PhillySound: new poetry

...click HERE for my new chapbook Touch Yourself for Art (MONDO BUMMER PRESS).
CAConrad

January 1st:
Frank Sherlock, CAConrad and a zillion others read at the 36th annual benefit marathon reading at St. Mark's Poetry Project, details HERE

Ryan Eckes reads JUST DOWN THE STREET at the marathon poetry reading at The Bowery Poetry Club, details HERE

Janurary 3rd:
STEIN URCHIN EVENT, DETAILS HERE

posted by CAConrad

Details up on Ron Silliman's blog! MANY THANKS TO Julia Bloch and Michelle Taransky for putting this together!
CAConrad

One of my absolute favorite magazines is AREA SNEAKS, and it's only in it's second issue! It reminds me of the early days of THE PARIS REVIEW, back when it was actually worth reading. My hope is that the editors keep the momentum of their enthusiasm for making the best possible magazine, containing the most extraordinary art and literature being made today.

It's a daunting task -- I can only assume -- putting something this amazing together. I'm someone who will usually ONLY read the poetry in a magazine, but because of the first issue I'm already SOLD on the fact that the editors have meticulously designed and arranged the contents to work as a whole. It's THE ONLY magazine that I read in order, front to back, to get a taste of how and why things were put into place.

The interview between Claire de Dobay Rifelj and Analia Saban is full of surprising moments. Saban at one point says, "In almost every piece I make I play with that element. I guess I'm so obsessed with it that I don't even think about it anymore. Early on I used to look at images through a microscope connected to a video camera. I would look at a drop of ink falling on a piece of paper. You see all the tiny fibers. This drop of ink tints the whole area and the fibers absorb the ink rapidly and intensively. That interaction is fantastic to watch. And to think that a big drawing or painting -- like Guernica -- is made up of so much of that, it's fascinating. This interaction happens in nature all the time, but somehow when it comes to art, when there is a human intention of building and creating, I get sentimental about it."

Ara Shirinyan has a bizarre and captivating piece titled "SPEECH GENRES 3: RISE OF THEORY," travels Shirinyan takes us on from 1907 to 1998. Jen Hofer and Hillary Mushkin have a beautiful visual poem, challenging us in both the visual as well as the language on what we see, what we choose to see, and not see.

I could talk about the entire issue of the magazine. But other highlights include the excerpt from Will Alexander's extraordinary book of poetry, THE SRI LANKAN LOXODROME. Here's a sample:


I cannot see myself
as he who exists
who carries ranges in his fingers
which erupts upon second seeing
into a dismal & unfructifying grace

perhaps a synapse
a bribery
a fall into the whispers stunned with the anti-
oracular


Philadelphia poet Nick Moudry works with artist Kerry Tribe on SIX SIGNIFICANT DREAMSCAPES, based on (as the footnote in the back of the magazine tells us), "...Tribe's film installation 'H.M.' based on the true story of an anonymous, memory-impaired man. In 1953, when he was 27, Patient H.M. underwent experimental brain surgery intended to alleviate his epilepsy." Here's a sample of Nick's contribution:


III

I dreamed of
A lake and a
Boat. If you dive deep enough you
Can come up inside a cave. I am
Always wondering how
The air inside a cave is freshened. Don't go
Too far, the
Boat might get
Washed away. You could
Get trapped and not swim back.


Also in the issue is one of my favorite living writers Aaron Kunin, as well as work by other poets, writers and artists.

GET YOURSELF A SUBSCRIPTION TODAY! Get subscriptions for friends!

CAConrad

Jacob Russell is proposing an art and poetry event at the waterfront, possibly at Penn Treaty Park, in February, centered on the idea of developing the riverfront for public use. Jacob has been talking with the Media Mobilizing Project and a few poets about putting this event together, and they want to get a sense of who and how many would be interested.

From Jacob:

The River in Winter: Toward a vision for the future of the waterfront

An open call for Philadelphia artists, poets, laborers for the cause of social justice! That we might come together to celebrate with art and poetry--to sound our voices for justice, to protest corporate greed, the corruption of the democratic process, and to begin to create through art, an alternative vision for the future of our city and its waterfront!

Please RSVP wjacobr@gmail.com if:

---you are interested in performance, in reading poetry or related work the afternoon of the event?

----you are able to contribute time or other resources to help coordinate and organize?

----you are a video artist who would like to record the event?

