Pots and Other Living Beings is a striking blend of poetry and photography that reflects on life in the postmodern, neoliberal age. Indigenous artist annie ross brings together socially aware poems and evocative images to expose the tensions between promised utopias and lived realities.
Rooted in a research journey through the Southwestern United States, the collection traces the founding and spread of nuclear weapons since the 1940s. Against this backdrop, the work contemplates the cultural and material ruins that follow: alienation, dispossession, and landscapes shaped by military and industrial power.
At the same time, these compositions imagine what might have been possible if collective resources and creativity had been devoted to sustaining life in all its forms. The poems and photographs gesture toward the food, art, education, health care, family farms, and alternative futures that could have flourished.
This collection will appeal to readers interested in contemporary Indigenous art, political poetry, and the visual record of environmental and social change.
