MUSELETTER #55

11/13/2000

Last week was Museletterless & we apologize for that -- your PoGuide Margy is still struggling with a serious health problem & has had to cut back on the time she spends attending to the About Poetry site & Museletter. But our correspondents are still diligently filing reports from all over the place, & we will issue a whole series of Museletters this week to get you caught up on November news.

In this issue, Victor Infante gets back up on his soapbox & trumpets the news from Orange County (Southern California), Leonardo DellaRocca offers a rich sampling of the literary life in Florida (where there is plenty of poetry to leaven the politics), & Marj Hahne covers the Philly scene “with beacoup aplomb and honesty” (to quote a comment we recently received from one of her readers).

More in a couple of days, but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy this bounty!

Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Poetry Guides

POETRY IS EVERYWHERE AT ABOUT

Publishing Guide Wendy Butler has put together a good selection of resources relating to literary translation:

• Articles & Essays about Literary Translation
• Magazines & Journals about Literary Translation
• Literary Translation Organizations & Associations

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA/ORANGE COUNTY

THE RETURN OF VICTOR'S SOAPBOX
Y'know, I've been at next to nothing lately. I mean, I try to get out, but it really just doesn't work the way it used to. Saw the incredibly funny Neal Pollack at Club Mesa. Saw the incredibly talented Brendan Constantine and Deborah Edler Brown read for the five penny poets. Made it to Gypsy Den Grand-Central a couple times. That's about it. I did, however, get to see one of my all time favorite writers, Neil Gaiman, read in a charity benefit for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which is a non-profit organization that protects the civil rights of comic book retailers and artists from the forces of censorship. Whenever I cringe a bit about the amount of money I paid for two tickets to this reading, I remind myself of something: poetry, like comic books, is an extremely vulnerable art form, lacking in large amounts of resources to protect the 1st Amendment rights of the artists whose work might offend the sensibilities of some. I was reminded of this in a recent online discussion about the slam, and about measures to outright disallow performances which were really just rants or dramatic monologues. But really, this is one of those “thin wedge” areas -- where the worst need to be defended because once they are subject to those whose agenda is cultural control, we all are.

Let me switch back to comic books by way of example. A young man in Florida, whose name escapes me right now, was arrested in Pensacola for distributing an independent comic book of his own creation. By all accounts, it was overly violent and not terribly good, and he sold maybe a couple dozen copies. Despite legal support from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, he lost in a Florida court, and was sentenced to three years' imprisonment (suspended, but on his record), psychiatric counseling at his own expense, a $1,000 fine, and -- perhaps worst of all -- he was (a) not allowed to come within 10 feet of anyone under the age of 18, costing him his job, (b) legally prohibited from drawing, and (c) subject to spot searches at any hour, so the sheriff could ascertain that he wasn't “committing art.” Stalinist-sounding, isn't it?

The Supreme Court declined to hear his case, but he was eventually allowed to move to New York City, where the police have better things to do than make sure someone's not drawing. Still, his life is ruined.

What does this have to do with poetry? Everything. If we, as hosts, present something as “open,” then it damn well needs to be open. Minor restrictions on language are one thing (it is, after all, a public space) but to make a snap decision -- on the spot -- as to whether a piece of writing is art or not brings us one step closer to regulating political content. Works that comment on racial issues, the largest source of slam's rhetoric, might well be deemed not worthy of legal protection in this scenario. If that were to happen (and listen to the subtext of some political speeches lately to realize how likely it is), it would be a tragedy and we, as poets, would bear some responsibility. It is a failure of art and freedom which I, for one, could not tolerate.

The other side of this is one of slam's underlying tenets: that everyone has the right to their own opinion. Do think too many people take the results too seriously? Yes, but that's an irrelevancy. As a slammaster, it's your responsibility to mind the talent that's not getting attention from the judges. Feature them; promote them. Tell everybody they're flipping idiots for not realizing their genius. Whatever. Slam competition should not be the be-all and end-all of a poetry scene -- just another door into it -- and the slammaster, like any host, has responsibilities beyond seeing that the reading runs. This is one of them.

LONG BEACH REPRESENT!
That being said, nothing looms so immensely on the OC poetry horizon recently as the impending Big Damn Poetry Slam at the Que Sera in Long Beach, brought to you by myself, Derrick Brown, Lea Deschenes, Steve Ramirez, Paul Suntup and Mindy Nettifee. Interest has been soaring -- we've heard from tons of poets not traditionally associated with the slam, including groups from Long Beach, Anaheim and Compton that we either didn't know or didn't see very often. Cool! We've gotten word that members of the Oakland Slam Team might be in town to pay us a visit. Gulp. We should start, like, preparing or something. Our inaugural feature was the inimitable Charles Ardinger, and there's a slew of cool poets following in the weeks to come:

• November 12:
  OC stalwart, former LA Slam Team member and amateur surrealist, Daniel McGinn
• November 19:
  Former LA Slam Team member Thea Iberall
• November 26:
  San Diego powerhouse Sharon Elise, plus our first End of the Month slam-off, featuring the winners of the preceding three slams
• December 3:
  LA Slam Team member and international performance poetry and hip-hop legend, Jerry Quickley
• December 10:
  Former Venice Slam Team member and the funniest woman in poetry, June Melby
• December 17:
  Former Laguna Beach Slam finalist and five penny poets co-director, Michael Paul

Plus, for those who don't wanna slam, there's an open reading every week.

THE BIG DAMN POETRY SLAM!!!
Every Sunday at 3 pm
The Que Sera
1923 E. 7th Street
Long Beach, CA
562.599.6170
21 and up, free

AND WHILE WE'RE TALKING SLAM
The five penny poets will be presenting a little known slam poet next month… name of Patricia Smith. That's right, the incredibly cool, incredibly talented, four-time National Poetry Slam Champion will be reading in little old Orange County, alongside local poet, former Worcester Slammer and my wife of about four months, Lea Deschenes! If you don't know Patricia Smith and are in the SoCal area, catch some of her readings while she's in town. In addition to reading for five penny, she'll also be teaching a workshop (email Michael Paul at MGPPoet@aol.com for information) and working with students at Costa Mesa High School.

