Tom Beckett is Still Editing His MiPoesias Issue
but not for long:
How to send Tom Beckett work for MiPoesias {click here}
Distribution Automatique
Saturday, May 7
Facing the Gallows at Flux Factory
An interview with Grant Bailie about his upcoming month's
"monk like" devotion to Art {click here}
*****************************************************************
::fait accompli:: review of
*Cloud 8* by Grant Bailie {click here}
****************************************************************
FLUX FACTORY
is at 38-38 43rd Street in Long Island City, Queens. It now encompasses 7,500 square feet and the population of Flux Factory has grown to approximately fifty individuals internationally.
take the #7 train at Times Square/42cd Street
to 40th Street/Lowery Street stop and
walk 5 blocks
An interview with Grant Bailie about his upcoming month's
"monk like" devotion to Art {click here}
*****************************************************************
::fait accompli:: review of
*Cloud 8* by Grant Bailie {click here}
****************************************************************
FLUX FACTORY
is at 38-38 43rd Street in Long Island City, Queens. It now encompasses 7,500 square feet and the population of Flux Factory has grown to approximately fifty individuals internationally.
take the #7 train at Times Square/42cd Street
to 40th Street/Lowery Street stop and
walk 5 blocks
Friday, May 6
Take A Bow
Grant Bailie, author of *Cloud 8*, Laurie Stone and
Ranbir Sidhu will participate in a unique writing
experiment over the next month-writing a complete
novel on the spot. Opening party
at Flux Factory this Saturday, May 7th 7-10pm {click here}
****************************************************************
Tickets have just gone on sale for *Shadowtime*,
an opera about Walter Benjamin, libretto
by Charles Bernstein
Shadowtime {click here}
****************************************************************
Bowery Poetry Club
Saturday, May 7 2005
4:00pm
Segue: DOUGLAS ROTHSCHILD and STAN APPS $5
Douglas Rothschild is the creator and host of “The Poetry Game Show”
currently running at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York.
He has also served as Curator of the Zinc Bar Reading Series
and the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, and is a
Co-Founder of Subpress. His books include
The Minor Arcana (Bivouac/subpress) and MatchBook (Situation).
He lives in Albany, NY.
Stan Apps was born in Canada and has lived in Texas and California.
He has recently published poems in Mirage#4/Period(Ical).
His chapbook, Barbara Bush’s Visit on Behalf of the Chosen One
(umbrellad devil press) was performed by the Oracular Vagina Collective at
L.A.’s Inshallah Gallery. Stan has a blog (refried ORACLE phone)
and a few collaborative blogs, such as bed bird bed
(whereisericbara.blogspot.com) with Marco Saenz,
and genius nieces (geniusnieces.blogspot.com) with
Ara Shirinyan. A chapbook is forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse.
Grant Bailie, author of *Cloud 8*, Laurie Stone and
Ranbir Sidhu will participate in a unique writing
experiment over the next month-writing a complete
novel on the spot. Opening party
at Flux Factory this Saturday, May 7th 7-10pm {click here}
****************************************************************
Tickets have just gone on sale for *Shadowtime*,
an opera about Walter Benjamin, libretto
by Charles Bernstein
Shadowtime {click here}
****************************************************************
Bowery Poetry Club
Saturday, May 7 2005
4:00pm
Segue: DOUGLAS ROTHSCHILD and STAN APPS $5
Douglas Rothschild is the creator and host of “The Poetry Game Show”
currently running at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York.
He has also served as Curator of the Zinc Bar Reading Series
and the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church, and is a
Co-Founder of Subpress. His books include
The Minor Arcana (Bivouac/subpress) and MatchBook (Situation).
He lives in Albany, NY.
Stan Apps was born in Canada and has lived in Texas and California.
He has recently published poems in Mirage#4/Period(Ical).
His chapbook, Barbara Bush’s Visit on Behalf of the Chosen One
(umbrellad devil press) was performed by the Oracular Vagina Collective at
L.A.’s Inshallah Gallery. Stan has a blog (refried ORACLE phone)
and a few collaborative blogs, such as bed bird bed
(whereisericbara.blogspot.com) with Marco Saenz,
and genius nieces (geniusnieces.blogspot.com) with
Ara Shirinyan. A chapbook is forthcoming from Ugly Duckling Presse.
