Poetry Channel #34
11/30/97
This is the second issue of Poetry Channel coming out of About.com Poetry, where Bob Holman & Margery Snyder guide you to the best of poets, poetry & performance everywhere on the Net. The site is updated every Tuesday: stop by this week to check out the feature, Bob Holman's interview with your Poetry Channel host, Juliette Torrez. Beginning Tuesday you can also come by any time to read the Web version of Poetry Channels, with live links.
IN THIS EPISODE: Jack Boulware, Neurosis, Bambi Lake, Takayuki Nakano, Bill Shields, Jason Pettus, Rick Lupert, Forbidden Panda, Natalee Caple, George Eliott Clarke, Las Vegas Poetry Jam, Albuquerque Poetry Festival, Brook Baker's Mysterious Death.
Hey y'all. I think I've finally recovered from Jack Boulware's book party last week. The book is Sex American Style, a pictorial jaunt down the memory lane of the sexual revolution, and the party was in the heart of the red light district at the Hi Ball Lounge here in SF. The Het Set was out in full force to kiss Jack, watch porno films projected on a twin bed sheet and ogle the voluptuous gogo girls. And the books couldn't stay on the table, they sold like the proverbial hotcakes. I mean, cheesecake. Boulware could definitely go on the road with that show. Of course I joined in the baccanal. Martinis were slurring my name. I think I told people I wanted to become a pornographer when I grew up. The book Sex American Style is published by Feral House, and should be hitting the shelves any day now. Boulware is planning a booksigning party down in Los Angeles sometime soon, stay tuned for details.
Coming up next week, Southern Exposure hosts Neurosis. It's an introspective performance for unstable people and guess what, I'm one of the readers. The Daughters of Houdini, Heather Gold, Noah Riskin are also featured. It was easy to ask me, the organizer said, because I talk to so many crazy people. Now that I outed myself as a mad hatter, it's even easier. The show is December 3 at 401 Alabama St. Fun starts at 7:30 p.m.
I heard that Bambi Lake was trying to get into one of the Stones' afterparties last week at the Oakland Coliseum. Her charm, her showgirl legs, her clout had no pull. So, in a fit, she called in a bomb scare and consequently, spent some time in jail. I don't know how they figured it out. Her book, The Unsinkable Bambi Lake, is published by Manic D Press.
Okay, let's hear from Takayuki Nakano in Tokyo:
UNDERGROUND HITS MAINSTREAM!
TOKYO, Nov 22, 1997
Yesterday I went on stage and read my most radical piece written in Japanese. It's radical because it's almost beyond the language. Anyway, it was a funny event. It is titled “Kadokawa-shoten's Tokyo Walker presents: J-WAVE poetry slam -- Back to beat!”
The place was an open-air stage [not so big] in front of Shinjuku station, the second largest station in Tokyo. It's funny because I know what the “slam” really [or originally] is, and in that context, our version of slam is not a “slam” at all! Rather, it's just an amateur poetry reading contest, sponsored by a major FM station (J-WAVE) and also by a major but little bit controversial publishing company called Kadokawa-shoten.
I did a solo voice performance, read that “dolorosa” [that's also featured on my Web site], while all the other poeple did in somewhat DJ-style, i.e. with background music and catchy words, etc.
Strange, I got a Grand Prix!! [There's no “belt” in our slam, however. . .] And also an opportunity to read in their radio program called Poetry Cafe!
Takayuki Nakano
Tokyo, JAPAN
URL: http://www2.airnet.ne.jp/takayuki
e-mail: takayuki@da.airnet.ne.jp
(Thanks, Takayuki, and congratulations. Don't forget, everyone, when you access this newsletter through the About.com Poetry pages you can jump directly to many of the Web sites. All this high tech is running over me, I'm still crashing along. Here's Bill Shields, responding to PC#32:)
glad y'all like Rollins - he's straight up. . . after publishing four of my books, I trust him - & that's goddamn rare praise for a publisher
Bill Shields
(Thanks. I can name two of Bill Shields' books off the top of my head -- The Southeast Asian Book of the Dead and Human Shrapnel. Another 2.13.61 writer, Don Bajema, just produced the Sam Shepard play Suicide in B Flat here in San Francisco. It was a cool cat jazz scene at the Justice League nee Kennel Club, the most stunning being the songbird called Scheherazade Stone. Jeff McDaniel interviewed the folks at 2.13.61, Manic D and Incommunicado about the state of the small press in the latest issue of Cups Magazine. Here's Jason Pettus, who's not been heard from since his hit-and-run analysis of the poetry slam scene dynamic in PC#20:)
Well, after a SEVERE financial crisis, I have a new job (The Chicago Reader), new e-mail account that I WILL be checking daily (finally), and hopefully my life will slowly start getting back on track. Sorry I haven't talked in so long. I have faithfully been getting my Poetry Channels and reading them when I have the chance. I want to write a long letter tonight about how everything's been going. I also want to write a Chicago update for the next Poetry Channel. Expect them in the mail in the next day or so. BTW, 200 copies of the novel sold so far! Send me your snail mail address again so I can send you a copy.
