 |
|
|
I'll Take It
A benefit to support CompanyAmyCox
Date: Saturday, June 5th
Time: Party 9pm-12midnight, performances begin @ 9:30pm
Location: 304 Boerum St., Buzzer 11, Apt. 23 (2nd Fl), Bushwick, Brooklyn
(see directions below)
Tickets: $50 (Artists & Students $25)
For advance ticket purchase and information call 718-813-8110
Amy Cox, artistic director of CompanyAmyCox, will perform ten short solos using objects, costumes, music and written themes donated by ten
exceptional thinkers.
These thinkers include:
Alba Clemente (artist - mother)
Rosie Perez (actress)
Kiki Smith (artist)
Amy Sedaris (writer, actress)
Sally Silvers (choreographer)
Jonathan Rosen (graphic artist)
Dean Moss (choreographer media artist)
DD Dorvillier & Daria Fain (choreographers)
Judy Casey (photo rep) & Shay Ashual (hair stylist)
Douglas Dunn (choreographer)
Performance highlights will include Cox interpreting Alba Clemente's
version of St. Sebastian and obsequious play with a cloth sculpture by Kiki Smith.
These ten dances will occur during a party at a loft space in Bushwick,
Brooklyn on Saturday, June 5th between 9pm and 12 midnight. The event also includes DJ, dancing, drinks, food, raffle and a live auction of some of the event's material and immaterial manifestations. In addition Cox will unveil a new light sculpture, The Pool, designed by Cox in collaboration with robotics artist and technical wizard Eric Singer for her new work. Remnants of an Impossible Splash. Proceeds from this event will support the completion of the sculpture and the new work.
Directions:
By Subway: Take the L train to Morgan Ave. Exit at Front of train. Choose the right Exit. Turn left onto Harrison, and walk 1 block to end of street.
Turn right onto Bogart. Turn left onto Boerum. 304 Boerum is the first
building on the left, at the end of the block.
By Car:
1. Take DELANCEY ST to the WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE
2. Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto the first exit ramp (0.09 miles)
3. Turn LEFT onto HAVEMEYER ST. (0.04 miles)
4. Turn RIGHT onto BORINQUEN PL. (0.39 miles)
5. BORINQUEN PL becomes GRAND ST. (0.55 miles)
6. Turn RIGHT onto BUSHWICK AVE. (0.40 miles)
7. Turn LEFT onto BOERUM ST. (0.21 miles), this street will dead end into WHITE ST. The building is directly in front of you. Turn left and immediately right to get back onto Boerum. 304 Boerum is first building on the right.
Launch number doo this Thursday...
Well, the subject line says it all... Michael's a great and funny poet, Google him at will and find out!
SEGUE READING SERIES
AT THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB
Winter / Spring 2004
308 BOWERY, JUST NORTH OF HOUSTON
SATURDAYS FROM 4 - 6 PM
$5 admission goes to support the readers
MARCH 13
BRIAN KIM STEFANS and MICHAEL GIZZI
Brian Kim Stefans' latest book is Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics. His website is www.arras.net. He's recently taken up playwriting and will premiere a short piece at Chashama in February.
Michael Gizzi moved to Providence last summer. His most recent book is My Terza Rima (The Figures). He will read from his latest ms. Facing Life.
Raymond Hernandez {Bass Guitar and Vocals} has been the bass player for Knight Riders since March of 2000. He has been involved in the world of live music for 30 years. With God's help, at a very young age, he taught himself to play guitar and sing. He has been a member of the choir at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Channelview, TX for 25 years and is very much involved in several other church organizations. Before joining Knight Riders, he operated the band Southern Justice for nearly 4 years. In November of 1999, Raymond had a challenge slap him in the face when he severed the end of his index finger with a circular saw. In less than a week, he managed to create new ways to play his chords and fought through the pain so that he would not miss a gig. Today, his finger is of no challenge to his performance. He entertains any and every crowd no matter how small or large and still makes it to church every Sunday.
(He won't be appearing at this reading.)
[One you don't want to miss...]
March 19-20, 2004
Friday, March 19, 7pm PERFORMANCE
Saturday, March 20, 2-5pm BOOK SIGNING
Marianne Boesky Gallery is pleased to present a weekend celebration of the seminal visual/performance/sound artist Charlemagne Palestine and the premiere launch of “Sacred Bordello” (2004, Black Dog Press), a comprehensive monograph including essays, scores, and original photos of both his performances and installations. This represents the first major publication on Charlemagne Palestine’s art. In attempting to convey the breadth of Palestine’s artistic activity, the gallery will present an installation of paintings and sculptures, a sound environment, and a rare body performance by the artist.
Born in Brooklyn in 1947, Palestine’s first musical experiences were as a cantorial singer in the synagogues of New York. By the late 1960s, he was deeply involved in the amazingly fertile New York and West Coast experimental music/art community. His first major works were legendary piano performances of epic durations, microtonal trembles and dense overtones which situated him alongside La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and others as a seminal figure of early minimalism.
In the early 1970s, Palestine increasingly extended his performances beyond the scope of music. His groundbreaking appearances, which combined violent piano playing, performance, video and installation, were considered to be among the most radical musical and performance experiences. Palestine produced a seminal body of performance-based, psychodramatic videotapes in which he ritualistically used physicality, motion and sound to achieve an outward articulation of internal states. Intense and often violently charged, these exercises are characterized by a visceral enactment of physical and psychological catharses.
Palestine’s artistic concerns have also manifested themselves in countless gallery installations. The publication of “Sacred Bordello” places particular emphasis on this aspect of Palestine’s work, which is often much less known by American audiences, especially as Palestine has lived for several years in Belgium and has exhibited primarily in Europe. His signature assemblies of often-augmented stuffed animals, scarves, and objects (collectively called “Charleworld” by the artist) convey both an unruly flamboyance and a penetrating poignancy—a duality which extends through all of Palestine’s varied activities.
The gallery installation will be open 10am-6pm on March 19th and 20th. Please call 212-680-9889 for further information.
[Well, this isn't exactly a New York event but I don't have a category yet for out of town appearances. If you happen to be in Providence...]
---- TUESDAY, FEB. 17 ----
730PM
Where it All Began: Literary Hypermedia at Brown
location: McCormack Family Theater [70 Brown Street]
Introduction : Robert Coover
Reading by William Gillespie
Reading by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Reading by Talan Memmott
Performance by Thalia Field and Jamie Jewett
OPENING RECEPTION
---- WEDNESDAY, FEB. 18 ----
1000AM-1130AM
Poetics Panel
location: ***
chair: Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Stephanie Strickland Returning Space and Time to Digital
Poetry
Talan Memmott Identity to Adentity: Network Phenomenology
and the Poetics of Being Online
100-230PM Positions and Provocations
location: ***
chair: Wendy Chun
Roberto Simanowski - Justifying the Spectacle
George Landow - Is Hypertext Fiction Possible?
Alan Sondheim - New Media Bytes the Dust
Noah Wardrip-Fruin - Hypertext - It's not what you link
Edrex Fontanilla - ***title coming
330-500PM
Theory/Practice Roundtable
location: ***
moderator: Talan Memmott
John Cayley, Aya Karpinska, George Landow, Roberto
Simanowski, Stephanie Strickland, Alan Sondheim, Noah
Wardrip-Fruin, Brian Kim Stefans
>>>>>DINNER for participants
730PM
Digital Poetry Spectacular
location: McCormack Family Theater [70 Brown Street]
Reading by Stephanie Strickland
Reading by John Cayley
Reading by Aya Karpinska
Reading by Brian Kim Stefans
RECEPTION
---- THURSDAY, FEB. 19 ----
100-230PM Artist Demos
location: Grad Ctr. Tower E - 123 [92 Thayer Street]
Alan Sondheim
Aya Karpinska
Brian Kim Stefans
330-500PM New Books on Digital Media
location: Grad Ctr. Tower E - STG [92 Thayer Street]
Noah Wardrip-Fruin/Pat Harrigan -- First Person
Nick Montfort -- Twisty Little Passages
Alex Galloway - Protocols
More Experiments and Disorders—again in convenient and bustling Times Square!
Brian Kim Stefans
+
Miranda Mellis
+
Kirsten Wilson
Wednesday, February 11
Dixon Place @ Chashama
111 West 42nd Street
(between 6th and 7th avenues)
7:30pm: $5
Kirsten Wilson is a performance artist, writer, and teacher. She was the founder and artistic director of the Santa Fe-based choreographed theater company, Friendly Fire. She has written numerous performance pieces, including There’s No Place Like Home, A Case Study, The Amazing Magician’s Beautiful Assistant Clara, and Odalisque. She taught monologue writing and performing classes at the College of Santa Fe, and Playback Theater through Bard College in New York; She currently teaches Letting the Body Speak: The Autobiographical Monologue Class, and Writing as a Spiritual Practice.
Miranda F. Mellis is a writer from San Francisco set to graduate in May with an M.F.A. from Brown University. She is in the Providence-based chamber-punk band Television Astronaut and has been published in BeeHive, Cabinet, h2so4, Fence, Nerve Lantern, Persephone, and a few anthologies. Formerly an aerialist in the tiny avant-garde circus, The Turnbuckles, she toured with Sister Spit in '98. She is a founding editor with Tisa Bryant and Kate Schatz of the forthcoming multifarious publication The Encyclopedia and is currently collaborating with Ali Liebgott on a graphic novellet called Goodnight Apocalypse.