Thursday, May 5
Life and Art on the Suny/Buffalo Poetics List
Awhile ago, a discussion that, for once,
wasn’t about the list itself emerged on the
poetics list. It is about the life versus the
work of the poet. Some of the remarks
a few days ago inspired me to
scribble the following.
You can read the listserv by clicking here:
Poetics List Archives {click here}
To contribute to the discussion, follow the instructions for
subscribing. At the present time, the list is calling for
writing on poetry and poetics; we would
love to see many more reviews of books, chapbooks
and blogs by contemporary writers as well as focused commentary on
related issues.
.
Anyway, here’s
my brief recent offering:
on the life versus the work of a poet
Obviously, over time, poets' works and lives
are interwoven in the public imagination, and are occasionally
seen together as representative of an era and even have been
claimed by some to usher in an artistic era. In this case, the
"humanity" of the poet is looked at closely. Think of Mallarme
in this light; few ardent readers have not read about and
visualized his famous "Tuesday night" soirees, attended
by such luminaries as Debussy. Mallarme and
Baudelaire's interest in the visual arts
have been a great influence on countless subsequent poets.
A fascinating example of this tendency are the oft-cited
discussions of Walter Benjamin on Baudelaire. Baudelaire's
way of handling his poverty, and the fact that his poetry
remained largely unrecognized in his lifetime helped to
create the very concept of the "bohemian" lifestyle.
Think of how Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein are
depicted not only in the light of their works, but their lives.
The "imperfections" of an artist's life might later be seen as an
opening for liberating possibilities for the lifestyles of countless
others. My favorite book on this is Shattuck's *The Banquet Years.*
Despite the earnest and sincere efforts on the part of
many critics and theorists to separate poets' lives
from their works, readers of poetry and people
on the whole generally connect the two. Who
hasn't thought about the implications of Kafka asking, shortly
before he died, that his writing be destroyed by his best friend,
who, thankfully, disregarded this? There are so many
examples of such anecdotes that shape the
way we regard a writer's works.
For me, "biography" or published biographies do not represent
the totality of the continued cultural presence of anyone,
particularly their crucial cultural "imago," least of all that of a poet.
There was a life lived; it is experienced and remembered in
certain ways; there were words written, and things said; these are
initially experienced in a cultural context and then recorded
and remembered in certain ways. Most people who become
fascinated with a book or a movie eventually want to know
everything they can learn about the person who wrote
the book or made the movie. This is because the movie has
caused them to think about the experience we call "life."
Countless memoirs and biographies continue to appear
about Sylvia Plath, for example. Most of her readers do not
content themselves with rereading her poems.
They want to know more. A better example might be the record
made of the life of Wallace Stevens, "Parts of a World Remembered",
where nearly every living person who knew Wallace Stevens
at all was interviewed. Paul Celan's poetry is loved, treasured even,
but the reality of his cultural presence evolved not only from the publication
of the poems themselves. These reflected things thought and spoken by an actual
living person. Celan is a "character" is the ongoing cinema we call "real life."
JW's [list member's] statement, for me, somewhat discounts this aspect
of dream in so-called "real life." There are no such sharp distinctions in the life
of art, in either its creation or its reception. Check out D.A. Levy's
*Translating Tradition* concerning Paul Celan, for example.
The cultural role of Celan grows more complex and interwoven with the lives of countless people each and every day. This isn't only because of the poems.
Pavese is another great example. Poet suicides go to the heart
of the issue we are discussing here. Their final acts are just as much
a "statement" as anything that was written or said by them.
Their works and their lives constitute a total "statement." We
don't just read, we feel, we empathize, we have antipathies,
we react, we identify. Writing and reading poetry, or any literature,
or significantly experiencing any work of art, is also partly
an adventure in personal insight and transformation.
