| POETRY CURRENTS | |
HELLO FROM LOS ANGELES POETS & PLAYERS
We’ve got lots to report and time’s a wasting. No preamble, no introduction, just pure poetic news from the rock pile of poetry, Southern California where poets chip away at poetic injustice and just get the words done!
- Sunday, March 17, 3 pm
Readings at the J. Paul Getty Center Museum Lecture Hall, 1200 Getty Center Drive -- David St. John and Charles Webb. Cosponsored with the Getty Research Institute. Admission is free, $5 parking/reservations recommended. Call 310.440.7300 for reservations. Call the Poetry Society of America in LA at 310.669.2369 for more information. Books for sale by Duttons, Brentwood.
- Friday, April 5, 4 - 6 pm
Poetry in Motion Reading -- The Poetry Society of America and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority honor National Poetry Month and the second year of Poetry in Motion in LA with readings by Amy Gerstler, Eloise Klein Healy, Suzanne Lummis, Aleida Rodriguez, Antonieta Villamil and Stephen Yenser. Admission free. Union Station, East Portal, Downtown Los Angeles. Call the MTA Metro Art Hotline 213.922.4ART for more information and about other live Poetry in Motion events -- on the busses and trains!
- Sunday, May 19, 3 pm
Readings at the J. Paul Getty Center Museum Lecture Hall, 1200 Getty Center Drive -- Molly Bendall, Cathy Colman, Gretchen Mattox, Patty Seyburn and Judith Taylor. Cosponsored with the Getty Research Institute. Admission is free, $5 parking/reservations recommended. Call 310.440.7300 for reservations. Call the Poetry Society of America in LA at 310.669.2369 for more information.
SALVATION AT THE VOCAL LOUNGE
The Vocal Lounge was at the Salvation Theater, 1519 Griffith Park Boulevard (next to Pirate Queen and across from the 99-cent store) in Silverlake, on Saturday, March 2 -- a new monthly forum for the voice, figuratively... literally... bringing singers, text operators and instrumentalists together for “ah”... inscribing, explosive, earth-meets-openings performances. Truth be told, tender, insolent, sultry, spoken, sung, vophonic... Produced by Julie Adler. The artists for March 2nd were Wadada Leo Smith & Harumi Makino Smith, Judicanti Responsura (William Roper & Joseph Mitchell). For further information about The Vocal Lounge, email juladler@earthlink or call 323.662.4683.
GEORGIA LIVES IN NEW YORK BUT WAS JUST IN SOCAL
East Coast poet Georgia Popoff recently completed another very successful tour of SoCal. During the first two weeks of February, Georgia performed at the Long Beach Big Damn Poetry Slam (that night pre-empted from their venue for a Super Bowl party and relocated to host Mindy Nettifee's living room for a salon-style reading and slam), San Diego's Poetic Brew, the Anti-Valentine's Day Co-Lab-Oration madness at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood, Borders at the Block in Orange, and Redondo Beach Poets. Georgia also offered her workshop, “Word Play,” in San Diego and Studio City and did two school residencies at Chula Vista H.S. (San Diego) and Los Alisos Middle School (La Mirada). To fit in even more poetic opportunity, she stopped into the Ugly Mug in Orange for Jane Cassady's feature there (Georgia and Jane cohost Poetry Paradiso in Syracuse, NY), where she took second place in the Valentine's Slam, and she closed out the tour with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on KUCI-FM's weekly radio show, “Writers on Writing.” To finish off a perfect trip west, Georgia did what all kids want to do... spent a magical day at Disneyland... before flying east to resume all of her endeavors there. She asks this correspondent to relay her thanks to all the hosts, coordinators, friends, and audience that she met and performed for because they made it the best California tour yet.
MONDAY NIGHT MOVES
Don “Kingfisher” Campbell and Jack Bowman, proprietors of San Gabriel Valley’s Monday Night Poetry, have found a new home. Per Jack when I asked him if the new place (Java Zone at 490 N. Lake Avenue in Pasadena) was a good space: “you betcha, clean, warm, good vibes, nice proprietors, hard to beat.” Every Monday at 8 pm.
LESLIE MONSOUR AT LACMA
I just had the privilege of seeing Philip Levine and Richard Garcia at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). According to curator Laurel Ann Bogen over 400 tickets were sold for the event. Whoever said poetry doesn’t draw crowds has not been to one of these highly acclaimed readings! On Friday, March 15 one of my favorite Los Angeles poets, Leslie Monsour, will be reading at LACMA with Marilyn Chin. The reading takes place at 7 pm, and the admission is $7 -- $5 for members. LACMA is located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Leslie has some more very exciting news: She just learned she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize this year. Per Leslie, “It's only a nomination -- winners are decided in May -- still, it's a wonderful surprise.”
