Dear readers,
After relying on a barely accessible newsletter platform for almost a decade, I’ve decided to turn my jam-packed newsletters with carefully curated image descriptions into seasonal round-up posts at DrMLGodin.com and AromaticaPoetica.com, and just send out a simple, text-based email blast to alert readers. So here’s the Fall 2026 Blindness as Creative Force Newsletter! Please reach out and tell me what you think…
News from the summer
I’m excited to share a piece that’s been a long time in the making – tying together threads of my photography project as it’s developed since 2023 through fellowships and residencies. “On Alt Text Image Description as Literary Practice” was published at Literary Hub and features an Alt Text as Poetry workshop at NYPL Wallach Division of Art Prints and Photographs and an artist studio visit with friends at Yaddo.
Image description: A screenshot of a Literary Hub article. At the top, the Literary Hub masthead appears above a wide banner photograph of scattered wooden printer’s type blocks in shades of blue, indigo, violet, and gray, piled together at every angle. Beneath the image is the headline, “On Alt Text Image Description as Literary Practice,” followed by the subheading, “M. Leona Godin considers the mundane, profound act of translating a picture.” At the bottom, the byline reads “M. Leona Godin,” with the publication date, July 22, 2026.
This summer I took a class at SFPC called Handmade Datasets. You can read about my experience in that novel creative space and my attempt to teach AI what blind people see HERE!
Image description: A screenshot of the post, “Blind Visionscapes: Making an AI Model with Handmade Datasets at SFPC.” The featured image is a square image of two translucent, ghostly violet arms reaching upward from a first-person perspective, palms open. The arms shimmer with delicate, star-like networks against a dense teal field of tiny white and reddish marks, punctuated by brighter red sparks.
Bookish conversations
On July 14 I took part in the Braille Institute Summer Reading series. Check out the recording of myself and Georgina Kleege in Conversation with Mike Marlinon YouTube or on Vimeo.
Image description: This is what #BlindPride looks like! Thrilled to experience the work of blind artist Emilie Louise Gossiaux at The Whitney Biennial: A wide view of a spacious museum gallery centers on a gently curving pale blue wall lined with framed drawings or diagrams, evenly spaced around the room. In the foreground, is Emilie’s Kong Play, featuring a large white circular platform with a smaller raised oval at its center populated by dozens of small, brightly colored ceramic Kong dog toys in many colors.
Recently I reconnected with Madelyn Postman, a grade school friend and fellow writer. Her book, Staring into the sun, published in May, and I was delighted to join her for a lively conversation about writerly struggles and inspirations on her podcast The Spark.
Fall events
Other Senses is a multisensory performance and gathering hosted by myself, Lauren Race, and Ivy Meadows. The first-ever fall installment features Alabaster Rhumb and Samantha Sea Sea.
Talking tactile flyer: A hand-constructed fall Flyer: crisp, veiny, and curling autumn leaves brown and gold, encroach upon white strips of black Brailld and typed text. Saturday, September 26, Doors open: 7pm Performance: 7:30. At the Sunview Acropolis, 257 Nassau avenue Brooklyn. BYOB!
Free but space is limited! RSVP to OtherSensesNYC At gmail.com. You can also email us there with any access needs.
And on October 15—White Cane Safety Day!—I’ll be in conversation with photographer Neal Slavin at the Cooper Union Library to consider several of his group portraits through language and the senses. FREE – but please RSVP HERE.
Image Description: A wide black banner features the Cooper Union logo at left and three images associated with vision: a camera aperture, round dark glasses, and a vivid blue eye. Large white text reads: “Seeing Together: Photography through Language and the Senses.” Below: “A conversation between Photographer / Filmmaker Neal Slavin and Artist / Author M. Leona Godin.”
A taste of Aromatica Poetica
Aromatica Poetica will have its own fall round-up coming soon. We’re thrilled to be featured in Letting Greif Speak— a creative writing craft book on the art of telling our hardest stories by Diane Zinna! And some delicious new poems and stories are up, with more coming through the fall. Send us your best smell and taste inflected writing and art before October 1. Learn more on our submissions page.
Wishing you deep forest scented breezes,
Dr. M. Leona Godin & Aromatica Poetica
PS Featured image description: Me with/in the NYC premiere of the AFB doc, Possibilities, at Carnegie Hall! Two photos side by side: 1 Backstage with the tech and the piano: Smiling backstage in an industrial theater space, Godin is dressed entirely in black and poses confidently beside a draped piano. She wears dark sunglasses, knee-high boots, long fingerless gloves, and a feathered stole over a fringed dress. Holding a sparkly white cane, she stands amid stacked chairs, stage equipment, lighting trusses, and road cases, giving the scene a lively behind-the-scenes atmosphere. 2. A large movie screen fills the frame during the Possibilities screening. It shows Godin – with long brown hair wearing rose-tinted round glasses and a fitted dark blue leather vest, seated indoors amid leafy plants and wooden shelves. White subtitles appear across the bottom, “is leaning into your disability.” And the dark theater around the glowing screen emphasizes the cinematic setting.