Poetry Channel #39
2/10/98
IN THIS EPISODE: Carl Hanni, John Sinclair, Spoken War, Poetry Motel, Jason Pettus, Grammar Rodeo, Slam the Movie, Nap Jam, Valentine's Day Poetry Slam Massacre, Teri Zipf, Mouth Almighty Tour, Victoria Rivas.
(Hey everyone. Thanks for the letters. I missed you all.
No intro today.
Let's get rolling with Carl Hanni:)
Juliette--Carl from Portland here. Greetings, and sending you energy for the Albuquerque run. I plan on making it Next Year, when I should be living in the area (well, at least Arizona).
Speaking of next year, if you give me a mailng address, I'd like to send you something. I recently did a HUGE interview with John Sinclair for a magazine out of Philadelphia called Carbon 14. So big they could only print one half at a time, but it just came out, and I like to send you a copy of the interview so You Can Have It. It's a good reference.
Best wishes in all things-
Cheers and beers--Carl Hanni
(Thanks, Carl! My address here in New Mexico is c/o Kenn Rodriguez, 2730 San Rafael SE, ABQ NM 87106. The number here is 505-260-1935, and I'm usually lingering near the phone fielding calls from poets seeking directions to the festival. Isn't John Sinclair a dear? I hear rumors he may be at SXSW this year, but you know how rumors are. And what's the deal, Carl, you tease with news of a move but no details. . . still gonna work in rock'n'roll?
Hey, check it out, speaking of John Sinclair:)
From: INT:daf09@gnofn.org
Greetings. I picked up these addresses from Tammy Gomez. Surregional Press is a project of Mesechabe: The Journal of Surre(gion)alism, coming out of New Orleans. John Sinclair is one of the unacknowledged beat heros, founder of the Detroit Artists' Workshop, the White Panthers, Rainbow People's Party, Ann Arbor Blues Festival, apoet, raconteur, d.j., and human archive of the blues and jazz. John was a featured poet at the historic 1965 Berkeley Poetry Conference, before he became public enemy #1 in Oakland County, MI for his work with the Panthers. He managed the MC-5 and got Iggy Pop his first recording contract. Surregional Press will publish John's "elongated work in verse," Fattening Frogs for Snakes: A Delta Sound Suite, probably in 1999. But to get there we need subscribers. This is Surregional Press's first full-length publication.
If you've heard John on tour with his band, The Blues Scholars, you know also that he's a powerful performer poet rock solid basic spoken word with the depth of history and the passion of the blues musicians he writes about.
Subscription prices will be $15 + $2 shipping for paperback, $25 + $2 shipping and handling for hardcover. The book will be published in an edition of 1500, with 300 of those being hardcover. Checks should be made out to Mesechabe/John Sinclair Project, and mailed to Meseechabe, 1539 Crete St., New Orleans, LA 70119-3006. Mesechabe's editor and publisher, Dennis Formento, may also be reached by phone at (504)944-4823, and by e-mail at daf09@gnofn.org. This edition will include 160 pages of poems, and 30+ of notes and discographies compiled by John and covering the recorded output of blues legends like Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, and Robert Johnson. It's a great work of art and history in a mode straight out of Chas. Olson (a "saturation job"), through Ed Sanders's "investigative poetry" to you.
(Well, there you go. Thanks so much for the info. Any pal of Tammy's is a pal of Poetry Channel. What's Miss Gomez up to? People still talk about her reading in Albuquerque during last year's festival. I get choked up everytime I watch the video. I think she's better than butter the way her words melt in my mouth. She has a website.
Here's another cyber pal, Greg Stant from Denver:)
Hi Juliette,
I hope you're feeling better. I know it was you GGM who was ill -- I hope you're feeling better. . . When you get a chance, take a look at the cover page for SpokenWar. We got fed up and pissed off and this is the result. (No, I'm not gonna tell you, you got to look it up. Any poet who publishes will understand.)
--Take care
greg
(Thanks, Greg. Are you coming to Albuquerque? I heard you were thinking about it, it would be great to meet in person and we still have plenty of couch space. The six Chicago poets, headed up by Jason Pettus, are staying with Joel Matthews, the Austin poets have promised to make nuisances of themselves at Danny Solis' apartment where they will by joined by the Fayetteville poets. Jim Stewart's place is the temporary home of a couple Los Angeles poets, Tracy Paris is hosting the Seattle poets and Kenn Rodriguez is housing several San Francisco poets along with our pals from Madison and Seattle, Ken Hunt and Marta Sanchez. Other folks have volunteered their homes as well, and the Albuquerque Convention Center hooked us up with the Stardust Hotel, which charges $30 for a double.
Hey, here's Bob Redmond, cohost of the fabulous slam in Seattle and one of the features of the Albuquerque Poetry Festival:)
juliette:
demolition derbies are out; monster truck shows are in!
sunday sunday sunday. . . .
seeya
bob redmond
************************************
"The sun isn't yellow, it's chicken!"
