Zane Gillespie Pens Thought-Provoking Foreword for New Poetry Collection!

Join Noumenist poet Jason W. Johnson as he launches his second collection of poetry The Night Watches, with Foreword by yours truly SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 2023 AT 2 PM Eastern • Book Launch for THE NIGHT WATCHES • Sunrise Books • High Point, North Carolina. But if you can’t make it, you can still get a signed copy. Just click this link: https://sunrise-books.square.site/.../the-night-watches/366

I would like to praise, celebrate, etc. Jason, a poet with a talent equal to that of the lions of surrealism, modernism, and imagism. It was an honor to write the foreword to his latest collection The Night Watches. I say “it was an honor” because of the extreme level of respect I have for Johnson’s achievement. I’ve always held both the poet and his work in high esteem, because both the art and the artist set an example to look up to, regardless of one’s medium. My fondest wish is that they will receive the recognition they so richly deserve.

From the Foreword by Zane Gillespie:

“In his new collection, The Night Watches, Jason Johnson delves into the theme of divine revelation and its significance in contemporary society. Through his use of language and imagery, he explores the struggle to understand and connect with, ‘an un-elixired be-yond’ in a world where love and faith have become scarce.”

ZANE GILLESPIE

After six years as Minister of Music at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (UMC) in Holly Springs, MS, I was recently called to continue to work to address public engagement in music participation as Director of Music Ministries at First UMC in Water Valley, MS. I am a Composer, Theorist, and member of both The College Music Society as well as The Poe Studies Association (PSA). I am also an active pianist and vocalist, specializing primarily in church music. My paper entitled ““Mesmeric Revelation”: Art as Hypnosis” has been published by the international, peer-reviewed journal Humanities. In addition, another paper of mine entitled “A Model of Triadic Post-Tonality for a Neoconservative Postmodern String Quartet by Sky Macklay” has been submitted to the peer-reviewed Music Theory journal Perspectives of New Music. At the end of February 2015, I served as Chair for the session entitled “Aesthetics and Philosophy” at The Fourth International PSA Conference in New York City. On June 21, 2014, my Quartet for Alto Saxophone and Strings, a commission from concert saxophonist Walter Hoehn, was performed as part of Concert V of the Eighth Annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival held at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN. Characteristically neo-romantic (in the original sense of the word), my music earned me the Nancy Van de Vate Award for Composition three times from the University of Mississippi Department of Music. A native of Pontotoc, MS, I hold degrees from the University of Mississippi (BM; MM), and the University of Memphis (DMA) where I was the 2011 recipient of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music's Smit Composition Award. I live in Memphis, TN.