Chicago Poetry

2009-09-14T13:33:00.003-05:00

Please come to the Series A Conversations mini-conference on Saturday,
Sept 19 in Chicago at the Hyde Park Art Center. The HPAC is at 5020
S. Cornell in Hyde Park. It has a parking lot and free street parking
and is close to both Metra and the CTA (only 15-20 minutes from
downtown).

BYOB. The conference is not associated with any university or
organization except for Series A (which is not really an organization
at all). Feel free to come and throw your voice into the conversation
and perhaps join us afterward for food and drink.

All events take place in the 4833 studio room.

10:00-11:15 New Media Poetics--Film and Poetry (with a film screening)
Francesco Levato, Moderator
Kurt Heintz, Julia Miller, Eric Gelehrter, and Nate Slawson

11:30-12:30 Other People's Poetry
Tim Yu
Srikanth (Chicu) Reddy
Judith Goldman

12:45-1:45 Poetry and Place
Raymond Bianchi and Garin Cycholl,

2:00-3:00 Poetry Publication--Founding, Editing, and Distributing a
Print Journal
Chad Heltzel, Moderator
Jennie Berner, Garrett Brown, Tasha Fouts,
Jennifer Moore, Sara Tracey, and Snezana Zabic

3:15-4:45 Rapid Poetry Reading
Bill Allegrezza, Moderator

Larry O'Dean, Tim Yu
Kristy Bowen, Srikanth (Chicu) Reddy
Quraysh Ali Lansana, Ray Bianchi
Kristy Odelius, Garin Cycholl
Chad Heltzel ,
Dan Godston,
Simone Muench,
Nick Demske, and many others.

For more information, contact Bill Allegrezza at wallegrezza@gmail.com.

2009-09-14T13:33:00.001-05:00

2009-07-02T20:53:00.001-05:00

Series A, July 8th

Series A: Mary Kasimor and Carrie Hunter
July 8, 2009
Hyde Park Art Center

Come to Series A on July 8th at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago to hear Mary Kasimor and Carrie Hunter. The reading takes place from 7-8. The HPAC is at 5020 S. Cornell. Parking is easy, and it's easy to get to on public transportation. BYOB.

2006-10-11T21:50:00.000-05:00

Great few days of poetry all over town...

DAVID TRINIDAD & ROBYN SCHIFF

Sunday, October 15, 7 pm
Myopic Books
1564 N. Milwaukee Ave, Wicker Park, Chicago

2006-10-11T07:35:00.001-05:00

And while I'm at it... for anyone reading who is not getting Discrete word,

This Friday the 13th at 8 p.m. Discrete has Brandon Downing and Anselm Berrigan.
2830 N. Milwaukee, 2nd floor. $5 suggested. BYOB.

2006-10-11T07:35:00.000-05:00

tomorrow.. Jordan Davis and Jim Behrle are in town for a

Special The Million Poems Show Event
October 12th 7:30 pm
Mercury Cafe
1505 W Chicago Avenue

2006-09-12T13:59:00.000-05:00

Series A Literary Reading

September 26, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Ray Bianchi
Jimmy Wynn Ensemble

At the Hyde Park Art Center.
5020 S. Cornell Avenue
Chicago, IL

Raymond L Bianchi lived for most of the 1990's in Latin America in Brazil and Bolivia. A native of suburban Chicago and the child of Italian Immigrants, he worked in international publishing since 1996. His poetry has appeared or is upcoming in Antennae, Near South, Tin Lustre Mobile, 26, Moria, Red River Review, Sentence, Bird Dog, Literatura e Cultura and his essays have appeared in the Economist and the Financial Times. He is the section editor of the fall 2006 issue of Aufgabe, which includes a translation section of contemporary Brazilian poetry that he translated. His book Circular Descent was published by Blaze Vox Press in 2004, and a chapbook, The American Master, was published by Moria Books in 2006. He is the publisher of Cracked Slab Books in Chicago and edits the website chicagopostmodernpoetry.com.

The Jimmy Wynn Ensemble is composed of Chicago writers Dale Barrigar, Michael Antonucci, and Garin Cycholl. The Ensemble's previous work has appeared with Exquisite Corpse, Admit 2, and the Guild Complex Series.

Myopic Books, Sep 10, Paolo Javier & Tim Yu

2006-09-05T07:05:00.000-05:00

Myopic Poetry Series presents

PAOLO JAVIER and TIM YU

Sunday, September 10, 7 p.m.
Myopic Books
1564 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago

PAOLO JAVIER is the author of 60 lv bo(e)mbs (O Books), and the time at the end of this writing (Ahadada), which received a Small Press Traffic Book of the Year Award. He edits 2nd Ave Poetry, and lives in New York.

TIM YU's poetry and prose have appeared in Chicago Review, Meanjin, SHAMPOO, and The Poetry Project Newsletter. He teaches English at the University of Toronto. A native of the Chicago area, he now lives in Toronto and Chicago.