Brian Kim Stefans is the author of three books of poetry, including Free Space Comix and Angry Penguins. His most recent book - comprising essays, poems and a dialogue - is called Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics. His Web site, devoted to new media poetry and poetics, is arras.net, at which his net art can also be found. He had a reading of his short play "Kinski in Kanada" on November 8 at the Bowery Poetry Club.
[Steph and I have new tricks up our sleeves for this one... if you didn't catch it the first time at the BPC, here's your chance.]
THE TRANSIT PLAYS, written by Sheila Callaghan, directed by Hayley Finn, with Deron Bos, David Brooks, Flora Diaz & Hilary Ketchum, music and sound by Sophocles Papavasilopoulos
KINSKI IN KANADA, written and performed by Brian Kim Stefans, with Stephanie Sanditz
PAPA PETROVSKY AND THE BIG FROSTED CAKE, written & directed by Ann Marie Healy, with Graeme Gillis & Rachelle Mendez
YOUR GUEST HOSTS: Stephanie Mnookin & Eliot Laurence of GUILE
Monday, January 26, 2004 at 8:00 pm @
Tonic
107 Norfolk Street
between Delancey and Rivington.
Tickets are $8.00 at the door, first-come first-served; reservations are not accepted.
[Mike Scharf sent this to me to post...]
Fiona Templeton is down with pneumonia. Tim Davis has graciously agreed to
step in. Please forward this around.
The Segue Series at the Bowery Poetry Club presents
Sherry Brennan
and
Tim Davis
Saturday, January 17th, 4pm
$5, 2 for 1 drinks
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
(between Houston & Bleecker)
F train to Second Ave,
or 6 train to Bleecker
212.614.0505
http://www.bowerypoetry.com/
Segue Foundation
http://www.segue.org/
I just finished formatting the Segue series calendar for their website. It's still nothing happy to look at but a little easier on the eggwhites.
Segue Calendar Winter/Spring 2004
You'll notice Frodo the Baptist on March 13, but there are several other groovy names in this four-month stretch, too many to name here -- just stop gawking and click through!
[Here's another guy that has a Kinski fixation -- he does an amazing impersonation, but there's more to his act than that. He rides on the Kinski thing to both eviscerate and, in some oblique way, celebrate the more twisted sides of avant-gare (and Fantasy Island) machismo. He's been hilarious the two times I've seen him at the Little Theater events at Tonic (I'll be doing a bit there too, my own Kinski-inspired play, later in January), which, if you don't know about, is a good place to catch a sampling of the garage-experimental scene in Brooklyn and New York. Linas is kind of a cross between Andy Kaufman doing Mighty Mouse and the guys from Ween -- kind of conceptual, schoolboy-ish stuff that is nonetheless technically mind-blowing (I mean acting technique, not multimedia, which he uses sparingly) and terribly funny. He's got the Artaud-like Kinski poetry reading that you hear bits of in "My Best Fiend," the Herzog documentary, down cold.]
January 8-18 , 2003
The Club
Thursday - Saturday 10:00pm
Sunday 5:30pm
Tickets $15.00
Box: 212.475.7710
Linas Phillips makes his La MaMa debut with LINAS IS KINSKI, a piece about one of Germany's most famous actors. Mr. Phillips, a "young turk" from NYU's Experimental Theater wing, is "obsessed" (in his own words) with the late crazed German actor, and in this show, attempts to recreate what it would have felt like to see Kinski perform live. Beside his movies, which are well-known to Americans, Kinski sold out large stadiums with poetry recitals that lasted for hours. Phillips's script, performed overwhelmingly in English but occasionally in the original German, contains poetry that Kinski actually performed and texts compiled from interviews Kinski gave.
If you only get out to see one show this year, make sure it's this one! Placebo Sunrise, their bit from I think two years ago now, was a stunner -- do a web search, I'm sure some reviews will show up -- and from what I hear they just get better and better. Kind of acrobatic, brainy, irreverent, gothic spooky narratives, etc., but also one of those rare shows in which depth-of-field becomes a plaything of the gods. But don't take my word for it -- go to the show and prove me wrong!
The National Theater of the United States of America presents
What’s That On My HEAD?!?
created and performed bythe NTUSA
Stage Management by Rollo Royce
Lighting Design by Ben Kato
Costume Design by Kirstin Tobiasson
Sound by Jody Elff and Porkhed Stu
5 Glorious Weeks!
January 8 to February 8
Show runs Thursday-Sunday at 8 pm
Special Matinee Show on Sunday, January 11 at 2 pm
at the NEST arts complex
88 Front Street (corner of Washington) in DUMBO, Brooklyn
A, C, F, 2 and 3 trains, first stops in Brooklyn
YOU PAY!
$15!
Seating is Limited! MAKE reservations! call 212.615.6607.
For all other inquiries call 718.852.6807.
www.ntusa.org
[Brenda Ijima set me up with this gig... I'll probably read from a new sequence called "Pasha Noise," which if you've heard it before is quite different now, and maybe discuss Pound's Mauberley, since my poem's quasi-based on that one.]
CASPER JONES CAFE READING/TALKING/MEDIA SERIES
PLEASE COME!
TUESDAY DECEMBER 9, 7:00 PM, AT CASPER JONES CAFE IN BROOKLYN
___
Brian Kim Stefans is the author of Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics (Atelos, 2003)
Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs published his lastest collection of poems JAI-LAI FOR AUTOCRATS on the ocassion of Stefans' talk/reading at Casper Jones. Stefans writes numerous reviews, many of which can be found on his blog: Free Space Comix (www.arras.net/weblog). He lives in Brooklyn.
Sue Landers is the author of 248 mgs., a panic picnic (O Books, 2003)
This book explores the emotional and socio-political lives of a cast of characters based on autobiography, but devised by sound. Some characters are the same character under different names. The book's claustrophobic tercets combined with spiraling repetition help foreground the importance of artifice and code, the very elements the book's characters undermine, complicate, and expose. The code is a score. To sound out the story.
"This is a daring and contemporary voice that speaks of pills, guns, and of shame. The story is captivating, the echoes of recurring themes and stanzas are haunting: this book is a blast"--Anne Tardos.
She is also is co-editor of the magazine Pom2. She lives in Brooklyn.
Casper Jones House Cafe Bar Lounge
440 Bergen Street
between 5th Ave. & Flatbush Ave.
Parkslope, Brooklyn
(718) 399-8741
take the Q train to 7th Ave or the 2/3 train to Bergen Street
Contact Brenda Iijima or Alan Sondheim for further information.
Brenda Iijima: yoyolabs@hotmail.com
Alan Sondheim: sondheim@panix.com
[I have no idea how to stop the Viagra ads popping up in my comments section. Oh well. But here's an announcement for my next pubic impertinence, at the Zinc Bar on November 23rd.]
Issue 4 of Pompom magazine is here -- and so's a celebratory reading at zinc
bar in nyc this sunday the 23rd!
Highlights of the issue:
Etel Adnan's Moby Dick indicts Captain Ahab.
Lyn Hejinian poms herself.
Dana Ward and Karen Weiser go vertiginous.
The editors ponder the pom, pomming.
Plus artwork from Bill Marsh & Joel Lipman
Please come to the big pre-thanksgiving pom2tenanny
on Sunday November 23 at 6:59pm at Zinc
to celebrate in fine style the release of the latest POM2.
Our launch party features Issue #2 contributor Brian Kim "All the Trimmings" Stefans, issue #3 contributor Fred "Sweet Potato Pie" Schmalz, and issue #4 contributor Barbara "Cranberry Sauce" Cole. The editors will be on hand to discuss the magazine as well.
Zinc is 90 West Houston btw Laguardia & Thompson in Manhattan
Contributors to issue 4 include:
Etel Adnan | Holly Bittner | Daniel Borzutzky | Barbara Cole | Corina Copp | Brenda Coultas | kari edwards | Albert Flynn DeSilver | Marcella Durand | Betsy Fagin | Michael Farrell | Noah Eli Gordon | Jefferson Hansen | Carla Harryman | Lyn Hejinian | Joel Lipman | Sarah Mangold | Bill Marsh | Yedda Morrison | Sheila E. Murphy | Eileen Myles | Simon Pettet | Kristin Prevallet | Sarah Rehmer | Andrew Riley Clark | Camille Roy | Sara Smith | Chuck Stebelton | Christina Strong | Chris Martin | Lisa Samuels | Kerri Sonnenberg | Anne Tardos | Edwin Torres | Dana Ward & Karen Weiser
Visit www.pompompress.com for selections.
Single issue $5 / Subscription (2 issues) $9
Send check payable to Susan Landers to:
128 Noble St. #3
Brooklyn, NY 11222
d00ds - my play is being "performed" on November 8th which y'all gotta see. The Kinski idea is dead, though you won't be disappointed with his replacement -- Harrison Ford!