Patricia Smith and Lea Deschenes
at the Spillway/Tebot Bach Reading Series
Friday, December 15, 8 pm -- NOTE CHANGE OF DATE
The Fidelity Federal Bank
19900 Beach Blvd.
Huntington Beach, CA
714.968.0905

SNIPPETS
A few shout outs of congratulations: LA poet Carlye Archibeque, editor of the Independent Review Site, got married on Halloween, in a Hollywood graveyard. I really don't know much, except June Melby played the accordion. Really! Also, congrats to New York poet Guy LeCharles Gonzalez and his wife, Salome, who just had a baby boy!

I got to be a presenter in the OCWeekly's “Best of OC” again, in the “Peculiar Achievement in All Things Egghead” category, where I got to, uhm, honor Derrick Brown, Jane Cassady, Paul Suntup and Marcia Cohee for their stellar poetry.

And that'll do it. Remember kids, friends don't let friends vote sober.

--Victor Infante

MIAMI/FLORIDA

TAPPING THE TAMPA MUSE
RhondaK, editrix of NakedPoetry.com and Tampa poetry promoter, spoke at the Teen Read Week St. Petersburg Library. She shared with teens how to make poetry a part of one's life whether online or on the street. Teens made a spontaneous poetry theater on the topic of “Day at the Beach,” writing as waves, a dead fish washing to shore, or the clouds above the scene.

The next edition of NakedPoetry.com will be up November 1 and will feature several Tampa Bay writers, as well as national writers. RhondaK has been running “Writing Challenges” every Monday on her Live Journal. Live Journal allows for interactive poetry postings to the challenge “du jour.”

NEWS FROM JAX
Tiffany Duhart of Nokturnal Escape in Jacksonville sent a schedule of events:

• Every Sunday: “Scribes and Vibes” at the Imperial Lounge (Downtown), spoken word, hip hop, jazz and rare grooves
• Every Sunday: “Deaf Poetry Night” at St. Stogies (St. Augustine)
• Every Thursday: “All Fuel Poetry” at Fuel Coffeehouse (Riverside), spoken word and acoustic music
• Every Thursday: “Invite To Recite” at Lavilla Grill (Downtown), spoken word and live jazz
  
  
• First Thursday of the month: “Evening Spoken Word Poetry” at Lavilla Theater and Ritz Museum (Downtown)
• Second Wednesday of the month: “Spoken Word” at Barnes and Noble Bookstore (Mandarin)
• Third Wednesday of the month: “Spoken Word” at Barnes and Noble Bookstore (Regency), “Poetry Is Our Second Language” series

THE BEST FROM KEY WEST
Lynne Barrett, associate professor of English at Florida International University, will lecture from 7 to 8:30 pm on Friday, December 1, at the Key West Public Library, 700 Fleming Street, Key West. The lecture will be on “Plot: Getting To the Heart of Your Story,” sponsored by the Key West Women Writers Collective. Ms. Barrett teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and edits Gulf Stream Magazine. From noon to 3 pm on Saturday, December 2, Barrett will sign her book of stories, The Secret Names of Women at Waldenbooks, 2212 N. Roosevelt Blvd., Key West.

FROM FORT LAUDERDALE: FLORIDA CENTER FOR THE BOOK
At 7:30 pm on Wednesday, November 8, the Florida Center for the Book presented “An Evening with C.C. Medina” (pseudonym of Carolina Hospital and Carlos Medina, authors of A Little Love). A Little Love chronicles the lives and friendship of four modern, professional Latina women and their struggles with work and relationships. Each woman discovers the truth about herself, her culture and the men in her life in this entertaining, humorous and thoughtful novel. Hospital is a Miami poet & a professor at Miami-Dade Community College. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Prairie Schooner, and Looking for Home: Women Writing about Exile (Milkweed Editions). Medina is a teacher at Ransom Everglades Middle School in Miami.

Also in November the Florida Center for the Book in cooperation with the Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation presents a series of “Karen Swenson Poetry Programs.” Swenson is the author of five books of poetry, including the award winning The Landlady in Bangkok, & she is also known for her travel articles. She taught for many years at the City College of New York and at Barnard College.

• “An Evening of Poetry with Karen Swenson”
  7:30 to 9 pm, Monday, November 13
  This reading will feature A Daughter's Latitude: New and Selected Poems. A lifetime of travel across the United States and Asia has enriched Swenson's poetry with humor, pathos and hope. Come join us for a captivating poetry experience.
  
  
• “Poetry Discussion with Karen Swenson”
  10 am to noon, Tuesday, November 14
  Swenson will facilitate a discussion about reading and writing her poetry. A Daughter's Latitude will be provided free for your pleasure. Enjoy this rare opportunity to deepen the experience of listening to, talking about and reading poetry.

Both events are at Bienes Center for the Literary Arts, Broward County Main Library, Fort Lauderdale. Admission is free, but registration is required. Call 954.357.7401. (Programs made possible by FCB through Copper Canyon Press and a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.

IN GRAYSON'S GARDEN
One of South Florida's best loved poets & people, Deborah Grayson, conducts a Writer's Garden workshop from 7:30 to 9:30 pm every Monday at 6800 W. Commercial Blvd,. Suite 4, in Fort Lauderdale for a mere $15. But hey, that includes snacks of fruit, cookies and assorted surprises -- like poems you rarely get to play with and writing prompts to inspire those who may be stuck. Get loose with the Muse and produce. Space is limited. Call 898.4440 or 741.1160 for more info. Deborah Grayson is a Registered Poetry Therapist and the Certification Chairperson for the National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT). Anyone interested in learning more about becoming a Certified Poetry Therapist (CPT) or a Registered Poetry Therapist (RPT) may call Deborah at 898-4440.

The next international NAPT conference is in Washington, D.C. at the Wyndham City Center, April 19 to 22, 2001. The conference theme is “Poetic Justice: The Language of Peace, Healing and Empowerment.” Ed Hirsch will be the keynote speaker. Last year they were inspired by Jimmy Santiago Baca, and Sharon Olds the year before that. These are not-to-be-missed opportunities, so mark your calendars now.

SEROTTE'S SERENADE
Broward-based poet Brenda Serotte was featured in the Aug/Sept issue of Hadassah Magazine on Jewish women poets. Also, her Judeo-Spanish translations have been published in Torre de Papel, a bilingual journal of the University of Iowa. On October 26, she gave a workshop on The Prose Poem to the National League of American Pen Women, Boca Raton Branch.