Sunday, July 23 at Myopic Books

2006-07-18T06:36:00.000-05:00

Sunday July 23 - Ray Hsu and Kristy Odelius

Ray Hsu is the author of Anthropy, which won the 2005 League of Canadian Poets' Gerald Lampert Award. He has published poems in journals and magazines including Fence, New American Writing, and The Walrus. Last year he was awarded a University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Humanities grant to teach poetry and literacy in prisons. His next book, Cold Sleep Permanent Afternoon, will be published fall of 2007.

Kristy Odelius is a poet and Assistant Professor of English at North Park University, where she teaches creative writing and 19th century British literature. She taught poetry and American literature in Sweden last fall, and has dreams of translating contemporary Swedish poetry into English. Her poems and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Chicago Review, Notre Dame Review, ACM, Versal, Diagram and others. She is currently "seeking a publisher" (can you say that seriously, without quotation marks?) for her first book-length collection of poems, Strange Trades.

Myopic Books
1564 N. Milwaukee
all readings start at 7pm

Myopic Books/this Sunday, May 21, 7pm

2006-05-19T16:13:00.000-05:00

Looking forward to this...hope you can make it.

Sunday May 21 - Juliet Patterson & Jackie Lalley
7pm

Myopic Books
1564 N. Milwaukee, Wicker Park, Chicago

Juliet Patterson's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in American Letters & Commentary, Bellingham Review, Bloom, Conduit, DIAGRAM, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Journal, Typo, Washington Square, Verse and other magazines. A semi-finalist in The Nation/Discovery Award, she is the recipient of a 2004 SASE/Jerome fellowship in poetry, and a 2003 Arts fellowship from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Patterson is an adjunct faculty member at the College of Saint Catherine and Hamline University. She lives in Minneapolis. For more information, visit her website: www.julietpatterson.com.

Jacqueline Lalley's poetry has been published in The Harvard Review, Court Green, The Nebraska Review, and other magazines. She is a contributor to The Onion, Bitch Magazine, and Secrets and Confidences: The Complicated Truth About Women's Friendships (Seal Press, 2004). Her essay on reproductive rights messages will appear this fall in a Seal Press anthology. A Madison native, she now lives, writes, and teaches in Milwaukee and serves on the board of Woodland Pattern Book Center.

2006-04-28T13:22:00.000-05:00

I just found out about this.

http://novaartfair.com/2006/readings.php

David Antin, tomorrow night at 7, yo.

Editor's Preferences

2006-04-19T07:03:00.000-05:00

I took down the other post because I got allot of stupid emails. So I will rephrase here. I think that editors of journals or book presses and even websites have an obligation to tell people their biases aesthetically or gender or race.

I get this email earlier in the week which by the way was not blind copied so I get to see the hundreds of local literati that were getting it and it is an open call for a "chicago" issue of some magazine.

Then 10 minutes later I get an email where someone says but the editor is really interested in Women's writing but might take some men if they are appropriate.

huh?

I am not arguing against anthologies or issues based on gender or race. I am editing
Aufgabe's Brazil section in the fall and we have gender and racial diversity and equity. This is a great value to me as it should be to all poets and editors. What bothers me is to when editors misrepresent what they are doing as unbiased.

If you want to do an anthology or issue on Chicago women writers great. I would love to promote that kind of book. Just look at what Jen Hofer's Sin Puertas Visibles has done for Mexican women's writing. I think that SPV is one of the great anthologies of the past five years. But don't pretend to be open to everyone and have poets waste their time submitting to a call that has strong biases. Let people know beforehand.

When Bill and I launched Cracked Slab Books we told people up front we wanted Experimental Work. no mainstreamers need apply, and we still got all this narrative and neo formal crap but that was their problem since we were clear.

But lately allot of these anthologies have been made up of misrepresentations. Just look at that new anthologies edited by Cate Marvin, I think it is called Dangerious liaisons (LOL). It is packaged as the anthology of new poetry. really it is an anthology of the editor's friends and excludes so many interesting poets who are under 45 that it is almost crazy.

I guess what I am arguing for is critical distance. Admit your biases and your agenda, hell we all have them, but don't continually move the goal posts and expect people to take you seriously as an editor and if you want to publish your friends that is ok but admit what you are doing and stop pretending to be an editor.

For Your Informations

2006-04-17T16:20:00.000-05:00

Hey all, Michael Robins just found out that his manuscript The Next Settlement won the Vassar Miller Prize and will be published by University of North Texas Press.
Congrats to him. Very glad to see his work getting the much-deserved recognition.

*

Ponying on his success, I will be reading at Woodland this Friday at 7 p.m. with Beth Bretl. Looking forward to seeing my Milwaukee bretheren.

2006-04-04T17:07:00.000-05:00

Other-directed: tomorrow night: Joshua Clover (aka jane dark) at Danny's, with songwriter/poet Franklin Bruno.

Self-directed: at Kerri's recommendation, I read Juliana Spahr's new book, This Connection of Everyone With Lungs, and I just wrote up a review of it and posted it here.

So What is Unique About Innovative Poetry in Chicago?

