MUSELETTER #32
5/21/2000
“Sumer is ycomen in,
Loude sing cuckou!”
Summer is indeed a'coming in, Los Alamos is burning, & the performance poetry scene is heating up in anticipation of the big summer competitions. This week's Museletter brings you lots of news from Jen Joseph in the San Francisco Bay area & Gary Glazner in New Mexico, a catch-up report from Victor Infante in Orange County, California, Detroit events listings from Jason Pettus in the Midwest & an account of the exciting recent Kentucky poets gathering from Paul McDonald in Louisville. May your heads be cool & your poems hot!
Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Your About.com Poetry Guides
POETRY IS EVERYWHERE AT ABOUT.COM
This Museletter is coming to you on another poet's birthday -- that of Alexander Pope, the great English 18th century satirist. Pope & his works are represented on these two About.com Guidesites:
- The etext collection at Rick Brainerd's 18th Century History site includes Pope's two famous prose essays, An Essay on Criticism & Essay on Man, as well as his poems, The Rape of the Lock & To a Lady.
- Classic Literature Guide Floramaria Deter has put together a library of links to Pope references.
SAN FRANCISCO/BAY AREA
Congrats to MP3Lit.com
Okay, this has nothing to do with the Bay Area specifically -- but first of all congratulations go out to Gary Hustwit of Incommunicado Press, a fine indie publisher of many poetry books, who recently sold his MP3Lit.com Web site to Salon.com for $5 million in stock. Who said there's no money in poetry MP3Lit.com is the premier spoken word site where you can download or listen to readings by everyone from Langston Hughes to Henry Rollins to Beth Lisick.
More Congrats to Russell Gonzaga
More congrats, this time to poet Russell Gonzaga, for having the mayor of San Francisco declare May 10th Russell Gonzaga Day here in SF. Russell was officially bestowed with this honor on Monday, May 1st by San Francisco Poet Laureate Janice Mirikitani at the San Francisco Art Commission. Wooo! In addition to being on the SF Slam team for many years, Russell has been teaching poetry to at-risk kids in some of the toughest schools in the city as part of WritersCorps. Official recognition of poets in the urban trenches -- right on!
Brave New Voices 2000
Am I done congratulating people? No! Very fabulous is the only way to describe the Teen Nationals, oh excuse me, Brave New Voices 2000: The 3rd Annual (Inter) National Youth Poetry Festival. Whatever you want to call it, about 1000 packed the sold-out Regency Theater on Saturday, April 22nd for the Finals. Berkeley/Oakland tied for first place with LA, who were coached by poet/slam swami Jeff McDaniel, and as poet Bruce Jackson reported, “It was just about some of the best poetry I've ever seen anywhere, forget about the fact that it was teenagers!” Saul Williams and Beau Sia hosted the Finals and a splendid time was had by all.
Update on Local Slam Finals
Extra-tasty considering the triumvirate sweep by the San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland teams in last year's Nationals in Chicago. . . (Check out David Huang's photos from last year's win at www.poeticdream.com. For news on the National Slam, visit www.poetryslam.com.)
- Oakland Slam Finals - Sunday, June 11th at the Parkway Theater, doors at 5:15 pm, show 6 - 8:30 pm. 21 and over only. Afterparty at Second Sundays. Hosted by fearless poets Nisa Ahmad (slam_girl@hotmail.com) and Sonia Whittle.
- San Francisco Slam Finals - Sunday, June 18th at Cellspace, 2050 Bryant, 7 pm - midnight. Produced by Seeking and hosted by James Kass, director of Youth Speaks!
More Swell Events
A few other swell events coming up include:
- The Etherdome Press publication party for its first two chapbooks: The Opposite of Vanishing by Merle Bachman and Abandon's Garden by Brydie McPherson. Tuesday May 23th, 7:30 pm at the Canessa Park Gallery, 708 Montgomery, SF. $5. The press hopes to publish two chapbooks annually by newer poets who have had no previous chapbook publication. For further information about the press, the reading, how to purchase books, contact Etherdome at 3116 Deakin Street, Berkeley, CA 94705. Unsolicited work is not being accepted, but query letters are welcome.
- The San Jose Floricanto Festival & Conference 2000, June 9-11, at the CET Theater, 701 Vine Street, SJ. Tickets: $10/$5 students w/ID. Performers include Las 3 Potencias, Elba Rosario Sanchez, Mack Dennis, Cherríe Moraga, The Taco Shop Poets, and many others.
