book of the month: inside baseball, a chapbook of poems calling out terrible men in the arts and their bad behavior.
this chapbook was born from a prompt to write an ekphrastic poem. as a visual artist, i wanted to engage more with the prompt and challenge myself to write something besides an ode or a narrative. so i chose to roast jeff koons, because how could i not? that same day, i heard the phrase “inside baseball” and it felt like it fit what i was doing: providing my insider art world knowledge in the form of a poem.
praise
In inside baseball, nat raum captures the metallic taste of bitten tongues—things marginalized artists know to be true about the mediocrity of high art that are ignored or silenced in reverence to the old guard. In no uncertain terms, they unpack the toxicity vital to the institution of fine art, rightfully reminding the reader of the ways in which the art world remains emotionally immature.
—Madison Scillian, artist
selected works
you can find selected pieces from this book published in the following places:
“pop the bubble” in cool rock repository’s kettle expo
“conspiracy to steal pink” in Rejection Letters
“audio NFT sextape” in the space in between gallery’s FUCK THE SYSTEM!!! exhibition
“replacement shark” on the back room poetry website
inside baseball can be purchased from back room poetry.