I can see by the past posts that it's been a while since any of the Museletter's regular readers has caught up on affairs literary in Chicago. Hats off to my predecessors who've been keeping the Museletter moving, but it's time for some real news from the Windy City.

WINDY CITY DIARY ENTRY: 11 SEPTEMBER
The 11 September disasters did not leave Chicago's literary/arts community untouched, but we did find much solace in those arts which kept moving. More precisely, the arts kept us moving. On the night of 11 September, Laurie Anderson was scheduled to perform at the Park West. After some concern that she might cancel the show, she went directly ahead. It was an entirely memorable performance: Anderson, her small ensemble of composer/musicians, and the Park West's warm audience of loyal fans. Judging by the rough demographics of the audience, I'd say they (we) have been with her all along, from her performance art days, through the poetry days with Giorno and Burroughs, to the grand stage shows at the Lyric Opera House in mid-1980s, to today. (Legend has it that Anderson grew up in suburban Glen Ellyn, Illinois, so we've always regarded her as one of our own in Chicago.)

She opened the show with a dedication to all the people who died that day, something poetic in its simple but broad implications. Her 4-man plus 1-woman group was tight, intelligent, and created a highly variegated sound with (apparently) the basics of keyboards, guitars, and drums. The percussion is particularly crisp these days, compared to her goofy, oblique music of 12 years ago or earlier. Nothing about her work is flat-footed any more, whether intentional or otherwise. Anderson is making for that destination with which the British identified her when she first broke into broad public awareness: pop. In America, she's always been “edgy, experimental, unusual.” In England, she's been regarded as a more intellectual kind of pop artist. While I'm American, I think the English are correct in this, and I also suspect Anderson has taken that English consideration to heart. Her new music is quite infectious and has a driving energy deep within it, yet the stories laced through it still bear her signature attention to wordcraft and irony. They are, however, more often sung than told now. Here is a poet who has migrated quite fully to music. (Or is it possible to call Laurie Anderson a poet any more? This is more than an academic question. At what point does music overtake the language and become the first purpose of a piece?)

Anderson is not consumed with all the toys of performance that she once was. There are no slide shows, no lights behind the teeth, and the pitch shifters are used sparingly if at all. But the toys she does bring to her performances are nonetheless effective. One would suppose that the tech behind “O Superman, for Massenet” would have been long obsolete or impossible to recreate. That tune/tale is two decades old, and in the land of tech arts that feels like nearly 48 human years. However, the tune came back faithfully, every bar, every note, every sample. Magic. Were it not for one particularly blunt audience member who said loud enough for the whole house to hear, “Wow, that song won't mean the same after today,” the whole audience would have felt quite transfigured. The Park West had no spare seat open. Good reason. Great show... one of those, “Do you remember when?” moments to savor for the future.

CONFERENCE/FELLOWSHIPS/AWARDS AROUND CHICAGO

• The 11th Annual Gwendolyn Brooks Writers' Conference on Black Literature and Creative Writing runs from 24-27 October, 2001 at Chicago State University, 9501 S King Drive, Chicago IL 60628. Here are only a few of the great talents who will grace Chicago at that time: Ntozake Shange, Dr. bell hooks, Saul Williams, Sonia Sanchez, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Jayne Cortez. This is the first Conference held since Brooks passed away last December. It promises to be one of the best as it honors her memory with great creative and critical works. Official pre-registration materials should be postmarked by 18 October, so that means moving quickly. For full information, call the Gwendolyn Brooks Center at 773.995.4440.
  
  
• The Illinois Arts Council has competitive Artists Fellowships in Poetry and Prose for Illinois residents. Residents of other states are not eligible. Deadline for applications is 1 December, 2001. Fellowships are a non-matching award of $7,000 with $700 Finalist awards. Application is on the Arts Council Web site or available by surface mail. Call 312.814.6740 with questions or email Susan Eleuterio at Susan@arts.state.il.us with the subject line “Poetry & Prose Fellowships.”
  
  
• The Electronic Literature Organization will present the 2001 winners of the Electronic Literature Awards as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. On 11 November, you can meet Toronto's Caitlin Fisher and London's John Cayley in a presentation and discussion led by ELO Awards juror Larry McCaffery. Fisher's fiction, “These Waves of Girls,” is a lush trek through womanhood, both coming to terms and coming of age. Cayley's “Windsound” is a delicate melding of graphic arts with poetry, as the text emerges in gradual cycles only to be subsumed by itself in a beautifully contemplative piece. If this sounds like poetry you haven't seen before, then you owe it to yourself to see this, part of ELO's ongoing Interactions series. Click to the November 11 event page or come to the presentation at the Chicago Cultural Center, Claudia Cassidy Theater, 78 E. Washington, on 11 November from noon to 1 pm.