November 8: Poets' Plays
Why should San Francisco have all the fun? Our day of Poets Plays might be shorter than Small Press Traffic's Poets' Theater Jamboree, but we can assure you that our poet-playwrights Charles Borkhuis, Jordan Davis, Ethan Fugate, and Brian Kim Stefans (who is apparently working on a monologue based on Klaus Kinski) are no less glamorous, and fully intend to "deliver the goods." Or break a leg. Something like that.
The new Segue Calendar is now online:
Curators:
October 4 - November 22, Nada Gordon & Gary Sullivan
November 29 - January 31, Laura Elrick & Michael Scharf
[Today is one of those days when you have to make choices... Yoshimasu starts at 6 pm on Greene Street and Antin goes on at 7 at Poet's House. Luckily it's not raining today otherwise... ouch, it actually is raining, it's pouring. We'll see what happens. Antin will be talking about "The Politics of Poetry" -- yuck -- on 72 Spring Street. Yoshimasu info follows -- at the location that picked up where Roulette left off after being evicted.]
Please join us for a poetry reading and performance by acclaimed avant garde poet Gozo Yoshimasu. This reading brings the legendary poet to New York after a ten-year absence.
Poetry reading by Yoshimasu: September 23, 2003 at 7 PM
Live translation by American poet Geoffrey O'Brien Improvisational music by guitarist Jean-François Pauvros Poems translated by Hiroaki Sato
Admission: Free - Doors open at 6pm
No Reservations.
Exhibition: Poetic Spectrum - Images, Objects, and Words of Gozo Yoshimasu September 3 - September 23, 2003 Curated by Miwako Tezuka Gallery hours: Tue - Sat 12-6 PM
Location One
26 Greene Street NYC 10013
Subway: Canal Street - N, R, Q, W, 6, A, C, E
www.location1.org
In a rare event, Gozo Yoshimasu will come to New York City to read/perform selections from his most recent poems on September 23rd. Through his unique performance style, his voice, ultimately weaves together the visions and touches of the past, and revives the singularity of those encounters. The amalgamation of images, objects, words, and reading as performance, will present a possibility of transcending the limit of language, and reveal the trans-cultural fertility of poetry.
This performance will last just under an hour and will include a live translation by American poet Geoffrey O'Brien, as well as improvisational music by experimental guitarist, Jean- François Pauvros. The event will be streamed live on the Location One website beginning at 7PM EST.
Poetic Spectrum - Images, Objects, and Words of Gozo Yoshimasu is made possible through the generous support of The Japan Foundation, as well as through contributions from members of Location One. Poetic Spectrum is a participating event of "US-Japan 150," a two-year nationwide festival commemorating the 150th anniversary of the inception of relations between the US and Japan in 1853. Thanks to Itoen Tea for its generous contribution of beverages.
For more information about Poetic Spectrum - Images, Objects, and Words of Gozo Yoshimasu and the artists involved in the September 23rd event, please see www.location1.org.
GOZO YOSHIMASU was born in Tokyo in 1939 and published his first book of poems entitled Shuppatsu (Departure) in 1964. Juxtaposing imagery of reality and memories of various locations, his poems open new vistas that reach one's collective consciousness. Yoshimasu is also known for his unusual, trance-like reading through which he has collaborated with artists such as Kazuo Ono and Nobuyoshi Araki. Considered to be an emblematic presence in postwar Japanese poetry, many of his poems have been translated into various languages. He has given readings at Centre Georges Pompidou (2000), Taipei International Poetry Festival (2001), and has exhibited his photographs and calligraphies at São Paulo Biennale (1990), Chambre de Commerce et Industrie, Strasbourg (2000), among others. In May 2003, he received the Purple Ribbon Award from the Japanese government for his significant cultural contributions.
ABOUT LOCATION ONE
Location One is a not-for profit art center whose mission is to foster the convergence of classic and new media for the development and presentation of new work. Emerging and established artists in all mediums from all over the world are invited to collaborate and experiment with advanced technological tools and delivery systems. Location One presents visual arts, performing arts and online programming. It maintains on its premises an International Residency Program that is open to artists from different fields of expression at all levels of experience in technology.
at Robert Beck Memorial Cinema/Collective Unconscious
145 Ludlow Street NY NY
Tuesday September 16th at 8:30pm
$5
This will be a performance of RASHOMON PIECE by Alan Licht. The film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa will be shown with the sound turned down. The audience must read the subtitles aloud, together. The purpose of the piece is to take the the audience members out of their usually passive roles as observers and to become active participants, aware of the people surrounding them and and their own power of speech--not merely awed and muted by the "miracles" of light and sound projected in front of them on the screen. The audience will create the soundtrack, not simply let a pre-programmed soundtrack created by unseen hands wash over them. No film screening like this has ever taken place before in the 100+ year history of cinemas; it is certain to be an event.
For more info--www.rbmc.net
Here's the skinny on my first ever poetry writing workshop -- maybe my last if you're lucky! For some reason the words "poetry workshop" doesn't appear in my class title -- which started as a joke but somehow snowballed into the officialdom -- but that's what it is.
***
Hello poets, prose-writers, playwrights, publishers, and those of other literary persuasions! Let's hear it for alliteration. Actually, let's hear it for our three BRAND-NEW WORKSHOPS, coming to The Poetry Project near you.
Fine Print:
The workshop fee is $300. This includes a one year Individual membership, as well as tuition for any and all workshops at the Poetry Project for the fall and spring. Reservations are required due to limited class space, and payment must be received in advance. Please send payment and reservations to:
The Poetry Project
St. Mark's Church
131 E. 10th St.
New York, NY 10003
This fall, our fearless leaders:
Poetry Workshop TONY TOWLE
TUESDAYS AT 7 PM: 10 Sessions Begin October 21st.
Towle writes, "It is assumed that participants will be serious, practicing poets. My critiques and suggestions will be made from the starting point of what the poet has already established, not advocating a total change of style. However, non-binding assignments will be suggested, perhaps on an individual basis, to expand the sensibility. Apollinaire, Keats, Stevens, Neruda, Max Jacob, Williams, and O'Hara are some of the writers who will be discussed, as well as more recent, lesser-known poets whose work will be talked about before their names are revealed. John Ashbery has written: "Tony Towle is one of the best-kept secrets of the New York School." His most recent books are The History of the Invitation: New & Selected Poems 1963-2000 and Memoir 1960-1963.
Genres & Games: A Poetry Workshop JOANNA FUHRMAN
FRIDAYS AT 7 PM: 10 Sessions Begin October 17th.
Fuhrman writes, "Our class will be a laboratory in which we explore and experiment with genres, styles and voices. The goal will be to develop the somewhat contradictory skills involved in poetry writing: the ability to let the imagination go crazy and to view work critically. The class will be comprised of three parts: assignments based on handouts, in-class writing games (often involving giant ski-ball dice), and supportive, constructive discussions of student work. Poets read will include: Maureen Owen, Wallace Stevens, Robert Creeley, Alice Notley, Tu Fu, John Ashbery, Elaine Equi, Rae Armantrout, David Shapiro, Jayne Cortez, Paul Violi and others." Joanna Fuhrman’s books include Freud in Brooklyn and Ugh Ugh Ocean.
Jai-Alai for Autocrats BRIAN KIM STEFANS
SATURDAYS AT 12 PM: 10 Sessions Begin October 18th.
Stefans writes, "This workshop will focus on the relationship between poems inspired by a sense of play - the way we appreciate words when they’re randomly, surprisingly conjoined - and work, which might be loosely described as poems that are subtly crafted, resistant to easy meanings, even ‘traditional.’ We’ll look at elements of prosody that extend beyond meter as it is generally understood - whether that be the counting of accents or the line by breath - into the use of literary masks, deviant syntaxes, Oulipian practices, writing in dialect (invented or not), and experiments with computers." Stefans’ books include Free Space Comix and Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics.
Please come to the opening of my show on Saturday, Sept 6 at
Brent Sikkema Gallery
530 West 22nd Street
from 6-8 PM
A glorious debauch will follow at
The Blarney Stone Pub
410 8th Ave (between W 30th St and W 31st St)
Corned Beef and Brisket will be served, with alacrity
INVITE EVERYONE
Ok, I'll stop this chatter in a moment... I've changed back to the old header with the Williamsburg sky -- photo taken right outside my window. This puts the Madame inside one of the buildings in the picture... get it? Very Waste Land-y, huh?
Occasionally, the Fox News team can be seen peering into my room, but on this particular day it was blank, like a very ill-designed satellite dish:
The old new header -- the one of the American flag in the UPS garaga (see below) is being used on all of the archive, individual entry pages, etc. I think it's just too loud for the homepage, which features enough colorful stuff as it is, generally.
Circulars isn't quite "back in action" but I've tinkered with the homepage so that the five or so most recent stories stay up rather than just the last story. It now has at least some of the feel of the site during its most productive periods. David Perry and I are still posting things every once in a while and the hit count is still pretty decent but most of the comments are simple slanders, flames, etc. with the occasional plug for a presidential candidate. If you see anything that you think should be on the site let me know... click on the rings to change the angles and engage the metaphor directly.
codeBase=http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=5,0,0,0
width=400>
quality=high bgcolor=#000000 WIDTH=400
TYPE="application/x-shockwave-flash"
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash">
Please join Rodrigo and I in lifting a glass of... something to, uh... ourselves, Tuesday, May 27th, to celebrate the launch of his excellent book of poems, Platform, and my curious book of essays and poems, Fashionable
Noise: On Digital Poetics, both just out from Atelos Press.