FROM TAMARAC: THE SOCIETY OF POETS
Society of Poets leader, dog trainer and poet, Michael Earle Carlton moderates two monthly poetry readings at 7:30 pm on the third Friday of the month at Books & Books, 296 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, and from 3 to 5:30 pm on the fourth Saturday of the month at her Fort Lauderdale home. She also conducts poetry workshops on a grant from Broward County. The adult workshop (not the XXX kind, mind ya) are held from 10 am to noon every Tuesday at the brand new Tamarac Community Centre, 8601 W. Commercial Blvd., Tamarac. She also does a workshop for young adults (high school and college students) from 5 to 6 pm every Monday at the Tamarac Parks and Recreation Dept., 7501 N. University Drive, Tamarac. Registration is $5 per person/student for the eight-week course.

Carlton is a long-time SoFlo poet and impresario and a former president and board member of The South Florida Poetry institute. She was also an editor of the defunct and legendary South Florida Poetry Review.

NOTES FROM SUNRISE
Sunrise-based poet Lucille Gang Shulklapper's poems have garnered many acceptances lately. Bottom Dog Press recently issued Pocket Prose #1, Alphabet Faucet, in which “In Plain Sight,” a prose poem, appears as “T.” The poem is about Florida and she was amazed when 18 people ordered copies. Curbside Review accepted “How A Poem Labors” for a future issue. Shulklapper's first book of poems, What You Cannot Have, is scheduled to be published in February by Flarestack Publishing. She was also invited to participate in a collaborative anthology, Heat and Humidity with Open Mic Poets, “Turbulence” (an essay) was accepted for the anthology Fearytales, she recently completed three myths for children of all ages, & she is working on a novel, Under the Rose. Shulklapper is a comparatively recent addition to the SoFloPo scene. Contact: Lucs34@aol.com.

MAZZA NOT ZSA ZSA (SHE'S A DREAM)
Joan Mazza is a Fort Lauderdale poet and author of a number of books about dreams and dreaming: Dreaming Your Real Self: A Personal Approach to Dream Interpretation (Perigee, 1998), Dream Back Your Life: A Practical Guide to Dreams, Daydreams, and Fantasies (Berkley Publishing Group, 2000), From Dreams to Discovery (Walking Stick Press, 2000). Mazza just had a poem published in The Oak and won second place in a poetry contest for Writer's Journal, where her poem “The Baby Between Us” was published in the June issue.

SEEDS FROM BOCA RATON
Broward poet Cherise Wyneken is busy promoting her book, Seeded Puffs. Scheduled readings take place at area churches and bookstores & Seeded Puffs has been selected to be presented at the Delray Beach Public Library's second annual Author's Showcase, January 28, 2001. In March, 2001, Wyneken will join a select group of poets to be seated in The Electric Chair, a Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation event. The Electric Chair poet is handpicked to read before an invited audience for as long as she/he likes. The audience is encouraged to raise hands between poems to ask questions about the poem or the poet, to open a dialogue between poet and audience.

HOWARD THE HAT TO PUBLISH HIS HISS
Poet, subliminal ob/gyn and part-time xylophone anthropologist Howard Camner has a new book, Hiss (Tri-State), which comes out next month. “It is actually one poem 80 pages long. I'll be signing at the Miami International Book Fair... there will also be a recording of Hiss as well. The booze is on its way, but it's got to get through me first,” Camner recently said to an audience of chairs and indecent poets. He insists, he is “absolutely not an attorney at law.” Camner has published 14 books of poetry, was nominated for Poet Laureate of Florida in 1980 and has published more than 1,300 poems. He is always losing his car keys.

TEST YOUR EYE Q
Eye Q Radio is an Internet-only radio station dedicated to bringing you great live and pre-recorded shows, playing the music you love to hear. Tune in by going to the Eye Q Radio Web site. You must have either RealAudio, winamp or another compatible player installed to listen to the radio broadcast. Simply click on the stream of your choice at the top of the Eye Q Radio home page. The players will automatically launch and receive the stream. While there's no poetry stuff going on at Eye Q Radio for this edition of Museletter, it has been known to Webcast the rantings and ravings of local poets. Recently presented (non-poetry thangs) include The Hidden Step by Ozric Tentacles (trance-rock grooves with underlying Middle Eastern themes made for a hypnotic experience, as the Tentacles “mix dub,” Indian influences, ambient techno, and all-around synth weirdness in equal measures and to great effect) and Folk Tales by The Big Wu (a smorgasbord of various musical styles, utilizing three-part harmonies wrapped around dual lead guitars, all designed to make ya groove). Questions? Contact staff@eyeqradio.com.

TEST YOUR NERVE: FROM LITTLE HABANA
Tic tic tic tic... This just in from Artemis Performance: On October 27, Little Havana became a stage. On Calle Ocho, the gang walked over the stars of Eighth Street on Viernes Cultural/Cultural Friday towards a little nook off of 16 Avenue, PS 742, to see an art installation, “male id” by Yovani Bauta, as part of The Nerve, presented by Artemis Performance Network and lab6. Then they hopped over on a tap tap, a decorative Haitian bus sponsored by Miami Beach's own Tap Tap Haitian Restaurant, to Images @ lab6, where they found Works by Pedro Portal and Hector Gabino, a photography exhibit by El Nuevo Herald photographers who are holding down the fort at lab6. Then they lingered around the Southwest Sixth Street area for Café Neuralgia, the little café with Juan and his piano and special performances by the chanteuse and poet performance artist Lourdes Simón and the Egyptian belly dancer Hanan.

Artemis Performance Network is a non-profit arts service and presenting organization dedicated to the development, presentation and touring of South Florida-based artists. According to Executive Director Susan Carabolla, the group will soon have its Web site up at artemisperf.org. Artemis is a network of performing artists, visual artists, presenters, educators and administrators. Lab6 is an experimental art gallery curated by Carlos de Jesus Suarez and Vivian Marthell. Images @ lab6 is a photography gallery curated by Pedro Portal and Hector Gabino.