OTHER CHICAGO NEWS

• “Shappy has left the city”... for New York! About Guide Bob Holman is rumored to be in cahoots with Chicago's fave comedic poet (or poetic comedian... take your pick), in a new performance poetry enterprise to emerge soon. Bob... any comments? Shappy gave Chicago a swansong tour of his local, favorite spoken word venues, so we've all been given fair warning that he's gone. He will be missed much, but we'll surely see him again. I mean, how can't we? He's national!
  
  
• Mad Bar closed last spring, but that bygone venue's poetry buzz continues with much vigor at the Note, 1565 N Milwaukee Avenue, in Wicker Park, Chicago. Among the revues to make the jump: the weekly Mental Graffiti performance poetry open mike, and Women OutLoud, which features top women writers from Chicago and the national performance poetry circuit. Women OutLoud's next show is on 30 October.
  
  
• Venue-a-Gogo continues in Chicago as the ever turbulent poetry circuit digs into new spaces. Here are a few we're hearing about lately, just in Chicago... Grinder, Chicago's LGBT weekly poetry and music revue, just celebrated its first anniversary at the Coffee and Tea Exchange, 1100 W. Thorndale, in Edgewater. DePaul students and passers-by should be on the lookout for Say Word, a new series some students at DePaul are trying to start on Friday, 26 October. Dara Tribal Village, at 1505 W. Chicago Avenue, Ukrainian Village, Chicago, is launching a new weekly open mike on Wednesdays, hosted by Gabriele Strohschen. Phone 312.850.3272, or email darachicago@msn.com for full info.
  
  
• Poet Cin Salach recently teamed with director Eric Rosen at About Face Theater for “Undone”, which opened 4 October. The show is described as a collaborative musical theatre effort conceived by Rosen, based on new texts by Salach. The show derives from Salach's life. Her poetry has taken a more autobiographical tangent for a couple of years now, particularly as she has discovered new sexual identities. Such fundamental change means epic themes, and early readings of these texts by Salach in advance of “Undone” bears this out. Rosen enjoys using a lot of stagecraft firepower, which should be a good match for the work.
  
  About Face Theatre is at 3212 N. Broadway in Lakeview, Chicago. For tickets and showtimes, please call the About Face Theatre Box Office at 773.549.3290 or click to aboutfacetheatre.com.

MINNEAPOLIS' WUNDERVENUE
Sursumcorder has regular Tuesday evening Webcasts featuring much performance poetry and spoken word. Well worth a look, either in person or online, the venue is pioneering a combination of free enterprise, fine tech and fine art. I remember years ago how people debated whether the cybercafé would ever emerge in America. Well, in some places it apparently has done more than emerge. It has also evolved.

ON THE WORLDWIDE RADAR

• Hamburg, Germany: The Germans are up to great things at the now International German Poetry Slam. Competitors are drawn from all German language nations, and a few other countries, too. This is probably the biggest slam competition known in Europe at present, if it isn't already the biggest slam event that Europe has ever seen. The Hamburgers are well-prepared, too. To see for yourself, simply click to Hamburg ist Slamburg. (English speakers: Dust off that German phrasebook, though you may recognize a fellow Anglophone or two among the site's Hall of Famers.)
  
  
• Reykjavik, Iceland: e-poets network colleague, media artist, and writer Birgitta Jonsdottir is compiling two new anthologies. Jonsdottir is no newcomer to this task, as she's collected much writing in the past for similar peace- and globally-conscious projects. Says Jonsdottir, “This is a call for submissions for the Book of Hope and the World Healing Book.
  
  “Poetry will be the central focus for the Book of Hope. It will be in English to begin with. Poetry from every corner of the world will add to the collective voice of hope. We would like to see poems that reflect, in one way or another, the times we are at now. Views from different cultures that might help us understand each other on a global scale.
  
  “The World Healing Book is a collage of images, words, and art that expresses what we need to do in order to heal from what happened at 9.11 and what is happening all the time in our world. Suffering and fear is the root cause for our struggles. Love and health in mind, soul and body is the root cause for our happiness.”
  
  Email your submission in .txt or .doc formats only to poems@this.is. If you are submitting images, please ask for guidelines for how to save and send them. Send submissions by conventional mail or air mail to:

  Beyond Borders
  Hofsvallagata 20
  101 Reykjavik
  Iceland

  All profits will go towards humanitarian work in Afghanistan.
  
  
• The Web: ELO strikes again with a series of online chats open to participants worldwide. Deena Larson hosts these chats fortnightly, and the themes key into issues that relate to writers, laypeople, critics, and technologists. In other words, come as you are, and enjoy. Larson is an excellent host, and the chats are a great place to discover people who share your interests from all over the world.

That's all, but only for now....

Your faithful reporter,
Kurt Heintz