It is utterly "personal", even when contemporary life at the
moment is less and less so. Poetry and poets and all artists
struggle to enliven the personal, individual aspect of living.
I would imagine at one time people talked about poetry-
even here on the list the still do sometimes- the way now
almost everyone talks about movies, movie actors, directors, etc. *Blade
Runner* is a cultural touchstone in every detail now. Book after
book keeps appearing offering more and more information, opinion
and insight. At one time the same thing happened with Byron.
Such discussion is not just for the purpose of intellectual
understanding. It is part and parcel of cultural experience,
in the sense that culture is a work in process, wherein artistic
works and lives are interventions in the process, interventions
towards change, nor "progress" but mutative transformation.
Andy Warhol played off these blurry boundaries between art
and life more or less constantly. He carried a tape recorder
around he called his companion and published he diaries
and journals even though he was mainly a visual artist. He did
this with humor and irony; nevertheless the presence of living
people was crucial; out of this he created his films in which his
"stars" were very deliberately people in the act of living their lives,
also trying to become *stars* themselves. OK, they were underpaid
but that's another story.
The Dada poets, and in a more diluted way, the surrealists
were out to make just this point. But in a literary culture obsessed
with critique and evaluation of a poet's book's "greatness",
it is only the actual product that counts, not the person who creates it.
In art the story is different; everything counts.
******************************************************************************
Drew Gardner on Tim Hawkinson
Overlap (Drew Gardner)
Awhile ago, a discussion that, for once,
wasn’t about the list itself emerged on the
poetics list. It is about the life versus the
work of the poet. Some of the remarks
a few days ago inspired me to
scribble the following.
You can read the listserv by clicking here:
Poetics List Archives {click here}
To contribute to the discussion, follow the instructions for
subscribing. At the present time, the list is calling for
writing on poetry and poetics; we would
love to see many more reviews of books, chapbooks
and blogs by contemporary writers as well as focused commentary on
related issues.
.
Anyway, here’s
my brief recent offering:
on the life versus the work of a poet
Obviously, over time, poets' works and lives
are interwoven in the public imagination, and are occasionally
seen together as representative of an era and even have been
claimed by some to usher in an artistic era. In this case, the
"humanity" of the poet is looked at closely. Think of Mallarme
in this light; few ardent readers have not read about and
visualized his famous "Tuesday night" soirees, attended
by such luminaries as Debussy. Mallarme and
Baudelaire's interest in the visual arts
have been a great influence on countless subsequent poets.
A fascinating example of this tendency are the oft-cited
discussions of Walter Benjamin on Baudelaire. Baudelaire's
way of handling his poverty, and the fact that his poetry
remained largely unrecognized in his lifetime helped to
create the very concept of the "bohemian" lifestyle.
Think of how Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein are
depicted not only in the light of their works, but their lives.
The "imperfections" of an artist's life might later be seen as an
opening for liberating possibilities for the lifestyles of countless
others. My favorite book on this is Shattuck's *The Banquet Years.*
Despite the earnest and sincere efforts on the part of
many critics and theorists to separate poets' lives
from their works, readers of poetry and people
on the whole generally connect the two. Who
hasn't thought about the implications of Kafka asking, shortly
before he died, that his writing be destroyed by his best friend,
who, thankfully, disregarded this? There are so many
examples of such anecdotes that shape the
way we regard a writer's works.
For me, "biography" or published biographies do not represent
the totality of the continued cultural presence of anyone,
particularly their crucial cultural "imago," least of all that of a poet.
There was a life lived; it is experienced and remembered in
certain ways; there were words written, and things said; these are
initially experienced in a cultural context and then recorded
and remembered in certain ways. Most people who become
fascinated with a book or a movie eventually want to know
everything they can learn about the person who wrote
the book or made the movie. This is because the movie has
caused them to think about the experience we call "life."
Countless memoirs and biographies continue to appear
about Sylvia Plath, for example. Most of her readers do not
content themselves with rereading her poems.
