mottoi promise.
you'll find it here.
no journal is forgotten.MOTTO BERLIN
Skalitzerstr. 68,
Im Hinterhof
10997 Berlin

"where books are burned,
in the end people will burn"

henrich heine, 1820

i came to motto
to meet anne schwalbe
an incredible photographer
who lives & works in berlin.

motto is a special place.
its a cornucopia of words & ideas
stacks, drawers, cabinets stuffed
with bounded mags & journals.

the storekeeper,
with a computer on her lap,
just sits on a metal fold-up
chair in the corner.
paper all around.
no desk.

meanwhile, i found myself
absorbing the whole situation
touching each cover ever so gently.
passing my fingers across titles
I had never heard of, as if
they might disappear.

i was so happy that they
were there, if only for a moment.
that someone spent time to make
even that one issue.

i left motto
thinking about something
i had visited only the day before.
Micha Ullman's memorial of the
1933 nazi book burnings.
powerful, simple.
haunting.

a window looking
into a subterranean room
of empty bookshelves