MUSELETTER #50
9/27/2000
Greetings, poets & readers -- and apologies for the lateness of this issue of Museletter. We've had tech troubles this week, but your next issue should come out on time on Saturday.
We're tweaking the format of Museletter a bit with this issue: Rather than embedding Web links in the text where they are difficult to read, they are listed after each news item. [NOTE: This is for the email version only; links in the Web version of Museletter will always be live & embedded in the highlighted text.] Please let us know what you think of this change. The world of poetry is large & Museletter is long, but we want to make it easy for you to get what you want out of it.
Our designated correspondent this week is Cristin Aptowicz in New York & we have reader news from East and West. May you all achieve a dynamic poetic equilibrium as we in the Northern hemisphere pass the Autumn Equinox on our descent into winter -- waving merrily to those of you in the Southern hemisphere who are climbing into summer!
Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Poetry Guides
POETRY IS EVERYWHERE AT ABOUT
Cowboy Poetry links
Rodeo Guide Janet Ratzloff has links to everything you ever wanted to know about that hot performance genre: cowboy poetry!
NEW YORK/NORTHEAST
NYC Slams Represent!
Chicago may be the birthplace of slam, but this year, New York City became the unofficial home of championship slamming! At this year's National Poetry Slam in Providence, all three New York City teams made it to the four-team finals, the first time ever that three out of the four finals slots were represented by one city! When the dust cleared, I am very happy to say, the NYC Urbana Slam Team (representing my reading series!) came out on top, winning the whole shebang! San Antonio (the fourth team in the competition) came in second, with NYC Nuyorican (from the famed Nuyorican Poets Cafe, of course) coming in third and NYC Union Square (from the little bit louda reading series at Bar 13) coming in fourth due to two separate time penalties. For more info on Urbana, sign up for my terribly witty newsletter by writing to urbanaslam@yahoo.com. Oh! Catch out the pics of me and my team winning at David Huang's Poetic Dream Photo Gallery, gallery 39 -- I'm quite the cutie!
SlamJam2000
For those who can't get enough of competitive spoken word, Bob Holman & Co. present SlamJam2000, an all-day event taking place on October 28th. Starting early and ending late, this super-cheap event (only $2 suggested donation) will feature the NYC teams slamming against each other for NYC bragging rights, a NYC college slam, a youth slam and the highly-anticipated SellOutPoBout, which will feature a three-way bout between National Individual Slam Champ Shane Koyczan, Poetic Cult Figure Shappy and Bug-Out Super Star Beau Sia. Come see this breaking-all-the-rules bout, and bring money to decide who wins, cause when we say “Sell Out” they mean “Sell Out!” For more info, stay tuned!
Think Zinc
There will be a publication party for The Paris Journals by Michael Rothenberg on October 8 at 6:30 pm. Hosted by Suzi Winson, editor and publisher of Fish Drum, this evening will feature Michael R. reading from The Paris Journals and the acrobatic Suzi W. reading excerpts from Fish Drum Magazine. Want in on the fun? Just go to the Zinc Bar at 90 West Houston St. between LaGuardia and Thompson Streets. And being a poetry party, everything will be happening downstairs, back room. Yeah, there that cool.
Recipe For a Good Poet
This month's Poets & Writers Magazine featured a great cover article about New York poet Frank Lima in the form of a poem. This brilliant writer (and sinfully wonderful cook -- take it from one who has tasted!) has a new book coming out, The Beatitudes from Hard Press, and Bob Holman, NYC poet extraordinaire and About Guide, celebrates with poem. The poem, which was constructed by Holman through actual conversations with Frank Lima, was in turn picked up by P&W. Congrats to Bob, and hzah for poetry as journalism!
The Lowdown on Potown
For the latest updates or just as a great guide, check out the calendar o' events at NYCpoetry.com. It's a great way to explore this city's amazing poetic scene -- click on any date.
Enjoy! And remember, keep writing and keep reading!
READER-SUBMITTED POETRY NEWS BRIEFS
From Reverend Robert Masterson:
Poetry and Beer
Finally, something to report from the wilds of Westchester County... Poetry & Beer... The last Saturday of every month (this time, it's September 30) the Westchester County Weekly is sponsoring an open mic for poetry and related spew between 7 and 9 pm. Sign up starts at 6:30. All this takes place at The Spinning Wheel Bar in Bronxville, NY, just a hop skip and a trudge from the B'ville train station and across the street from Lawrence Hospital on Pondfield Road.
