Second-year media student Sid Branca’s poem “Our Words” was published in the Spring 2014 Edition of The Midwesterner. Branca was approached by one of The Midwesterner’s editors, James Kessler, to submit work to the publication. “Various Chicago-based writers had recommended that James take a look at my writing online,” says Branca, referring to her online journal, This Bed is a Ship, “and he was taken with ‘Our Words.'” Branca, whose work includes performance, video and sound art, also says that, “a great deal of my work in all forms comes out of, in part, a writing practice. Whatever I’m struggling with, I try and write my way through, think through writing. The process for my performance work is often a two-track process of writing and physical/imagistic action.”

As an undergraduate, Branca intended to study poetry translation, comparative literature, and creative writing. She then fell in love with theater, and performance became her primary focus, while maintaining her connection to writing by creating her own monologues. More recently she has re-expanded her writing into a more diverse writing practice by reading and translating poetry, working on an artist’s book that is a combination of erasure writing and her own writing, as well as making sound pieces out of texts.

For Branca’s artist website, click here.