2006-03-29T07:52:00.000-06:00

So What is Unique About Innovative Poetry in Chicago?

recently we have had some interesting posts here on this subject and I think that I would like to opine on this subject hoping for dialogue from poetic friends;

Experimental Poetry in the US has been for a long time made up of elitists trying to look common while remaining elitists. This is true for example of the Language Poets who were elitists but who through humor tried to remain close to regular folks. this normally did not work. I have been reading recently Saence a book of essays and Chaz Bernstein has a group of his gimmick poems inside the ones where he says something slogany next to something dire, you know " Fighting in Iraq-Take a Warm Bath".

So now that we have arrived in Chicago as a poetic center what is innovative about our poetic situation? Here are some things that I find interesting and would love to get comments;

Unique Chicago Things

1) lack of true elitism

While we have our poetic elitists especially those affiliated with the U of C even the most elite poets here are still accessable and because most of our magazines and small presses are new enterprises there is a pronounced lack of elitism here I noticed this at AWP poets as different as Simone Muench, Me and Arielle Greenberg were all accessable and their work is not filled with that sense of dramatic art that we find in so much New York writing.

2) Lack of taking things too seriously (Unless a New Yorker is in Town)

When it is just us most Chicago poets are interested and respectful and they are ready to not take anyone's work too seriously...

3) Fusion of many styles and schools

In Chicago we have a great fusion of poetic schools and styles just look at this list and what I think are their influences and ask if this would be possible anywhere else?

Kerri Sonnenberg-Stein, Waltrops, Hoover
Mark Tardi-Visual Art, Slavic Writing, Music, Math
John Tipton- Greek, Eliot, Working Class Work
Peter O'Leary-Byzantine Poetry, Duncan, Catholicism
Arielle Greenberg-Judaism, Motherhood, Kafka, Sound
Chris Glomski-Italian, Lit Crit, Lyric
Garin Cycoll-Geography, Olson, Middle Border

I could continue and list off twenty high quality poets here in Chicago who are all bringing different influences to bear on poetry here and cross pollinating.

4) here is the crux of the matter, Cross Pollination

In chicago because our community is smaller and we are not all pricks to one another as they can be in New York and SF we are able to cross pollinate each other and the fusion has created something new....

Friday's Discrete Series

2006-03-26T11:51:00.000-06:00

thanks to all who came..

French-American poetry in April

2006-03-25T13:42:00.000-06:00

In honor of the American National Poetry Month and the French Printemps des Poetes, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Chicago presents encounters, cross-cultural readings, lectures and translation seminars.

These events are dedicated to French and American contemporary poetry. We are lucky to have the participation of French poets: Jean-Michel Espitallier, Sabine Macher, Yves di Manno, Nicolas Pesques, and American poets Jerome Rothenberg, Cole Swensen, Guy Bennett and Simone Forti.

Chicago, April 10

all 8 poets present a Translation seminar *free*

2:30-4:30 p.m.

@ University of Chicago
Coulter Lounge
International House
1414 East 59th ST.
773.753.2274

Music & Poetry 3 Arts *free*
co-sponsored by the Guild Complex and the Discrete Series

7:00-7:30 p.m. Reception

7:30-8:30 p.m. Concert: Cinq poemes des Jacques Dupin, by Betsy Jolas; soprano, Susan Klock; piano, Jean-Louis Hagenauer

8:40-9:30 p.m. Reading: Jerome Rothenberg/Yves di Manno & Simone Forti/Sabine Macher

@3 Arts
1300 N. Dearborn Parkway

Limited seating---RSVP required
call the Guild Complex at 1.877.394.5061 or
email frenchpoetry@guildcomplex.org

Discrete Series

2006-03-24T08:51:00.000-06:00

Tonight at 7 p.m. at the SpareRoom

Brenda Hillman, Laura Sims and Anthony Hawley

$5 suggested

My AWP

2006-03-21T08:28:00.000-06:00

I was fortunate, really blessed, to be able to get away and go to AWP in Austin. Cracked Slab Books, the press I do with Bill Allegrezza was able to launch our new title Edging by Michelle Noteboom at the conference.

AWP is an interesting event in many ways. Of course you have your poetic/prosaic big wigs, got to meet Christian Bok, and Joshua Clover. I also got to reconnect with friends like Liz Willis, Jen Hofer, Peter Gizzi and Brian Clements. I also was able to reconnect with other luminaries like Paul Hoover, Maxine Chernoff, Jennifer Moxley, Lee Ann Brown, Rachel Levitsky, and Dan Machlin.

Since I have been criticized by so many for being grumpy and negative I will get the criticisms out of the way before the good stuff, there are two; first off there was not a very strong presence of Texas poets and writers. At AWP in Chicago two years ago there were lots of us around I have to say in three days of sitting at our table we got only a few names from the Lone Star State.

A Second criticism is systemic. AWP tends to schedule pretty mainstream readings so many poets, prose people and non fiction people create their own readings around the conference.

Many of these are huge and interesting but they all conflict with one another. I think that AWP should try to coordinate these off sight readings and print or web print a schedule.

NOW TO THE GOOD STUFF

Since I was personing a booth I was only able to get to four sessions but they were really interesting.

