Wednesday, January 28, 2004
kari edwards & Ron Silliman
February 7
1477- Utopianist Thomas More born, London, England
1741- Phantasmagoric painter Henry Fuseli born, Zurich, Switzerland
1812- British novelist Charles Dickens born, Portsmouth, England
1986- Playboy dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier flees Haiti
February 7, 2004
La Tazza Reading Series presents
kari edwards & Ron Silliman
La Tazza
108 Chestnut St. Philly
7pm cocktail hour
readings start 8pm sharp
kari edwards is a poet, artist and gender activist, winner of New Langton Art's Bay Area Award in literature (2002), author of iduna, O Books (2003), a day in the life of p. , subpress collective (2002), a diary of lies - Belladonna #27 by Belladonna Books (2002), and post/(pink) Scarlet Press (2000). she is also the poetry editor I.F.G.E's Transgender - Tapestry: a International Publication on Transgender issues. hir work has been exhibited throughout the united states, including denver art museum, new orleans contemporary art museum, university of california-san diego, and university of massachusetts - amherst. edwards' work can also be found in Scribner's The Best American Poetry 2004 (fall, 2004), Experimental Theology, Public Text 0.2., Seattle Research Institute (2003), Blood and Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard, Painted Leaf Press (2000), Aufgabe, Mirage/Period(ical), Van Gogh's Ear, Fulcrum: an annual of poetry and aesthetics, Pom2, Shearsman, and The International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies.
Ron Silliman has written and edited 25 books to date, including the anthology In the American Tree. Since 1979, Silliman has been writing a poem entitled The Alphabet. Volumes published thus far from that project have included ABC, Demo to Ink, Jones, Lit, Manifest, N/O, Paradise, (R), Toner, What and Xing. Cuneiform Press will publish Woundwood, a section of VOG, in 2004. Other poems from VOG have appeared (or will appear) in the anthologies Best Poems of 2002 &
Best Poems of 2004. Silliman was a 2003 Literary fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2002 Fellow of the Pennsylvania Arts Council as well as a Pew Fellow in the Arts in 1998. He lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two sons, and works as a market analyst in the computer industry. His weblog has been visited nearly 100,000 times since it began in August 2002.
Upcoming Readings:
2.21- John Coletti presents a Joseph Ceravolo tribute reading
3.6- Kaia Sand & Samuel Delany
3.20- Mark Salerno & Barbara Cole
Reading Report:
CA Conrad did his Jack Spicer impersonation to introduce Brenda Coultas. Brenda's newer work is an investigative ghost hunt, poems that stay in haunted rooms looking for evidence. She also did a cut-up performance of The Lottery, a new narrative threaded by paper strips stirred in a basket.
Charlie O'Hay's poems continually arrived at places that no longer exist. He had us smelling burnt Centralia & left us with a headstone scribble that will live in infamy.
Announcements:
Friday February 6, 2004, 7pm
Friends Center, 15th and Cherry Sts, Philadelphia
Nora Castañeda- "Creating a caring economy in Venezuela "
> >
Nora Castañeda was appointed by President Hugo Chavez to head the Women's Development Bank of Venezuela when he agreed to women's demand for a bank as a way of funding reforms to benefit the poorest families and communities. She says: "The economy must be at the service of human beings, not human beings at the service of the economy. We want to create an economy based on cooperation and mutual support, a caring economy."
> > > >
Ms. Castañeda's US tour is coordinated by the Global Women's Strike with the support of the Venezuelan Embassy.
Check out:
phillyimc.org
www.rncnotwelcome.org
See you on the 7th.
Frank Sherlock
1477- Utopianist Thomas More born, London, England
1741- Phantasmagoric painter Henry Fuseli born, Zurich, Switzerland
1812- British novelist Charles Dickens born, Portsmouth, England
1986- Playboy dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier flees Haiti
February 7, 2004
La Tazza Reading Series presents
kari edwards & Ron Silliman
La Tazza
108 Chestnut St. Philly
7pm cocktail hour
readings start 8pm sharp
kari edwards is a poet, artist and gender activist, winner of New Langton Art's Bay Area Award in literature (2002), author of iduna, O Books (2003), a day in the life of p. , subpress collective (2002), a diary of lies - Belladonna #27 by Belladonna Books (2002), and post/(pink) Scarlet Press (2000). she is also the poetry editor I.F.G.E's Transgender - Tapestry: a International Publication on Transgender issues. hir work has been exhibited throughout the united states, including denver art museum, new orleans contemporary art museum, university of california-san diego, and university of massachusetts - amherst. edwards' work can also be found in Scribner's The Best American Poetry 2004 (fall, 2004), Experimental Theology, Public Text 0.2., Seattle Research Institute (2003), Blood and Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard, Painted Leaf Press (2000), Aufgabe, Mirage/Period(ical), Van Gogh's Ear, Fulcrum: an annual of poetry and aesthetics, Pom2, Shearsman, and The International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies.