They want to know more. A better example might be the record
made of the life of Wallace Stevens, "Parts of a World Remembered",
where nearly every living person who knew Wallace Stevens
at all was interviewed. Paul Celan's poetry is loved, treasured even,
but the reality of his cultural presence evolved not only from the publication
of the poems themselves. These reflected things thought and spoken by an actual
living person. Celan is a "character" is the ongoing cinema we call "real life."
JW's [list member's] statement, for me, somewhat discounts this aspect
of dream in so-called "real life." There are no such sharp distinctions in the life
of art, in either its creation or its reception. Check out D.A. Levy's
*Translating Tradition* concerning Paul Celan, for example.
The cultural role of Celan grows more complex and interwoven with the lives of countless people each and every day. This isn't only because of the poems.
Pavese is another great example. Poet suicides go to the heart
of the issue we are discussing here. Their final acts are just as much
a "statement" as anything that was written or said by them.
Their works and their lives constitute a total "statement." We
don't just read, we feel, we empathize, we have antipathies,
we react, we identify. Writing and reading poetry, or any literature,
or significantly experiencing any work of art, is also partly
an adventure in personal insight and transformation.
It is utterly "personal", even when contemporary life at the
moment is less and less so. Poetry and poets and all artists
struggle to enliven the personal, individual aspect of living.
I would imagine at one time people talked about poetry-
even here on the list the still do sometimes- the way now
almost everyone talks about movies, movie actors, directors, etc. *Blade
Runner* is a cultural touchstone in every detail now. Book after
book keeps appearing offering more and more information, opinion
and insight. At one time the same thing happened with Byron.
Such discussion is not just for the purpose of intellectual
understanding. It is part and parcel of cultural experience,
in the sense that culture is a work in process, wherein artistic
works and lives are interventions in the process, interventions
towards change, nor "progress" but mutative transformation.
Andy Warhol played off these blurry boundaries between art
and life more or less constantly. He carried a tape recorder
around he called his companion and published he diaries
and journals even though he was mainly a visual artist. He did
this with humor and irony; nevertheless the presence of living
people was crucial; out of this he created his films in which his
"stars" were very deliberately people in the act of living their lives,
also trying to become *stars* themselves. OK, they were underpaid
but that's another story.
The Dada poets, and in a more diluted way, the surrealists
were out to make just this point. But in a literary culture obsessed
with critique and evaluation of a poet's book's "greatness",
it is only the actual product that counts, not the person who creates it.
In art the story is different; everything counts.
******************************************************************************
Drew Gardner on Tim Hawkinson
Overlap (Drew Gardner)
Wednesday, May 4
Echo Zone
"When we read, we are not looking for new ideas, but
to see our own thoughts given the seal of confirmation on the
printed page. The words that strike us are those that awake
an echo in a zone we have already made our own- the place
where we live- and the vibration enables us to find fresh
starting points within ourselves.
What a great thought it is that all *effort* is futile! It
is sufficient just to let our ego blossom, go along with it, take
it by the hand as though it were someone else, have faith
that we are more important than we realized."
Cesare Pavese
3rd December, 1938
*The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935-1950*
Walker and Company, 1961, p.139
"When we read, we are not looking for new ideas, but
to see our own thoughts given the seal of confirmation on the
printed page. The words that strike us are those that awake
an echo in a zone we have already made our own- the place
where we live- and the vibration enables us to find fresh
starting points within ourselves.
What a great thought it is that all *effort* is futile! It
is sufficient just to let our ego blossom, go along with it, take
it by the hand as though it were someone else, have faith
that we are more important than we realized."
Cesare Pavese
3rd December, 1938
*The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935-1950*
Walker and Company, 1961, p.139
Now at a Tributary near you {click here}
Allan Bramhall's blog is getting to be addictive.
Today he opines on the first issue of Gary Sullivan's
new comic *Elsewhere*
Tuesday, May 3
"Rarely remembering it was Congreve who said
Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.
Rarely remembering that it was Congreve who said
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
In the same play."
David Markson
*This Is Not A Novel*
Counterpoint, 2001
pps. 97-98
Review of David Markson's latest book *Vanishing Point* {click here}
Remarks by Congreve {click here}
Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.
