Loveholdletgo

05/26/2015

beyon

a new short animation from beyon!

silence and the earth is currently being re-written and imagined by jess x chen to become a feature film containing elements of stop motion and hand drawn animation. this animation was created with the story of silence and the earth in mind.

intertwined-director’s cut

goache, graphite, and pastel on vellum and unbleached wood pulp paper.

winter 2015

for silence

and for the snow

for love hold let go.

in this version, the animation is repurposed to fit part of a song that i wrote. there are also some additional sounds and credits.

thankyou to eleni cay for writing the poem which this animation was originally commissioned for, and also for providing funding.

thankyou to coyotes for being beautiful and i love you

the original version of this animation with the poem is currently doing a film festival circuit and won’t be released until that is over with. until then i hope that you like my personal cut.

04/15/2015

silence
(part of an upcoming animation by beyon)

03/30/2015

Thank you to everyone who came out to our screening of "RED" at Asians On Film Festival at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles today! Over 200 people were there. We're so glad this little animation based on a poem by poet Fatimah Asghar has gone way further than we ever thought it would. You can watch it online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaXvXsz4wmY

03/23/2015

NEW ITEMS IN THE LOVEHOLDLETGO ETSY AND MANY MORE ON THEIR WAY!!
available for purchase here: https://www.etsy.com/…/large-fine-art-print-two-women-toget…
Large 11"x14" hand-pulled screen print of an embrace between friends pierced by an arrow, from their shoulders up is a house which they share. Printed with non-toxic black ink on stonehenge cotton rag paper. edition of 21.
Original artwork by Beyon and each print is Editioned and signed by the artist.
www.beyon.org

01/21/2015

beyon

"your the house you were born in"

drawn in halifax on my new (old) desk but also under my bed

ballpoint pen & graphite

by: beyon

winter 2015

for the time spent holding one another,

and for the reasons we cant stay that way

01/21/2015

beyon

beyon now has an artist page!

artwork by beyon wren moor, who is a little candle floating into a lake in the nighttime.

01/21/2015

We have restocked on a bunch of items in the Loveholdletgo store, and added these prints that Jess X. Chen dedicated for Ayotzinapa and the 43 missing Mexican students of the Iguala mass kidnapping. www.etsy.com/shop/loveholdletgo
Look forward to new prints by beyon in 2015.

01/14/2015

Artists Against Police Violence

beyon made this animation for Artists Against Police Violence a new curatorial blog and arts and graphics resource which LoveHoldLetGo helps facilitate.

#blacklivesmatter animation by beyon of Loveholdletgo / pencil on paper / see the animated gif at http://www.artistsagainstpoliceviolence.com/post/108026491371/by-iambeyon-read-more-about-the-black-lives

12/24/2014

Restocked on "Funeral For The Honey Bee" screenprinted back patches. 8"X11" Available here http://www.etsy.com/shop/loveholdletgo #patches #backpatch #illustration

12/17/2014

beyon just finished the online version of this massive scroll entitled "fear country". extra large prints of this image will be available early in 2015! follow the link to see the scroll in it's entirety > http://www.beyon.org/post/105386388345/fear-country-part-3-alberta-skies-drawn-in

12/09/2014

Artists Against Police Violence

Like Artists Against Police Violence
Animation by Beyon /

We are calling all artists across the US and the world to rise up against anti-Black police violence. We are launching an online grassroots space of graphic & illustrative resources to be used by communities and individuals who fight against police murders of Black people. Read more and submit here: http://artistsagainstpoliceviolence.tumblr.com

12/03/2014

It cannot be unseen.
drawing by Beyon

12/02/2014

home

We have a new website -> http://www.loveholdletgo.com where you can watch our films. Concept art by the immeasurable, Dustin Sohn . A new eco-feminist short film combining live action and hand drawn animation is in the works for 2015. This is the seedling reborn from our touring puppet play, "Silence and the Earth."