MIND THE GAP
Mike the Poet (aka Mike Sonksen) is hosting a poetic event at the world famous Atlas Supper Club in Los Angeles. He is calling it “Bridging the Gap” and it takes place on April 15th, 8 pm to 2 am (wow! that is a long reading, Mike). The Atlas Supper Club is located at 3760 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Mike says: “Bridging the Gap is an evening combining spoken word, music & painting. The lineup of poets is an intergenerational mix combining long-time Los Angeles literary heroes with several emerging literary prodigies. Los Angeles is a city with a mosaic of demographics. Being the entertainment capital of the world, there is great access to music, spoken word & visual art. Bridging the Gap is an evening catering to every demographic of culture. Whether it’s the cultural literati of Beyond Baroque or the underground art lovers of Sound Lessons or Firecracker, Bridging the Gap will feature spoken word, live music & the captivating DJing ability of J LogiC.”
Featured poets are Lewis MacAdams, Larry Jaffe, PhilHarmonic, Besskepp, MikethePoeT, Ladyvette & other special guests... Musical sensation Cody ChesnuTT will be playing following poets. DJ J LogiC & Alfred Hawkins will be spinning records after Cody ChesnuTT. A performance painter will be in the mix as well.
The Atlas Supper Club's atmosphere is a venue regal enough to host this dynamic jam. The crowd attending will be a mosaic of LA's art crowd, literary crowd & music scene. People will be ready to get loose on this evening especially after filing their taxes. This promises to be quite a dynamic night of culture at the Atlas.
ON THE VERGE
The International Performance Project presents the Verge Anthology of International Poetry and the Mahler B. Ryder Award for Poetry (first prize: $200). The Rules: Poems must be no longer than 50 lines. All manuscripts must be typed or word-processed. One poem per page. Do not include your name on any page. All entries must be unpublished. Name, address, email address and phone number should be on a separate piece of paper with titles or first lines. Winning entry will be published in Verge and receive a copy. Copyright remains with the author. The entry fee is $10 (US) for 3 poems, $3 (US) for each additional poem. Make checks or bank money orders payable to: The International Performance Project. Deadline: Entries must be postmarked by March 30, 2002. Winners will be notified by summer, 2002. Please address entries to: Verge Poetry Anthology c/o IPP, 4470 Sunset Blvd., Suite 429, Los Angeles, CA 90057. Folks, normally I am not big on contests, but this one is being put on by my good poet friend Ulli Ryder (aka Blue) and she has created this award in memory of her father (an incredible artist in his own right).
MAGIC WORDS AT MAGIC'S STARBUCKS
Spreading love and spoken words... hosted by Sandra Laraine Coleman, Alice The Poet and MsTmusze with musical direction by Victor X-man Taylor on Wednesdays from 7 to 11 pm at Magic Johnson’s Starbucks, 5301 Centinela, Inglewood in the Ladera Center. We are an open reading with monthly features and special presentations from artists who are visiting So Cal from out of town. For more info, please write blessedrwe1@yahoo.com or alicethepoet@aol.com or call 310.338.1297.
GET IN ON THE BIG PICTURE
The event we've been talking about for months is coming, and we want you to be part of this historic project. On Sunday, April 7 at 3 pm, Beyond Baroque will host The Big Picture, a convocation of published Southern California poets to be photographed for National Poetry Month.
Southern California is a region of diverse populations, each with a unique voice. For this event, we are bringing all these voices together -- the voices of our literary poets, our performance poets, our beat poets, avant-garde poets, academic poets, hip-hop poets, environmental poets, political poets, cowboys poets, and others. Often, regions are not aware of their cultural heritage. This is our chance to preserve these poets for posterity and to awaken the Southern California region to the wealth of talent that resides right here, right now!
The event is being documented by Mark Savage, who is completing a five-year project individually photographing the poets of Los Angeles. Called “one of the finest up-and-coming portrait photographers in North America” by American Photography, Savage has produced outstanding work that has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Money, Fortune Small Business, and other publications. After the group photo, all poets will be invited to visit Mark Savage's completed project, “Souls and Passions,” on display at the Beyond Baroque gallery.
Participating poets are being asked to donate copies of their publications to the Beyond Baroque Archive -- the largest independent collection of Southern California poetry and ephemera on the West Coast. Be it your chapbooks, your broadsheets, your perfect-bound collections, your spoken word recordings, or the literary magazines you have produced as publishers and editors, we want them to enrich the archives and guarantee your permanent legacy as part of Southern California's grand poetic tradition. Please bring them to the Big Picture event! RSVP, please! This is essential! We need to know how many people are coming so that we can secure enough parking, food, and other facilities concerns. To RSVP, or if you have any questions, email Amelie Frank at poetamelie@onebox.com.