Where: Spoonbill and Sugartown bookstore, in the charming, little celebrated gated community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on 218 Bedford Avenue. It's the L train, stupide! (as zee French might say) -- zee Bedford stop, head south a few blocks.
What time: 7-9 (hours of the "magic light").
There will be wine, cheese, olives and depending on our attitudes toward formalities a brief reading, but I doubt it. I'm planning on selling my book on at a slight discount -- $10 ($3 off) -- don't know what Rodrigo's plans are but he might do the same. Get it while it's cheap. Tell friends to get it while it's cheap. Tell everyone.
Please read (but don't believe) the promo info below to be further persuaded of the necessity of your presence at this event. And there's nothing better than a Tuesday night of loitering on the streets of Wburg!
Cheers,
Brian
***
Rodrigo Toscano's Platform is a political one; his writings are predicated on the political conditions of contemporary life. But his work is not (and will never be) predicted by those conditions; indeed, outwitting, unnerving, and outspeaking the forces and figures clinging to control is one of his signal artistic strategies. It would be correct to read Platform as a triumphant product of precise and complex labor (thus adding to the tradition set by of Louis Zukofsky). But where the spirit of Johann Sebastian Bach informed Zukofsky's work, we would suggest that it is the spirit of the Teatro Campesino that informs Toscano's — his poems carry out brilliantly creative interventions. The works is bitingly inventive and yet delicately meticulous; outrageous, funny, anti-hypocritical, and "unfuckingrightgaggable," Platform is victory for the political intelligence whose exercise is now, more than ever, a human necessity.
Rodrigo Toscano grew up in San Diego. After a few years in the San Francisco Bay Area working as a social worker and an activist within the labor movement, he moved to New York, where he continues this work. He is a nationally influential writer, whose work along the intersections of social and aesthetic activism is adding new dimensions to contemporary poetics.
Platform is Rodrigo Toscano's third book. His first book, The Disparities, was published jointly by Green Integer and O Books in 2002. His second book, Partisans (which, due to a variety of circumstances, came out before his first), was published in 1999 by O Books.
http://www.atelos.org/platform.htm
***
Brian Kim Stefans' Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics eludes any singular description — it is too various. At once, Fashionable Noise explodes with ingredients of essay, games, and poetry, and it is always engaging, always thought provoking. How does limitless replication and change affect a dialogue one might try to have with another poet's words? What's so interesting about the hidden code behind the link Walt Disney that misdirects you, takes you to the wrong site? Stefans confronts these questions, and the ease with which he simultaneously discusses, investigates, and incorporates those elements that might make up a digital poetics is astounding. Generating poetry with a computer program, synthesizing Scots by using an algorithm accompanied by dictionaries, employing an ICQ chat transcript as the conduit for delivering a significant discussion on digital poetics: these are just a few examples of what readers will find in this book. Although "the webwork, unlike the earthwork, can never be photographed from a satellite perspective," Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics is on the forefront of mapping out a rapidly emerging, constantly morphing, virtual terrain.
Brian Kim Stefans is the author of Free Space Comix (1998), Gulf (1998/2000), and Angry Penguins (2000). He has been an active presence on the internet for several years, editing arras.net — a ceaselessly original site devoted to new media poetry and poetics — and creating works such as the acclaimed Flash poem "The Dreamlife of Letters" and a setting of the "e" chapter of Christian Bök's Christian Bök's Eunoia. He is an active literary and cultural critic, publishing frequently in the Boston Review, Jacket, and elsewhere. He lives in New York City.
http://www.atelos.org/fashionable.htm
[My book -- see below -- will also be available at this.]
ROOF, THE FIGURES, and GRANARY BOOKS
invite you to a party
Thursday, May 29th, 2003
at JAMES COHAN GALLERY
533 W. 26th Street, NYC
from 6-8
for the following new books:
SEEING OUT LOUD by Jerry Saltz
DAY by Kenneth Goldsmith
LIGHTS OUT by Geoffrey Young & James Siena
PAGE by Hannah Weiner
MUSIC OR HONESTY by Rod Smith
SNOWBALL'S CHANCE by John Reed
DURER IN THE WINDOW by Barbara Guest
THE DIK-DIK'S SOLITUDE: New & Selected Works by Anne Tardos
TURNING LEAVES OF MIND by Ligorano / Reese with Gerrit Lansing
YODELING INTO A KOTEX by Ron Padgett & George Schneeman
Refreshments Served
I should be receiving a package today with copies of my book -- it's 11:17 and it hasn't yet arrived, but any minute now. I've put up a file of "fashionable supplements" which includes some of the source files that contributed to the creation of the texts and poems in that book. The supplements include:
1. ICQ Chat Number
2. T.S. Eliot, Reflections on Vers Libre
3. Original poems from "When Lilacs Last in the Door"
4. Replacement algorithms for Scots translation of "Lilacs"
5. Thomas Gray, on the Death of Mr. Richard West
6. David Larsen, Dogma '01
None of this will be of any interest to you unless you have the book, which you can probably get soon at Small Press Distribution.
I've just gotten back from California. This blog has been dead for a while, no? I may just send it on it's way cross the Lethe. But here's a fun image for the new Kiki & Herb show that will be going up soon. More info about it below. I saw their Christmas show in March (they were in London during Xmas) and it was pretty fab. Better than the revolution in Rock that's apparently happening in Williamsburg, meiner Meinung nach (i.e. IMHO). Justin Bond (Kiki) has done work with everyone from the Boredoms to Stephen Merritt (I think), and has a solo show a la Ute Lemper (I think).
KIKI & HERB: COUP DE THÉATRE
Be the first to see the outrageous Kiki & Herb in their new production Kiki & Herb: Coup de Théatre.Theatre. All preview performances just $35
- April 25 through May 6 ONLY!
Kiki & Herb: Coup de Théatre is the wickedly funny story of the fictitious yet famed duo Kiki and Herb, whose career has careened through 5 decades of near success. Kiki & Herb: Coup de ThéatreThéatre, their newest theatrical spectacle, is a riotous spoof that combines an over-the-top storytelling with the reinvention of the best of the underground music scene, cabaret standards and surprise pop/rock favorites from Styx’ “Come Sail Away” to Suede’s “Big Time”, and songs from Radiohead, Eminem, Gil Scott Heron and The Association. Scott Elliott, (whose Broadway credits include The Women, Three Sisters and, Present Laughter, directs this production.
Audiences and critics around the world know and love this outrageous duo from previous Obie-award winning installments and sold out engagements performances.
“The best thing to happen to New York nightlife since Sound Factory!”
-- Time Out New York
“Kiki & Herb sings the blues with a chaser of rock, pop and pure
pathos!”
-- Next
Kiki (created and played by Justin Bond) is a brash, boozy septuagenarian chanteuse with a bruising vocal style and the ability to tell a story as few can. Herb (created and played by Kenny Mellman) is the shy, stalwart, long-time accompanist, who shows that still waters really do run deep as he periodically pounds the keys with a passion and vengeance all his own.
Take advantage of this exclusive preview offer – all seats, all performances through May 6 just $35 (after May 7 regular prices $55 - $50 apply).
Tues-Thurs at 8; Fri & Sat at 7 and 10
Cherry Lane Theater
38 Commerce Street (3 Blocks south of Christopher St., west of Seventh
Ave. South.)
ORDER YOUR TICKETS NOW!
Call Telecharge 212.239.6200 or online at www.telecharge.com <http://www.telecharge.com/> . Tickets also available at the Cherry Lane box office.
Limited offer through May 6th ONLY– all seats, all performances through May 6 only. This offer may be revoked at any time. Subject to availability. Not valid on prior purchases. All sales final. No refunds or exchanges. Telephone and internet orders subject to regular service charge.
The 2-part issue of poetry, essays and digital frauds and piccalillis, titled arras 5: riddled argots, is now available at arras.net.
With any luck I'll have time to explain what the title means in the near future, but for now, download this unholy duo of action-packed .pdfs at the following URL:
http://www.arras.net/arras_5.htm
part i
Featuring: Darren Wershler-Henry, Tim Atkins, Edwin Torres, a. rawlings, Jacques Debrot, Lisa Jevbratt, Gregory Whitehead, Kent Johnson, Craig Dworkin, Kevin Killian, Brian Kim Stefans, Caroline Bergvall, Reptilian Neolettrist Graphics, Mara Gálvez-Bretón, Jordan Davis, Katherine Parrish
part ii
Featuring: Kevin Davies, Katie Degentesh, Ira Lightman, Carol Mirakove, Lisa Jevbratt, Christian Bök, Gary Sullivan, Dagmar's Chili Pitas, Alice Becker-Ho, Free Space Comix, derek beaulieu, Jessica Grim, Rodrigo Toscano, Kenneth Goldsmith, Robert Fitterman, Darren Wershler-Henry
Complete table of contents below...