American Poets in the 21st Century

1) Panelists: Peter Gizzi, Juliana Spahr, Karen Volkman, Joshua Clover, Traci Morris

I did not know what to expect in this session and I have to say that I was blown away.
Juliana Spahr read first from her new work Chillicothe. The poetry was such a departure for Juliana from Fuck you Aloha I love you. She has moved from a poet focused on innovation to a poet who is innovative and new and I have to say that I am looking forward to this book whenever it comes out then Karen Volkman read Karen is such an enigma she writes these formal verse poems, sonnets and alike and yet they are still innovative. Then the highlight of the session read, Traci Morris. her sound poetry and her commentary on African American modes of writing was so interesting I will be looking for her work in the future, Peter Gizzi read a letter that he sent to a colleague. Anyone who wants to know where the next member of that chain of innovators that starts with Pound and Black Mountain and alike is need look no further than Peter. then finally Josh Clover read. Josh is fancy people his glasses his reading style he is a rarity in a US poet a public intellectual.

This session was interesting because their was an interplay between all of these people i wish that they had recorded the session but I urge everyone to go out and buy Traci Morris' work she is a real star.

2) Enrique to Ricky Translations in Latin and Luso American poetry.

Since I have spent so much time on Brazilian translations this year I went to this session first off I discovered Host books a translation press which is very much of interest for what they publish in translation. the session was small but fruitful.

3) Holy Poetry batman

Panelists Stephanie Brown, Simone Muench, Tony Hoagland someothers.

This session was interesting for what was not said. Stephanie Brown talked about Doggerl and poetry that is innovative but bad, simone muench talked about CD Wright and the south and tone and voice and Tony Hoagland reminded me why I do not own any of his books but of the three Stephanie Brown was the most compelling she challenged poets and poetry to separate the mud from the water and in a way that was kind and clear I envy her tact.

4) U of California Reading

Anyone who says that the U of California Press is not the best poetry press in the USA is clearly living on another planet. In this reading Joshua Clover, Mei Mei Bersenbugge, Laura Mullin, and other poets simply blew the doors off. After the first session I was primed to hate Josh Clover , but I really loved his work so intelligent so erudite Mei Mei was incredible and Laura Mullin's new work is simply the best work Laura Mullin has published.

On the whole AWP was satiating good. Of course it was not as good as when we had it in Chicago but everything is better in Chicago... LOL but I came away from AWP with a new respect for people and poets and writers the work they do and the sacrifices made.

Chuck Stebelton and Susie Timmons

2006-03-15T08:54:00.000-06:00

tonight at Danny's. 7 p.m. Of course we know Chuck can rock the microphone, but it's a rare pleasure to see/hear Susie read as she keeps a low profile here around town. I think it was Eileen Myles being quoted as saying that ST was, in her opinion, the most unsung/not given her due poet that started the whole "Neglectorino" stream on Silliman's blog and then the uber-list at the site for Philly Sound. See some of you there, I hope. And tell me about your AWPs why don't you.

2006-03-04T09:14:00.000-06:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to last night's reading. I've never seen the Spareroom so packed! Jeff says all the bodies cut the echo and gave us a good recording too. Hope to have an equally impressive crowd on March 24 when Brenda Hillman, Laura Sims and Anthony Hawley take the stage.

Discrete this Friday

2006-02-27T18:49:00.000-06:00

Hey all,
The chicagolit.org site is down so please spread the word that this Friday, March 3rd at the SpareRoom space we'll have Joel Craig and Tom Raworth reading. 7 p.m. $5 suggested. Not to be missed!

2006-02-26T22:22:00.000-06:00

Ray's comment raised some questions for me. If experimental poetry is in some renaissance in the city/region, is it being written from a specifically Midwestern viewpoint? Is experimental poetry "regional" in the U.S. any more? What schools of experimental poetry are there in the city and who are the poets associated with them? Do the different poetic groups in the city depend on economic or academic standing? Are different groups really open to each other? What experiments are being done here that are not being done other places?

Anyone want to offer an opinion?

This week

2006-02-21T15:52:00.000-06:00

Hey all, I expect I'll see some of you soon with all the stuff on tap in the coming week...

On my radar:
Nathaniel Mackey at U of C Thursday night, which I have to miss, but he'll read again Saturday at the Harold Washington Library at 1:00 I'm told. I should be able to make it to that one.
Ken Goldsmith and Matthew Goulish read at Links Friday and Saturday nights. I made my reservation for Friday.
Joseph Donahue is reading at Myopic Sunday night. I'll be reading a few poems then too. Sunday there's simultaneous activity at Links and at the Spareroom with Nathalie Stephens in person and kari edwards remote among the guests for the Red Rover installment.

Oh jeez, a Danny's event this Wednesday night too.. a group of Legitimately Dangerous local poets.

Now if it'll just get warm enough to BBQ.

Version>06

2006-02-19T13:56:00.000-06:00

Don't know how I didn't see this sooner. Good thing Jen K. forwarded it to the Buff list! Jeff's been a part of this in past years. It's always lively, provocative and smart.
....

