Madison’s Slam team
Article in the Isthmus weekly about Madison’s slam poetry team preparing for next month’s national finals here.
July 2, 2008
June 28, 2008
Book Review: Reading Error
Reading Error: The lyric and contemporary poetry.
Nerys Williams.
Modern Poetry Vol. 1.
Peter Lang, 2007. 265 pp.
First, a quiz:
Poetry and theory are different. Yes or No.
Language Writing attempted to enact the considerations of theory within the writing of poetry and poetics. Yes or No.
Language Writing dispensed with any notions of the Lyric ‘I’. Yes or No.
In this challenging and richly written book Nerys Williams argues that the poetry of Charles Bernstein, Michael Palmer, and Lyn Hejinian demonstrate that the lyric retains an important focus to writers affiliated with early Language Writing.
Nerys Williams lectures in American Literature at the English Department in University College Dublin. She is the recipient of an Irish Fullbright Award.
In this apparently counterintuitive take, Reading Error illustrates how the reader can approach Language Writing as a form of wandering, or errancy. Throughout Reading Error, Williams shows that the lens of an ‘erring poetics’ enables readers to revise the role that lyricism establishes in the work of the three poets.
Their poetry illustrates how “an initial dissatisfaction with the ‘workshop model’ has evolved into a compendium of complex strategies for refiguring the lyric within an experimental praxis,” Williams says. She provides different strategies for understanding the ways error may surface, for example, via humor, mistakes, malapropisms, polyphony.
Charles Bernstein’s work, Williams argues, promotes error as a context of instruction, or even education. The aesthetic premises of Bernstein’s early poetry can be aligned to Language Writing’s interest in strategies of defamiliarization. Retracing Bernstein’s early poetics reveals how his aesthetic of error must be read not only as a challenge to the conventions of grammar and syntax, but as an ambitious claim for the practice of what he calls a ‘socious’ language.
The subject in Palmer’s poetry is often evoked through an aphasic stuttering, Williams says. Broaching his poetry through accounts of schizophrenic language “guides us in an understanding of the violent rupturing of the single speaking voice in Palmer’s work.”
The often violent rupture of the lyric in Palmer’s poetry can be read in tandem with Gilles Deleuze’s analysis of schizophrenic writing, bringing to a focus the problematized subject-object dichotomy of Palmer’s lyric.
An understanding of erring focuses on the intentional inconsistencies and the aphoristic texture of Lyn Hejinian’s poetry, williams argues. Aphorisms in Hejinian’s poetry are often sabotaged by the substitution of a word or phrase. Hejinian’s aesthetic of erring avoids a central locus of authority, with the aim of opening the text to broader implications of political responsibility and a devolution of mastery.
Jennifer Moxley’s poetry renegotiates central issues raised in Bernstein, Hejinian and Palmer’s relationship to lyricism, Williams argues. Moxley “has been given the somewhat dubious honor of reinventing, rereading, or reconfiguring lyric practices in recent american poetry.” She places a focus on lyricism as a dissenting practice with a social conscience. moxley makes a claim for the ‘social lyric’ as a voice that ‘has been excluded from the political power of dominant narratives.’
In Reading Error, Williams aims to indicate how a configuraion of error allows readers to consider the broader relationship between aesthetics, ethics, and politics in poetry. “The most viable and important possibility that this poetry work offers the reader,” she says, “is the necessity of seeing those structures of power deemed to represent us, as necessarily provisional and ultimately answerable to our criticisms.”
June 27, 2008
Poets Forum November, NYC
The Academy of American Poets will sponsor the Poets Forum, a series of public events investigating issues central to contemporary poetry in America. Scheduled for November in New York, the forum will include discussions with poets, readings, and walking tours through literary New York. Events include:
Poets Forum Reading: Some of the most acclaimed poets of our day read together on one stage.
Poetry Walking Tours: Will explore the literary history of the West Village, Harlem, Walt Whitman’s SoHo, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Poets Awards Ceremony: Celebrates contemporary poetry and the recipients of the premier collection of awards for poetry in the United States.
Poets Forum: Discussions of contemporary poetry. Participants will include Frank Bidart, Victor Hernández Cruz, Louise Glück, Lyn Hejinian, Sharon Olds, Ron Padgett, Carl Phillips, Robert Pinsky, Kay Ryan, Gary Snyder, Gerald Stern, Susan Stewart, Ellen Bryant Voigt, C. K. Williams, and moderators Timothy Donnelly, James Longenbach, Claudia Rankine, and Tree Swenson.
American Poet Launch Party: Reading and reception for the new fall issue of American Poet, the journal of the Academy of American Poets. Charles Bernstein, Major Jackson, and Cecily Parks will read from their work.