--Bob Dylan
(Monster trucks are too upscale for this gig! I'm looking forward to seeing you, Noel Franklin, Paula Freidrich and Marta Sanchez. You all treated me like a little princess in Seattle, my turn to reciprocate. Bob Redmond and Noel Franklin are also the instigators of the Seattle Poetry Festival, which happens in April, and they run the Reel-to-Real reading series at the Speakeasy Cafe in the Belltown district. They worked this past year at the Bumbershoot Festival, and were also on the slam team. I don't know where they get the energy. . .
Oh, God, and look, it's my pal from Chicago, Jason Pettus:)
Juliette!
Ooh, I hope this reaches you. My plane ticket is bought, I'm definitely heading to Albuquerque for the festival. Here is the (hopefully final) lineup for the Chicago show:
Me
Andi Strickland
Janet Kuypers
Nina Corwin
Eric Sultan
Aaron Bradley
Janet's in LA right now and will be driving in from there; Eric and Aaron are in NY right now and will be driving from THERE; Andi will be driving from Chicago; Nina will be flying, but separate from me. Whew!
My flight gets into Albuquerque at 6:45 PM, Wednesday, February 18, flight 965 from St. Louis (I have to transfer planes there). I hope, since there will be several Chicago people already there with cars, one of them will be able to pick me up at the airport, but I'll let you know. Nina has already gotten a hotel room; I imagine Janet will get a hotel; Andi wants to get a hotel but doesn't know if she can afford it; ERIC AND AARON AND I WILL DEFINITELY NEED SOFAS TO CRASH ON. From what I understand, our show is Thursday, Feb 19, 9 PM. If that's not right, let me know.
So, I've gotten all the Chicago people copies of the Poetry Channel that had the festival's schedule. Has any additional literature come out since then? I imagine most of our plans on getting organized and figuring everything out is going to have to wait till we actually get out there -- but any detailed info you have that you can send would be greatly appreciated.
I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing you again and being at the festival. I think this trip holds great promise, not only for my writing and my career, but just as an opportunity to enjoy myself and get away from Chicago for a bit. Can you tell me once again what kind of clothes to bring?
Okay, I'll send this off and wait for your reply. Thanks again, by the way, for inviting us to perform and LETTING us perform.
Jason!
jpettus@chireader.com
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7135/index.htm
(Jason, you rock. You're staying with Joel Matthews, a local bookseller and man-about-town. He'll take care of you. I'm so glad the Shappening is happening, even without the Shapster. I heard he's going to SXSW instead, his fourth appearance there since the 94 Lollapalooza tour. Maybe this will be the year he finally 'gets signed.' I hope so. Our little butterfly deserves it. Anyway, Jason, thank YOU for keeping the faith in me and my little project, everyone here is thrilled to have Chicago in the house. The Shappening runs with our first-ever Grammar Rodeo. Umm, naughty sentence deconstruction, who/whom, spelling bee and the Tag Team Haiku Championship. Kevin Sampsell and Dayvid Figler will not be defending the title this year, I just heard, so we'll have four teams in a best-of-17. Phil West and Mike Henry are the first team on board. Oh, and the Grammar Rodeo? Check it out, some of the people signing up include a copy editor, a high school teacher and a former spelling bee champ.
I totally forgot to mention this, it's probably already oldest of old news (check the Mining Company feature last week if you haven't seen it already, folks) BUT the movie Slam starring Saul Williams won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival last month. Trimark bought it for a cool $2.5 mil, no release dates yet but if they're smart they'll milk National Poetry Month to ride the momentum. Congratulations to Saul and everyone who worked on the project.
Here's Bowerbird Intelligentleman with some clarification:)
the real name of
the north american poetry jam
is
the north american poetry jam.
sometimes abbreviated to
nap jam.
and, since this is the first one, it's called
nap jam one.
the next one, in september, will be nap jam two.
and so on.
thanks for mentioning it.
love and kisses, soon to be live and in person,
bowerbird
(Thanks, baby! Bowerbird and Mark Schaeffer are reading in the Poker Night reading on Feb. 18. The lineup also includes Eirik Ott, Gene Frumkin, Todd Moore, Bob Redond, Bruce Noll, Richard Lehnert and Bob Swearingen. Eirik Ott hits the SanJo slam right before heading out. Here's David Huang with details:)
Juliette,
If you can spare some bytes of space in your next issue of poetry channel, Vadim Litvak and I would like to blurb a slam event in downtown San Jose at FUEL. After an absence for a few years now, slam returns to San Jose as the St. Valentine's Day Poetry Slam Massacre (Saturday Feb 14th 5-8pm) The massacre will be perpetrated by two fantastic features (Russell 'Gonzaga' & Eirik Ott). We've got two events where contestants can get a chance to win $200 in cash prizes: a poetry slam where any poem goes and a love slam where poets fling sappy love poems all over the place and see where they can score with the love thermometer. With free admission and a chance to meet other poets hurting for a bit of love, what more could one ask for on Valentine's Day? Complete details can be found
at. . . http://www.slip.net/~paxan/slam.htm
(How beautiful! Thanks, David. Say hi to Russell for me. Here's Charles Potts, checking in with Teri Zipf's new book:)
Hey Juliette, glad to have you back. Tsunami Inc. wants everybody to know that Teri Zipf's book, Outside the School of Theology has won the 1998 William Stafford Memorial Award for poetry given by the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. She will receive $1,000 prize at the PNBA Spring Show in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, March 14-16. It hsould be good news for everybody that independent presses and poets have a chance. See you in Seattle at the Festival?
