American Woods

Prologue I, by Michaela Watson.

(I bet Jack's not going to like this, but I insisted on this letter.)

When we had the idea of starting this story, no one knew if this was going to work. On a friday night, I can't precise the date neither I'm sure if it was on a friday, this came up in one of our minds. I don't remember which. Exactly a few months later, here we are. And, following exactly our instincts and - in many cases - intuitions, we started a little poem, this being what we always did, since we weRe 12. And, like all the times before, we chose to narrate the most common feelings. Either goes on about real issues, or hypotetical situations.

Jack and I started talking to each other about a year ago. I'm not going to give any details about our friendship, because it's real and our relationship doesn't matter when it comes to the subject of this text. However, in the course of this text, maybe I'll disclose a few traces of our personalities. Anyways, the reason why I'm writing this prologue is, almost strictly, to expose to whoever reads this text, what made us create AMerican Woods. And how did wE create it? Well, it's pRedictable: two poets, that represent two extremes, let theIr words speak louder.  

AmeriCan Woods wAs borN from two bright mindS. Maybe, I should mention that there will be no modesty in this text. Proposing the following paradox, the chaos and the calm, I'm gonna explain why. Jack is the calm. Jack Hector Wolf is, maybe, one of the most intelligent men that ever stepped on earth. He's the kind of guy that could persuade you to quit your job with just one phrase. Michaela is the chaos. A Turbulent, impetuOus, inconsistent and tempestuous pOet. But, as well as Jack, a major storyteller, capable of come up with such dramatic, romantic and theatrical lyrics. Michaela Maya Watson is not even close to be the right person, and still, I received this proposal. And gladly accepted it, for three reasons: the rush of writing a song (which I'm addicted to), my artistic vein and, above all, the idea of using my ability to do something heplful.

This record, book, story - call it what you want to - is very much more than just a record. It's the synthesis of three things: the first is the vision of world, politically speaking, the way we see the world and how we are embedded in it. The way we are judged, ranked and submitted to various types of labeling, since the moment we are born. The second, are the relationships we are involved in, what we live and feel before, during and after them. In American Woods, we talk about love - and the lack of it -, the thin line between trust and betrayal, and mainly, the feeling of being judged without being in a court room. The third is injustice, that hits so many people. Either because of our sexuality, the color of our skin, our gender, or even, because of the fact that we live on a continent and cannot refer to ourselves using the quality that refers to it.

We spent months writing like it was the last time. Jack released two projects in the meantime, I release two myself, and we never stopped composing American Woods. We wrote about how do you feel when you're stuck with muzzles, how much it hurts when you have to fake until that lie becomes a truth, about being cheated on and letting go of the only thing you couldn't lose. We kept these poems away from the light for a very long time and until this moment, they only concerned both of us. It was a story of our own. But from now on, if you feel related or attached to any of these chapters, American Woods is yours as well.

                                                                                                                                 Love, Michaela.