Rarely remembering that it was Congreve who said
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
In the same play."
David Markson
*This Is Not A Novel*
Counterpoint, 2001
pps. 97-98
Review of David Markson's latest book *Vanishing Point* {click here}
Remarks by Congreve {click here}
ON'T MISS THIS
Text/Styles
A poetry/fashion event
to benefit international garment workers
Sunday May 22 Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery) 8-10 pm
$5 donation
Featuring:
Kim Rosenfield
Rob Fitterman
Adeena Karasick
Shanna Compton
Katie Degentesh
Virginie Poitrasson
Tim Peterson
Christina Strong
Jack Kimball
Marianne Shaneen
Douglas Rothschild
Brenda Iijima
Tonya Foster
Jordan Davis
Meghan Cleary
& (organizer/MC) Nada Gordon
Wear your favorite or most outstanding clothing. Bring clothes to sell for the benefit of garment workers worldwide. All proceeds will be donated to Cleanclothes.org, #
*******************************************************
The Latest on PennSound Audio
(via Suny/Buff poetics list)
"Since out launch on January 1, we have added many new files, and continue
to do so on a weekly basis. We are developing a fully functioning catalog,
but this will take at least one more year. We are also beginning to create
links to author sound files from EPC author pages. In the meantime, we have
installed a quick search feature, which, combined with our "singles" index,
will help to locate most of our files.
PennSound {click here}
Recent additions to our "featured authors" include a selected poems of John
Wieners and Fanny Howe, and readings by Lyn Hejinian, Adrienne Rich,
Barrett Watten, Norman Fischer, Robert Creeley, Myung Mi Kim, and talks by
Ron Silliman and Leevhi Lehto.
On our "Series" pages, in addition to the new Studio 111 shows, we have
added "Poetic Brooklyn," produced by Susan Brennan, which features readings
by Anja Mutic, Matvei Yankelevich, Arielle Greenberg, Vijay Sheshadri,
Julien Poirier, and Filip Marinovic.
Also at "series", we have added a new season of Cross Cultural Poetics,
Leonard Schwartz's radio interviews/readings. New programs feature Robin
Blaser, Meredeith Quartermain, and Peter Quatermain, from Vancouver;
Richard Seiburth, who talks about, and reads from, his extraordinary
translation of Buchner's Lenz; and John Taggart on "Peace on Earth". Other
programs feature Trevor Joyce, Khaled Mattawa, Rodrigo Toscano, Charles
Borkhuis, Russell Banks, Joseph Donahue, Albert Mobillio, John O'Leary,
Wang Ping Stacy Doris, Ed Foster, Nada Gorden, Maxine Chernoff, Rita Wong,
Wang Ping, Mark Wallace, and more.
We have also just launched PennSound/Classics, with readings of Pope and
Swift by John Richetti and David Wallace reading Chaucer.
I also want to recommend a marvellous Rockdrill CD series of selected
poems, from Birkbeck (UK)
*Robert Creeley: 'I Know a Man', poems 1945-1975
* Robert Creeley: 'Just in Time', poems 1976-1998
* Lee Harwood: 'The Chart Table', poems 1965-2002
* Tom Raworth: 'Ace', poems 1966-1979
* Tom Raworth: 'Writing', poems 1980-2003
* Jerome Rothenberg: 'Sightings', poems 1960-1983
* Jerome Rothenberg: 'Seedings', poems 1984-2003
You can order these from Carcanet's web site:
go to http://www.carcanet.co.uk/search2.html
and put "rockdrill" in the title box"
(from Charles Bernstein)
Text/Styles
A poetry/fashion event
to benefit international garment workers
Sunday May 22 Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery) 8-10 pm
$5 donation
Featuring:
Kim Rosenfield
Rob Fitterman
Adeena Karasick
Shanna Compton
Katie Degentesh
Virginie Poitrasson
Tim Peterson
Christina Strong
Jack Kimball
Marianne Shaneen
Douglas Rothschild
Brenda Iijima
Tonya Foster
Jordan Davis
Meghan Cleary
& (organizer/MC) Nada Gordon
Wear your favorite or most outstanding clothing. Bring clothes to sell for the benefit of garment workers worldwide. All proceeds will be donated to Cleanclothes.org, #
*******************************************************
The Latest on PennSound Audio
(via Suny/Buff poetics list)
"Since out launch on January 1, we have added many new files, and continue
to do so on a weekly basis. We are developing a fully functioning catalog,
but this will take at least one more year. We are also beginning to create
links to author sound files from EPC author pages. In the meantime, we have
installed a quick search feature, which, combined with our "singles" index,
will help to locate most of our files.