Version>06 :: Parallel Cities
April 20- May 6, 2006 Chicago U$A

Call for Participation // Projects // Presentations
// Provocations

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: FEB 28, 2005

Version is a hybrid festival focused on emerging
discourses and practices evolving between art,
technology and social and political activism.

Version>06 is our fifth convergence and is dedicated
to the theme of Parallel Cities. We will investigate
and share local strategies and models to inspire
action within local and global counter cartographies.

We will convene in Chicago for a seventeen day open
laboratory to explore a diversity of tactics and
strategies to activate our communities and amplify our
ideas and practices. Alternative spaces will be open
for staging actions. Public spaces and corporate
places will be terrains of intervention.

Version presents a very diverse program of activities
featuring an experimental art exposition, artistic
disturbances, exhibitions, networked urban events,
screenings, interactive applications, performances,
street art, presentations, talks, workshops, art
rendez-vous, parties, and action.

Please visit http://www.versionfest.org
for more information.

Or go to http://adoptanamerican.com/version06
to use the online submission form.

Alternatively, you may mail your proposals to:
Version>06
960 W 31st St
Chicago Il 60608
USA

Contact ed(at)lumpen.com for help.

Links reading 2/18

2006-02-19T09:48:00.000-06:00

The Daniel Borzutzky Proxy read the latest missive from Istanbul. A poem written on Valentine’s Day. Goats’ buttocks, mushroom caps, butterflies, donkeys are made magnificently celebratory against a sky suggestive of copulation. Makes me very curious about Turkey, and wondering if grilled cheeses, stains on walls ever appear in the shape of Walt Whitman.

In between there were a few readings by younger writers, students at the Art Institute I think, working through narrative and epistolary forms, with slides and objects lending to a staging evocative of Godot, but I must get right ahead to the magnificent Jen Bervin.

Jen read the entirety of A Non-Breaking Space.. the title taken from hypertext markup language, “the only thing I learned in a web design class” she quipped. It’s a gorgeous book—I was eager to touch it afterwards, as it had appeared to me so much more solid, encrusted with pastiche when I read the scanned version on the Ugly Duckling website, but it’s actually a very fragile thing composed of many transparencies. Her voice and presence gave the language a sense of warmth that reminded me of Kaia Sand’s reading a few years back. –side note: Jules Boykoff is in town in a few weeks reading at Myopic, don’t miss— I think the room was full of old friends since she had done a turn through SAIC a while back, so I was lucky enough to be a barnacle on that sense of intimacy. One of the things I love about the Links Hall space is that the el runs literally right next to the building, and the stage area is bordered by a wall of windows which can’t entirely stifle the noise of below's converging Clark-Sheffield-Newport streets. Earlier there had been glorious moments of fire truck vs. Leif Eriksson, wheezing mufflers vs. “my love,” but while Jen had been reading an el train crept next to the building, silently idling in advance of the Addison stop a block away by Wrigley Field. So it was to everyone’s surprise when she read the passage, “I am talking to you the way some people talk to God,” held a slight pause before the next phrase (because her sense of reading is so careful, permitting), when three bright bleeps sounded almost next to her, and after a night of other “mixed media” type of readings, there was a brief moment of wondering whether it was intended. She held for the interruption as it continued, “Your attention, Please. We are being delayed because of track work ahead.”

I thought she might also read from Nets, or something else, but the reading ended with the end of Non-Breaking Space. I wished it were longer. Instead I’ll look forward to the next opportunity to hear her read again. I may have to go to New York. Things could be worse.

Adonis on Surrealism and Sufiism

2006-02-18T08:09:00.001-06:00

I was at Seminary Co-op yesterday with Mark Tardi and I picked up a wonderful thin volume called Sufism and Surrealism by the Syrian poet Adonis. It is published by the British publisher Saqi. I bought it as a throw in to some other books I wanted very much and I have found that the throw in is more interesting.

In the work he addresses the following topics-Knowledge-Imagination-Love-Writing-The Aesthetic Dimension-Harmonious Difference in the first part and then he compared Sufi writers to Surrealist writers in the second part. The work is so interesting because of the joining tissue
of the book. It brings in so much and fills the book.

Sufism is interesting for allot of reasons. As with all mystical systems in the Abrahamic religions Sufism is the most in touch with religion as experience rather than religion as rules. The Sufis have been profoundly influenced by Christian Desert mysticism and Buddhism and they in turn have influence Hinduism, and Spanish Mysticism this mixing gives me hope in the current violent world we live in. The most interesting part of this book is that Adonis reads Rimbaud as an oriental (his word) Sufi poet. To put Rimbaud in that category makes this book particularly delicious.

The most provacative quote Adonis uses in from the poet Al-Niffari

" The more you see, the narrower the means of expressing it"

2006-02-17T12:20:00.000-06:00

Did anyone make it to the Chris Middleton reading last night?

Another simultaneity--"The World," what looked like an excellent film at MoCP at 6. Anyone get to that?

This weekend: Jen Bervin et al at Links!