More from Artemis: Don't miss the latest in Miami's music scene... Buenaventura! A traditional Cuban music ensemble made up of internationally recognized musicians including lead on vocals Luis Bofill, Eduardo Rodriguez and Eddie Conga on percussion, Heriberto Rey on guitar, Mandy Gonzalez on bass and “Petaca” Juan Antonio Silveira on sax. Buenaventura is a refreshing return to Cuban standards, such as “Un Cubano en Nueva York” and “El Cuarteto de Tula.” Catch them Fridays and Saturdays at Havana Dreams Cafe Restaurant, located in the Doral Plaza at 9735 N.W. 41 Street. Call for reservations at 305.716.4999.

IS IT CARIBBEAN OR CARIBBEAN?
Shhhh... can you hear that? It's... xango music. Geoffrey Philp, a cutting-edge Miami-based poet, recently released his new book of poems, xango music. Born in Jamaica, he now lives and works in Miami; he is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Miami-Dade Community College. In addition to his collections of poetry, he is the author of a collection of stories, Uncle Obadiah and the Alien.

In the Xango ceremony the contraries of New World African experience find transcendence. From the established, bodily pattern of ritual comes release into the freedom of the spirit; from the exposure of pain comes the possibilities of healing; and for the individual there is the dread aloneness with the gods. Simultaneously the rites celebrate the rich, syncretic diversity, the multiple connections of the African person in the New World and enact a tragic search for the wholeness of the lost African center. And there is the god himself, standing at the crossroads, beating iron into the shape of thunder, both the prophetic voice warning of the fire to come and the creator who hammers out sweet sound from the iron drum. Geoffrey Philp finds in Xango a powerful metaphor that is both particular to the Caribbean and universal in its relevance. If his first collection, Florida Bound, was characterized by the exiled bittersweet elegies of regret, and the second, Hurricane Center, stared edgily into the dark heart of a threatening world, xango music brings a new sinewy toughness of line to an ever deepening vision of the dynamic polarities of human existence.

POETS & PIRATES ON THE HIGH SEAS
On October 24, Lip, Tongue & Ear Poetry Productions, under the artistic direction of Shamele Jenkins, Jonathan Rose and Terry Newton, hosted their “Twilight Poetry Cruise on the Open Seas.” The cruise drew a crowd of 228 poets and lovers of poetry. While the waves were a bit high and the waters rocky, it was nothing compared to the poetry spewed by the poets aboard the ship. Also, LTE did a special prayer vigil for one of their own poets who was slain a few weeks ago. Everyone was asked to throw out confetti at 4:30 am into the winds from the ship's bow. As the attendees threw the confetti they uttered the name of the slain poet, “Poetic Darkness” and then the names of their loved ones who had recently crossed over. It became a very teary-eyed moment while the DJ played “We are Family.” Afterwards there was lots of dancing and plenty of giveaways and the grand prize winner walked off with a television.

SINGIN' ON SINGER ISLAND
Poet, playwright, actor and master of heartfelt words John Arndt has started the Palm Beach Repertory Theater on Singer Island (off the coast of West Palm Beach). His productions include some of his poetry. Arndt is also co-founder of the Beach Road Poetry Workshop along with Delray Beach Queen of Poetry Mrs. H -- Stacie M. Kiner. PBRT had its opening night in September. The upcoming schedule is:

• “Manchild” on November 11 and November 18
  “Manchild” follows the development of mankind through time. Along with poetry by Arndt, drums and music and more poetry are offered by talented local artists whose work responds and reflects primal impulses, modern influences, love, war and death. With: Patrick Wilkinson, Jeff Heath, Howard Ross and Blandine Brochet.
  
  
• “Winterstorm” (opening night) on November 25
  “Winterstorm” is another of Arndt's poetic dramas. It follows the tribulations of two Midwestern farmers as they struggle with each other's dreams and own demons, only to find the love of the woman that both of them have always loved.

Performances take place at Flamingo Park Studios, near the Carefree Theater, off Dixie Highway on Flamingo Drive. Call 561.840.7520 for more info.

DADA IN DELRAY
Marya Summers (former editor of Pandemonium, a West Palm Beach-based poetry journal) emailed these press releases:

Don't expect a support group for sensitive creative-types. This isn't any lame-o poetry reading you've heard before. It's a verbal boxing match where poets duke it out for prizes and an opportunity to compete at regional and national championships. If you've never been slammed, it's safe to say you don't really know the power of the spoken word. Never have poets and their audiences been more outrageously extroverted. Poets -- whether they be activists, humorists, philosophers, lovers, idealists, muckrakers, or scofflaws -- perform for audiences who are encouraged to react and respond, no matter the opinion.

Poetry slams are open to everyone. Rules do not govern content or form but do require all poems be original, no longer than three minutes in length, and performed without the use of props. Randomly-selected judges award Olympic-style scores from one to 10 for each performance. Beginning October 10: Poetry Slam every Tuesday at 10:30 pm (sign-up begins at 10 pm) with slammistress Marya Summers at Dada, 52 North Swinton Avenue, Delray Beach. Winners receive gift certificates (1st - $20, 2nd - $15, 3rd - $10). Full menu and bar until 2 am. Admission is free. Call 561.330.3232.

South Florida's second slam venue, Dada in Delray Beach, is attracting the crowd that found the West Palm Beach slam just too long a haul. We're already seeing folks from Miami and Lauderdale. Last week, West Palm Beach's slammaster, Richard Green, won top honors and took home the $20 gift certificate. Andrew and his histrionics took second, while Nicole's crowd pleasing sex-talk nailed third. We had a good crowd despite the competition with the presidential debates. Evidently, some like to hear words less contrived, more substantial, and occasionally rhymed..

FOR WHOM THE HORN TOOTS... IT TOOTS FOR ME
Your correspondent Leonardo DellaRocca recently had a poem (“Alicia's Room”) accepted by The Isle Review. An earlier online publication at CrossXConnect was released in hard copy, in a handsome journal with poems by Dorianne Laux, Ron Silliman, Linh Dinh, Rick Moody and Victor Hernandez Cruz.

PERFORMANCE JOINTS
Places to perform up & down the state:

• Dade County Area:
  Sacred Ground Coffeehouse
  Contact: Ellen Bukstel Segal
  11715 SW 87 Avenue, Miami, 305.663.1039
  PA provided, hires all acts, prefers original and folk, books with one other act.
  Budget: 1/3 of door.
  