June 26, 2008
playlist 26 june
artist. track. CD title. label
andrea gibson. rush hour. when the bough breaks. andreagibson.org
beblank consort. Hache; fused spurt. sound mess. luna bisonte
bruce andrews. live choreography; baby. SUNY Buffalo. pennsound
christie taylor. another war; photograph of a dinner party. wsum reading. private recording
john bloomberg rissman. and if so always. sampler cd. johnbr.com
larissa shmailo. top of my lungs. exorcism. song crew
lawrence ferlinghetti. the freights; library scene manhattan. live at the poetry center. poetrycenter.org
maja ratkje. dictaphone jam. voice. ecm
sylvia plath. on the difficulty of conjuring up a dryad. voice of the poet. random house audio
talaam acey & mahogany browne. breathing 101. underground heavy. talaamacey.com
June 19, 2008
playlist 12 june
Artist. Track. Cd title. label
Be Blank consort. spank. sound mess. luna bisonte
bob holman. picasso in Barcelona; for paul and everybody else. the awesome whatever. bowery records
check stebelton. millions now living will never die; man hands has rowdy feet. denver reading. private recording
david french. self evident. frog peak collaborations.
gertrude stein. a portrait of TS Eliot. gertrude stein reads. caedmon
H.D. helen is of course that helen. sound states. U of NC press
hugo ball. gadji beri bimba. sound states. u of NC Press
isadore isou. rituel somptueux pour la selection. sound states. U of NC Press
jeanne spicuzza. Woman/ women. jeanne spicuzza.
jennifer moxley. old systems of enrollment; the new constant. poetic brooklyn. pennsound
maja ratkje. acid. voice. ecm
sarah mckinstry brown. you are dangerous. transplant. midverse com
playlist 19 june
artist. track. cd title. label
andrea gibson. profit. when the bough breaks. andreagibson org
charles bukowski. the genius of the crowd; the poetry reading. uncensored. caedmon audio
christie taylor. still life with flypaper; the ninth. WSUM reading. private recording
janet kuypers. grab the others neck; the last before extinction. compilation cd. janetkuypers com
jesse glass. hospital singing; kid poem. compilation cd. private recording
larissa shmailo. how my family survived the camp; hunts point counterpoint. the no net world. songcrew com
marc smith. i wanted to be; nightbound. quarters in the jukebox. slampapi com
sylvia plath. fever 103. voice of the poet. randomhouse audio
tom raworth. Meadow; unable to create carrier. no hard feelings for steve lacy. corbett vs Dempsey
Music
steve roach. somewhere else. ascension of shadows. projekt
June 7, 2008
Slam nationals update
The 22nd Annual National Poetry Slam will be held in Madison, Wisconsin from August 3-9.
From pentameter to publishing to film screenings to managing depression, Lyrics on the Lake presents a broad arsenal of tools for the development of every attendee.
In fact, not only will NPS teams be encouraged to take stock of their skills and opportunities, but non-competing members will find it worthwhile to travel and participate in the series, as well.
Festival attendees will enjoy a series called PenTactics, which offers instruction and insight on other areas of writing, to include children’s books, screenplays and creative nonfiction.
Other series will ignite full-time performers, scout greater opportunities, support poetry organizers in shaping their local communities, and extend tools to enrich your personal lives.
Some of the venues:
Madison Musem of Contemporary Art
Brink Lounge
The Bartell, Drury Theater, Evjue Theater
Majestic Theater
The Comedy Club
Orpheum Stage Door
Genna’s
Montmartre
Madison’s
Angelic Brewery
Workshops: UW Madison Humanities Building
Finals: Overture Hall
June 5, 2008
playlist 5 june
artist. track. cd title. label
anne sexton. the little peasant. anne sexton reads. caedmon.
bern porter & mark malnicove. coming & going. eternal poetry festival. audio muzixa qet.
brian michael tracy. when first we planted trees; what she sees. midnight tea second cup.
jackson mac low & anne tardos. vocabulary gatha for malcolm goldstein; Tara gatha 1975. doings. granary books.
jennifer moxley. the local. poetic brooklyn. pennsound.
juliana spahr. two views of islands. SUNY Buffalo. pennsound.
kathleen fraser. somebody who is hooked on red. pennsound.
laura sims. blank. stranger. private recording.
lisa jarnot. the 8 fold path. poems from ring of fire.
michael palmer. book of the yellow castle; song of the round man. SUNY Buffalo. pennsound.
Music
bill fontana. harmonic bridge. sound art: beyond music. Rizzoli; Har/Com
jean dubuffet. terre foisonnante. sound art: beyond music. Rizzoli; Har/Com
steve roden. rust. sound art: beyond music. Rizzoli; Har/Com
May 29, 2008
playlist 29 may
artist. track. cd title. label.
ani di franco. it can be kind of deceiving. ..
bern porter & mark melnicove. the world slowed down; mole speech. eternal poetry festival. audio muzixa qet
brian michael tracy. driving with dante; your poem. Midnight Tea: A second cup. midnightteapoetry
brion gysin. i am that i am; junk is no good baby. ubuweb.
caroline bergvall. figs 1-4. pennsound.
cecil taylor. track 4. chinampas. ubuweb
glossolalia. chandetan. black sail. glossolalia-blacksail
julianna spahr. blood sonnets. SUNY Buffalo. pennsound
kathleen fraser. a definite mountain. something even human voices. pennsound
leslie scalapino. bum series. way. pennsound
lisa jarnot. suddenly last summer. poems from ring of fire and black dog songs