Art for both issues: Lisa Jevbratt : from Synchromail
Covers: derek beaulieu : from with wax
part i
Darren Wershler-Henry : Lang Po vs. the Wu-Tang
Tim Atkins : Written Never Meaning
Edwin Torres : 2 poems
a.rawlings : selections from LOGYoLOGY and wide slumber for lepidopterists
David Villeta : An Interview with Jacques Debrot
Gregory Whitehead : Bugs Bardo
Kent Johnson : Maireya (2)
Craig Dworkin : from Parse
Kevin Killian and Brian Kim Stefans : from The American Objectivists
Caroline Bergvall : more pets less girls
Reptilian Neolettrist Graphics : The Origins of the Korean War
Mara Gálvez-Bretón : What good is a silvery tongue / without a lover's body to savor?
Jordan Davis : from Equanimity
Katherine Parrish : "I in Error on the trail of the writing subject in digital procedural poetics. (essay)
part ii
Kevin Davies : 2 poems
Katie Degentesh : 4 poems
Ira Lightman : 6 Poems
Carol Mirakove : 4 from temporary tattoos
Christian Bök : NOYTA CCCP
Gary Sullivan : PPL IN A DEPOT (flarf play)
Toadex Hobogrammathon : from Dagmar Chili Pitas (a blog)
Alice Becker-Ho : The Language of Those In The Know (essay)
Free Space Comix : Suzanne Dathe, Grenoble, France-Can We Win?
derek beaulieu : 11 Poems from with wax
Jessica Grim : 4 poems
Rodrigo Toscano : 62 prose units written in illness
Kenneth Goldsmith : "Speedpass"
Robert Fitterman : from This Window Makes Me Feel
Darren Wershler-Henry: Writing Machines to Write to Writing Machines
[Another plug for this event, in case you're in town.]
Please join us at Slought Foundation for:
"Digital Fever: Case Studies in Archiving Art and Poetry"
A Public Conversation with Craig Dworkin, Kenny Goldsmith, Aaron Levy, Darren Wershler-Henry, and Brian Kim Stefans
Thursday April 10, 2003; 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
A textual correspondence and live critically-oriented roundtable on digital media and the future of archiving, featuring alternating models for archiving poetry and visual media currently operating online.
Information online: http://slought.org/toc/calendar/display.php?id=1144
This event will be recorded; Event is free to the public.
For more information, contact Aaron Levy, Director:
SLOUGHT FOUNDATION
4017 Walnut Street
Philadelphia PA 19104-3513
Ph/fax: 215.746.4239
info@slought.org
http://slought.org/
Biography:
Craig Dworkin edits Eclipse (www.princeton.edu/eclipse) and is the author of _Reading the Illegible_ (Northwestern U.P.), a critical investigation of the politics of misuse. Recent articles have appeared in October, Sagetrieb, and American Letters & Commentary. _Signature-Effects_, a book of visual poetry, is available from Small Press Distribution, and _PARSE_ is forthcoming from Atelos Press. Currently editing the selected poems of Vito Acconci and working on a book tentatively entitled _Misreading: A User's Manual_, he teaches 20th and 21st century avant-gardes in the Department of English at Princeton University.
Kenneth Goldsmith is a poet living in New York City. He is a music critic for New York Press and a DJ on WFMU. He is founding curator of Ubu.com
Aaron Levy is Curator and Executive Director of Slought Foundation, an arts organization, gallery, and archival resource engaging contemporary life through critical theories about art. His curatorial projects include ongoing lecture series, conferences, exhibitions, publications and recordings featuring artists and theorists, also online. As of this event, 8945 minutes (149 hours) of recorded media are currently available online in the Slought Foundaton archives at http://slought.org/
Darren Wershler-Henry, the former senior editor at Coach House Books/www.chbooks.com, is a writer, critic, and the author of two books of poetry, _NICHOLODEON: a book of lowerglyphs_, and _the tapeworm foundry_, shortlisted for the Trillium Prize. Darren is also the author/co-author of five books about technology and culture, including _FREE as in speech and beer_ and _Commonspace: Beyond Virtual Community_. Darren teaches in the school of Communications Studies at York University.
Brian Kim Stefans runs the media mini-empire www.arras.net, which includes arras.net, Free Space Comix: The Blog (www.arras.net/weblog) and Circulars (www.arrras.net/circulars), a multi-author anti-war blog maintained by poets. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Angry Penguins (Harry Tankoos, 2000). He edits the /ubu series of poetry ebooks on ubu.com (www.ubu.com/ubu), and his forthcoming book of essays, Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics, will be published by Atelos in the April 2003. He is a prolific critic and writes for the Boston Review among other publications. New work, including an interview, will soon be appearing on the Iowa Review web (www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/).
Dude, and I'll be doing this in Boston after I get back from SF. See the world, that's what they told me when I signed up to become a poet.
70 at MIT
A Cambridge Spring Poetry Festival
April 25th to April 27th 2003
FRI 4/25
7:00 Mike Chiumiento
7:15 Sueyeun Juliette Lee
7:30 David Perry
7:45 Laura Elrick
break
8:15 Mark Lamoureux
8:30 Caroline Crumpacker
8:45 Miles Champion
9:00 Marcella Durand
break
9:30 Anselm Berrigan
9:45 Kim Lyons
10:00 Jim Dunn
10:15 Aaron Kiely
SAT 4/26
11:00 Brandon Downing
11:15 Nada Gordon
11:30 Noah Eli Gordon
11:45 Jacqueline Waters
break
12:10 Sean Cole
12:25 Corina Copp
12:40 Judson Evans
12:55 Michael Brodeur
1:10 Sara Veglahn
break
1:35 Joe Elliot
1:50 Brenda Bordofsky
2:05 Tom Daley
2:20 Tim Peterson
break
2:45 Aaron Tieger
3:00 Dorothea Lasky
3:15 Patrick Doud
3:30 Melissa Goodrum
break
4: Africa Wayne
4:15 John Cotter
4:30 Amy Lipkin
4:45 Matvei Yankelevich
Saturday night
7:00 Nick Moudry
7:15 Christina Strong
7:30 John Colleti
7:45 Mariana Ruiz Firmat
break
8:10 Mitch Highfill
8:25 Karen Weiser
8:40 Jon Woodward
8:55 Sarah Manguso
break
9:20 Brenda Iijima
9:35 Yuri Hospodar
9:50 Cole Heinowitz
10:05 Douglas Rothschild
SUN 4/27
11:00 Rodrigo Toscano
11:15 Eric Baus
11:30 Daniel Nester
11:45 Mytili Jagannathan
break
12:10 Aaron Belz
12:25 Cheryl Clark
12:40 Brian Kim Stefans
12:55 Tracy McTague
1:10 David Baratier
break
1:35 Cris Mattison
1:50 Michael Carr
2:05 Oni Buchanan
2:20 John Mulrooney
break
2:45 Brendan Lorber
3:00 Wanda Phipps
3:15 Sam Truitt
3:30 Jenny Boully
break
3:55 Jack Kimball
4:10 Anna Moschovakis
4:25 Julien Porier
4:40 Gary Sullivan
__________
Jim Behrle
Events Director
Wordsworth Books
30 Brattle St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 354 5201
fax (617) 354 4674
jim@wordsworth.com
www.wordsworth.com
Hey... I'll be in San Francisco on April 17th and in Santa Cruz the 19th to play (I think) John Ashbery in the play Kevin Killian and I wrote together called The American Objectivists, nominated for five Wedgies in 2001 by the New York Theatre Critics Cockettes Circle. K. Silem Mohammed is playing Louis Zukofsky, and Kevin Killian is playing Celia, Louis' wife (who has a crush on John). Be there or be a square French teacher at Brooklyn Community College.
Poetry and the Inter-arts
April 18-19, 2003.
University of California, Santa Cruz: Porter College
Schedule
Friday, April 18: Prose/poetry
2-3:30: Workshops for Porter students in prose/poetry and performance/poetry:
Camille Roy and kari edwards
Location: Porter College, Bridge galleries
4-6: Panel discussion on "Poetry and The New Narrative" and "Poet's Theater":
Robert Gluck, Camille Roy, kari edwards, Dodie Bellamy, Kevin Killian.
Location: Porter College, Fireside Lounge
6-7:30: Dinner for poets + viewing of Konrad Steiner's film, Way,
based on Leslie Scalapino's poem of the same name.
Location: Porter College, Fireside Lounge
8:00-9:30: Reading: Robert Gluck, Camille Roy, Dodie Bellamy, kari edwards
Location: Porter College, Dining Room
10:00: Drinks and dessert
Location: Pearl Alley, downtown and upstairs from the queer dance bar, The Dakota.
Poets encouraged to spend the night and enjoy a Saturday in Santa Cruz, and join us for tomorrow's events. Please let me know if you would like me to make reservations for you at the Ocean Pacific Lodge, by the beach and boardwalk.
Saturday, April 19: Performance/poetry
4:30-6:00: Transcontinental Poetry Reading: a telecast live reading dedicated to Kenneth Koch: David Antin, Andrei Codrescu, Maria Damon, Kenward Elmslie, Forest Gander, Roxi Hamilton, Anselm Hollo, Lisa Jarnot, Ron Padgett, Keith Taylor, Anne Waldman,
Location: Porter College, Dining Room
6:30: Reception. Food and film before "Poet's Theater." Eat and mingle on the patio overlooking the ocean. Buy authors' books and have them signed. Wander into the Fireside Lounge next door and watch the films Way, a film of Leslie Scalapino's poem by the same name, and Cocteau Cento , a film drawing on the work of Jean Cocteau.
