K. Ibura
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K. Ibura is a writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana. The middle child of five, she grew up in a hardscrabble neighborhood with oak and fig trees, locusts and mosquitoes, cousins and neighbors. K. Ibura's work delves into spheres of human liberation, human connection, and evolution. She employs speculative fiction and creative nonfiction to take readers through mind-bending journeys into the transcendent, the mystical, and the fantastic.
K. Ibura
BlogKIS.listcraft of writing // critiques // editing // emotional connection to art // K. Ibura // KIS.list // rejection // writing adv // writing struggles // writing tips
Vol. 31, Seeking and Receiving Critiques
Posted on 1 March 2003
In writing an essay for an upcoming anthology, I was recently stumped. The topic seemed unwieldy and I couldn’t get the tone and feel of the piece. The content in the first draft was too personal. The content in the second, too dogmatic. I put both the first draft and the second draft to the… »
BlogKIS.listediting // editors and writers // K. Ibura // KIS.list // rejection/acceptance o'meter // the writing life // writing advice // writing struggles
Vol. 26, Editing: Going Within
Posted on 23 July 2002
Brooklyn, NY I am fascinated with the editing process. That should not come as a surprise as I am an editor and a copy editor as well as a writer. I look at the first draft of a story or an essay as a mass of raw material, a block of marble to be carved…. »
BlogKIS.listbook proposals // editors // K. Ibura // KIS.list // magazine writing // pitching // publicity // rejection // writers and editors // writing life
Vol. 18, Pitching: A Study in Frustration
Posted on 6 February 2002
New York, NY Pitching is a skill in and of itself. To be able to look at a magazine and create story ideas that fit with their thrust is a talent I haven’t mastered. Admittedly I haven’t tried very hard to master the technique. For me, the act of pitching steals away valuable writing time… »
BlogKIS.list9-to-5 // artist // H.G. Wells quote // K. Ibura // KIS.list // learning to write // paying the bills // structure // surviving // Thomas J. Watson // travel // work // writing life // writing struggles // writing trips
Vol. 15, 9-to-5
Posted on 23 December 2001
An ongoing conversation about j-o-b-s New York, NY Before I went away on the Thomas J. Watson fellowship (and before I’d worked an actual 9-to-5), I thought I had to work to feel settled in my life. These words from my student lips: “I can’t live without working. I’d go crazy.” Then I went away… »
BlogKIS.listacceptance // Basquiat // Bronx Museum of Art // Carl Hancock Rux // Carlos Esteves // commodity // context in art // Culture // Dario Robleto // Fernando Rodriguez // Francisco de la Cal // hip hop // interpreting art // K. Ibura // Keith Haring // kiini // Kori Newkirk // Mel Chin // One Planet Under a Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art // value of art // visual art // Whitney // Won't be no Black Male show today
Vol. 14, Visual Art
Posted on 12 December 2001
Bronx Museum of the Arts Bronx, NY Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary (which is the only dictionary I can get my hand on at the moment) defines “art” as: 1. Creative or imaginative activity, esp. the expressive arrangement of elements within a medium 2. Works, as paintings, that result from this creativity. Now it’s intriguing… »
BlogKIS.listartist life // artist philosophy // balance // Clarion West // difference between making art and making money // earning money // honesty // K. Ibura // KIS.list // living off art // mindset // money and art // pathway for income // success // supporting self // writing life // writing struggles
Vol. 13, Money and Art
Posted on 2 December 2001
Email Conversations with a Writer Friend New York, NY I’d noticed one writer friend constantly complaining about money. On stage, in private, whenever conversations about her work came up, one of her responses would be “Yeah, well, I ain’t got no money.” Her disgruntledness made me uncomfortable. I’ll have to excavate (as another friend says… »
BlogKIS.listcatcalling // community // compromise // conversations // date rape // dissertation // how writing heals // interviews // K. Ibura // Kalamu ya Salaam // KIS.list // muscling women // Navigating to No // no // performance // Ph.D. // publishing // Radio // rape // rape culture // seduction // self defense // sharing // solitary // Spelman // submissions // support // Tayari kwa Salaam // television // The Black Collegian // the writing life // victimization // yes
Vol. 11, I/We
Posted on 9 November 2001
Phone Conversations with My Mother Baton Rouge, LA and Brooklyn, NY Writing is a very solitary act. Yet it, like many other art forms, is only fulfilled in community. It lives when it is read by others. Some artists don’t like to be influenced by others while developing their work, but I find a large… »
BlogKIS.listbeing open // Clarion West // coincidences // Colonize This! // community // giving and receiving // K. Ibura // KIS.list // magazine writing // Ms. magazine // putting yourself out there // rape // rejection // rejection/acceptance o'meter // seduction // self presentation // serendipity // sharing wisdom // taking a chance // volunteering // writing life
Vol. 10, The Universe’s Ripple Effects
Posted on 2 November 2001
A Ms. Magazine Intern’s Apartment New York, NY My parents brought me and my siblings up with a reverence for ancestors and a thankfulness for life, but with no real religious structure. They never set out to define God for us, nor did they even suggest to us that there was a God. Religion just… »
BlogKIS.listassualt // catcalling // fight // K. Ibura // KIS.list // male aggression // personal // Prepare/Impact // protection // publication // rape culture // rejection // rejection/acceptance o'meter // safety // self defense // Sexism // sexual harassment // testimonial // threats // verbal skills // women
Vol. 9, Self-Defense
Posted on 28 October 2001
Prepare/Impact Self Defense Training Center New York, NY Eight years ago, while studying in the Dominican Republic, I was assaulted at gunpoint. This came at the tail end of a trip that was marred by serious sexual harassment, most of it physical. I had my body and hair touched by strangers more times than I… »
BlogKIS.listarticle // catcalling // editing // editorial process // editors // K. Ibura // KIS.list // magazine writing // polished writing // rape culture // revising // revision // rough drafts // sexual harrassment // traumatic // writing life // writing struggles
Vol. 8, Editors and Writers
Posted on 8 October 2001
Phone Call from an Editor Brooklyn to Manhattan, NY A friend of mine asked me to write a short bit of catalogue copy on catcalling. His organization is doing an exhibition attempting to stimulate the experience of walking down the street and having men yell at you. Men will have the opportunity to walk through… »