For members of The Rift, life is more than a literary magazine, it is a living, breathing, on-going drama that must be greeted to the fullest and acted out at every possible moment, a sharing of common and uncommon experiences through music, poetry, prose or art.
This is the reason why you might come upon any of the members of this artistic group in a variety of costumes, living out the romantic ideals of a 19th century novel, and yet, blazing into the future with images more relevant to star wars.
And since their inception in 1996, you might likely fine any one of them popping up in any part of the Metropolitan area, from the provocative elegance of the magazines publisher and editor Alda F. Xavier to the nearly neoclassical grace of its assistant editor Paul Nash.
Rifters, as their members sometimes call themselves, claimed they are a “dynamic group of creative individuals” actively working to develop and express their talents on and off the printed page. Thus, they might come to a poetry reading in flowing gowns and knee-high boots, fringed leather jackets or any other an endless assortment of possible clothing, gleaned from any era in time, not just the 1960s, but from throughout time.
Seeing them, hearing them, listening to their poetry and prose, you get the feeling that they are attempting to evoke the same sense of magic literature and art used to evoke in past ages, but seems now lost in the age of jeans commercials and MTV.
While the magazine is published out of Cliffside Park, Rifters have been involved in programs from the prestigious Dodge Poetry Festival in Waterloo Village, New Jersey, to April opening of “Dream Works” in Hoboken’s Melange Gallery, where they delved into a little cerebral fantasy through a combination of music, poetry and art.
“We try to show art in all its forms,” Xavier said, whose own art has bridged the gap between oral and visual through experiments in fiction, poetry, and performance. One of her painting was exhibited in the Newark Arts Museum, and she has won awards for her multilingual essays. Known also as Counselor X, Alda boasts of her ability to “rise from the ashes” and has set a goal to motivate and encourage others to be the best they can.
Each member brings an assortment of talents to the group. Nash, for instance, not only has published works in fiction and poetry, but scientific articles as well, and has served as past president of the New York Paleontological Society, and he currently served on the staff at the American Museum of Natural History. Roy M. Lucianna, artist, poet and musician, is also astrologer, lecturer in art history, as well as a teach of Tai Chi Chuan and Chi Kung. While all the members seem to enjoy the role playing, each seems to bring a practical edge to the group as well, such as Peter Jaworowski who serves a production coordinator, Joyce Jaworowski, a graphics arts editor, Octavio Utrera, staff artist, and Jessa V. Welling, text analyst. Even more recent members such as John Trause and North Bergen’s Ellenelizabeth Kashk seem to bring to the group an unique flavor. Trause is a scholar of Classics, and a librarian at The Museum of Modern Art. Kashk is an international traveler and a former Paris model, who now shapes images through a variety of venues.
“We’ve been together as a group since February, 1996,” said Xavier.
While you might be tempted to categorize this group’s activities as “New Age” or “Gothic,” the group seems to transcend these categories by offering few limitations to their spectrum of work. Almost anything seems possible when reading their magazine, and often you can expect the unexpected when they put on a performance at one of their events, from readings, art exhibit, receptions or what they loosely call “open forums for the arts.”
While you might find them anywhere in the Metropolitan area, the group puts on regular events locally at Caffe Ole on Bergenline Avenue in West New York, The Art Builders Gallery in Jersey City, and the Cinema Cafe in Secaucus as well as other locations.
The group has been doing international readings to encourage poetry in various languages, and according to Xavier, they are always on look out interesting galleries, different readings and art forms.
“We got together because we were interested in the arts,” Xavier said. “Most of us were friends and we wondered why we didn’t do something that was creative. We thought about a newsletter that we might collect our writing and art work.”
As a non-profit organization, The Rift has thrived on the efforts of their group and the donations of friends, and its publications has brought together over the last three years local and international talent, with writers and artists coming from places as near by as North Bergen and Weehawken or as far away as Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.
“So far we have published seven issues and we’re about to publish issue number eight,” Xavier said. “We receive no grants, and get our funding through sales and donations.”
All the issues are thematic, she said such as Angels and Demons, Time after time, or Possible and Impossible Worlds.
“We’re working on the Duality issue now, and plan one for dreams in the future,” she said. “Sometimes it is easier to put out an issue than other times. The primary reason for a delay is monetary. While we can put out an issue once or twice a year, once year we put out four.”
While numerous events are scheduled for the next month, The Rift will appear at Art Builders Gallery in Jersey City on April 18, and at Eros Cafe, in Rutherford on April 28. For those interested in attending an upcoming event, obtaining or submitting to the magazine, The Rift has a hotline number you can call at 201-943-9468.