12/01/2014

Primary Stress - graves to dig (relinquishment)

Animated music video for Halifax based crust metal band Primary Stress created by beyon has finally been released online!

hand drawn animation using graphite on paper and film Blankets of fog smother the streets. Saltwater tears fall down my face while the weak sun rises reluctantly…

12/01/2014

Jess drew this to honor & remember the 43 missing students of Ayotzinapa.

New painting that extends my love and thoughts to #Ayotzinapa and the #43 missing students of the Iguala mass kidnapping. They winged bodies spell out the Mexican poem used in the student protests: "They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds" / "Quisieron enterrarnos, pero se les olvido que somos semillas."

Last week over 200,000 people protested in Mexico city demanding the government to return what they took.Read more about the protests here: http://www.latintimes.com/ayotzinapa-protests-thousands-mexicans-take-el-zocalo-and-burn-figures-mexican-277440

Feel free to use or share this image with credit to www.jessxchen.com #justseeds #illustration #mexico43 #FueelEstado #YaMeCansé #TodosSomosAyotzinapa

11/26/2014

Fatimah Asghar // "Red"

Earlier today, our animation "Red" that we created with Fatimah Asghar was screened as a part of the NewFilmmakers New York fall series at Anthology Film Archives in East Village. Red has approached the end of its' film festival cycle. It has been a wonderful year of screenings and Q&As all across the country. You can watch the film online here.

Subscribe to Button! New video daily: http://bit.ly/buttonpoetry "Red" is an award-winning hand-drawn animation created by LoveHoldLetGo and written by Fatim...

11/26/2014

Happy anti-colonial Thanksgiving everyone. Next week we are releasing a new animation by Beyon for Halifax-based crust-metal band, Primary Stress. Here are some preview stills!

10/27/2014

Today our animation, RED, was screened as part of the The New York Times diversity staff luncheon organized by Asian CineVision + NY Asian American Int'l Film Festival followed by a q&a. We were honored to be once again screened alongside the wonderful short film, Hypebeasts, a film that has been rocking our lives with its fresh narrative about racialized tensions. We made RED during a freezing winter in an evicted Halifax apartment. We never thought it would make it as far as it has. Based on a poem by Fatimah Asghar . You can still watch it here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RaXvXsz4wmY

10/15/2014

"Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows" - Book Trailer

Trailer for BLOOD, SPARROWS AND SPARROWS. Today is the release of this video that Jess X. Chen directed/editted for poet, Eugenia Leigh and her acclaimed first book of poems, available now. Let us know what you think!

Blood Sparrows and Sparrows / Four Way Books / 2014 Book Trailer / Poetry excerpt from "We Called It The Year Of Birthing" by Eugenia Leigh Buy it here: http://fourwaybooks.com/site/blood-sparrows-sparrows/ Poet's…

10/03/2014

It is always a wonder – how so much love, resilience & hope can happen during times of collapse, stress & transition. And how every act of loving must be completed with the act of letting go. To part ways as tenderly as a page is lifted from the woodblock that marked it with life. I know no two humans are ever further away than the silence between two heartbeats. I know there is no silence we can't bridge through the simple act of listening to our own blood. The blood loves. The heart holds. The veins let go. 300 millions years of life blood pulsating on this Earth. And today, you and I are still beating.

09/26/2014

Button Poetry | Fatimah Asghar // “Red” "Lover, I’m not afraid of...

It's never too early for blood & moonlight: our first collaborative animation, done with Fatimah Asghar, Milo & Otis, and Anders Link has reached 13,000 views on Button Poetry Check it out if you haven't already and let us know what you think.

Fatimah Asghar // “Red” "Lover, I’m not afraid of the red drip budding between my thighs." "Red" is an award-winning hand-drawn animation created by Loveholdletgo, written by Fatimah Asghar of Dark...

09/26/2014

you named me earth, i became natural resource

TUMBLR USERS: We have been keeping a secret inspiration blog for the last year where we curate all work that we find ecological, feminist, important and inspirational. It’s time to put this out into the known. Follow us for a constant and far-ranging feed of radical, eco-feminist: poetry, quotes, film, theater, astronomy and politics.