Narrativity
The Poetry Center at SF State has launched a new online literary journal entitled Narrativity, located at The Poetry Center's Web site. Edited by Mary Burger, Robert Gluck, Camille Roy, and Gail Scott. The first issue includes work by Kathy Acker, Lawrence Ytzhak Brathwaite, David Buuck, Jacques Debrot, Jeff Derksen, Rob Halpern, Laird Hunt, Trevor Joyce, Kevin Killian, Chris Kraus, Rachel Levitsky, Pamela Lu, Nicole Markotic, Ashok Mathur, Laura Moriarty, Lisa Robertson, Leslie Scalapino, Juliana Spahr, Anne Stone, Michelle Tea, and by the editors. It includes a forum. Reader participation is encouraged. Narrativity anticipates publishing twice a year. To contact the editors, email narrativity@hotmail.com.
Small Press Distribution
And finally, Berkeley's Small Press Distribution -- one of the greatest sources of printed poetry in the world -- has their rockin' new Web site up and cooking at www.spdbooks.org. Check it out!
NEW MEXICO/SOUTHWEST
Welcome to our disaster. . .
The fires rage on -- thank Goddess no lives have been lost. The winds continue to blast and it may be weeks before the Las Alamos fire is out. Share a moment with me to give thanks to all the men and women risking their lives to save animals, people and property. Here's wishing everyone who lost their homes has a safe journey back to rebuilding their lives.
World Heavyweight Poetry Bout
Meanwhile the state is abuzz with anticipating the match between Sherman Alexie and Bob Holman in the World Heavyweight Poetry Bout main event June 17 at the Taos Poetry Circus. Holman saw Alexie read at the big 75th birthday bash for The New Yorker Magazine and calls him “a Godlike creature.” One local poet has described Alexie as “having only one note, but it's a big note,” and doubts that “the judges will go for intellectual over heart.” She went on to say, Alexie “hypnotizes you, has a huge heart and is unbeatable.”
The betting line is Alexie and giving two or three rounds. Will Holman's recent trip to Africa play any role in the match? Only one way to find out! See you at the BOUT!
Keith Wilson: Bosque Redondo
Keith Wilson has a new book, Bosque Redondo: the Encircled Grove on Pennywhistle Press. He will read at the Inn on the Alameda in Santa Fe on Friday June 9, 6 pm. It is the first reading from the book. Here is one of the poems from the book:Desert Cenote*You can find the book online or come to the reading where Keith will be glad to sign one. If you want to contact the publisher directly, email PennywhistleBook@aol.com.
There is a sadness among the stones
today, the rabbits are silent.
No wind. The heat bears down.
It has not rained for one year.
We have faith out here, desert
people, we wait, knowing with sureness
the swift cross of clouds, the blessings
of moisture (to deprive a man is to give
charms to him.) I love this dry land
am caught even by blowing sand, reaches
of hot winds. I am not the desert
but its name is not so far from mine.
*Spanish-Aztec for “water hole, oasis”
Second Street Annex, Santa Fe
There is a new reading in Santa Fe run by Trevor Cook, every Tuesday 8 to 10 pm atSecond Street AnnexContact Trevor at 505-992-1090.
1814 2nd Street
Santa Fe
Poets' Plaza
The Poets' Plaza event was cooking with Lisa Gill's Poetry Cafe. What is a poetry cafe? Lisa got all the poetry organizers in Albuquerque to submit poems, then arranged them as a menu with appetizer, main course and dessert poems. The audience was seated by a host and then ordered their meal. The event was held at Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque. The poets included Socorro Romo, Danny Solis, Lisa Gill, Ester Griego, Cathy McCracken, Kelly Sterns, Tamara Nicholl, Tony Mares, Outsider, Mike Storm, Sarah McKinstry-Brown, Don McIver and many others.
New Mexico Briefs
- Kelly Sterns has started up a Dial-A-Poem at 505-342-5797. Call to hear the latest and leave your poem.
- Cathy McCracken wants your poems for Willow Street. Submit to: 241 A Willow Road NNW, ABQ, NM 87107.
- Tony Mares, UNM associate professor of English has an online workshop, the Writers' Inn. Check it out at www.unn.edu/~scribe.
- Tamara Nicholl, besides being a hot Slam poet, runs the sweetly titled “Rhyme and Meter Project,” which puts poetry and art together on parking meters in the Duke City. Contact her at TAMARA@supergroups.com.
- Sarah McKinstry-Brown wants your gal poetry for The Rag. To submit or subscribe: POB 91296, Albuquerque, NM 87199.
