*Quarantined* Elese Daniel : Bike Peddler + Poet : Cincinnati, OH

“8:47am : The fire alarm goes off in the Markethouse; very few customers respond to it - they continue ordering their coffees + grabbing baguettes + olive oil. 

I want to believe this means we’re all not afraid to die anymore.”

Elese is one of my favorite humans I have the pleasure of knowing from afar. She is smart and subtle and like liquid and grit. Elese is a community weaver, and her tools are her words and bikes. She currently works for RedBike, which is the public bike share program in Cincinnati as the Education and Outreach Coordinator. She restarted the Poet Laureate  program in Cincinnati for the first in the 21st century. Most recently she started a project called Storycycle Cincy - “Part vehicle, part writer’s desk, the Storycycle will host artists and bicyclists for hours-long or days-long residencies. The Storycycle is a public art and advocacy project that aims to connect community through increased access and awareness to poetry and cycling”.

Some of Elese’s work is currently on display at Weston Art Gallery in Cincinnati, including this piece:

Elese has participated in Field Notes before and to do her full justice, you should read the luscious intro Lucy Durepos wrote for her. A poet-friend writing about a poet-friend only involves beauty.

Follow Elese on instagram for some wonderful impromptu poems and Storycycle Cincy to keep up with the traveling bike-scapades.