  
• Palm Beach County Area:
  Coffee Gallery
  Contact: Richard
  517 Lake Avenue, Lake Worth, 561.585.5911
  No PA provided, hires solos & duos, Friday, Saturday & Sunday, prefers acoustic folk & classical
  Budget: $100 - $150
  
  
• Up the Florida East Coast a Bit:
  Kool Beanz
  Contact: John Goldacker
  7 Poinstett Drive, Cocoa Village, 407.638.4855
  PA provided, hires solos to bands, Friday & Saturday nights, prefers folk
  Budget: $4 to $5 at door (Bring someone to collect or he will provide someone to collect for you for a fee.)

--Leonardo Della Rocca

PHILADELPHIA/SOUTH JERSEY/DELAWARE

MANY WAYS TO TURN A PHRASE AT THE FRINGE FESTIVAL
This year's Philadelphia Fringe Festival, September 1-16, featured more than 500 performers over 16 days, with an unprecedented number of artists blending the spoken word with other disciplines. Among the language-laced shows I attended, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore's Millennial Prognostications and Other Manifestations took the cake: layer upon luscious layer of “phrases poignant and unexpected as everything else is,” honey-glazed with “exotic instruments of bamboo and wild-grass blades.” At each turn of the page of his “poem series written at the millennial turning,” Moore moved from harmonica to tambourine, African marimba to kalimba, zither to Moroccan gelba, frame drum to Indonesian angklung to the one-stringed ektar used by the Baul of Bengal. During “Centuries Turn,” he turned a wooden rod around the rim of a Tibetan bowl to produce a soothing hum. Moore's clear silver-toned voice, however, was the most musical of all his instruments, speaking “[p]rognostication rare and sweet.” Indeed, his words fed, made me drop open my wonder-struck mouth, as a baby bird does for a fat worm. His “elemental featheriness,” his optimism, his “unbearable joy,” levitate and transport -- Hamza Yusef says that “Moore's poems soar long after the ink has dried and the pen lifted.” And he's funny, too! When the audience of fifteen broke into applause midway through his performance, Moore humbly replied, “You're there! Signs of life are always a help.” Later, in “Prediction,” he poked fun at himself, “I can't even predict the end of this poem, although I sense the end is near.” Moore calls the millennial turning “a night of beneficence, night without equal”; by the end of his performance, I still could not find the words to describe him and his poetry, but knew I was in the presence of a man of beneficence and without equal. My gratitude to Moore's wife Malika, whose own perfect words bubbled over: “He's a fountain of Persian embroidery.”

Moore is seeking publication for two new collections of poetry, The Blind Beekeeper and Chants for the Beauty Feast, and re-release of The Ramadan Sonnets, originally co-published in 1996 by Kitab Books and City Lights Books of San Francisco. Lawrence Ferlinghetti says that “[t]he litany of the beautiful Ramadan Sonnets may seem to be opposed to that of Khayyam's Rubaiyat, yet its aim may be the same: Liberation.” “He's like an old wisdom tradition come up off the streets,” praises Coleman Barks. Again, I couldn't have said it better -- I defer to the sages and his beloved to describe Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore and his uncontainable words.

Also appearing during the Fringe Festival was Chris McCreary, whose bitter suite symphony definitely suits a certain kind of poetic taste. A graduate of Temple University's M.A. writing program and co-editor of Ixnay Magazine with poet-wife Jenn, McCreary's writing is stylistically akin to the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, admittedly not my favorite flavor. His ironical anecdotes about his urban existence, delivered deadpan, were amusing, as were some of his lines. “Noblesse oblige makes a man horny,” he observes. “What the world needs now is another Ann-Margret,” he proposes. What the world doesn't need, however, is more inaccessible poetry, and the Fringe had more than I could stomach.

I wanted to see Stories of the Great Ballets & Dirty Words, Ugly Problems: A Comedy because 1998 Pew Fellow Daisy Fried and her hubby writer, Jim Quinn, promised to “illuminate the problems of relationships, mostly sexual, always unsolvable, usually funny -- especially when tragic.” I wanted to witness “their own distinct approach to the battle”; I wanted to know if this local celebrity couple has the same garden-variety marital issues as everyone else. Of course they must, but I wanted to see how they translated the mundane into a collaborative piece of art. What I got instead was Fried reading her poems and Quinn presenting, with the help of his wife and three friends, a not-so-dramatic reading of his play about the demonstrations over Mumia Abu-Jamal's case. Had their presentations been absorbing, I might not have been annoyed by the misleading blurb in the Fringe Festival guide. And while there were instances of entertainment, I expect to be transported, provoked at the very least, by folks with their publishing credentials. A couple of Fried's poems did get my attention, particularly “Wit's End,” about a prepubescent girl and her father arguing about how much makeup she wears: “It's makeup's premonition of sex in the house he can't stand.” Fried named her presentation Stories of the Great Ballets for her childhood dream of being principal ballerina for the New York City Ballet. Standing 6'2” at age 32, Fried doesn't have to look very far when she says, “There's something of a tree in a woman.”

There may be something of a comedy in her man, but Quinn's Dirty Words, Ugly Problems: A Comedy elicited very few laughs from the crowd. The five readers' bland, amateurish deliveries killed off the barely breathing dialogue, and while I'm sure there was a clever commentary in there somewhere, it got lost in the execution. Perhaps this one line from Quinn's play sums up the evening: “Heroism needs self-delusion to survive.”

Fried's first book of poems, She Didn't Mean To Do It, won the University of Pittsburgh Press' Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize and was published this fall in the Pitt Poetry Series. Semi-finalist for the 2000 Sandstone Prize in fiction and a well-published journalist, Quinn writes the “Quinn on Food” column for Philadelphia magazine.

