THE HISTORY OF MATRIX	ma•trix [L. womb, fr. Mater] 1. something within which something else originates or develops 2. a mold from which a relief surface (as a piece of type) is made 3. material in which something is enclosed or embedded (as for protection or study)
by senior editor Tony Brewer.

THE INITIATES
In 1997 John Pearson returned to the U.S. from Hungary — a nation whose language, culture, and poetry he knows and loves — eager to recreate the supportive, open atmosphere of the East European coffeehouses or art galleries. An MFA candidate in Central Eurasian Studies and Arts Administration at Indiana University, and a serious scholar of Hungarian literature, John also recognized the value of inviting established writers and artists to present their work publicly, to mix naturally with the underground poetry and art scene in Bloomington that was thriving but under-exposed.

By that time, I had become involved with several area not-for-profit organizations (WFHB Community Radio [wfhb.org], Last Minute Productions, Lascivious Exhibitions , Monroe County Humane Association, and had taken a poetry sabbatical for three or four years after graduating from IU. I was feeling rather burned out on the NFP concept by fall 1997, though, and, freeing myself of nearly all organizational commitments, returned to writing poetry in earnest. By summer 1998, I was hitting all the open mikes in town I could find, but there were precious few and those often lasted only three or four sessions.

John and I met through a mutual friend in December 1998. All we knew about each other was that we were poets devoted to the craft. After expressing our frustrations with the sparse, sporadic open mike opportunities around town, we began brainstorming to create an arts event on a regular basis [link to monthly show announcement] in Bloomington, IN. We batted around names for weeks and finally stumbled upon "MATRIX: a space for literary and visual arts."

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