PhillySound: new poetry

I am so sad that I will not be able to make the reading on Sunday, but I am participating in a group show at DaVinci Art Alliance and our opening is at the same time. I know you all will be listening to poetry at 4pm on Sunday, but this show will be up for the month of May, and there are a number of free performances and film screenings that are happening throughout the month.

I hope some of you can stop by and see the show.

--cathleen

trans-gression artists’ collective
Multidisciplinary Arts Festival

Opening Reception Sunday May 4th, 4-6PM

DaVinci Art Alliance
704 Catharine St.
Philadelphia, PA 19147

GALLERY HOURS: May 7th - 30th
Wednesday 12-4PM & 6-8PM
Thursday - Sunday 12-4PM

for more information see
http:/www.trans-gression.org

FEATURING ARTISTS:
Tally Brennan, Deborah Caiola, Justin DeForest
Justin Jain, Susan DiPronio, Cathleen Miller
Heather Marie Davis-Jones, Kirsten Knoblauch,
Laureen Griffin, Martina Plag

PERFORMANCES:
Film Night - Sat. May 17, 7PM & 8PM
Tally Brennan’s INTERview - Sun. May 18, 4PM
Justin DeForest’s Transman Crossing - Sat. May 24 & Sun. May 25, 4PM
Martina Plag’s EMMA - Mon. May 19, Fri. May 23 & 30, 7PM
Justin Jain’s Marlowe and Squiggly - Mon. May 19 & Fri. May 30, 8PM

Admission to the art exhibit and performances is free; donations are appreciated.

trans-gression is an artists' collective dedicated to creating opportunities to examine, play with and break gender stereotypes while building a safe space for artistic and personal exploration. We provide support, mutual inspiration, and access to resources for individual and group projects.

I'm on a panel with Cecily Kellogg and Ed Pettit, Monday, May 5th at 3pm, details here. Hope to see you then, CAConrad

I have never been able to understand why Ron Silliman dislikes this museum so much, it's one of my favorites, FAVORITES! The SFMOMA has one of my favorite Rothko paintings!

Poet Suzanne Stein works at the museum, and has JUST STARTED a very interesting blog! Another favorite poet of mine, Eleni Stecopoulos (whose chapbook AUTOIMMUNITY is something everyone should own!) just wrote a blog entry you don't want to miss, called Small Wars.

I'll be checking in on this blog frequently!
Thanks Suzanne for starting this!
CAConrad

Labels: SFMOMA

Hello all,

A bit of self-promotion:

Scantily Clad Press has just published a long-ish poem of mine, "The Black Book," as a free e-chap. Many thanks to Andrew Lundwall at Scantily Clad for making the poem available as part of his fine series.

Chris McC

Barack Obama is My New Bicycle

Because Barack Obama made me balloon

animals, bought me a pony, saved me

the last red velvet cupcake.

Because Barack Obama added me

as a friend, left me two new photo

comments, wrote on my FunWall.

Because Barack Obama built me

a robot, made me a mixtape, thought

I could use some candy.

Because Barack Obama asked about my

day, poured me a cup of coffee, Tivo'd Battlestar

Galactica for me when I worked late.

Because Barack Obama sorted my laundry, paid

my parking tickets, spent the whole afternoon

setting up my new wireless router.

Because Barack Obama ran back into a burning

building to rescue my baby, got my cat out of

the tree, saved me from drowning.

Because invoking the tongue-in-cheek fangirl feels

easier, & hope without irony feels foreign, & I'm tired

of feeling it's best not to get too excited about anything.

Because if a Will.I.Am video featuring Scarlett

Johannsen & John Legend can choke me up, then

anything is possible, even change.

Happy Voting, kittens.

love, jenn mccreary.

PS:

Barack Obama told me he really wanted to meet

you, told me to tell you he said "hello," took off

when he heard you weren't coming.

*with thanks to www.barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com*

The Poetics Program at SUNY Buffalo is
pleased to announce the schedule and
list of speakers for
"George Oppen: A Centenary Conversation,"
to take place from April 23-April 25.

A link for the conference is HERE.

--posted by Divya Victor

THIS is a book party reading for one of my favorite new books by PhillySound's own Frank Sherlock! Rachel Blau DuPlesiss and Larry Kearney also have books for sale, and THIS reading promises to be one NOT TO MISS! If you CAN'T be there, THEN TUNE IN ON THE WEB, go to this link for ALL DETAILS, including time/place, and how to watch online: click HERE

CAConrad

FANTASTIC interview with Stacy Szymaszek, conducted by Sina Queyras, click HERE.