- Don McIver has a great poetry show on KUNM Sunday nights at 11:30 pm.
Well, I guess I'll go out and jog in the radioactive smoke filled skies. . . adios from Rancho-de-Horny Toad.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA/ORANGE COUNTY
Laguna Slam 2000
Doesn’t everything just sound so hip and modern with number “2000” after it? “Wrestle Mania 2000,” “Democratic National Convention 2000,” “The Dukes of Hazzard 2000.” Anyway, ninety or so people crowded into South Laguna’s F.A.C.T. Gallery for the 3rd Annual Laguna Beach Poetry Slam Finals, hosted by Lee Mallory, a man who’s not shy to ask the audience to donate money 500 times.
It was much fun: Personal highlights included Jaimes Palacio’s dramatic ode to the Doomsday Clock and Buzzy Enniss’s “shocked by the sun,” with perhaps the most autobiographical line he’s ever written, “I will be remembered as an odd but happy man.” Naturally, my two favorite performances came in dead last -- such is slam. The winner of the evening was veteran slammer and five penny poets co-director Paul Suntup, a South Africa native who’s going to become Frank O’Hara any day now.
Derrick Brown came in second. Earlier that day, I was telling somebody that nothing Brown could do would surprise me. Then, he goes and secures a place on the slam team by (gasp!) reading beautiful and lightly funny love poems (double gasp!) on the page! My God, you’d think he’s a poet or something!
Steve Ramirez pulled in 3rd with his hysterical satire of Prop. 22, the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” that homophobic Californians dumbly voted into law recently. Fourth had to go to a slam-off between newcomer Jim Dobson and longtime Laguna regular J.D. Glasscock, with Dobson’s comic monologues and near-flawless performance proving victorious.
Said veteran slammer Lea Deschenes, who will be reading with, uhm, me at the Java Hut in Worcester, MA on Sunday, July 30 on her way to Nationals in Providence, “Oh God. We’re going to have to bail these guys out of jail half-way through Nationals, aren’t we?”
Farstarfire Press Gets Busy
Bil & Carole Luther, who aided Laguna Slammaster John Gardiner in making this slam thing run this year, have completely redesigned the Web site for their bitchin little small press, FarStarFire Press. The site now features individual pages for each book they publish, with links to purchase them. Plus, they’re having a really nifty special where you can buy all 12 of last year’s books for a mere $45, instead of the $75 it’s valued at. This includes titles by Derrick Brown, John Gardiner, Katya Garitsky, Bil & Carole Luther, John Harrell, Victor Infante, Daniel McGinn, Misty Mallory, Cassandra Hill and the 1999 Laguna Beach Poetry Slam Team.
Odds & Ends
This is the “Getting Caught Up” Museletter for me, having been out of it awhile. Here's a list of some of the best shows in OC recently, with links to my newspaper stories on them:
- Jerry Quickley at Club Mesa
- Laurel Ann Bogen at the five penny poets series
- The Clear and Lizzie Wann at Club Mesa
The ones I just haven’t had a chance to write up include Brendan Constantine at Gypsy Den Grand-Central, Mindy Nettifee and June Melby at Gypsy Den Grand-Central, and -- the big one -- Lawrence Ferlinghetti at Chapman University. You will see more on that later; suffice it to say now that the man has lost absolutely none of his edge. Check out his newspaper column, “Poetry as News,” at citylights.com.
And that brings us up to date. Let’s try not to lose touch like that again, okay?
MIDWEST
Upcoming Poetry Events in Detroit
Here is a list of upcoming poetic highlights in the Detroit, Michigan area, supplied as always courtesy of Liberty R.O. Daniels:
- Friday, May 19: New Works Writer's Series member Eddie B. Allen, Jr. will revive “The Resurrection of Malcolm X” for a debut at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 315 East Warren Avenue at 8 p.m. $5 donation. A discussion will follow the performance.
- Saturday, May 20: The Detroit Writer's Guild will sponsor the Writers for the New Millennium Children's Conference from 9 am - 4 pm in room 115 of the Southfield Parks & Recreation Building at 26000 Evergreen Road in Southfield. Open to students in grades 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12 in Wayne and Oakland Counties. Call (313) 272-7083 or (313) 267-0369 for additional information. $10 registration fee includes materials and lunch. Workshop facilitators include Karen White Owens, Khary Kimani Turner, Regina Reed and Sonya Marie Pouncy.
- Also on Saturday, May 20: Mary Ann Wehler, Mary Jo Firth Gillett, and Nancy Ryan will read at Borders Books & Music Café in Utica at 2 pm. Call (248) 879-3013 for information.