Ron Silliman has written and edited 25 books to date, including the anthology In the American Tree. Since 1979, Silliman has been writing a poem entitled The Alphabet. Volumes published thus far from that project have included ABC, Demo to Ink, Jones, Lit, Manifest, N/O, Paradise, (R), Toner, What and Xing. Cuneiform Press will publish Woundwood, a section of VOG, in 2004. Other poems from VOG have appeared (or will appear) in the anthologies Best Poems of 2002 &
Best Poems of 2004. Silliman was a 2003 Literary fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2002 Fellow of the Pennsylvania Arts Council as well as a Pew Fellow in the Arts in 1998. He lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two sons, and works as a market analyst in the computer industry. His weblog has been visited nearly 100,000 times since it began in August 2002.
Upcoming Readings:
2.21- John Coletti presents a Joseph Ceravolo tribute reading
3.6- Kaia Sand & Samuel Delany
3.20- Mark Salerno & Barbara Cole
Reading Report:
CA Conrad did his Jack Spicer impersonation to introduce Brenda Coultas. Brenda's newer work is an investigative ghost hunt, poems that stay in haunted rooms looking for evidence. She also did a cut-up performance of The Lottery, a new narrative threaded by paper strips stirred in a basket.
Charlie O'Hay's poems continually arrived at places that no longer exist. He had us smelling burnt Centralia & left us with a headstone scribble that will live in infamy.
Announcements:
Friday February 6, 2004, 7pm
Friends Center, 15th and Cherry Sts, Philadelphia
Nora Castañeda- "Creating a caring economy in Venezuela "
> >
Nora Castañeda was appointed by President Hugo Chavez to head the Women's Development Bank of Venezuela when he agreed to women's demand for a bank as a way of funding reforms to benefit the poorest families and communities. She says: "The economy must be at the service of human beings, not human beings at the service of the economy. We want to create an economy based on cooperation and mutual support, a caring economy."
> > > >
Ms. Castañeda's US tour is coordinated by the Global Women's Strike with the support of the Venezuelan Embassy.
Check out:
phillyimc.org
www.rncnotwelcome.org
See you on the 7th.
Frank Sherlock
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
NEW POEM BY BUCK DOWNS
quarter porner
the not drinking
is not working
in every sense
of the word work
fuck work
a little too much
to be trusted
anamnesis is all in your head
and it too gets ground
up by the idling-gear
of thought without
end and spit
no more days off
in this life sister
(for Heather F.)
-------------
thanks Buck for the new emblem for the slog of this slogged world,
your friend,
CAConrad
the not drinking
is not working
in every sense
of the word work
fuck work
a little too much
to be trusted
anamnesis is all in your head
and it too gets ground
up by the idling-gear
of thought without
end and spit
no more days off
in this life sister
(for Heather F.)
-------------
thanks Buck for the new emblem for the slog of this slogged world,
your friend,
CAConrad
Thursday, January 15, 2004
poets NOT TO MISS! Brenda Coultas & Charlie O'Hay
SATURDAY
JANUARY 24
LA TAZZA 108 Chestnut, Philadelphia
7-8pm cocktail hour
8pm reading starts
$5 donation requested (all money goes to the poets, and believe me, they're worth that & more!)
Brenda Coultas's amazing new book is A HANDMADE MUSEUM. Before becoming a poet, she was a farmer, a carny, a taffy maker, a park ranger, a waitress in a disco ballroom, and the second woman welder in Firestone Steel's history. Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including Conjunctions, Epoch, Fence, and Open City. Coultas lives one block from the Bowery in New York City.
Charlie O'Hay is the recipient of a 1995 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in poetry. His work has appeared in over 100 literary publications including Gargoyle, Cortland Review, American Writing, and New York Quarterly. In 1994, as part of the poetry/performance group The Dead Pool, he recorded selections for the cassette release, Taedium Vitae. His chapbook Curio was published in 1996 by Kali Momma Press.
JANUARY 24
LA TAZZA 108 Chestnut, Philadelphia
7-8pm cocktail hour
8pm reading starts
$5 donation requested (all money goes to the poets, and believe me, they're worth that & more!)