CROSSING THE BORDER WITH M.C. BRUCE
Poet and host M.C. Bruce runs the po reading at the Borders in Orange which he affectionately calls his “Little Clambake.” Although I am not quite sure what he means (there ain’t no clams in Borders, nor corn on the cob neither), M.C. Bruce runs a wonderful, warm and eclectic evening drawing in poets from all over LA as well as Orange County. Upcoming features include:
- March 11: Nancy Lambert reads from her Swan Duckling Press Chapbook Competition winning entry.
- March. 25: Regulars Night with the homespun charm of Sharon Saunders and the youthful rock and roll of Roger Caceras.
- April 8: Jason Hayashi, a reclusive poet whose poems about the mental health system are affecting and indelible.
A SHORT NOTE FROM ONE OF THOSE GUYS PEDDLING POETRY
You know these guys from my previous Museletters: They are the “poetry idiots,” Ben Trigg and Steve Ramirez.
Dear Larry,
Just wanted to thank you for the incredibly kind words about our reading in your column! We love running the show and I remind myself of that every Wednesday before dragging my butt out the door to host it... but it's always good to hear that people are enjoying it.
Take care,
Steve
THE WONDER OF WORLD STAGE
One of the finest readings I have been to in a long time is the regular weekly reading at the World Stage in Liemert Park (4344 Degnan Blvd., 213.293.2451), hosted by Michael Datcher and assisted by Imani Toliver. The fantastic Willie Sims featured the night I was there -- what a masterful storyteller he is. And my old buddy D Knowledge was in the house visiting from the East coast (he teaches at Yale now). From the moment you set foot in the World Stage you are embraced by a wondrous down-home feeling that just grips the soul and makes you smile. Host Datcher runs the evening more like a prayer meeting than a poetry reading. There is a true feeling of family here. Poets are given respect but at the same time encouraged to lay down their best words and not bother the audience with b.s. (there is a no b.s. sign on the podium). The readings are held every Wednesday and there is a $3 recommended donation. To see some of my photos from the venue, visit The World Stage at Poetix.net.
FACING LA: A CONVERSATION WITH ITS WRITERS AND POETS
Thursday, March 14, 7 - 9 pm at the Japanese American National Museum, coordinated by Claudia Sobral. The program is in conjunction with the “Flo Oy Wong: Angel Island, Immigration and Family Stories” exhibition, co-sponsored by the Amerasia Journal, UCLA Asian American Studies Center and Poets for Peace. Join us for an evening of conversation and readings with some of Los Angeles’ most provocative writers. They give voice to living in Los Angeles ten years after the riots and six months after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. The program will also include a special reading of immigration poetry from Angel Island (considered the “Ellis Island of the West”). This will be an evening that fuses past, present, and the future through the power and inspiration of the word. The program is free and features the following poets: Nellie Wong, Russell Leong, Shishir Kurup and Larry Jaffe. More info at Poets4Peace.com.
ANOTHER WEST: POETS FROM OUR COMMUNITY
March 21 in the Wells Fargo Theatre, the Autry Museum presents Another West: Poets From Our Community, a year-long poetry series featuring the many voices of our community. From 7 to 9 pm on various Thursday nights throughout the year, poets will participate in events that combine the cultural resources of the museum with the community of greater Los Angeles. Our Women’s History Month live readings feature two outstanding Los Angeles poets. To help celebrate the powerful feminine voice in poetry, on March 21 we are proud to present Ulli K. Ryder (formerly known as Blue) and Jeanette Clough.
AND FROM OKLAHOMA...
this report from our intrepid poet bon vivant friend, Carol Davis Koss:
- Saturday, March 9th, c. 9 pm (sign up at 8): Expresso Works (6th and “E” Street in Lawton) is a monthly open mic reading on second Saturdays. Carloads of OKC area poets are making this monthly trek to Lawton. Directions: I-44 west to Lawton (exit Gore Blvd.), turn right on Gore, left on 6th Street. Coffee house is on the corner of 6th and E.
- Thursday, March 14th, 7 pm: A reading in celebration of women at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (Chickasha), the Terrace Room in the Student Center (at the intersection of Alabama and 17th). For more information, contact Sarah Webb at facwebbsj@usao.edu.