--tsunami@wwics.com
http://www.wwics.com/~tsunami
Charles Potts
PO Box 100
Walla Walla WA 99362-0033
(Thanks, Charles. Yes, I will be there. I need to coordinate my life after this festival. But I did hear that Kenn Rodriguez and Traci Paris from Albuquerque will also be reading in Seattle, along with Guillermo Gomez-Pena and a few other big surprises. Oh, wait? Did I hear the Last Poets? Maggie Estep? I think I did. I heard she may be at SXSW, tour circles run small this year. Tighter than a crab's ass. April April April is National Poetry Month, soon to be a Hallmark card near you. In the meantime, it's a great hook to pitch reading series to local bookstores and coffeehouses. What does National Poetry Month mean anyway? Oh never mind, I broke my brain, it hurts to think. I do know that the Mouth Almighty tour is scheduled for that month, a guaranteed cover story to commemorate National Poetry Month, a well meaning sop thrown to cover all the times the newspapers don't mention poetry/spoken word events. Well, I don't know that actually, but hype runs like a river. I am naturally distrustful of media coverage, having worked in newspapers for years before I ran off to join the circus. But this will be big. Last Poets, Sekou Sundiata, Bob Holman and Maggie Estep. How much would you pay? It's sure to be on the pricey side; airline tickets aren't cheap.
My sympathies go to Victoria Rivas, who just lost everything in a fire. Here's Gabrielle Zane's letter:)
To All Those in the Slam Family and other concerned poets:
One of the organizers for the 1997 National Poetry Slam Championship lost nearly everything she owns in a fire last week that destroyed two city blocks in Branford Connecticut. Those of you who attended the Nationals in CT may have seen her running the book store. Her name is Victoria Rivas, she is a poet and ran a small press (Ye Old Font Shoppe) in CT which produced many wonderful chapbooks for poets in the New England area. Victoria has dedicated much of her time and energy to the promotion of poetry. We are sad for her loss which included all of her business materials, book stock from her press and her own personal collection of books which included a twenty year collection of poetry. Local efforts are strong to help reestablish Victoria Rivas with the necessities and we are asking that everyone respond to this one thing: "SEND HER BOOKS - your book, books of other poets, reference books, old books, extra copies of books, SEND BOOKS."
Also, for those in the general New England area, there will be a benefit for Victoria to help raise money for a new computer and other materials she may need to start up her business again. The following is a copy of a post from Faith Vicinanza who is heading up the efforts to assist Victoria. It explains the benefit and how folks in our area can help.
Thanks to all reading this and reaching out.
Gabrielle Zane
Faith V. wrote:
. . . Clothing, household goods, furniture, linens, and small appliances have already begun to come in. We are asking that people with goods to donate contact us to make arrangements. We are also holding a fund-raiser to help her out financially. Please join us and make this a special event for Victoria and for the community she belongs to.
Sunday - February 15th - 1 p.m. till whenever.
A poetry and music all day open mike.
$5 at the door - all funds go to Victoria Rivas.
Please join us at The Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main Street in downtown Middletown on Sunday, February 15th for a day of sharing and community action for one of our own in need. A donation of money ($5 minimum donation suggested) gets you in. $5 at the door will also get you a chance to read or play music for 5 minutes at the open mike. $10 gets you 10 minutes at the mike if you wish to read or play music, or you can just make a wonderful show of support with it. Here are all the ways in which you can help:
Bring food to share at the fund raiser!
Bring poetry or music to share!
Bring yourself and everyone else you know!
Bring donations of material goods -
call us to see what she needs!
BRING BOOKS!!!!!!!
For more information or to ask about what you could donate in the way of material goods, please contact either Priscilla Herrington at 860-951-1585 or Faith Vicinanza at 203-426-3388 or at FaithV@aol.com. You can also make monetary donations by mail if you cannot be with us on February 15th, please send a check made out to Victoria Rivas to Faith Vicinanza, 203 Hanover Road, Newtown, CT 06470-1103. Thank you in advance for your generous hearts and your partnership.
(Thanks both to Faith and Gabrielle for the post. The community support means a lot, and I'm sorry to hear about the fire.)
That concludes another Poetry Channel. Things are in high gear for the festival. More to come, no doubt, I got a ton of letters. I'm still on a borrowed computer so continue to send info and news to Poetry Channel c/o brokenn@dump.com. Happy wave to web hot mama Margy Snyder for being so patient [\/ -- waving back at you with both hands, Juliette]. And I'm sorry to Greg Gillam for being an ungrateful jerk. This is a new year, I swear things are going to be different. Yeah, well.
xox
juliette torrez
Poetry @ The Mining Company
An interview with Anne Elliott, former Pussy Poet & maker of beautiful books on her Big Fat Press label.
Poetry Bulletin Board -- Jason Pettus has promised to log on from the Albuquerque Festival with a live report. Drop in, post your announcements, start a conversation.