Looking at the poetry calendar, aw bullocks.. I'll also miss Nate Mackey next Thursday because of preexisting tickets to symphony (t'is Barenboim's victory lap).

Recap/some thoughts on Matthew Goulish's lecture, School of the Art Institute, 2/16

2006-02-17T09:08:00.000-06:00

I first heard about Matthew Goulish and his work through Jesse who had published his Parisitology lecture in an issue of Antennae. I think it was about two years ago, in the same auditorium in the School of the Art Institute, that I saw Goulish perform the same piece, a hybrid form of writing that incorporates processes of memory, association and research into a presentation involving A/V support and the premise of the lecture format as a conceptual jumping off point.

Last night Goulish read in this auditorium again, to share four sections of a work in progress over his recent sabbatical, a lecture drawn from a work based on his friend, the artist Lawrence Steger (not sure if I have the spelling right there). This Lawrence Steger Remix I believe it was called was prefaced by a few statements. First, that this work was connected indirectly to history, but directly connected to memory. That it was a project of writing through and around the texts, memories and performances of LS in memory of LS who died too young in 1999. Goulish reassured us that it was OK if we didn’t know who LS was, that he had worked in invisible ways.

We are introduced to Lawrence the person through a letter he has written a friend in which he voices his worries with the complications of a life made tenuous by art.. lack of money, food, work. He talks of “feeling the pang s of non-ownership” as he finds some work off the IRS’s radar painting the condos of yuppies next door. “They work in real estate. In Lincoln Park no less. I think we’re the same age or maybe I’m a year or two older.” That doubt or that sense of comparison at least seems to come to the fore in one’s thirties, when LS was writing.

Goulish credits Steger’s work as “a force captured by juxtaposition,” of disparate things conjured into stunning relation. One can easily see that this homage and their friendship extends into that shared artistic prime mover, as Goulish’s own work, this one and others, are masterful feats of juxtaposition, threads that connect the world without the tidy artifice of closure. G’s text spends some time looking at the parallels and relationships between Steger’s “invisible labor,” under the table income earned to survive but not jeopardize his medical support, and his “invisible performance,” ephemeral, Fluxus-inspired installations and performances in unusual venues. “It’s not the kind of thing one comes to see” he admonishes Goulish at one point when he’s expressed interest in coming to see a cabaret solar system of balloons Steger tells him he’s installed above dance floor of a night club.

The text also explores the notion of invisibility as it pertains to the performance instruction texts of Yoko Ono, whose work was very important to Steger. I don’t have the quote here, but her piece from Grapefruit that instructs the reader/performer to count 1000 suns in the sky and make a tuna fish sandwich comes to bear on G’s exploration of what is “visible” and what is “invisible.” “To quote Yoko is to quote a gesture beyond possession.” Even though this isn’t quite halfway through the content and duration of the piece, I’ll leave off here. Because this is Goulish’s purpose with the arc of it all, “to converse with Lawrence without possessing him.”

It’s a mighty act to conjure the dead back into the world of the living. I can see why so many spiritual traditions have their own versions of this attempt. Is art a singular spiritual tradition? Because Goulish is without question successful in this task. He is successful by not paring a life down to the commonly austere talking points of more formal memorial. His reach is lyrical, absurd, pedestrian, philosophical, and locates itself within the first, second and third person in the process of making its spectacular prism.

2006-02-15T15:28:00.000-06:00

Anonymous posting is off folks.

More On Moribund

2006-02-13T22:03:00.000-06:00

So Much to Choose From is not the sign that a poetry community is thriving.

We are getting allot of out of city readers doing our circuit so?

If you look at the marquis reading series' in Chicago they serve very small communities, Danny's serves the hipster scene, Poem Present the U of Chicago, Chicago Poetry Project a Saturday Crowd, Discrete, Experimentos but I think that the problem in Chicago is that our institutions are at best underformed. We are talking about a total audience with Slammers and Barnes and Noble Readings of say 200 people that is a small audience in a city area of 9 million people don't you think?

I could list here every poet and press of note in Chicago there would be say 20 names two or three presses and one or two magazines but is their work really interesting and worth reading?

Is the work intellectually honest?

Is it really innovative ?

or is it formulaic?

What we need in Chicago is vigorous discussion and critique and out of this friction we will create poetry that is worth reading and worth thinking about.

Today we have allot of poets who are concerned more with opportunities and meeting and impressing the right people. What we have now is syncophancy and what we need is art. I would love once for someone at a reading to criticize a reader the way Kerouac criticized O'Hara just once to get the fake smiles off everyone's face.

What we have now is a poetic landscape of friends publishing friends which has made the artform unimportant and ignored.

March 20

2006-02-13T08:35:00.000-06:00

Does anyone know.. Is there a reading ofWeinberger's What I Heard about Iraq being planned in Chicago on 3/20 to mark the beginning of the war?

2006-02-08T13:03:00.000-06:00

check out this online audio archive i stumbled across recently.. it's a great idea, no? a much-needed mouthpiece for younger writers utilizing a free and simple technology. i add this as a sidebar to the conversation already going today about big and little efforts that can enhance a community of writers/readers/listeners.

the latest installment is jordan stempleman, a former chicagoan who also read here last december.