Also reading poetry during the Fringe Festival was Shawn Walker, whose gently confident demeanor and soothing voice propped up her “lyrical meditative onrush of entrancing flow of stream of images of melodic word waterfall.” Like McCreary, Walker spins some great phrasings: “A woman is not an abstraction” from “The Woman with Lips in the Landscape,” for example. But I'm gettin' the feeling, after attending many a local poetry reading, that the local academy is pumping out poets more interested in style and technique than in communication, a criticism their language-poetry conditioning would dismiss as naïve in its implicit demand for transcendent, universal, or natural language. Sure, Walker communicated some feminine energy, some vulnerability, but I could appreciate it only on an intellectual level. I want poetry to penetrate beyond my intellect, to grab my viscera and twist, or as Drexel prof Don Riggs says, “I want the poet to conquer me.” I thank the po-deities for Don Riggs, who appeared with Walker, and read poems that engaged both intellect and heart muscle, and on top of that, the funny bone. Riggs' comical, self-conscious editorializing -- before poems, after poems, during poems -- is arguably his most clever use of language. Before reading “The Cheating Villanelle,” about his then-wife who was sleeping with his ex-therapist, he qualified the villanelle form as “good for the expression of obsession.” “Ask not for whom the phone rings, it is a telemarketer,” he announced at the beginning of his reading, for no better reason than to amuse. Riggs read poems about “his desk job earthside” in “Moonscape,” his Y2K visit to friends in South Carolina in “Dateless in Gaza,” the kids on his neighborhood block who ask him daily, “What's up, Doc?” When the good doctor isn't in the mood to write poetry, he does exercises with form, he told us. And even then, he manages to birth a haiku or sonnet that speaks to something universal.

Appearing free at the Fringe Festival's Labor Day Block Party, Sekou Sundiata drove down from the Bronx with his six-piece band to perform his singular mix of poetry and music. “Each note is destined to the next note / fire thirsty for air to make fire.” The sun was hot, the jazz was cool, and the words were burdened, heavier than I had noticed when I first saw Sundiata perform in April 1999 at the first People's Poetry Gathering in NYC. He celebrates as early influences “those ancient poets grounded in chant and drama, myth and ritual,” Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Larry Neal. Sundiata's work is available on his two CDs, The Blue Oneness of Dreams (Mercury Records, 1997) and longstoryshort (Righteous Babe Records, 2000), and in a collection of poems called dance & be still, published by Righteous Babe, whose founder, Ani DiFranco, stumbled upon his poetry-writing class at The New School when her words were still working their way out.

DAY OF THE POET WORD WIDE FIRST FRIDAY
OR, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO KEVIN O'NEILL
“Day of the Poet is about the real purlieu, theater of the oppressed, not a theatrical consortium of stressed, histrionic yuppies,” pronounced DOTP founder/curator Kevin O'Neill in his September 27 letter to the Philadelphia Weekly, written to “quickly repudiate… any association between Day of the Poet and that parochial affair called Fringe Festival.” I'm all for DOTP's founding mission “to forge and foster a new direction… in the contemporary spoken word movement.” I'm all for “kick(ing) down the establishment's arts institution doors to gain acceptance for a threatening, confrontational and controversial art form.” And I'm all for commemorating DOTP's five years of “uncompromising artistic energy” with a 5th Anniversary Bash, held Friday, September 1, at the Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, 215.925.9914. What I'm not for is a forum that claims its place inside “the people's commissariat of cultural diversity and artistic freedom” at the same time that its mean-spirited mouthpiece of a host kicks down any artistic expression that doesn't get down with the down-and-out on the purlieu. DOTP could and should be a forum that emboldens all people through the spoken word, toward real self-empowerment, and ultimately toward a collective healing. Yes, shake up the status quo; wake us up to our comfortable ignorance; provoke folks to take their words beyond the page and stage. But O'Neill's interminable self-congratulatory rants are as insipid as the “often maundering, coffeehouse/grog shop weary surge” he so myopically defends against.

You said it yourself, Kevin: “The silencing of one poet anywhere is a blight on the calling of poets everywhere.” Your narcissistic martyrdom would be well served by some edification from our poetic predecessors. Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz said that “great conflagrations do not release the poet from the right, indeed the obligation, to describe sunsets” so that we do “not cease to hope that happiness is possible.” Cicero said, “I criticize by creation -- not by finding fault.” And Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.” If fear is what creates oppression and keeps it in place, then try generating during your DOTP monologues, Kevin, the same generosity and compassion you bring to your Inmate Poetry Project at Graterford Prison and to your Young Philly Poets Collective. We're all oppressed by something, mostly our attachment to our points of view, and it takes a true revolution of self to spawn poetry that goes beyond a mere clearing of one's throat -- poetry in which another may recognize himself and even shift his own consciousness inside the safety of the connected space between him and the poet. And a revolution of self can be constructively “foment(ed) to its rightful level” by artistic exploration, experimentation and expression, which almost always includes phases of imitation, banality and self-absorption in its evolution. So, Kevin, if you're gonna continue to spew your street-po-argot at your faithful First Friday audiences who trust you and your posse to stretch their consciousness with DOTP, that is, the “apex” of poetic expression in Philadelphia, then be more responsible for your words that add to the collective conversations of negativity and scarcity. I'm not talking about your poems, which are powerful vehicles for your politics. I'm talking about your toxic, tiresome, time-consuming tongue-trips between every poet who steps up to the mic. Preaching to the converted promises a congregation, but eventually they're gonna tire of your spiritless tirades, too. If you speak and no one's around to hear it, did you say anything?

Now, about the 5th Anniversary Bash... O'Neill brought together locals Ursula Rucker, Rich Medina, and the Twin Poets with Kirk Nugent and Byronn Bain from the Nuyorican Poets Café. The Young Philly Poets Collective made their DOTP debut (they were the October DOTP's featured readers), and three poets from the Inmate Poetry Project at Graterford appeared via video. Although the Painted Bride was packed, fewer than ten folks entered their names in the open-mic lotto, three of whom were selected at intervals during the long evening made longer by O'Neill's aforementioned sermons. I was quite surprised when our haughty host announced that he was going to select one more name from the open-mic lotto to close out the show, that he was going to risk ending anticlimactically with some amateur's “maundering” poetry. Well, my name got picked, and all I'm gonna say is that O'Neill interrupted his own closing remarks to say, “That piece was fresh, wasn't it?” Now that's being real, Kevin.