7:30-9: Poet's Theater: productions by Kevin Killian, Dhaia Tribe, and others.
Location: Porter College, Dining Room
I'll be in Philadelphia on April 10th for this all-guy event... please come if you're in the area, even if you're not a guy.
Presenting:
Craig Dworkin
Kenny Goldsmith
Aaron Levy
Louis Cabri
Darren Wershler-Henry
Brian Kim Stefans
Public Conversation: "Digital Fever: Case Studies in Archiving Art and Poetry"
Event Date: 2003-04-10 / 6:30 pm - 8:30pm
http://slought.org/toc/calendar/display.php?id=1144
[Here's an announcement for a project many friends of mine are involved with. Cynthia Hopkins should be a name known to you from the theatre world -- I know her as having written and sung songs for Mac Wellman plays. Anika is probably the first Dutch woman to sing for an all Japanese (and Dutch) country band -- it's called Konteree Bando (sp?), which is how you say "country band" in Japanese. If you're in the neighborhood...]
Transmsission Projects presents in association with GAle GAtes et al.
Compress Your Dreams
Compress your Dreams is written by Anika Tromholt Kristensen, with excerpts from Finnish playwright Michael Baran's You Don't Know What Love Is.
Choreographed and performed by Anika T. Kristensen and Okwui Okpokwasili.
Music composed & performed live by Cynthia Hopkins. Design by Tom Fruin and Jeff Sugg.
Performance Dates:
March 19 - March 23 , Wed - Sun @ 8 pm
March 25 - March 30, Tue - Sun @ 8 pm
April 2 - April 4, Wed - Fri @ 8 pm
Tickets: $12
Special benefit Saturday March 29, tickets $25 *see details below
Reservation and Information: 718-875-9177
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12 pm - 6 pm
Location: GAle GAtes et al., 37 Main Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn
As Transmission Projects strives to fuse performance and visual art, we have chosen the unique setting of GAle GAtes et al.'s highly visible gallery space for our venue to allow the sculptural installation to stand on its own as a piece of art during daytime gallery hours.
Our Benefit performance on March 29 will consist of the following ingredients:
-
performance at 8 pm
-
after party at LOW, bar below Rice
-
music by Koosil-Ja Hwang and a-un: Kenta Nagai & Tatsuya Nakatani
-
delicious hors d'oeuvres generously donated by LOW, served between 9:30-10:30pm
-
"The Silencer", a cocktail designed for the evening, the proceeds of which will benefit Transmission Projects
-
raffle, with many exciting prizes
-
Tickets for the benefit are $25 for performance and party, or $5 the at the door at LOW, the bar below Rice at 81 Washington Street, 718-222-1569, www.riceny.com/low
Compress your Dreams - a tribute to silence, is a story about a woman's isolated travel in repeated patterns in search of complete silence. On a journey through a noisy mind, she discovers that the silence has been with her the whole way... she just forgot to listen. On this journey she meets a personage of herself, embodied in another performer. We follow these women as they walk into the darkness of the north and the brightness of the ice.
It is a journey into an obscure dream world of singing polar bears and saw playing penguins. The piece is inspired by the harsh environment of the north pole. It draws on the theme of ice as a means of conservation and therefore a forbidding vault for the secrets of history, as well as a metaphor for emotional blockage - but a blockage with the potential for metamorphosis.
We hope to see you at our show.
Sincerely Transmission Projects
Hey friends, it's my birthday today, I'm having a party. E-mail me if you're in the New York area and didn't get an invite, I'll invite ya (if I know ya!).
[Hey dudes... I'm in this. To the six of you that visit here regularly, sorry again for not blogging. Long weekend, much work on Circulars, now there is no heat in my apartment, etc.
I gave these guys the first 20 of my revised Proverbs of Hell, which will be in Fashionable Noise whenever that comes out. Check it out (and don't bring it back)!]
Volume One of infLect: a journal of multimedia writing is now launched at www.ce.canberra.edu.au/inflect. infLect is based at the University of Canberra Centre for Writing. The journal showcases creative work which brings together text, visual images and sound into a reciprocal relationship, and also writing which combines critical and creative content. Volume One contains new work by Jim Andrews, geniwate, komninos, Ana Marie Uribe, Jason Nelson, Thomas Swiss, Motomichi Nakamura and Robot Friend, Hazel Smith and Roger Dean, and Brian Kim Stefans.
[Here's the show I'm most looking forward to in NYC in the coming months... and only $8! Devendra Banhart and The Animal Collective have been of my favorite eccentric listens lately. Google them to find out more...]
Sun, Feb. 16
$8
@Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street
Devendra Banhart: Devendra's Young God Records debut is already getting raves everywhere from Mojo to the NY Observer. "Devendra Barnhart is only 21, but his eerie, wavery voice and stream-of-consciousness songs -- ''the spirit is near, all the trees are dancing, ready to burn'' goes one lyric -- reach back to the childlike surrealism of some of psychedelia's most beloved oddballs, like Marc Bolan and Syd Barrett."--NY Times
Young People: L.A. folk-prog-noise band in the great tradition of Ghost, Orthrelm, Deerhoof, Hella, etc.
Guy Blakeslee/Entrance: Communing with roads, rotating onto stages nationwide, Guy and Devendra bring their youth and transience to bear in this unique double/ equal billing. A rotating orb of scarves and stars, dropping through the ozone of Skip James/ Vashti Bunyan/ Marc Bolan to arrive and cheer the roots through and through! Special Guests in each city will vary and delight all comers, guaranteed.
Animal Collective: Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist & Deaken: Mystical shimmering sounds of the forest, organic electronics and synthetic sounds of nature.
statements and responses by poets and literary critics
concerning u.s. foreign policy
I'd like to announce the "soft launch" of a new multi-authored blog, CIRCULARS. I'll refrain from laying out the specific intentions of the site except to point to my original "mission statement" later in this email, and to list the three purposes that I see the site serving:
1. To be a central message board for poets concerning significant actions or events that pertain to progressive politics -- an "action center."
2. A storehouse of statements by poets, artists, etc., concerning US war policy, etc., including updates on activities ("Debunker" mentality, reading groups, etc.) -- the "conscience of the community."
3. A place to practice and investigate a form of writing I call the "circular," which is that type of brief, quasi-manifesto (or humorous, or polemic) statement that can be zinged around the internet (and also be printed out) that contributes to the general pool of rhetorical strategies (tones, tropes, emphases) that can be employed in making passionate, relevant critiques of war policy, etc. -- a "workshop"
At this point I am the only editor for the site but I'm putting together materials and will invite people to have author privileges to the site as time goes by. I don't want to just open the site up to everybody since my fear is that it will quickly lose focus and become a glorified links site rather than the workshop/activist site I envision. I'm still working out this structure; also, the design of the site, including sidebar, graphics, etc., is rudimentary at the moment. Other features will include guest edited "sub-sites" that target more activist, or theoretical, issues.
PLEASE NOTE: because I'm presently the only editor, please don't send me a flood of emails making special requests -- a nice note is always welcome, a little feedback, yes, but for now I'd rather not spend too much time answering emails as I'm quite busy putting together training materials, designing the site, etc.
My hope is not to receive too many submissions until I have the editorial structure in place. If you do come across, or write, something you think belongs here then, yes, send it on, but I have no intention of collecting everything written by a poet that expresses anti-war sentiment -- there's just too much. Please read the statement below and look the site over first before submitting -- this is not a literary journal.
THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO is to put your email address in the notification list box on the upper righthand corner of the screen. If you are receiving this email it is either because you are in my private address book or on some listserv that I'm a member of. But I don't want to use my address book to send out CIRCULARS announcements -- SO PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN THE CUTE LITTLE BOX. (pwetty pwease?)
Take care,
Brian Kim Stefans
---
Contents so far:
mnftiu.cc: Get Your War On
Paul Chan: Statement for a Certain National Press Club in Washington DC (Draft V.2)
Alan Gilbert: The Present Versus (the) Now
Situationist International: Détournement as Negation and Prelude
Eliot Weinberger: Statement for "Poetry is News" conference
Alan Gilbert: "Startling and Effective": Writing Art and Politics after 9/11
AP: White House Cancels Poetry Symposium
---
[Below is the original set of ideas I put together the insomniac night when this website took shape in my mind. I hope to revise it and include it in a sidebar to give the site some specific identity distinct from other art/politics website -- a sense that this site investigates a form as much as operates in the chain of activist sites -- but for now, I'll let it be provisional.]
CIRCULARS: MISSION STATEMENT (v. 1)
CIRCULARS intends to focus some of the disparate energy by poets and literary critics to enunciate a response to U.S. foreign policy, most significantly the move to war with Iraq.
CIRCULARS intends to critique and/or augment some conventional modes of expressing political views that are either entirely analytical, ironic or humanistic. These are all valuable approaches, of course, and not unwelcome on CIRCULARS, but our hope is to create a dynamic, persuasive idiom that can work in a public sphere, mingling elements of rhetoric and stylistics associated with the aforementioned modes -- analytical, ironic or humanistic.