Brenda Coultas's amazing new book is A HANDMADE MUSEUM. Before becoming a poet, she was a farmer, a carny, a taffy maker, a park ranger, a waitress in a disco ballroom, and the second woman welder in Firestone Steel's history. Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including Conjunctions, Epoch, Fence, and Open City. Coultas lives one block from the Bowery in New York City.
Charlie O'Hay is the recipient of a 1995 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in poetry. His work has appeared in over 100 literary publications including Gargoyle, Cortland Review, American Writing, and New York Quarterly. In 1994, as part of the poetry/performance group The Dead Pool, he recorded selections for the cassette release, Taedium Vitae. His chapbook Curio was published in 1996 by Kali Momma Press.
Monday, January 12, 2004
reading at the reading that wasn't mine
saturday was another of the Segue readings at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York. scheduled to read were Jennifer Coleman and Frank Sherlock at 4pm.
i rode up with Matt, Nicole and Alex, and arrived a little early, just in time to see a poet dressed in a bird suit--long beak--presenting a scroll of drawings of the history of racism, or something...something. and that was fun.
Laura Elrick soon announced that Frank Sherlock had broken down somewhere in New Jersey and wouldn't be making it. and this was reported to be the coldest day in the Northeast in seven years! BRRRR! Frank and Heather sitting in a truck on the side of the turnpike with 4 degree winds rubbing the doors and windows! it made me think about Nicole saying that Matt brought a sleeping bag in case we broke down.
Jennifer went on to read her super-real journey for us, beautiful as always, this time including a peculiar Tella Tubbie poem. she is allowing me to post a fantastic piece she wrote dedicated to poet Ethan Fugate. it's a great poem, see for yourself:
Ode to the south wind
(for Ethan Fugate)
I'll love you, dear,
industrial-sized hog
where the hog-wild wind
floats unseen among us, visiting
shit droplets on inconstant wing
Pork, I'll love you
the white meat, nightmare naked
by the brimming river
shadows of ten thousand sow
with hues and harmonies of blue babies,
dear, and yet dearer for its bacon grace.
I'll love you, dew of a thousand hog houses,
in whose unseen presence underground water
stews like a ghost from drinking wells drawn.
I plunge my hands in your
open air lagoons
the stench
and wonder.
(thank you Jennifer, for that!) after Jennifer read, Laura asked if someone else would read. someone yelled my name, and a man i don't know yelled for me to read Frank's poems. but i didn't have any of Frank's poems, i said. then Greg Fuchs came up behind me with copies of my FRANK poems. that's when i thought that the man up front who i'm sure i've never met had actually meant for me to read my FRANK poems. so i did.
it's WONDERFUL reading at a reading that isn't your own because you don't know you'll be reading. it's the first time in my life i didn't have time to get worked up and nervous and need a ... small drink ...
so i tried to exit, but the man i'm sure i've never met thrust papers in my hand, and they were Frank Sherlock's poems! that's when i realized that the man i'm sure i've never met had always wanted me to read Frank Sherlock's poems, which i thought was the case, but then Greg handed me... you get it...
one of the two poems was "Elementals With A Suggestion." and true to form as the juice, the magic, produced when read, at the line with the color YELLOW, a glass smashed to the ground somewhere in the room! it's this force, YELLOW. Frank put something in the line here he's not admitting to, or unaware of, and the YELLOW causes disruption. read the poem out loud whoever you are reading this, and report back about what breaks in the room.
but to tell the truth, i explained to the audience how something always happens at the YELLOW point in the poem, when i had finished reading it, thinking that nothing had happened--my deaf ear (Neil Young you BASTARD not drowned at birth!) kept me from knowing. but everyone later thought i had heard the glass smash at YELLOW and that that was why i had said what i said about the power of Frank's YELLOW, but i only said it thinking nothing had happened. when in fact...
you get it...
of the rest of the hours following, Allison Cobb gave me a copy of her new book BORN TWO. i'm looking forward to reading the whole thing. it includes her marvelous J POEMS.
CAConrad
i rode up with Matt, Nicole and Alex, and arrived a little early, just in time to see a poet dressed in a bird suit--long beak--presenting a scroll of drawings of the history of racism, or something...something. and that was fun.
Laura Elrick soon announced that Frank Sherlock had broken down somewhere in New Jersey and wouldn't be making it. and this was reported to be the coldest day in the Northeast in seven years! BRRRR! Frank and Heather sitting in a truck on the side of the turnpike with 4 degree winds rubbing the doors and windows! it made me think about Nicole saying that Matt brought a sleeping bag in case we broke down.