- Sunday, May 21: The Detroit Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists will have its 2nd Annual Poetry In Motion Festival at Café Aroma at 8066 Kercheval Avenue from 5 - 8 pm, hosted by Khary Kimani Turner. Contact Sheryl Kennedy at (313) 824-6488 for more details. There is a $5 fee to participate in the contest for 3 grand prizes.
- Also on Sunday, May 21: Ypsilanti's Brian Tell and his musicians will perform his new CD book eureka! at The Savannah Series at The Plymouth Coffee Bean Company, 884 Penniman Street in Plymouth at 8 pm. Donna De Meyer is the host. Free.
- Tuesday, May 23: The Kalamazoo Poetry Jam series continues at the Kraftbrau Microbrewery at 402 East Kalamazoo Avenue in Kalamazoo at 8 pm. Tracy Smith is the host. $1-$3 cover.
- Friday, May 26: 736 Java, Inc. will be the scene of the Poetically Speaking Open-Mic happenings hosted by Detroit Writer's Guild youth member Talitha Johnson. Teens from 14 to college age are expected to sport their brand of poetics from 7 - 9 pm for a nominal fee of $2. Contact Talitha at teeboome@yahoo.com or (313) 931-0678.
Liberty puts together a nearly exhaustive list of Detroit-area poetry events, which is unfortunately much too large for us to include verbatim here at Museletter. Michigan residents interested in receiving the unabridged list should contact Liberty about getting on her mailing list: libertydaniels@prodigy.net, or (313) 864-4011. Or visit Liberty's Web site at www.libertydaniels.blinks.net.
--Jason Pettus
www.geocities.com/jpettus.geo
READER-SUBMITTED POETRY NEWS BRIEFS
LOUISVILLE!
From Paul McDonald
Less than three years ago, when the Louisville Poets Guild was rapidly devolving into a fly-by-night 12-step pyramid scam, Phil Gatton showed up with his drum and proceeded to reconnect everyone to their muse. About the same time, Nailah Jumoke and her husband, Victor Yarbrough, opened a coffeehouse in Louisville's West End called the Java House, and began to awaken the sleeping giant of Louisville's African-American poetry scene. Since that time Gatton has turned the Guild's irregularly published journal into a quarterly, put out an anthology, and produced several highly praised poetry events. Jumoke and Yarbrough moved the Java House into a Civil War mansion along the Ohio River, opened the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center and held open mike poetry readings to packed houses twice a month.
This past April 29, Gatton and Jumoke were the driving forces behind a music and spoken word festival that thumbed its nose at the horse gentry in the dead heat of the Kentucky Derby Festival and sought to inject art into a traditionally bourbon-swilling, vomit-strewn orgy. The festival was eight hours of poetics that spanned a vast array of Louisville oral tradition beginning with the more established writing groups such as the Kentucky Writers Coalition, Chartreuse Table, Cherokee Roundtable and Green River Writers. Then a shift in genre and form took place with the Afrolachian Poets, an eclectic group of African-Americans from the mountains. A renewed energy that began in Louisville in the early nineties progressed through the evening like a train running toward full throttle, featuring Ron (I Will Not Bow Down) Whitehead, Duncan Barlow and his computer, Robert Stiles and his energized angelic rap, Kent (MFAPoetry/Arctic Circle) Fielding, W. Loran Smith (author of the critically acclaimed “Night Train”), Wendell (Barry White Poetics) Price, Paul (Relax or I'll Kill You) McDonald, Carrie (1970 Porno Music) Morrison, and a myriad of others.
After a set of music by the Dan Cannon Band, the evening climaxed with a poetry slam hosted by the glamorous Jinn Fuller, decked out in a stunning gold sequined gown. Mike B. was letting everyone in hearing and cyber range know that he was going to win and he damn near made that happen as he came in second place. Brian Batcheldor gave a nod to performance over content by reading the label off a Head & Shoulders Shampoo Bottle (“...then, goddammit, RINSE!!!”) and pulling a respectable score. Jak Son Renfro, lead singer/archetype for the band Serpent Wisdom, made an impressive showing, but it was Robert Stiles (a.k.a. Stiles) who, after being pissed off on hearing that his time was limited, recited the first half of one poem and finished with the second half of another that won the grand prize of $100.00 and enough local fame to drive anyone nervous. Immense gratitude is expressed to the owners of The Red Barn, the University of Louisville's center for anarchism and alternative culture, for keeping the Barn open until the wee hours of the morning.
