MUSELETTER #25
4/1/2000
April Fool's Day, 2000
Poets are often holy fools & we think April Fool's Day is the best beginning you could ask for National Poetry Month. (If you want to know the history of the day, come to About.com & read what Astrology Guide Anthony Pena has to say about it.)
We are pleased to welcome a new Museletter correspondent to our roster this week: Ta'Shia Asanti, who will file her first report from Denver & the Rocky Mountain region two weeks from now. Ta'Shia is a poet, rapper & filmmaker recently transplanted from southern California to Denver; she is managing editor of GBF Magazine. Be sure to check the list of correspondents at the end of this Museletter for Ta'Shia's email address if you have Rocky Mountain news, gossip or announcements to contribute.
Our reporters this week are Gary Glazner in New Mexico & Jennifer Joseph in San Francisco. We wish you the best of poetical tomfoolery this April 1!
Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Your About.com Poetry Guides
POETRY IS EVERYWHERE AT ABOUT.COM
About.com's new Horror Books Guide, Tara Mahovetz, has found the origins of her genre in poetry:
And most recently, Seamus Heaney's new verse translation has brought her back for a 2nd visit:
NEW MEXICO/SOUTHWEST
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
--T.S. Eliot
This is one of the mandatory openings dictated by the Academy of American Poets for any article on National Poetry Month! Some of the others are the theme songs “Up with Poets” and “There's No Business Like Po Business” (two lesser known pieces by Amy Lowell, set to the music of Edgar Winter).
Poetry Habitat
In Albuquerque, we have Poetry Habitat, put on by Magnifico. I will list some of the events, but you must check out the Web site for yourself and get the amazing newsletter. You can also call them at 505-242-8244. Poetry Habitat features poetry and art on Albuquerque buses and billboards, along with readings and other poetry-inspired things like The Poetry of Dolls exhibit, a show featuring poets exploring doll archetypes (the male poets will explore action-figure archetypes). Poetry Habitat runs April 13 - 16 at the Albuquerque Convention Center. You can see some of the dolls at Santa Fe Doll Art or call 505-255-8555.
Poets' Plaza Kick-Off
Poets' Plaza has its kick-off event April 30, 1 - 4 pm at Harwood Art Center, with Lisa Gill's Poetry Diner. The menu provides a taste of the wide range of Albuquerque poets. There will even be a child's menu. The University of New Mexico architecture students will show their drawings of the Poets' Plaza. The event will also include a potluck BBQ. It's a great way to close out poetry month. Call 242-6367 for info. Harwood is located at 1114 7th St. NW at Mountain in Albuquerque.
Tom Fitzsimmons, Penny Harter & Bill Higginson
I went to a great reading at Tom Fitzsimmons' house on Sunday, March 26. He read from his new book, Iron Harp, put out by La Alameda Press. Also at the reading were Bill Higginson, Penny Harter, and Charles Bell. Higginson has in his possession a set of bull horns inscribed with the name Ignacio Sanchez Mejias -- he promised to show them to me some day at five in the afternoon. Tom went into World War II as an underage merchant seaman just after Pearl Harbor and was discharged after Hiroshima. Here is one poem from the book:
The Beach at Anzio, Italy, 1944sunset
eats itself
black
sunrise
has us
raw
Tom will read from the book at Outpost Performance Space, 210 Yale SE, Albuquerque on April 10 at 7 pm; call 266-0044 for info. Tom, Bill and Penny will read at the Wordspace: Haiku Night at the Outpost on April 13 at 7:30 pm. Bill and Penny are the authors of the Haiku Handbook on Kodansha.
National Association for Poetry Therapy
The 20th annual National Association for Poetry Therapy conference will take place in Albuquerque May 3 - 7 at the Radisson Hotel. The title of this year's event is: “Healing Words - Sacred Spaces, Poetry Therapy for Many Voices.” Call Rod Daniels for info at 202-966-2536.