　★　★　★　★ http://i-am-earth.tumblr.com/

The print featured below is called "Aurora" and is by the ever prolific & wonderful Grafica Mazatl of justseeds artists co-operative.

the inspiration blog of a future film. we are imagining what the land could've said to its'...

09/25/2014

Help Pandora & The Mudlark Public Theatre!

the mudlark public theatre hosted one of the earlier performances of our play "Silence and the Earth" in New Orleans. It is heartbreaking to hear about this news about fire's affects on the community art space and how Pandora has to yet re-build it again. The Mudlark truly is her labor of love. Please consider donating if you can!

New Orleans artist and puppeteer Pandora Gastelum of The Mudlark Public Theatre suffered a devastating fire in her home and theatre space on the night of September 11th, 2014. Please help her recover!

09/01/2014

Fatimah Asghar // "Red"

After a circuit of many film festivals, we're so excited announce the RELEASE of our collaborative animation of "Red" based on a poem by Fatimah Asghar. Animated & Directed by LoveHoldLetGo. Sound design by Anders Link, and a score by Beyon and M&O. Special shout out to Button Poetry for giving us a platform, and to Fatimah and the rest of Dark Noise Poetry Collective for believing in us and giving us this collaborative opportunity. Let the infiltration of eco-feminist storytelling in the media ensue. Let us know what you think. - Jess & Beyon

Subscribe to Button! New video daily: http://bit.ly/buttonpoetry "Red" is an award-winning hand-drawn animation created by LoveHoldLetGo and written by Fatim...

08/05/2014

recycled starlight

An old animation from Beyon for our old shadow puppet play " Silence and the Earth" -- currently being developed into a feature length film -> www.beyon.org

the closing animation for "silence and the earth" a shadow puppet play exploring the ends of the earth and a relationship between that place and the last human to…

08/04/2014

Tabling poetry, prints and patches on eco-feminism, the cosmos, and the end of the world, at Rhode Island Independent Publishing Expo!

07/28/2014

JESS X SNOW

I was really excited to represent Loveholdletgo & Dark Noise for our short "Red" in the Q&A session of the thoughtfully curated shorts program, We Are What We Wear, at the 37th Asian American International Film Festival. I felt so honored to stand alongside other filmmakers including Quan Zhou, Taryn Akemi, Michael Solidum (their short, WOMAN IN FRAGMENTS was an elegant reminder of the fierce resilience of the first generation immigrant experience) and the filmmakers behind the comedic and explosively well-written short, Hypebeasts. Having just moved to NYC, I left the screening with a strong sense of affirmation and solidarity with both the other artists and the generations of asian-american filmmakers that have struggled on before us. Having recently graduated film school and moved to NYC, the work that Asian CineVision + NY Asian American Int'l Film Festival has done has been life-changing. This is the support and understanding I wished I had at film school. That we make films for far more than entertainment but for our survival. We will continue to struggle on together, look out for each other and rejoice together when our once-marginal stories triumph and take on the wider world. Thank you Lesley Miranda Kayla and Hsiu-An Wan !

07/21/2014

Hi NYC! "Red" is playing this upcoming friday at Animation Block Party at 2pm on Friday, July 25th at BAMcinématek and also at Asian CineVision + NY Asian American Int'l Film Festival at 5pm on Sunday July 27 at City Cinema Village East as part of We Are What We Wear . You can get tickets for the Sunday screening here: http://aaiff.org/2014/shorts-programs/we-are-what-we-wear/

07/16/2014

Over the last few months, our first short animation "RED" has been part of the official selection of the 2014 Asian CineVision + NY Asian American Int'l Film Festival, Animation Block Party, and Blue Plum Animation Festival. It has won awards for Best Editting and Screenplay at Womens Independent Film Festival, and Best Animation at Asians On Film Festival's Spring Quarter and the Young Filmmakers Contest at Environmental Film Festival at Yale. This cosmic animation is based on Fatimah Asghar's poem about a woman's struggle and self-affirmations as she explain to a lover what it feels like to be touched while on her menstrual cycle. Nobody really anticipated it coming this far and reaching the exposure it has, so this has been really amazing! Thank you for everyone who has worked on it, and the audiences who were there to witness the new languages created when spoken word poetry, mythology and hand drawn animation intersect. It is so important that the voices of women are being heard. You can buy tickets to the NYC premiere in the AIFF shorts program here: http://aaiff.org/2014/films/red/, otherwise, look forward to an internet release through Button Poetry before the end of this summer.

