Arteidolia Press 2023
ÒEndings are at the forefront of Jason MontgomeryÕs book of poetry, These Latest ApocalypsesÑecological collapse, war, gentrification, addiction, aging. Sometimes itÕs just a suggestion of an end, such as Òthe fraying hem of [his] cut-off jeansÓ that deftly alludes to the prevailing sense that we are coming to a conclusion. ItÕs there in the nonets, too, which balance precariously on a single last syllable. TheseÊ LatestÊÊÊApocalypses is a timely book, and urgent, though still hopeful. He has given us more than a eulogy for humanity. ÒRage is hope,Ó Jason writes, after all. The reverberations of these incisive poems will stay with you long after you have finished reading.Ó - Catherine Weiss, poet
Jason R. Montgomery, or JRM, is a Chicano/Indigenous Californian writer, painter, community artist and engagement artist from El Centro, California. In 2016, along with Poet Alexandra Woolner, and illustrator Jen Wagner, JRM founded Attack Bear Press in Easthampton, MA. JasonÕs work engages the cross-section of Chicano/Indigenous identity, cultural hybridization, post-colonial reconstruction, and political agency. His writing and visual art bridges the aesthetics and feel from the early cubist collage movement and the Russian abstract movement of the 1920s with living and historical Native/Indigenous Californian and Chicano art traditions to explore the Post-colonial narrative through active synthesis and guided (re)construction. JRMÕs work has appeared in Split Lip Magazine, Storm Cellar, Ilanot Review, Rust and Moth and other publications. Jason is one of 2021 Newell Flather Awards for Leadership in Public Art outstanding nominees and 2021-2023 Easthampton Poets Laureate. Jason is also the co-founder of the police abolition group ÒA Knee is Not EnoughÓ (AKINE) in Easthampton, MA.