-- posted by R Eckes

Dancer Eleanor Goudie-Averill of Stone Depot Dance Lab is honoring my (Soma)tic Poetry Exercise "your BANANA WORD MACHINE" with a dance. Please see Ellie's note below, and hope to see you there,
CAConrad

This Friday night at the INhale Performance Series (7:30 pm at the CHI Movement Arts Center, 1316 South 9th St.), I will be showing an initial version of my new piece Banana Dance Machine.

It is a solo work based on a (Soma)tic Poetry Exercise by poet CAConrad. His "Exercise #16, your Banana Word Machine" asks the artist to "LOCK THE DOOR AND UNPLUG THE PHONE, ignite your BANANA WORD MACHINE, and once it gets started it doesn't like to stop, for anyone, for any reason! Strip down naked and BE THERE, slowly opening the banana skin, smelling, taking small tastes. SUDDENLY SIT UP inside your BANANA WORD MACHINE and write write WRITE! Yellow splendor!" Translate write to dance and the new Banana Dance Machine will take both audience and dancer on an exploration of the exotic, relationships with the cultural other and the freedom to be human.

I so hope to see all of you there!!

Ellie

(TICKETS ARE $10, CALL 267.687.3739 TO RESERVE A SEAT!)

Someone recently asked me why the sexiest poem award has to be political, and added, "What's so sexy about politics?" Actually it goes to a... (to read more and see the award, go to this link.

Have a great new year and take nothing for granted,
CAConrad

Scythe is now live!

from the good people who bring us The Joe Milford Poetry Show

CAConrad

As is becoming tradition, delirious hem is hosting a really cool & wonderful poem-a-day advent calendar, curated & created by the divine Susana Gardner & featuring many lovely poets-- this year in audio!

This Thursday, Dec. 10th a group show of young Philly artists - including Cari Freno - opens at the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery at 1616 Walnut Street. 6-9pm.

-- R. Eckes

I'm not one to complain about pain, but then again I'm not used to having pain. I saw a lawyer for the first time in my life today, recommended by dear friend Maria Raha.

Here's what happened. I was on my way to see Maria and Nicky, and others, to celebrate our Yoko Ono cocktail hour at 1610 Bar in South Philly. I was excited OF COURSE to be celebrating our love of Yoko together over some blueberry martinis. At the corner of 22nd and Chestnut I stepped onto the bus, and while I was putting my money in the dispenser for a subway transfer the driver said, in a creepy, low voice, "WHAT are you!?" Yes, WHAT, WHAT are you he said. Not WHO, but WHAT.

I was a WHAT to him. Because of the green glitter nail polish and bright green shirt? Does this make me inhuman? FUCK NO, IT MAKES ME A BRIGHT GREEN HUMAN! Fucking SEPTA pig jerkoff!

I answered his dehumanizing, other-izing language with, "A customer!"

He pushed the transfer in my hand with a scowl and moved the bus forward. I was literally not two or three steps walking to a seat when he SLAMMED on the breaks, sending me flying backwards, crashing into the money and token dispenser and railing. The pain was immediate in my back, and then I flew forward again and landed badly on my right foot.

THEN he laughed! The fucking SEPTA pig actually LAUGHED!

This fucking PIG was using the bus as a weapon for his homophobic jollies! We HAD IT OUT MAN! I screamed at him! I've encountered way too many bullies in this world to go out quietly!

I've never seen a lawyer for any reason before today! I told SEPTA pig that I was going to report him, and he refused to give me his name, but I wrote down the license plate and the lawyer seems to think it won't be a problem figuring out who he was.

SEPTA will be paying for my medical bills. I'm in excruciating pain at times when walking, and I'm hoping the doctor that the lawyer is having me see tomorrow morning can at least do something about that.

And to think of all the stupid arguments I had last month DEFENDING the SEPTA drivers when they were on strike, man oh man do I want to take that back! Yeah I know that's unreasonable, but I'm in pain! I'm not happy about having been GIVEN pain on purpose from SEPTA pig's violence for queers!

I'm so tired of the HATERS in this world!
CAConrad

This is NOT a complicated issue, you're either for war or against it.

THIS IS FOR GAY AND STRAIGHT PEOPLE! "GAYS AGAINST GAYS IN THE MILITARY"

You can find the way to the online petition of demands which will be shown to LGBT community leaders and media by clicking HERE.

From Philadelphia, where a new, more beautiful revolution is in store!
CAConrad