LIAM RECTOR AND CHARLIE O'HAY PAINT THE BRIDE BLACK
The Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine Street, Philadelphia, 215.925.9914, aptly described Liam Rector and Charlie O'Hay as two poets who, “[f]rom barrooms to bedrooms,… explore the betrayed promises of America, often using comedy to pacify the loss but sometimes laying it bare on the page.” On Sunday, October 15, Rector and O'Hay laid bare their faith, honored the faithful, exposed the unfaithful, even if themselves. “Being a good poet is being a good director and being a good carnival huckster,” O'Hay confessed before he sucked us in, told us when to sigh. A favorite local poet among local poets, he characterizes his “snapshot” poetic body of work as “two guys walk into a bar…” in lieu of the typical ivory tower synoptic statement. He read a couple of love poems for his wife, poet Cecily Kellogg, “probably the most patient woman on the planet”; a few amusing short poems that “if you blink, you miss it”; and some poems of place that capture his and Cecily's frequent travel together. “There's a proper place for everything,” O'Hay says, and his poems are well-mapped places for family, love, work, addiction. “I used to be a wino, among other things,” he tells on himself before reading “Last Man Standing.” That's OK, Charlie -- it's made you unflinchingly honest: “He's the last man standing and that's enough truth for one day.”

A day's truth before 4:00 pm, and we still hadn't heard from Liam Rector. Director of the Graduate Writing Seminars at Bennington College and author of two books of poetry, American Prodigal and The Sorrow of Architecture, Rector read primarily from his new manuscript entitled The Executive Director of Fallen Words. A couple of my local poet-friends were more distracted by Rector's arrogance and po-business ass-kissing than I was. I was completely taken over by the candor, accessibility, and tight craft of his poetry -- lines like “This much we give over to fate in case we're wrong” about a man who leaves a woman soon after it's confirmed that she's not pregnant, and “Words endure best when cut in the belly of stones.” Midway through his presentation, after reading a poem in which the sarcastic narrator treats his cancer with marijuana (“How lovely it is sometimes to have cancer.”), Rector indulged himself: “If anybody takes my 'I' as an autobiographical 'I', they're a real sucker.” Later, another narrator equivocates: “I think I may die without God… though I am ready to roar through the gates if there are gates.” Sorry, Liam, call me a sucker, but I believe there's more than just a bit of the self in a poet's narrators, which is why I like ya. Unlike my two poet-friends, I can tolerate a hedonist who tells the truth: “…stay true / To the dog in you…, because the dog is true.”

Upcoming poetry event at the Painted Bride:

• Sunday, November 19, 3:00 pm, Women to Watch
  United in their efforts to capture the ordinary world, area poets Molly Russakoff, Almitra David, and Yolanda Wisher come together in a journey through language, womanhood, and ultimately song. Former Pew recipient Russakoff has been published in The Paris Review and American Poetry Review, among many others; David is the author of two books of poetry, Between the Sea and Home (Eighth Mountain Press, 1983) and Impulse to Fly (Perugia Press, 1998); and Wisher is the first Poet Laureate of Montgomery County and co-founder of the arts collective Poetry for the People.

AT A LOSS FOR WORDS? BORROW SOMEONE ELSE'S IN FINDINGTHEWORD
CAConrad says he owes his education in poetry, or “life in the kaleidoscope,” to “many poets along the way, dead and alive” -- which is one reason why he's always wanted to edit a magazine specializing in quotes, epigrams, and excerpts that deeply affect or jolt the reader/listener. Author of Frank (Insight to Riot Press), Complete Frank (The Jargon Society), evaporate again (Mooncalf Press), and advancedELVIScourse (Buck Downs Books), the editor of the new e-magazine FINDINGTHEWORD: An E-Zine of Epigrams and Epitaphs takes his inspiration from Jonathan Williams, publisher of Jargon Society Books, whose books of collected epigrams continue to hearten him.

CAConrad invites folks to request a free subscription to this monthly e-magazine by emailing him at FINDINGTHEWORD@aol.com. Submissions (75-word maximum) may be sent to the same address, and should follow these guidelines:

1. All quotes must be inside quotation marks.
2. Excerpts from books must include author's name, and if possible, book title, page number, and copyright.
3. End your entry with your full name, city, state, country.

He also suggests that you “quote tombstones if you like, but include the dead guy's name, and if you can, include his birth and death dates. If you're really into place, include the cemetery's name… Quote people on the street, be thoughtful, think of the weather and include this information after their quote. Climate has a lot to do with the things people say, but more to do with what people smell like. Quote someone and include their smell.”

CAConrad will be reading his poetry as part of the Monday Poets Open Reading Series, on Monday, November 13, from 6:30 - 8:30 pm, in the East Corridor of the Central Library, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, 215.686.5402. He will be joined by Sandra Evans Falconer, a 1999 recipient of an Individual Artists Award in Poetry and author of Absent Sister (Dragonfly Press) and Imagining the World (Gateway Press). An open reading will follow the featured readers.

EILEEN MYLES IS TOO COOL FOR WORDS
Giovanni's Room, 1145 Pine Street, Philadelphia, 215.923.2960, “The World's Biggest, Best & Most Beautiful Gay, Lesbian & Feminist Bookstore,” hosted one of the world's best, coolest, lesbian & feminist, straight-talking (no pun intended) writers, Eileen Myles, on Monday, November 6. She read from her latest book entitled Cool for You (Soft Skull Press), an autobiographical look at this New York poet's Irish-American, downbeat girlhood. Myles is also the author of Not Me (Semiotext(e) Press, 1991), which The Village Voice called “the most poignantly tough-minded collection of visionary smut ever published,” Chelsea Girls (Black Sparrow Press), and School of Fish (Black Sparrow Press).

HIGHWIRE READING SERIES CHANGES HOST, VENUE, AND HOUR
Last year, Greg Fuchs played trusty first mate to Kyle Conner's captain-host of the Highwire Reading Series at the Highwire Gallery in Old City. This year, Fuchs takes over the helm as the series enters new waters every other Saturday at 7:00 pm at La Tazza, 105 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 215.922.7322. The new space is much cozier than its predecessor, and has a full-service menu. On October 7, I snacked on mussels and carrot cake while Allene Powell Steinberg opened for the ubiquitous Elliot Levin, who was still en route from a jazz gig when Steinberg completed her set of raw, roughly hewn poetry. Excerpting Steinberg, “There's a profane sugar in her holy water,” warned poet Frank Sherlock, whose introductions of the two featured poets were arguably better crafted and more absorbing than a lot of the poetry circulating the local scene. Steinberg closed with a sobering line: “Everyone has an unconsummated life.” Except, perhaps, Elliot Levin, who had to run to yet another gig after his set of jazz-infused word-whirlwinds. “Leave 'em wanting for me,” he teased in his final poem, “Equinox,” about saxophonist John Coltrane.