It seems to me...

2006-02-08T08:16:00.000-06:00

it seems to me that Chicago has entered a moribund time kind of quiet.. I am going to be putting up tomorrow on CPMP.com a new reading series with the guild complex and notre dame on latin american writing many of the readers are just ok but it is the principal of the thing it is important.

Chicago does a bad job on the ethnic front. Just think last year was the year of Gombrowitz in the world and yet in Chicago the second city of Poland we had not events that was a travesty. i would like to see a reading series here or a magazine that creates a dialogue between international poets and local chicago ones. it seems that so much of this is filtered through new york or universities this could be interesting.

Chicago Underground Library

2006-02-07T14:11:00.000-06:00

Hi all -

Please see the message below, sent by Nell Taylor & Emerson Dameron.

***

The Chicago Underground Library is a project that aims to
create an archive of independently published and small press
works in Chicago.

The Chicago Underground Library announces its first
community meeting. Publishers, writers, artists, printers,
readers... we want to know what you want from this project.
Come out, drink some coffee, learn more about the project,
and give us a piece of your mind.

What: Informational and organizational meeting for CUL and
the independent publishing community.

Where: Mercury Cafe, 1505 W Chicago Ave. (West Town, 1 block
east of Ashland on Chicago.)

When: Saturday, February 11, 2006, 3:00pm 'til ?

About:
The Chicago Underground Library is a project that aims to
create an archive of independently published and small press
works in Chicago. Through a searchable online archive and
eventually a physical space, it will open new opportunities
for research, inspiration, education, and collaboration
among those in and outside of the publishing community. By
putting fiction, critical journals, zines, poetry, comics,
political pamphlets, and art books side by side, CUL hopes
to bridge the gaps resultant from stratification along the
lines of content, production value, and commercial
viability.

To be added to our news and updates list, ask a question,
make a comment, send baked goods, or offer words of
encouragement, please email info@underground-library.org.

Sincerely,
Nell Taylor & Emerson Dameron
www.underground-library.org

Bok reading, Links Hall 2/3

2006-02-04T12:48:00.000-06:00

The evening began with “Educational Policy Speech,” one of Daniel Borzutzky’s dispatches from Istanbul, read by the evening’s proxy, Matthew Goulish. It starts by praising all that is good, wrinkles, boredom. Goulish holds a pen and thrusts it with Dole-like emphasis. There are breaks in the rapturous prose where he deadpans, “applause.” Then come the rails against the sexu-pedagogical perversities of community college professors, those whom the speaker scorns as “operatives” of liberation. “Such enemies can only be eaten,” he declares in a turning point of the address. What follows is a detailed plan for the war on education which involves marinating, filleting, an epicurean rhapsody of ingredients and preparations, including a “special sauce.”

Christian Bok was amaaazing! He launched into Seahorse and Flying Fish by Hugo Ball for starters.. an uber-verbal, proto-lingo utterama. Then “Grain Memories” from his most recent book “Crystallography.” I wish there were a button I could press in the world that would produce Bok, Obi-wan Kenobi-like, bellowing “Sim!ulacrum!” I see there’s a boatload of mp3’s online of Bok performances, which is only necessary given how high the work rates on the aural axis, but is there much video? The facial expressions and postures are, after all, part of the show. Glad I was in the front row for this one. He faux checks his watch between poem/runs. He’s got an “official” voice like a professional broadcaster—I think, I’d watch more sports if the commentary was this. In fact, I’m going to dub a hockey game with this as soon as I’m able. Then Eunoia begins.. Chapter A, ribald indeed! Everything’s a headline. “Hobos shoot photos of foot-long schlongs!” In an aside between chapters, Bok: “It’s pretty relentless, hey?” As the sections go on, things get more vowel (adj.), carnal. “Ubu gulps up brunch!” Then he read from the Cyborg Opera, the syncopated, percussive “Mushroom Clouds,” and then a “side effect poem” to the Mushroom Clouds which was the most virtuosic display of beat-boxing I’ve ever beheld, done to some notation as he clinically flipped the pages of his manuscript all the same. The Imperial Decree of Ubu Roi is then performed on behalf of Donald Rumsfeld who couldn’t attend this evening to give it himself.. “juggernaut of bugaboo!” He closes with another Hugo Ball piece, I didn’t catch the name, only that it’s “a sort of Dadaist dirge.” Great Scott, it was Cookie Monster possessed by the EU! All hail the silliness that got us all into this language racket in the beginning, and which will never let me tolerate another reading in the precious key of “poet’s voice” again.

**

Seating is limited and you can call Links and make a reservation to ensure a seat for the other goodies on the way.

2006-02-01T13:48:00.000-06:00

Is anyone going to Links this Friday for the Christian Bok and Terry Kapsalis reading?

And where's Ray been? Ray?

2006-01-30T17:34:00.000-06:00

Steve Evans is writing an astonishing piece about some of the dealings that went on to result in the Lilly payday for Poetry magazine.