Jennifer went on to read her super-real journey for us, beautiful as always, this time including a peculiar Tella Tubbie poem. she is allowing me to post a fantastic piece she wrote dedicated to poet Ethan Fugate. it's a great poem, see for yourself:
Ode to the south wind
(for Ethan Fugate)
I'll love you, dear,
industrial-sized hog
where the hog-wild wind
floats unseen among us, visiting
shit droplets on inconstant wing
Pork, I'll love you
the white meat, nightmare naked
by the brimming river
shadows of ten thousand sow
with hues and harmonies of blue babies,
dear, and yet dearer for its bacon grace.
I'll love you, dew of a thousand hog houses,
in whose unseen presence underground water
stews like a ghost from drinking wells drawn.
I plunge my hands in your
open air lagoons
the stench
and wonder.
(thank you Jennifer, for that!) after Jennifer read, Laura asked if someone else would read. someone yelled my name, and a man i don't know yelled for me to read Frank's poems. but i didn't have any of Frank's poems, i said. then Greg Fuchs came up behind me with copies of my FRANK poems. that's when i thought that the man up front who i'm sure i've never met had actually meant for me to read my FRANK poems. so i did.
it's WONDERFUL reading at a reading that isn't your own because you don't know you'll be reading. it's the first time in my life i didn't have time to get worked up and nervous and need a ... small drink ...
so i tried to exit, but the man i'm sure i've never met thrust papers in my hand, and they were Frank Sherlock's poems! that's when i realized that the man i'm sure i've never met had always wanted me to read Frank Sherlock's poems, which i thought was the case, but then Greg handed me... you get it...
one of the two poems was "Elementals With A Suggestion." and true to form as the juice, the magic, produced when read, at the line with the color YELLOW, a glass smashed to the ground somewhere in the room! it's this force, YELLOW. Frank put something in the line here he's not admitting to, or unaware of, and the YELLOW causes disruption. read the poem out loud whoever you are reading this, and report back about what breaks in the room.
but to tell the truth, i explained to the audience how something always happens at the YELLOW point in the poem, when i had finished reading it, thinking that nothing had happened--my deaf ear (Neil Young you BASTARD not drowned at birth!) kept me from knowing. but everyone later thought i had heard the glass smash at YELLOW and that that was why i had said what i said about the power of Frank's YELLOW, but i only said it thinking nothing had happened. when in fact...
you get it...
of the rest of the hours following, Allison Cobb gave me a copy of her new book BORN TWO. i'm looking forward to reading the whole thing. it includes her marvelous J POEMS.
CAConrad
Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Cid Corman Recovery Drive
Poet/editor/translator Cid Corman is in very serious condition, following thirteen hours of heart surgery. His wife Shizumi is with him in a Kyoto, Japan hospital. Cid has never been one for the bling-bling lifestyle. He's been unemployed since World War II, so you can imagine that his nest egg for a lengthy recovery might be less than sufficient, or more accurately- nil.
Corman has been remarkably generous to a number of Philly Sound folks with his wisdom, history & advice. Cid cares deeply about the future of poetry, & has been relentless in connecting younger poets with each other throughout the years. Cid pointed me in the direction of Shinpei Kusano, Rene Char & Steve Jonas. But he also wired me into the work of Tsering Wangmo Dhompa & Joseph Massey. He's never stopped believing in the energy of younger poets, & has encouraged them for generations.
A website has been set up by Chuck Sandy to assist with Corman's recovery costs. Anything you can contribute will be greatly appreciated. Please visit the Cid Corman Recovery Fund.
Also, check out a webcast reading/conversation with Cid Corman from the Kelly Writers House in 2001.
Frank Sherlock
Corman has been remarkably generous to a number of Philly Sound folks with his wisdom, history & advice. Cid cares deeply about the future of poetry, & has been relentless in connecting younger poets with each other throughout the years. Cid pointed me in the direction of Shinpei Kusano, Rene Char & Steve Jonas. But he also wired me into the work of Tsering Wangmo Dhompa & Joseph Massey. He's never stopped believing in the energy of younger poets, & has encouraged them for generations.
A website has been set up by Chuck Sandy to assist with Corman's recovery costs. Anything you can contribute will be greatly appreciated. Please visit the Cid Corman Recovery Fund.
Also, check out a webcast reading/conversation with Cid Corman from the Kelly Writers House in 2001.
Frank Sherlock