PennSound {click here}
Recent additions to our "featured authors" include a selected poems of John
Wieners and Fanny Howe, and readings by Lyn Hejinian, Adrienne Rich,
Barrett Watten, Norman Fischer, Robert Creeley, Myung Mi Kim, and talks by
Ron Silliman and Leevhi Lehto.
On our "Series" pages, in addition to the new Studio 111 shows, we have
added "Poetic Brooklyn," produced by Susan Brennan, which features readings
by Anja Mutic, Matvei Yankelevich, Arielle Greenberg, Vijay Sheshadri,
Julien Poirier, and Filip Marinovic.
Also at "series", we have added a new season of Cross Cultural Poetics,
Leonard Schwartz's radio interviews/readings. New programs feature Robin
Blaser, Meredeith Quartermain, and Peter Quatermain, from Vancouver;
Richard Seiburth, who talks about, and reads from, his extraordinary
translation of Buchner's Lenz; and John Taggart on "Peace on Earth". Other
programs feature Trevor Joyce, Khaled Mattawa, Rodrigo Toscano, Charles
Borkhuis, Russell Banks, Joseph Donahue, Albert Mobillio, John O'Leary,
Wang Ping Stacy Doris, Ed Foster, Nada Gorden, Maxine Chernoff, Rita Wong,
Wang Ping, Mark Wallace, and more.
We have also just launched PennSound/Classics, with readings of Pope and
Swift by John Richetti and David Wallace reading Chaucer.
I also want to recommend a marvellous Rockdrill CD series of selected
poems, from Birkbeck (UK)
*Robert Creeley: 'I Know a Man', poems 1945-1975
* Robert Creeley: 'Just in Time', poems 1976-1998
* Lee Harwood: 'The Chart Table', poems 1965-2002
* Tom Raworth: 'Ace', poems 1966-1979
* Tom Raworth: 'Writing', poems 1980-2003
* Jerome Rothenberg: 'Sightings', poems 1960-1983
* Jerome Rothenberg: 'Seedings', poems 1984-2003
You can order these from Carcanet's web site:
go to http://www.carcanet.co.uk/search2.html
and put "rockdrill" in the title box"
(from Charles Bernstein)
Monday, May 2
"30th November" (1938)
"I) There are two stages in writing a novel. The first
is as though a sheet of water were becoming opaque and
dark with mud; there is a violent movement, upheaval, foam;
then there is a calm, a period of quiescence; the quivering
water grows still, begins to clear and suddenly is transparent
again. The depths and the sky reflected in them are
motionless.
The novel comes into existence quietly, during this
elimination of all motion and every impurity. Remember:
it happened quietly.
II) So a novel is born; the agitated water trembles,
grows clear and then is still. There are two stages: I)
cloudy and disturbed, II) Calm and serene."
Cesare Pavese
*The Burning Brand*
Walker and Company, 1961
p. 138
"I) There are two stages in writing a novel. The first
is as though a sheet of water were becoming opaque and
dark with mud; there is a violent movement, upheaval, foam;
then there is a calm, a period of quiescence; the quivering
water grows still, begins to clear and suddenly is transparent
again. The depths and the sky reflected in them are
motionless.
The novel comes into existence quietly, during this
elimination of all motion and every impurity. Remember:
it happened quietly.
II) So a novel is born; the agitated water trembles,
grows clear and then is still. There are two stages: I)
cloudy and disturbed, II) Calm and serene."
Cesare Pavese
*The Burning Brand*
Walker and Company, 1961
p. 138
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)