Rolodex, by Veda Carmine-Ritchie

Poetry, chapbook, 20 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Rolodex is an address book of memories organized not by time, but by location.

Veda Carmine-Ritchie’s second chapbook is sourced from the author’s own simplistic writing exercise: Take a ZIP Code, and write out a three line poem surrounding a memory that took place in that area. Rolodex is an iteration of this exercise that maps out the entirety of Brooklyn through 47 ZIP Codes, and 47 corresponding personal associations. Inspired by the author’s past experimentation using Morse Code and The Gregorian Calendar as prompts for creative writing, Rolodex challenges the ability to pull relational vulnerability from invented systems of efficiency.

Too often, innovation that was created to offer accessibility in connection, is co-opted for the means of gaining power and controlling those without. The ZIP Code was invented by Postal Inspector Robert Moon, who needed to develop better mail routes for his workers, so as to deliver love letters with ease. Now, ZIP Codes are best known for dictating things such as: the price of car registration, school accessibility, accessibility to public services–and overall as a tool which upholds and perpetuates systematic class divide. So In the time of AI–where good writing is often compared to the likes of ChatGPT, how can we re-establish the idea of accessibility of connection, rather than a lust for control? Though these memories come from a singular source, they reflect on interpersonal relationships with the exterior world, and with other individuals inhabiting it.

By organizing poems in relation to location rather than time, Rolodex puzzles together a map of memory peppered throughout the span of five-years, within a four mile radius.

Veda Carmine-Ritchie is a  poet, performer, and fiction writer born in Portland, Oregon. They currently live in Brooklyn, NY. They have one published chapbook, Glossary of 82+ Dog Training Terms A-Z (2024). Their work can be found in No, Dear, SplashLand, The Goose Egg and a few other places.

Find them online @callyoutomorrow or reach out directly via dearcallyoutomorrow@gmail.com