CIRCULARS is, in this sense, a workshop -- a place to explore strategies.
CIRCULARS was not created in the spirit of believing that all poets should be "political" or even "social" in nature. While such arguments are free to be made on the website, and poems related to the themes of the site are (selectively) welcome, the focus is on articulating statements that are unique to the poetry community while not speaking for "poetry."
CIRCULARS holds no party line, nor is it particularly adherent to notions of the "avant-garde." All perspectives are welcome provided they are articulated intelligently or (in some cases) amusingly, and that they do not articulate perspectives or advocate actions that are, in the editors' judgment, of an entirely unethical nature.
CIRCULARS understands that, in the world of the internet, the link can be as powerful as word of mouth, and is itself the prize of an effective rhetorical strategy. These are "circulars" because they are circulated.
What we want:
Original writing -- book reviews, manifestos, modest proposals, etc. -- is, of course, most welcome, but also writing from listservs that are otherwise not public, as well as statements originally appearing on other websites, blogs or in print. (The content of CIRCULARS can appear elsewhere, but if you do reproduce the text please include a link to the original page.)
Multimedia submissions are welcome. This would include pages that work within the design structure of CIRCULARS involving visual, sound, animated and interactive components. However, we don't plan on doing more than installing a piece that the contributor has already completed, since we don't anticipate having much time to collaborate on pieces.
Though the site's primary focus will be on opinion, announcements and reports about activities related to the themes of this site -- performances, readings, actions -- are welcome. Links to other sites, articles, scandals, and events are also encouraged. Some poetry will appear here, but at the discretion of the editors.
Structure:
Entries will be categorized and archives according to themes or, in some cases, according to author. This system, however imperfect, will allow visitors to the site to catch up on threads of dialogue with some ease. Entries will also be archived according to month, as is standard with weblogs.
There will be an unmoderated comments section, but the editors reserve the right to cancel entries that are deemed offensive. This would include personal attacks on individuals associated with the site, and comments of a racist, sexist or otherwise demeaning nature.
Contributors are invited to utilize this space for open forums, with the understanding that other material will intermingle with their own as it arrives, and that this material might contradict the main focus of such forums. In this case, a special archive category can be created linking entries related to the forum.
Note on design:
The present design is just one of the standard templates of movabletype.org -- we hope to make it a little more distinctive soon! Other elements, such as a blogroll, links, etc., will be added over time. Any feedback concerning the design of this site -- readability, functionality -- is welcome.
[I'm told that John and I are the headliners at this one, though frankly nothing else about this e-vite suggests that. But in any case, those of you who are generally wary of a 4-reader deal can be assured I go on either 1st or 2nd, at least that's what Christopher told me. In any case, I hear Christopher puts on a great evening regardless of the number of performers.
John Reed is the author of Snowball's Chance, a parodic sequel to Orwell's Animal Farm which is creating some controversy on the other side of the pond. Sharon Mesmer's a friend of mine who is quite funny and should be great. I have no idea who Blue is, unless he has something to do with that NY performance art group... sure, bet no one's made that joke before.]
FIRST TUESDAYS READING SERIES AT
A TASTE OF ART
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 4TH, 2003 7-9P
147 Duane Street (between Church and West Broadway)
New York, NY 10013 TRIBECA
Phone: 212.964.5493
Fax: 212.964.2671
Features: Brian Kim Stefans, BLUE, Sharon Mesmer, John Reed
Curated and hosted by Christopher Stackhouse
FREE ADMISSION
John Reed is the author of SNOWBALL'S CHANCE, the controversial parody of George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM. SNOWBALL'S CHANCE (Roof Books, hardback, 2002)is currently available at your local bookstore or online. Reed's first novel, A STILL SMALL VOICE (Delacorte, 2000) is now available in paperback (Delta, 2001).
Sharon Mesmer is the author of HALF ANGEL, HALF LUNCH (poems, Hard Press) and THE EMPTY QUARTER (stories, Hanging Loose Press), the recipient of a 1999 New York Foundation for the Arts grant in poetry, and fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, Hawthornden Castle (Scotland), and Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain). She teaches fiction writing and literature at the New School.
Poet/performance artist, Blue, was born in New York City. He is the author and publisher of chapbooks "Just Blue" and "Corner Stores in the Middle of the Block". He has appeared in television commercials, and Off-Broadway productions "Sex is More Than a Three Letter Word", BET's "106" and "Park".
Brian Kim Stefans is the author of three books of poetry; his forthcoming book of essays, Fashionable Noise, is due in March 2003 from Atelos. He is the editor / creator of arras.net and Free Space Comix: The Blog, and writes frequently for the Boston Review, Publisher's Weekly and other rags.
Directions:
by subway :
from the Westside take the 1, 2 train to Franklin or 1,2,3,9,A,C,E to
Chambers
from the Eastside take the 5, 6, N or R train and get off at Chambers.
by car:
from the Westside:Take the West Side highway or 7th Avenue all the way down
to West Broadway. Turn left on Duane
from the Eastside:Take the FDR to Houston, then turn south on Broadway all
the way to Reade. Make a right on Reade. Make a right on Hudson to Duane.
For all other inquiries you can contact us at info@atasteofart.com
Curator's Note:
Quotes from a favorite book relevant to a view of art, literature, the
making of poetry, however speaking to the building of buildings:
"The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central
search of any person, and the crux of any individual person's story. It is
the search for those moments and situations when we are most alive."
Opening to Chapter 3 ON BEING ALIVE of "The Timeless Way of Building" by
Christopher Alexander
"And when a building has this fire, then it becomes a part of nature. Like
ocean waves, or blades of grass, its parts are governed by the endless play
of repetition and variety, created in the presence of the fact that all
things pass. This is quality itself."
Opening to Chapter 8 THE QUALITY ITSELF of "The Timeless Way of Building" by
Christopher Alexander
Join us Tuesday Feb. 4th 7-9p for a fine group of readers, some good
chocolate, and a wonderful glass of a carmenere/cabernet sauvignon
blend.....among other things....
Keep warm, Christopher Stackhouse
c_stackhouse@lycos.com 212. 802. 9363
This lyric was just being emitted from my CD player as I prepared to make the announcement that, indeed, Free Space Comix:The Blog has a "mailing list" that you can join (see right column).
I don't expect anyone to join, actually, most of the readers of my blog are either 1) non-joiners by nature (or biology) and 2) already looking at it daily so do not need to receive emails about new postings. But for those of you interested, the idea is that you would receive an email notification when there are MAJOR new postings to the blog. That is, every little burp and quibble will not bring you unwanted spam, but when longish, considered pieces, such as Carol's, Keston's, etc. (see below) appear, you'll get an email. If nobody signs up, of course, I'll quasha the idea.
Many of you receive emails from me anyway already so if that's the case there's no need to sign up. But if you don't receive emails... you'll also get update notices about arras.net, which I encourage y'all to look at.
Readers of this blog have also probably noticed that I haven't tended to use it as a daily record of my thoughts on poetry, life, politics, etc. beyond the little things that I've been calling "skids" and which are mostly pretty cryptic, however accurate as gauges of my moods and, through the miracle of refraction (some call it "influence," others "utter lack of originality"), my attitude toward poetry at the time. But rest assured, I'm not acting like Charles de Gaulle and letting silence, and the military, speak for me, I just haven't thought of anything to say that makes sense to put on a blog, and am a fairly active critic elsewhere so don't see much need to lay it on much thicker. If my blog payed me $10 every time I came up with a good idea I'd probably write for it more often.
I also read a lot less than people think I do, and don't want to make that fact glaringly obvious. My spelling is bad, half the time I'm very depressed and just want to read about tennis, the other half simply unimpressed with my ability to pontificate with significant charisma or, when that is lacking, paternal authority. I also have a new book coming out, and don't want to trash my meager reputation by saying something racist, sexist, classist, agist, new yorkist or prog-rockist on the blog, as I am wont to do in moments of stress.
But sluriously folks, I've been enjoying reading the blogs, especially Heriberto's and Brandon's (see right) -- but I read them all. Once I get the VOG (voice of god) up and running again, you'll see more BLOG (brian's laughing orange guerrilla) in the future. (Fans of David Bowie will notice the evasion of the word "gnome" in the previous acronym.)
Hey yo... I've begun tinkering with a comments sidebar. You can see what small progress I've made on the right. Actually, I just tried a few of the links and it doesn't work, but give it time!
I'm trying to figure out how to get the blog entry into the sidebar as well, like on Brandon's TextURL. I'm sure to get it soon, but for now you can see what have been posting to my site so far and the cast of zany characters who frequent my pad.
is ready to stamp out coffee-tables nationwide.
The idea behind the issue is to introduce to British readers three poets from the U.S. who are not so well known here, through setting the poets' own work alongside two essays, one by a reader from the U.S. and one by a reader from Britain. The U.S. readers were in each case chosen by the poet herself and are familiar with the work, so that their essays are written out of an ongoing engagement; the readers from Britain were (with one exception) not at all familiar with the work they wrote on and so produced essays that are primary engagements.