You WILL hear from me soon -- Jason.
(I can hardly wait. It HAS been a long time. The name of Jason's book is Dreaming of Laura Ingalls. Here's Rick Lupert, cruising the Poetry Super Highway in a UHaul:)
Next week's PSH update and featured poets might go out and up a day or two later as I am moving next Sunday November 30th (feel free to come and help.) Please address any future snail-mail to Rick Lupert, 5336 Kester Ave. #103, Sherman Oaks, CA 91411
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The Poetry Super Highway Weekly Virtual Update
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POETS OF THE WEEK ~ This weeks featured poets are DAVID HODSON (Smalltown, USA), and KEITH OWEN (Austin, TX).
DAVID HODSON is the creative force behind the Shared experience Web site (Individual Poets Pages) who also organized the recent Poetry Super Highway chat room discussion “Pixels or Paper” which was so wildly successful, that we're going to do it again soon.
KEITH OWEN maintains the Ozone Web site (Online Publications) and is involved in the spoken word scene in Austin Texas. His Featured Poet of the week poem is an entertaining metaphor of the open mic experience as a sexual experience.
~ Submit your work for consideration for featured poet of the week. Information available online. All submissions are saved for new consideration each week, until the end of the year when all unused submissions will be deleted. After the first of the year, all of 1997's featured poets will be eligible to submit work again. (The PSH will feature any individual poet only once during the calendar year.)
(Thanks, Rick. Now, from New England, here's Kyria Abrahams:)
Hiya Juliette,
This is sort of a call for submissions for a new e-zine Dawn Gabriel, Eric Mauro, and myself are starting called Forbidden Panda. I say “sort of” because all three of us are also in the process of finding new jobs (and I'm moving back to Providence) so the exact launch date for the site is not known at this time.
Those of you who were stuck in the same vicinity as any members of the Worcester team in CT may remember Forbidden Panda as Worcester's very own all female back up group, 'Boing', 'Boom', and the infamous 'Chuck-Chuck-a-Chuck' during Sean's finals piece. Forbidden Panda hopes to be a kind of eclectic, all-encompassing “stuff slammers would like” type zine. At least, for lack of a better grasp on the English language, that's the way we're defining it right now. (There should be a word that just means “stuff slam poets like”, though, dontcha think? Maybe something avant-garde like “Glrf79” or an amalgam like “Bogosimpson”...?) The zine will include comedy (essays, top ten lists, satires, etc.), poetry (well I for one am shocked. . .), a comic strip (Eric and I are working on an animated comic strip. . . you can see the tail end part of one of them here), eclectic or hard-to-find music reviews (of Daniel Johnston type caliber),and whatever else happens to end up there. Depending on space, we'd like to try to make a bulletin board for networking purposes, maybe a “post a resume” form. We are looking to eventually get advertising. We'd also like to expand to paper. Hopefully this will be a springboard to larger things for all of us.
If you're interested in submitting anything or have any column or feature ideas, please don't hesitate to let us know. You can email me at kyria@spinners.com (at least for another month) or Dawn at dawn@spinners.com (her mail is currently being forwarded to another account). Pays in infinite copies, and what paper zine can say that? (Mommy, I just got a check for 15,000 Reloads!)
Thanks,
Kyria Abrahams
(Thanks, Kyria. Fun! Sometimes it's good to have everything happen at once, the stress and excitement are compounded. I think this next post came to me from God's Bar & Grill:)
new from above/ground press
2 poetry chapbooks
The Appetites of Tiny Hands
by Natalee Caple
ISBN# 0-9682095-6-4
$4 (subscribers receive a complimentary copy)
Natalee Caple is the co-publisher of Tortoiseshell & Black Press, Toronto, & associate editor of The Queen Street Quarterly. her poetry & fiction have been published in many Canadian literary magazines including: Descant, The Malahat Review, Canadian Literature, The New Quarterly, and Matrix. Meow Press, Buffalo, New York, brought out a chapbook of three short stories by Natalee last year. her first full length book of fiction, The Heart Is Its Own Reason, will be published by Insomniac Press, Toronto in March 1998. she will be launching the chapbook at the Imperial Library Tavern as part of an above/ground press night on Thursday, November 27.
Procencal Songs [II]
George Elliott Clarke
ISBN# 0-9682095-7-2
$4 (subscribers receive a complimentary copy)
George Elliott Clarke hails from Winsdor, Nova Scotia. his second book of poems, Whylah Falls (Polestar Press, 1990) received the Archibald Lampman Award. he lives in Durham, North Carolina, where he dreams of Provence -- and Quebec. he will be launching the chapbook at Gallery 101, Ottawa, on Friday November 28 as part of a benefit for Missing Jacket magazine & Graffito, the poetry poster.
above/ground press chapbook series - chapbook subscriptions - $25 for chapbooks #16 - 20 + any asides & broadsheets in between, including books by Gil McElroy, Anne Le Dressay, Ken Norris, David W. McFadden, Clare Latremouille, Natalee Caple, Stephen Cain, George Elliott Clarke & others. (while supplies last). make cheques payable to rob mclennan, c/o above/ground press, rr#1 maxville, on k0c 1t0. write for more info.
