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ROMAN SERGEEVICH OSMINKIN

EDIBLE POEMS

(RUSSIA)

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The well-known poet and Petrograde Side resident Roman Sergeevich Osminkin has decided to combine the highest of human pursuits—poetry—with the banal process of consuming food. Poetry used to be distinguished from food as nourishment for the soul, not the body, but Mr. Osminkin says, “poetry can be edible!” And food can be poetic. This is not a metaphor—it’s a material practice of overcoming the disconnect between nature and culture, mind and body, reading and eating, letters and calories. To paraphrase the poet Daniil Kharms: write a poem so good that you can eat it.

 

Roman Sergeevich Osminkin is a poet, performer, media-artist, art theorist, and curator. He has been a member of the St. Petersburg Writers Union since 2007. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Translit, an ideologue and singer for the musical project TECHNO-POEZIA, a founder of the theater collective eredovoye udozhestvo, and a member of the Laboratory of Poetic Actionism. He was the winner of SPB SLAM in 2006 and 2010 and the winner of Fifth Leg Video Poetry Festival in 2010 and 2016. His poems have appeared in English translation in n+1 and in his collection Not A Word About Politics! (Cicada Press, 2016). He lives in St. Petersburg and teaches Collective Performance at the Chto Delat School of Engaged Art.

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