Jimmy Santiago Baca will give the keynote reading at the conference. NAPT has workshops for therapists and educators to gain more expertise in using journal therapy and/or poetry therapy with their clients, as well as seminars and training sessions designed to help therapists become certified and/or registered as poetry therapists. Some of this year's workshops will be:
- “In Animal Presence: Exploring our Humanity through Animal Imagery,” taught by Alma Maria Rolfs
- “The Art of Circular Breathing: A Metaphor for Connecting,” taught by Diane Richard-Allerdyce
She writes that “this experiential workshop will explore Sekou Sundiata's metaphor of circular breathing as an analogy for the process of interactive poetry therapy.” Barbara Kreisberg, Program Chair, writes, “Poetry Therapy is a recognized modality employing poetry and other forms of literature to achieve therapeutic goals and personal growth. The goals are to promote understanding of the self and the individual in society, to accept and change feelings and behavior, and to enhance mental and social wellness.”
SAN FRANCISCO/BAY AREA
Cafe Niebaum-Coppola Reading
The latest cafe to throw its hat into the open-mike reading scene is none other than Francis Ford Coppola's Cafe Niebaum-Coppola (916 Kearny St, 415-291-1700), located in the historic flatiron building which houses his film studio offices just 2 blocks down Columbus Avenue from City Lights Bookstore. (I hear that poetry-writing movie guy Sean Penn has an office there, too.) The readings take place on Sunday afternoons from 4-6 pm, which really works my nerves because Cafe Prague (584 Pacific Ave, 415-433-3811), located literally across the street from Coppola's joint, hosts readings on Sundays from 7-9 pm, and meanwhile I'm South of Market, running the readings at the Paradise Lounge on Sundays from 8-10 pm. I suppose if you're really ambitious and just love poetry, you could do a five-hour poetry marathon and hit all three readings in one day, taking a break for dinner of course from 6 till 7. Francis himself was seen puttering around his cafe's reading two weeks ago, adjusting the mike, fiddling with the sound, and acting like a director (whatta surprise!).
Small Press Distribution Open House
This Saturday April 1, from noon till 4 pm, Small Press Distribution (1341 7th St, Berkeley, 510-524-1666) hosts an open house featuring readings by poets Brenda Hillman, Troung Tran, Marci Blackman and others. It's free and they'll probably be serving pretty good snacks there, too. All of their 8,000 titles will be offered at a 20% discount during the open house, so check it out. In case you didn't know, SPD is the only book distributor in the US that deals solely with literary publications -- no 'How To Groom Your Poodle' books here, folks! They rock!
Bay Area Anarchist Book Festival
And coming up on Saturday April 15th from 10 am - 6 pm is the 5th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Festival (SF County Fair Building, 9th Ave and Lincoln in Golden Gate Park) -- it's fun, it's freaky, it's free! Great people-watching, readings by noted free-thinkers (Ferlinghetti read last year), and great books at a discount.
Speaking of Ferlinghetti. . .
. . . he just handed over his Poet Laureate crown (we have a city poet laureate here in San Francisco, isn't that the corniest?) to Janice Mirikitani, a fine well-published poet with major connections to City Hall. Yeah, yeah, it shoulda gone to Diane DiPrima or Jack Hirschman or the ghost of Bob Kaufman. Me, irreverent? Never!
Brave New Voices 2000
And finally, Brave New Voices 2000, the 3rd National Teen Poetry Festival, is taking place here in San Francisco April 20-23. The coordinating organization, Youth Speaks (660 Market St, Suite 210, SF CA 94104), is furiously trying to raise money to help some teen poets from Bosnia buy plane tickets to get here -- amazing! Send them any donation you can. (If everyone reading this sent them $1, it would help.) Bosnian teenage poets? Let's get them to San Francisco now!
Stay tuned next time for San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and San Jose Slam Teams 2000 news! Send complaints and recipes to