rob mclennan -- poet/editor/publisher. . . editor, Missing Jacket & STANZAS magazines. . . publisher, above/ground press. . . co-coordinator, TREE Reading Series (2nd/4th tues, 8pm @ Irene's Pub, 885 Bank St). . . snail-mail c/o rob mclennan, rr#1, maxville on k0c 1t0God's Bar & Grill
(Thanks. You give good bio. I need to work on my book reviewing style. I work on a 'thumbs-up, thumbs-down' level. Here's Bowerbird in Santa Monica:)
bowerbird intelligentleman is gathering performance poets to come to las vegas in march for a “poetry jam” - a 3-night video-shoot/exhibition/party. Email bowerbird@aol.com now to get more information and to become eligible for special-reduced-rate rooms available on a first-come basis.
(Sounds like a blast. Oh, by the way, some folks pointed out I was hallucinating when I posted the dates for the Albuquerque Poetry Festival. They were right:)
Albuquerque Poetry Festival, February, 1998
Mon. 16- Albuquerque All Stars
Tue. 17- Young Voices Poetry Slam, Dead Poets Tribute
Wed. 18- Secret Sauce, Firestorm (the continuing all-fem reading series)
Thur. 19- Sister Spit & Friends (gay & lesbian poets), They Came From I-40 (poets from Texas, Arizona, Arkansas & Louisiana), the Shappening (poets from Chicago plus the Tag Team Haiku Championship), Highway 666 (an offramp from I-40 with darker overtones like the Ozzfest)
Fri. 20- Noche de Artistas (Latino poets), Rice-a-Roni (the San Francisco treat), Word Fuck (erotic reading and open mic)
Sat 21- Poets Brunch & Tomatina, Untitled (novelists' showcase), Superslam
Sun. 22- Western Union, the KUNM Radio Live Poetry Slam, Poetry on the Patio (regular Sunday night open mic)
(Plus, there's the regular Poetry & Beer Open Mic & Slam the night after the festival. The hosts are looking for features. Call Kenn Rodriguez at 505-260-1935 for info. Let's see, who will be at Albuquerque this year? I can name a few. Michelle Tea, Sini Anderson, Beth Lisick, Jeff McDaniel, Richard Loranger, Ken Hunt, Tarin Towers, Bucky Sinister, Jon Longhi, Matt Conley, Danny Solis, Jim Stewart, Suzanne Frost, Lisa Martinovich, Brenda Moosey, Paula Friedrich, Noel Franklin, Marta Sanchez, Bob Redmond, Jason Pettus, Shappy, Genevieve Van Cleve, Phil West, Julia Ann Delbridge, Hank Hyena, Thea Hillman, Whitey Sims, Monique de la Magdelena, Jason Flores Williams, Joe Ray Sandoval, Chris Offutt and many many more. This is a totally indy production brought to you by a non-profit group called Flaming Tongues, which also publishes The Tongue, sponsors the Albuquerque Slam Team and facilitates spoken word and multi media events in New Mexico. Plus, they fund the online costs for Poetry Channel. Who is Flaming Tongues? Well, mostly, it's Mitch Reyes, his wife Dona and their two kids, Nick and Serena. The kids have seen so many poets sleep on their living room couch, the kids probably think that poets are bums. We at Flaming Tongues do a lot on a shoestring budget. Dona collects cans from local businesses and bakes cookies to offset the cost of some our projects. Where do you think I got my bake sale mentality? Imagine what havoc we could wreak with some cash.
Anyway, I'm going to drastically shift gears and bring your attention to the mysterious death of a young writer named Brook Baker in Indiana:)
VINCENNES, Ind., Nov. 24 (UPI) The parents of a slain Indiana college student say the death may be linked to her investigative reporting for the campus newspaper about an alleged rape. But police have neither a suspect nor motive for the stabbing death in September of 19-year-old Brook Baker, who was studying journalism at Vincennes University. Frustration over the unsolved killing has prompted the parents, Maurice and Janet Baker, to give the Indianapolis Star today details surrounding the death that weren't released by campus police. The parents also helped convince Mayor Howard Hatcher to request help from the FBI.
The Bakers say their daughter was threatened after starting work last spring on an investigative piece about an alleged rape at the two-year college near the Indiana-Illinois border. The piece also dealt with campus rape in general. The parents say she received personal and e-mail threats, and last summer told police she was being stalked. The Bakers also say she was taunted with verbal insults by a group of male students who showed up at her apartment uninvited. Brook Baker was the student newspapers' campus page editor. Her brother found the body in her apartment Sept. 7. City Police Chief Greg Zeabart says he has two officers working full-time on the case.
That concludes another episode of the Poetry Channel. Send stuff to Poetry Channel c/o sofasurf@usa.net. This is an indy production; the opinions inside are not necessarily the opinions of the sponsors. Please forward to interested parties.
xox
juliette torrez
