The Arabesque Project:
World Making
Book and schedule a live reading of the Arabesque essay with community members: dancers, actors, elders, teenagers, civic leaders! IMAGINE 🌿An act of world-making, an act of connections, arabesque style! 
with Live Music by bassist Julie Machado of the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra

Artist-scholar L. Martina Young offers a timely response to poet and Humanities scholar Joan Retallack's question, “How can one frame a poetics of the swerve, a constructive preoccupation with what are unpredictable forms of change?” Young’s newest essay explores the concept of the ‘arabesque’ by drawing on its origins in Persian aesthetics, somatic ways of knowing, Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, and David Bohm's physics. Weaving together these diverse fields with elements of poetry and memoir, Young’s essay delves into the wisdom and beauty of ‘unity.’ This exploration frames a 'poetics of the swerve,' addressing the unpredictable nature of change and its relevance to our contemporary socio-cultural landscape, positing ‘unity’ as a critical ethos for the 21st century.

Purchase the Booklet

Rave Reviews

“Simply wonderful. I marveled at the precision of the language and the subtle reference to the times we’re living in — and of course, the accent on humanity.”
— Audience Written Response

“Brilliant.”
— Audience Member

“Thank you so much. You’ve given an education my daughter never gets in the classroom! Your work shows the power of a true artist’s work. Thank you!”
— Audience Member

“Thank you so much for sharing Arabesque — a lifetime journey of movement and of gathering the spiritual forces to be fully in the world.”
— Reader’s Response

“I read Arabesque — love, love, loved it! It is such an insightful, fresh, researched, and lived experience piece — so thoughtfully crafted and beautifully offered!”
— Reader’s Response

“Your live reading is a whole other experience! Your sense of time and expression are so beautiful.”
— Audience Member

“You have an amazing mind and deep, spacious heart — how you weave threads of connectivity between cultures, philosophies, aesthetics, and the psycho-spiritual dimensions and challenges of living a human life in these times. Wow.”
— Reader’s Response

“Such a brilliantly written essay. So well researched, so deeply felt.”
— Reader’s Response

“I kept going deeper and deeper, spiraling layer after layer into my own ground. This work offers so much peacefulness and inspiration. Thank you.”
— Audience Member

“You have given us an enriching and memorable life experience from the moment we walked into The Lighthouse.
Imagery, color, shape, sound, texture, and the infinite meanings of your words kept me going deeper and deeper into meaningfulness.
The ancient past, present, and future rolled in waves that connected me to my own life experiences.
The beautiful music and intervals of the bass were perfectly timed and gave my mind space to reflect — weaving humor, beauty, and peacefulness.
What a sacred moment in time, and what power and joy you have given in fulfilling the act and meanings of the Arabesque.”
— Audience Written Response

Arabesque is so informative,
​so scholarly, so substantial. Your poetic prose shines in swerving turns of phrase. A gorgeous work!
— ​Reader’s Response

This project is supported, in part, by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, which receives support
from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the state of Nevada.