07/08/2014

RED
2 minutes / USA / Co-directed by Beyon & Jess X. Chen
/ written by Fatimah Asghar / Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaXvXsz4wmY

06/18/2014

LoveHoldLetGo

As we move out of Halifax, we did a last screenprinting run in our living room/coffee table print studio. "Funeral for the Honey Bee" and "Gardening as an Act of Resistance" as back patches by Jess X. Chen and also a small patch by Beyon. Available at our etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/loveholdletgo

We just screen printed a whole new run of back patches, and little patches available in the LoveHoldLetGo etsy store. Made from recycled fabric and screenprinted in our living room. The top two back...

06/11/2014

our piece "The Labryinth" is featured in the newest issue of FORGE. Art Magazine whom we met at Brooklyn Zine Fest. We were also interviewed on page 55-58, where we talk about "Silence & The Earth," eco-justice artwork, the communities and people that inspire us to keep making, and current side projects.

You can look through the magazine here! http://issuu.com/forgeartmag/docs/issuu4

"Borne of the same soil: all life -- whether human, plant, or animal is a labyrinthine network -- always returned to the Earth in the end."

06/11/2014

EARTH: What could you be sorry for? SILENCE: The day humanity set sail across your bloodstream, we rationed your flesh into colonies, and when we ran out of land, we rationed the flesh of our own people too. We rationed every forest, plant, animal, tree. You were the mother who bent over backwards for us. And we grew up and left you behind. I can't help but feel sorry for that. EARTH: (tree falls down) Look into the past, Silence. Do you remember, what did sorry ever do?☁⚡

06/10/2014

SILENCE & THE EARTH was the shadow puppet play that LoveHoldLetGo (Jess & Beyon) took across the entire country in Summer/Fall of 2013 in the trunk of a tiny car. Through a continental tour of over sixty performances in people's living rooms, backyards, and in public observatories and theaters, we have discovered the most generous support for this story of eco-decolonization, but also realized that the piece is far from done. Thus we are currently working on a three year project of turning it into an independent feature length film.

As we let go of the death of one performance cycle, we can bear witness to the rise of another. Here are our favorite stills of SILENCE & THE EARTH back when it was a play. What will survive when it becomes a film?

Thank you to every audience member, every friend who believed in us, every stranger who came from the cracks of all corners of America to witness our words and who believed in Silence's story. Thank you to every mentor and human who ever believed in the power of poetry and theater to be a vessel in which our collapsing planet may speak through.

We wouldn't still be working on this story if it weren't for you.

And as always we are humbled by the presence of this resilient Earth.

Onwards we go, in resilience, grace, and Earth.

You can read more about the synopsis here: www.loveholdletgo.com/work

SILENCE & THE EARTH was the shadow puppet play that LoveHoldLetGo (Jess & Beyon) took across the entire country in Summer/Fall of 2013 in the trunk of a tiny car. Through a continental tour of over sixty performances in people's living rooms, backyards, and in public observatories and theaters, we have discovered the most generous support for this story of eco-decolonization, but also realized that the piece is far from done. Thus we are currently working on a three year project of turning it into an independent feature length film.

As we let go of the death of one performance cycle, we can bear witness to the rise of another. Here are our favorite stills of SILENCE & THE EARTH back when it was a play. What will survive when it becomes a film?

Thank you to every audience member, every friend who believed in us, every stranger who came from the cracks of all corners of America to witness our words and who believed in Silence's story. Thank you to every mentor and human who ever believed in the power of poetry and theater to be a vessel in which our collapsing planet may speak through.

We wouldn't still be working on this story if it weren't for you.

And as always we are humbled by the presence of this resilient Earth.

Onwards we go, in resilience, grace, and Earth.

You can read more about the synopsis here: www.loveholdletgo.com/work