CONTENT:
Introduction by Keston Sutherland
POEMS BY LAURA ELRICK
Essays on Elrick by Taylor Brady (US) and Andrea Brady (UK)
POEMS BY HEATHER FULLER
Essays on Fuller by Kristen Gallagher (US) and Ian Patterson (UK)
POEMS BY CAROL MIRAKOVE
Essays on Mirakove by Brian Kim Stefans (US) and Keston Sutherland (UK)
+
In the U.S., QUID costs $4, postage paid. Please make checks payable to Carol Mirakove.
Elsewhere, please contact Keston Sutherland
THE MOST HIDEOUS POSTER YOU HAVE EVER SEEN
arras.net/mini_digi_fest.htm
was created to announce:
THE SEGUE READING SERIES AT THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB
Mini-Festival of (so-called*) Digital Poetry
:::featuring performances and presentations by
Angela Rawlings (Toronto): www.commutiny.net/
Patrick Herron (Chapel Hill): www.proximate.org
Noah Wardrip-Fruin (New York): www.impermanenceagent.com
Paul Chan (New York): nationalphilistine.com/alternumerics/
Aya Karpinska (New York): www.technekai.com/aya/
Loss Pequeno Glazier (Buffalo): epc.buffalo.edu/authors/glazier/
The Prize Budget for Boys(Toronto) who are: Neil Hennessy (The Jabber Engine and Basho's Frogger, at www.ubu.com), Jason Le Heup & Ian Hooper
:::and?
AND there will be a panel discussion afterwards immoderated by Brian Kim Stefans (curator and organizer)
AND it's 2-fer-1 drinks and it's not shameful to start at 4pm for a poet/poetry goer
AND you may know what they've done online but we guarantee that the presence / performance / presentation will be entirely new (to you)
AND there's a rumor the legendary Toronto sound poetry group The Four Horsemen may perform (wink wink wink)
:::where?
308 BOWERY, JUST NORTH OF HOUSTON, NYC, USA
:::when?
SATURDAY, NOV 23rd, FROM 4 - 7 PM
:::and what, pray tell, does it cost?
$5 admission goes to support the readers
all of this information is repeated on the
THE MOST HIDEOUS POSTER YOU HAVE EVER SEEN
http://www.arras.net/mini_digi_fest.htm
I hope you can make it -- should be fun, an eye opener, and bring your questions!
* The use of the phrase "so-called" prior to an aesthetic categorization is an old experimental poetry tradition; please disregard if it causes you unusual discomfort.
I've been working on creating a flyer for the Mini Digital Poetry Festival and have had little inspiration except to drop things in here and there, make jokes, etc. So here is a version of it -- I think I will clean it up considerably, but there's something to be said for the scotch-taped-to-a-bus-stop feel of this, kind of old school punk poster / ransom note (but different):
SEGUE READING SERIES AT THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB
308 BOWERY, JUST NORTH OF HOUSTON
SATURDAYS FROM 4 - 6 PM
$4 admission goes to support the readers
Funding is made possible by the continuing support of the Segue Foundation and the Literature Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.
Curators:
October/November--Brian Kim Stefans & Gary Sullivan
Phoebe Gloeckner, a critically-acclaimed cartoonist originally from the Bay Area (where she performed in a number of Kevin Killian's plays), recently moved to Long Island. She is the author of the searing and occasionally banned A Child's Life and a brand-new hybrid novel/journal/comic book, Diary of a Teenage Girl (both from North Atlantic Books). Read her work at www.ravenblond.com/pgloeckner/.
One of the Bay Area's most beloved poets, Kathleen Fraser was a founding editor of How(ever) and its online manifestation, How2. More importantly, she is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, each more inventive than the next. About her Selected Poems, Patrick Pritchett notes her "devotion to discovery, her willingness to risk, and her profoundly lyrical sense of the intimate." Her homepage is at: http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/fraser/.
SEGUE READING SERIES AT THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB
308 BOWERY, JUST NORTH OF HOUSTON
Saturday, Nov. 2, 4-6
$4 admission goes to support the readers
Curators:
Brian Kim Stefans & Gary Sullivan
Deirdre Kovac, a one time Detroiter, now lives in Brooklyn. Her work has most recently appeared in 100 Days (Barque), Crayon, and The Capilano Review (Boo), and is forthcoming in Shiny. Her first book, Mannerism, is indeterminately forthcoming.
Lytle Shaw's books include The Lobe (Roof, 2001) and Cable Factory 20 (Atelos, 1999) as well as several collaborations with the painter Emilie Clark, with whom he co-edits Shark, a journal of art and writing. Shaw also curates a rival reading series at the Drawing Center.
Essay: http://www.jacket.zip.com.au/jacket10/shaw-on-ohara.html
Poems: http://www.jacket.zip.com.au/jacket10/shaw-poems.html
I've been given a cease and desist from the New York Times regarding the use of their images and homepage design and the use of their advertiser's images in my Raoul Vaneigem series.
I knew this would happen eventually, and don't see any real need to argue with them as I didn't intend these detournements to be anything more than graffiti on a wall, subject to the elements. I'm taking them down in 5 days -- they requested they come down in 10 days, but I'm being a nice guy.
However, I'd like to give anyone who wants the chance to download the page for their own private viewing (not to put on their website).
I should explain that I didn't actually write any of the text that appears in these pieces. Anything that was not part of the original NY Times article was taken from the writings of Raoul Vaneigem, the French Situationist, either from The Revolution of Everyday Life or from Contributions to The Revolutionary Struggle, Intended To Be Discussed, Corrected, And Principally, Put Into Practice Without Delay. Both of these texts can be found at nothingness.org
Blair Presents Dossier on Iraq's Biological Weapons
Daschle Denounces Bush Remarks on Iraq as Partisan
Clinton Says He Backs Tough U.N. Resolution on Iraq Inspections
SEGUE READING SERIES AT THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB
http://www.segue.org/calendar/calendar_index.htm
http://www.bowerypoetry.com/
308 BOWERY, JUST NORTH OF HOUSTON
Saturday, October 26
4 (sharp) - 6 PM
$4 admission goes to support the readers
Curators:
Brian Kim Stefans & Gary Sullivan
::Jackson Mac Low::
Publishers Weekly once called Jackson Mac Low "America's most indefatigable experimental poet"‹he's also been one of the most influential. The long-awaited, 250-page Doings: Assorted Performance Pieces 19552002 was just published by Granary Books. A nice selection of his work can be found at: http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/maclow/.
::Maggie O'Sullivan::
Publishers Weekly may not have called Maggie O'Sullivan anything, but she is one of England's most indefatigable experimental poets, having published fourteen books including Unofficial Word (Galloping Dog, 1998) and In the House of the Shaman (Reality Street, 1993). She edited Out Of Everywhere: Linguistically Innovative Poetry by Women in North America & the UK (Reality Street, 1996).
AT THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB
www.bowerypoetry.com
308 BOWERY, JUST NORTH OF HOUSTON
SATURDAY, October 19 FROM 4 - 6 PM
$4 admission goes to support the readers
Curators: Brian Kim Stefans & Gary Sullivan
Gregory Whitehead's voiceworks and radio plays include The Pleasure of Ruins, Pressures of the Unspeakable and The Thing About Bugs. His writings on language and electronic media have been widely anthologized, and he is the co-editor of Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio and the Avant-Garde (MIT Press). He wants to talk about squid.
Bio, bibliography, selected work:
www.location1.org/artists/whitehead.html
If we think of Bill Berkson as bi-coastal, it's only because we were so smitten by his recently re-published collaborative work with Frank O'Hara, Hymns of St. Bridget & Other Writings (The Owl Press). But, yes, to be fair to him -- and the west coast -- he has, for many years now, been one of the Bay Area's brightest shining stars, with an oeuvre that includes everything from art writing to the poems and prose of Serenade (Zoland Books). Don't miss his rare east-coast visit!
Interview:
www.twc.org/forums/poetschat/poetschat_bberkson.html
SEGUE READING SERIES AT THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB
308 BOWERY, JUST NORTH OF HOUSTON
SATURDAYS FROM 4 - 6 PM
$4 admission goes to support the readers
Curators:
October/November--Brian Kim Stefans & Gary Sullivan
October 12: Carol Mirakove and John Wilkinson
Carol Mirakove is the author of WALL (ixnay press, 1999) and a founding member of the subpress collective, with whom she published Edwin Torres' Fractured Humorous (1999). Her forthcoming book is titled Temporary Tattoos, to be published by BabySelf Press in Brooklyn. New work is featured in issue 11 of Cambridge, England's QUID.
Poetry: www.theeastvillage.com/t12/mirakove/a.htm
Interview: home.jps.net/~nada/cmirakove.htm
John Wilkinson is also visiting us from England, and is the author of Oort's Cloud: Earlier Poems (subpress, 2000) -- a "kaiserschnitt of sovereign dismemberment" to those in the know -- the great Flung Clear (Parataxis, 1994), a kaisershnitt of six book-length works; and most recently Effigies Against the Light (Salt, 2001). This is a rare New York appearance.
Interview: angel-exhaust.offworld.org/html/issue-9-10/Wilkinson.html
Review: www.jacket.zip.com.au/jacket09/brady-rev-wilkinson.html