..that was just part one. There's more to check in with at that link now and the rest of this week.

'Currency Exchange'

2006-01-30T08:46:00.000-06:00

I did a write-up of the Glomski / Katz reading a couple of days ago over here. It's too long for me to feel comfortable cross-posting it in its entirety, but I thought I'd post this excerpt, which focuses in on a single poem, Glomski's great 'Currency Exchange.'

'Currency Exchange' is one of my favorite poems of Glomski's. It's essentially a long inventory, short lines that are mostly nouns or noun clauses:
"Exclamations. The price of life. Peas and carrots."
There are some verbs thrown in, too, from time to time:
"Sun shines. Cobras spit."
Somehow the addition of the verbs makes the piece feel more "filmic"-- more a montage of short clips of non-narrative action than a montage of still shots of objects. To further mix things up, there are things in there that aren't objects or actions but abstractions:
"Illusions of speed and dexterity. Step 2 and Step 3."
and some bits of dialogue (with no identified speaker):
"How long will you have that look on your face?"
Some phrases seem chosen for their rhythmic qualities ("duct tape", for instance, follows "bake sale"), but this doesn't happen often enough to become a pattern. In fact, one of the things I like about this poem is that it's kind of a pattern-disruptor: every time you think you can articulate the formal principle undergirding the inventory, a new item comes in to disrupt that principle. This gives the poem a distinct life and energy.
(The poem is funny, too, with lines like "Attention-seeking noise originates in cat", which I'm always glad to see more of)

Woodland Pattern Marathon 2006

2006-01-29T15:13:00.000-06:00

For the time I spent at this weekend's Woodland Pattern Marathon, the most successful five-minute reading was Roberto Harrison's performance of the final sections of his forthcoming book Counter Daemons (due out this summer from Tracy Grinnell's Litmus Press). Nestled into a bracket of poets who used their poetry for mostly snide and insider jokes, Roberto's poems came across as strikingly emotional. The catalogs or lists of prepositional phrases flowed or toppled - one after another - in Roberto's poems, which borrow from his eclectic mix of computer programming, vibrant imagery, and cultural and ethnic encounter (ex., Cabeza de Vaca). Roberto reads in a style of hushed intensity, one that I've come to associate with him alone - as if he stands alone with his poems in a room full of people, earnestly coming to know his own words. I'm looking forward to seeing Counter Daemons and his earlier book Os, due out from Subpress Collective sometime in the spring or summer.

I also enjoyed Chuck Stebelton's stint as banjo player, when he sat humble as Kermit the Frog and plucked out tunes named for recent books of poems like My First Painting Will Be "The Accuser" and Practice, Restraint. Chuck did a noble job hosting the event, and the bookstore's new look was a pleasant shock to everyone. Nicely, nicely done.

What did I miss?

2006-01-25T08:28:00.000-06:00

All,
If I could rive myself in two I would be on the front row mushroom seat tonight at Danny's for the Katz/Glomski reading, but I bought Jeff tickets to things months ago and one of them is tonight.
So/but...Can we all coordinate ourselves into a Milwaukee meet-up for Saturday? In past years I recall it's been: see a chunk of good readings, go out to dinner as a bunch, and then return for the late show.. speckled with feverish book consumption.

2006-01-21T23:20:00.000-06:00

A question: can/how much does shared geography trump aesthetic allegiances? I'm positive that what comes into my poetry appreciation radar would be much more narrow if it weren't for the different writers/schools that all of us regard as central reference points. Could it possibly be a disability for cities with larger poetry communities that one's company can become more "specialized"? I was citing an example to Ray last night, I think, how the film Good Night and Good Luck showed Edward R. Murrow interviewing the likes of Liberace in order to have a forum with as wide an audience as it did that was able to be as revelatory as it was in reporting the shenanigans of McCarthy. How much should a poetry community exert itself to engage other factions when it is just darn comfortable to "preach to the choir" and be surrounded by aesthetic kin? Is it worth it? What do we expect in return? Would you describe the circle of writers you fraternize with regularly as homogeneous, variations within the choir or otherwise? What poets would you like to abduct other states/cities/towns/hamlets to add to our Chicago midsts?

2006-01-21T10:17:00.000-06:00

photos from last night's Discrete event with readings by Jesse and Michael.

2006-01-21T09:26:00.000-06:00

Hey everybody,
After last night's Discrete event, and gabs made long overdue by inclement weather, geography, holidays, I thought we might/could extend the conversation here. What you're reading, other things going on in town, events you've gone to that dazzle your poetry node or no, what our other area institutions are doing in the name of poetry, and how our own projects are shaping along.. all are starting points of discussion I for one enjoy having with yous. And because our poetry community is not just in Wicker Park, Humboldt and Oak Park, IL, but also Milwaukee, New York and Berlin, perhaps this is a virtual Handlebar (/El Cid/Charleston/Whirl-a-Way/Streetside).
I'll do the administration of the site and add all interesteds among yous as members so you can make posts like this one. Drop me an email if you want to get on.