Preliminary evenings have gone very, very well. Space is limited, beer is cheap, all voices welcome (and we've had quite a mix including first-timers and old pros). This is not a slam, just a friendly gathering of readers and listeners. Look for a spooky Halloween reading with dead poets in October. For more information, read the Westchester County Weekly or call 800.220.2720 ext. 435 to talk with MC and host, Robert Masterson, associate editor of the nether-urbs' only true alternative source for news, arts and entertainment.
From JoAnn Anglin:
Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol presents
On Friday, September 29, 7:30 pm,
“Un Homenaje a Agustín Lara, El Músico Poeta”
A Tribute to Agustín Lara, Musical Poet
Featured Guitarists and Singers are Zac Salem and Cynthia Llano, traditional music expert. Along with Chico Gonzalez, Arturo Valderama, Esteban Villa and Franco. An open mic will follow. Location: La Raza Galería Posada, 7th & O Streets, Sacramento. Donation: $5 general; $3 members & students.
Agustín Lara was a prolific composer of more than a thousand musical pieces, especially romantic tunes and lyrics. In his days of greatest fame -- the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s -- Lara was as well known in the Spanish-speaking world as Irving Berlin was in the U.S. Some of his songs also became popular here. His stirring classic song, “Granada,” is one of his best known. This is one of two annual fundraising events Los Escritores presents for La Raza. (The other is Valentine's Day, Dia de Los Enamorados.) Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol (Writers of the New Sun), a literary community established in 1993, honors the literary and artistic cultures and traditions of the Chicano, Native American and Spanish-language community. Members write in Spanish, English, or both. All activities are open to the public. Info: 916.682.9011, Graciela Ramirez.
From Tom Bell:
For Philadelpho Menezes
Philadelpho Menezes recently died in a tragic car accident. He was a poet, theoretician, professor, and like most of us, he was many other things to many people. His loss is tragic and the spontaneous outpouring of responses that has occurred would seem to call for a tribute. Loss Glazier has offered to host/archive this tribute at the Electronic Poetry Center and it will become part of an author page for Philadelpho. In addition to the tribute, we would like to expand the Menezes author page with as much material as possible. I, along with Loss, will edit the tribute and author page. We welcome your contribution.
The Author Page
For the Philadelpho Menezes EPC author page, we are very interested in information on any on-line or offline poetry, theory, bibliographical work, essays, etc. or work about Philadelpho. Please send URLS, Web-ready texts, offers to prepare texts, or other information to Tom Bell (trbell@home.com) and Loss Glazier (glazier@acsu.buffalo.edu). If someone were interested in compiling a brief bibliography of the work of Philadelpho, we would be very grateful. We also seek photos of Philadelpho. You may view the newly-constructed preliminary Menezes EPC Author page at epc.buffalo.edu/authors/menezes/. It is our hope to be able to add substantially to this page.
The Philadelpho Menezes Tribute on the Web
The Philadelpho Menezes Web tribute will be housed at the Electronic Poetry Center and at the International Association of Word & Image Studies Web site. It will be a truly international undertaking. Submissions can be prose or poetry ready to be placed on the Web sent as an email message or as an HTML file. We are also accepting sound, visual, or kinetic/programmed works in digital media. If you have a work to contribute but do not have the skills to prepare it for the Web, please send us a note and we will try to help if possible. In order to get the file to us, please follow these guidelines:
- For email postings or HTML files -- please send these to Tom Bell (trbell@home.com) and Loss Glazier (glazier@acsu.buffalo.edu) with “For the Philadelpho Menezes Tribute” in the subject line of your message. Note: If you are attaching an HTML file, please rename so that our email programs will not read it into the message (that is, if you are sending a file called mytext.html, rename it to mytext-html so that it can be most efficiently retrieved).
- For file formats other than HTML files, please query before sending any files as attachments unless they are very small. For larger files, please send a letter of inquiry via email to Tom Bell (trbell@home.com) and Loss Glazier (glazier@acsu.buffalo.edu), letting us know what your requirements might be. We will work out procedures to (a) download the file from your site or (b) allow you to FTP such files. Rather than writing a link to the file on your server, we do want to archive it at the EPC so that it can be preserved and maintained as part of this ongoing resource.
The Philadelpho Menezes Tribute at E-Poetry 2001
Through the Electronic Poetry Center and Just Buffalo Literary Center, we are hoping to include a Philadelpho Menezes tribute at E-Poetry 2001 in Buffalo, New York. (See epc.buffalo.edu/e-poetry/2001/ for info about the festival.) If you have suggestions for this tribute please send them to epc@acsu.buffalo.edu with the subject line “E-Poetry 2001 Menezes Tribute” in the subject line.
We very much appreciate your interest and participation in these timely and important projects.
