Body Tag: Poems

With her writing and performances, Franziska Ruprecht reclaims the body. A "tag" can be the graffiti signature of an artist, left in darkness, hoping to not get caught. A "body tag" can be the signature of the artist on the model's body instead of painting or sculpting him. Ruprecht's poems, however, move sculpted on the page and have been rasped and polished over the years. Each poem signs its title on the mental image of a person, capturing memories or fantasies. In website programming, a "body tag" sets a certain font style for a paragraph. Each piece shines a particular light on a muse (at times mentioned next to the title). In order to achieve this, Franziska Ruprecht plays with language deliberately, informed by her working in two tongues. In her live shows, she provokes by embracing pop and glitter, music and dance. On paper, touch and feelings are engraved through her writings. "Franziska's verse is immersive, democratic, intimately pyrotechnic. Stirring what's concealed, obscuring to reveal, these poems split the atom with an intensely personalized and challengingly obfuscated vision of nature. Her voice is distinctive, playful and ecstatic enough to keep this style interesting over the course of a large body of poems." Doc Waffles, Detroit "The common themes throughout the collection give it a through line - LOVE: obviously romantic (with its ups, downs, joys and pains and seasons with and without) and physical (lust too), but at least (or more) as importantly love of words and language(s) and art and being an artist, performer and poet. Wherever the speaker in these poems is emotionally or geographically, this comes through consistently. The constant puns, rhymes and neologisms across and around and within and between languages and constructions are dizzying sometimes, but wonderful." Michael Whalen, Brooklyn, New York

Franziska Ruprecht took the stage at major international venues, such as the International Schamrock Festival of Women Poets in Germany and the Roskilde Music Festival in Denmark. In 2016, she made an impression performing in New York City, Detroit, and later Bali. Ruprecht holds a Master's degree from Wayne State University in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. Her poems appear in international anthologies and magazines. In 2015, Wolfbach Verlag Switzerland published her collection Meer-Maid.