

Performed by Val Cole

https://youtu.be/3CdabwJ-w-A

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Like the tides, life rises and falls.
At times, you’re soaring—
High,
Reaching toward the endless sky,
Your crest catching golden light,
Dancing in the sun.

And then—
You’re pulled low,
Crashing down,
Breaking hard,
A surge of force,
S...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

Seated alone on the couch, weary from the day’s labor,
full of hard drink and a heavy meal, he was content this
birthday affair may pass without incident.

A bottle of twenty-five-year Scotch adorned his lap.
He made certain she saw him swallow the sleeping pill she...

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

The theme of the poem is the comeuppance and downfall of a politician
who literally lied his way into office and was then found out.

2) What motivates you to write this poem?

What prompted me to write it? I suppose it was to see how I...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

One may pave the sided streets from his neighbors guile,
To a diligence of a leader; or to an acid’s chyle.
This zephyr from the switchgrass of soulstice,
is unabridged by my mama’s veiled smile.
One’s true veilon is dogged behind the child.
Child who refused to fin...

Performed by Val Cole

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your short story about?

On the surface it's about finding yourself as a trans person. It's about understanding yourself and having a support system that sees you and supports you. I think underneath that though, it's about being human. ...

Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the poet:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

- The poem celebrates the vibrant, scenic, and lively essence of San
Francisco. Its themes include:

Natural Beauty and Scenic Charm: Descriptions of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, green ridges, beaches, and star...

https://youtu.be/9DQs3B_4y2g

Performed by Val Cole

POETRY:

Uncle Ricky, a Gentle Giant
Uncle Ricky, a brilliant soul
He gave his near and dear a softer grace
With his gap-toothed smile on his face
His laugh filled a room as he told his vivid stories.
A smooth swagger, a heart in bloom
A brothe...

Performed by Val Cole

POEM:

My light was out when the message bore
the state of the child’s condition
and brought me kneeling to the floor
and reading what the father knew—
the object as inviolable, though reason claimed we too
would not cease in giving way
when met by forces, I recalled
my ow...

Voice Over: Val Cole

Editor & Visual Design by Adam Bilyea

Produced by Matthew Toffolo

----
POEM:

In naïveté the end begins, not knowing it is the last.

When Saigon was collapsing, my parents were separating.
My father had returned from Vietnam and they tried
to make it work but not all of ...

Voice Over: Val Cole

Editor & Visual Design by Adam Bilyea

Produced by Matthew Toffolo

—-

POEM:

I crave you, but I forgot
how to want. So I panic.

Distract myself like the days
I flirted death. Like the days
before I found the right
piece of myself to kill.

I yip and dance, shoot the moon...

Astronaut's Uniform, 30min., Russia
Directed by Dmitri Frolov
Mockumentary experimental film, which shows one day in the life of a young man.

https://www.instagram.com/astronauts_uniform/

Reflections of Us

When Francis assumes the identity of Damian, his gay, identical twin brother, to meet his perfect leading lady, Francis first must come to terms with his own homophobia against his brother, but at the same time keep his con going with Virginia, who’s attending Damian’s P-town wedding

CAST LIST: ...

Six years after the Zombie Apocalypse, a suicidal widow must protect an orphaned child as the world descends into literal Hell on Earth.

CAST LIST:

Narrator: Geoff Mays
Sophie: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Fiona: Hannah Ehman

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your screenplay about?

Necrotica ...

Dr. Frank vows to climb Machu Picchu after his son is killed in Afghanistan and he suffers a major myocardial infarction. A feel-good story.

https://www.machopicchu.movie/

CAST LIST:

Narrator: Elizabeth Rose Morriss
Frank: Geoff Mays
Larry: Shawn Devlin

After using a cutting-edge “memory machine” to relive the best moments of his past, Oliver Parks wakes in a timeline where he never met his wife and his daughter no longer exists — and to undo it, he must outsmart a rival genius, manipulate time itself, and convince the machine’s washed-up invent...

A rising political star retreats to a secluded Virginia inn to draft a campaign platform that will secure him a spot on a presidential ticket—but as nightmarish visions blur with reality, he’s forced to confront the ghosts of those he sacrificed to climb the political ladder. Caligo Inn is a psyc...