It gave me a new perspective on EMPTIED OF ALL SHIPS, among many other things. Great read!

CAConrad

Moonstone Poetry Series presents:
Kyle Conner & Jenn McCreary
Tuesday, April 8th, 6pm

Robin's Bookstore * 108 South 13th Street

Free & Open to the Public * Open Reading to Follow

*************************************************************

AN AWAKENING

As most things go
unfinished, so go
most things,
unloved.

But this status quo,
epically inept,
static, paltry, bad
literature, bad
promotion
for good faith
born of empathy
underdone.

Unhallowed, unalloyed,
no quid pro quo
will come
to an honest soul.

And yet,
a working order
can subsist
to suffice
without the need
for ill-considered
self-sacrifice.

A general faith
persists—
No zeitgeist in the woods, perhaps,
but incremental progress
just as good.

- Kyle Conner

****************************

from Odyssey & Oracle

& of course, the Neverlands vary a great deal. your quarter-
million electric lights & my land-locked Luna
Park. & who it was & what it was. & that? that’s
the princess who loved you even though et cetera, et
cetera. away from the clamor
of roller coasters & shooting galleries she sets
the table with cups & cakes.

the sword swallower & the bearded lady waltz
their way to the music-hall, past
the Kinderbrutanstalt hatchlings, wet &
wobbly. the mermaid tears tickets, flicks
her tail, whistles down the whole cabaret.

--Jenn McCreary

For more information: http://www.robinsbookstore.com/events/040808.html

--jenn mcc

THIS picture, taken by the publisher Logan Ryan Smith, is Dorothea Lasky's NEW AND AMAZING chapbook with starting pitcher Brian Bannister! That's VERY COOL considering the starting pitcher is asked to pitch as many innings as possible in a game, which is DOROTHEA LASKY!

(If Dottie's mom or dad wrote poems we could then talk about Bannister's All-Star papa Floyd!)

Here's the link to this amazing new book! I don't own a copy yet, but already know and LOVE all the poems in the book, and can't wait to get my hands on a copy! I see and HEAR Dottie reading from a copy of it in front of an audience now, LOUD AND PROUD because, as Dottie says, "Hey! I read LOUD because it's my way of saying FUCK YOU I'm up here reading my poems!" HAHA!

If you scroll down Logan Ryan Smith's (I like saying his ENTIRE NAME EACH TIME!) post for the new book you'll see he has a collection of photos: the book with the Pink Panther, the book with a butternut squash (I'm NOT saying ANYTHING about that one! Except that I think butternut squash is delicious fried with cinnamon and rosemary, yeah, that's all I'll say), AND the book with a bottle of Miller Lite! MILLER LITE!? Is that YOUR beer Logan Ryan Smith!? Could someone PLEASE buy that man a REAL BEER! GEESH! Miller Lite! I think Gandhi got a better buzz when he drank his own urine every morning for cripes sake!

Wanted to say too how much I like the title of the book. After a hard time with something years ago a good friend gave me a gorgeous hunk of Watermelon Tourmaline, one of the most beautiful stones I've ever seen in my life! And since it was Watermelon, or, a Tourmaline which included ALL the varieties and colors of the various types of Tourmaline, it also held all those magickal properties: dispelling fear, thwarting negative charges sent your way, AND ENHANCING CREATIVITY, and more! Now we can have Dottie's book for the same reasons!

THE BOOK LOOKS TERRIFIC! (and if you haven't read Logan Ryan Smith's book THE SINGERS there is a link off to the right there, wow, I like that book SO MUCH, one of the few books using music (in his case using dark giants from the 80s, mostly) that works with as much power as the music! It's a GREAT book, out from DUSIE)

CONGRATULATIONS to Dottie and Logan!
CAConrad

2 Philly readings NOT TO MISS! free events of NEW POETRY at Robin's Bookstore TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO COME, OR WATCH ON THE WEB

APRIL 6TH
all details HERE!
JEREMIAH RUSH BOWEN
JEN CURRIN
PATTIE MCCARTHY

APRIL 13TH
all details HERE!
FRANK SHERLOCK
RACHEL BLAU DUPLESSIS
LARRY KEARNEY

(posted by CAConrad)