- Wednesday, April 10th: The Fourth Annual Center Thatcher Hoffman Smith Speaker Series presents Mark Doty. Doty is a National Book Critics' Circle Award winner and the only American to win Britain's T.S. Eliot Prize. Workshop 10 - 11:30 am in the Homsey Moot Court Room (room 100) in Sarkeys Law Center (the corner of NW 23rd and Kentucky). Poetry reading 8 - 9:30 pm in the Petree Auditorium (NW 25th and Blackwelder). Open mic 6:15 - 7:30: pm in the lobby outside the Petree Auditorium. Previous poets in this series have been Robert Pinsky, Jane Hirshfield, and Michael Ondaatje. For more information, contact Dr. Harbour Winn at 521-5472.
- Friday, April 12th, 8 pm: The second Friday poetry event at Espresso Connection (2416 NW 23rd St) for April (National Poetry Month) is titled "Featuring the Work of...," hosted by Carol Davis Koss. Bring the work of poets you love to read. Featured will be the work of Billy Collins and the poetry of those you care enough to celebrate.
- Wednesday, April 10th: The Fourth Annual Center Thatcher Hoffman Smith Speaker Series presents Mark Doty. Doty is a National Book Critics' Circle Award winner and the only American to win Britain's T.S. Eliot Prize. Workshop 10 - 11:30 am in the Homsey Moot Court Room (room 100) in Sarkeys Law Center (the corner of NW 23rd and Kentucky). Poetry reading 8 - 9:30 pm in the Petree Auditorium (NW 25th and Blackwelder). Open mic 6:15 - 7:30: pm in the lobby outside the Petree Auditorium. Previous poets in this series have been Robert Pinsky, Jane Hirshfield, and Michael Ondaatje. For more information, contact Dr. Harbour Winn at 521-5472.
FOUND A LITTLE TEAPOT, POETIC AND STOUT
The mission of Tebot Bach (Welsh for “little teapot”) is to strengthen community, promote literacy, and broaden the audience for poetry through community outreach programs and publishing and to demonstrate the power of poetry to transform one's life experiences. Tebot Bach sponsors a poetry reading and writing workshop series for the public in Orange County and Southern California at large. These events are held in Huntington Beach. The readings feature local, national, and international poets. Additionally, Tebot Bach sponsors poetry readings and writing workshops for schools kindergarten through college and marginalized venues such as homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters, nursing homes, senior citizen daycare centers, hospitals, AIDS hospices, and correctional facilities. All readings are held at Fidelity Federal Bank, 19900 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach, CA 92646. Open reading sign-up at 7:30 pm; readings begin at 8 pm. Upcoming features include:
- March 29: Larry Jaffe and Myrenna
- April 26: John Gardiner and Thomas Lux
“WORD OF MOUTH” IN TUJUNGA
The Friends of the Sunland-Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library announce a new reading series, “Word of Mouth.” The readings will occur at 7 pm on the third Wednesday of every month, and the series will open with noted Southern California poets francEyE Smith and John Harris. Future readers include Dinah Berland, Anne Silver, Richard Garcia, Katherine Williams, and Terry Wolverton. The series is free and open to the public.
Word of Mouth is hosted by Stephanie Hemphill and M.G. Wheatley, both members of Writers At Work’s Women’s Poetry Project. Ms. Hemphill is a poet and children’s book author who has won an award from The Academy of American Poets and has recently published work in The Mid-America Poetry Review, Poetry Motel, The Wilshire Review, Cricket and the anthology Love Poetry for the Media Age. Ms. Wheatley is a writer of poetry, essays, and short fiction. She is currently at work on a collection of poems, Transplant, and she teaches at Writers At Work in Los Angeles.
Founded 1969, the Friends of the Sunland-Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library are volunteers who care about books and kids. A private, nonprofit organization, the Friends sponsors readings and programs for children and community members of all ages and purchases books, equipment, and materials for the Branch. The Friends raise money through the sale of used books, membership dues, and donations. This series is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant received from The James Irvine Foundation. Word of Mouth is also underwritten by the Friends of the Sunland-Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. For more information, call 213.833.3372 or email mgwinw@loop.com.
DO SOME PO AT DO BOYS COFFEE HOUSE
Every Saturday night at Do Boys Coffee House, 4711 Crenshaw Blvd. (on the corner of 48th & Crenshaw), come enjoy spoken word at its finest. Enjoy the funky folk and eclectic styles of Art.Us Mansoir and Breezy Peeple of Cloud-9 Productions. We feature a guest host every month -- this month’s featured host, Deep Redd. The last Saturday night of the month is The Oralgasm (erotic speaking only for mature audiences). For more info call Cloud-9 Productions at 323.376.1206. $3 donation welcomed.