Upcoming events in the Highwire Reading Series at La Tazza:

• November 18, Don Riggs and Wendy Kramer
  Don Riggs teaches at Drexel University and entertains before, during, after, and between poems. Wendy Kramer reads from sculptures she makes out of found materials.
• December 2, Fran Ryan and Prageeta Sharma
  Fran Ryan is writing a book literally about the politics of labor and figuratively about Philadelphia trash workers. Prageeta Sharma's Bliss To Fill (Subpress, 2000) is one of the hottest-selling books on the Subpress list.
• December 16, Janet Mason and Anselm Berrigan
  Janet Mason will send you in your chair laughing, then send you home thinking. Anselm Berrigan is Highwire's holiday gift for its faithful followers.

AMERICAN POETRY: THE NEXT GENERATION
174 poets born no earlier than 1960 appear in the anthology American Poetry: The Next Generation. On Tuesday, September 19, I heard several of those poets read at the Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, 215.573.WRIT. Malvern, PA poet A.V. Christie received an NEA Fellowship in 1997, and her book, Nine Skies (University of Illinois Press), was a 1996 National Poetry Series selection. A Philadelphia native, Tom Devaney lives and teaches in Brooklyn and writes for the experimental puppet group, “The Lost Art of Puppet.” His first book of poetry, The American Pragmatist Fell in Love, was published by Banshee Press in 1999. Native Californian and Villanova professor, Lisa Sewell, received fellowships from the NEA, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and her first book of poetry, The Way Out, was published by Alice James Books in 1998.

By far, my favorite among these new-generation poets was Douglas Goetsch, who grew up in Northport, Long Island, and resides in Manhattan, where he teaches English and writing at Stuyvesant High School. Author of Nobody's Hell (Hanging Loose, 1999) and Wherever You Want (Pavement Saw, 1997), Goetsch writes poetry that truly fits The Bay Guardian's description of this anthology's contents: “good poetry that isn't full of b.s. and truly reflects current interests and experience.”

A POETRY GOLD MINE ON KENNETH GOLDSMITH'S UBUWEB
Says Kenneth Goldsmith about his uncompromising Web site, UbuWeb, “Its ideogrammatic self-contained, exportable, universally accessible content mirrors the utopian pan-linguistic dreams of cross-platform efforts of today's Internet.” That's what I was going to say, so allow me to translate: UbuWeb = FreePoetryForAnyoneAnywhereAnytime. I kinda like that idea, even though UbuWeb posts much of its content without permission. And I like Goldsmith's chutzpah, his unapologetic conviction that “poetry is the perfect space to practice utopian politics.” Since this man with the Midas touch bought the domain name for $100, www.ubu.com has become the definitive source for visual, concrete, and sound poetry. The fluidity of language and sound is conducive to the Web -- it “liquifies language even further” -- and UbuWeb is an unlimited resource of molten poetry, with free unlimited space to fill, thanks to an ISP sympathetic to Goldsmith's vision. And fill it he does, with hundreds of artists, thousands of files, and several gigabytes of poetry. “We publish in full color for pennies,” he says, so UbuWeb needs no money, funding, or backers. “At UbuWeb, we give it away”: the hard-to-find, the out-of-print, the local mystery po-messenger's postings on unclaimed urban surfaces. And instead of cease-and-desist orders from folks wantin' what's theirs, Goldsmith receives laudatory emails from artists, publishers, and record labels grateful that someone has taken an interest in their work.

I was fascinated by Goldsmith's Thursday, September 21 presentation at the Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, 215.573.WRIT, and was sorry I couldn't stay for his reading later that evening of Fidget (Coach House Books, 2000), a transcription of every movement made by his body during thirteen hours on Bloomsday (June 16), 1997. Well, I wasn't that sorry. Originally commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art as a collaboration with vocalist Theo Bleckmann, Fidget attempts to reduce the body to a catalogue of mechanical movements by a strict act of observation, recorded orally into a tape recorder by Goldsmith: “Eyelids open. Tongue runs across upper lip moving from left side of mouth to right following arc of lips. Swallow. Jaws clench. Grind. Stretch. Swallow.” The electronic edition of Fidget includes a self-running Java Applet version that runs through the entire text, with sentences appearing, disappearing, leaping, and overlapping, and a selection of RealAudio recordings from Theo Bleckmann's vocal/visual performance at the Whitney on Bloomsday, 1998.

Goldsmith's other books and compact discs include Tizzy Boost, a collaboration with Bruce Andrews (1993); 73 Poems (Permanent Press, 1994) with essays by Robert Mahoney, John Schaefer, and Geoffrey Young; and No. 111 2.7.93-10.30.96 (The Figures, 1997).

MOVING VOICES GETS STUCK IN PREDICTABILITY
On Sunday, October 22, at the Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, 215.573.WRIT, husband-and-wife team Alexandra and Roger Pierce presented Walt Whitman's poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” an elegy for Abraham Lincoln and the thousands of soldiers slain in the Civil War, about how to renew in the face of death. “Gestures illuminate meanings,” but Moving Voices' gestures were so simple and unvaried as to be distracting. While I also found lifeless their incorporation of piano and hand drum, I nevertheless appreciate any attempt to blend creative genres. Over the past 15 years, Moving Voices has performed in a wide variety of settings, including universities, museums, a YMCA conference center, a retreat center, churches, and retirement communities. Alexandra Pierce is Professor of Composition and Movement at the University of Redlands, and Roger Pierce was Professor of Theater Arts at UC Riverside and at Stanford University. The Pierces have collaborated on two books, Expressive Movement and Generous Movement.

READING THE SELF THROUGH MODERNISM
Over three evenings, Thursday, October 12 through Saturday, October 14, /The Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, 215.573.WRIT, presented nine poets reading themselves through modernism, or more specifically, reading from their own writings that express their relationship to a modernist's work. Audio files are available permanently at the Writers House site. Each of the nine presentations is separately linked on that page to enable teachers of contemporary and modernist poetry to make these 30-minute presentations available to their students: Lyn Hejinian on Gertrude Stein; Ron Silliman on William Carlos Williams; Joan Retallack on Gertrude Stein, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and John Cage; Charles Bernstein on Walter Benjamin; Rachel Blau DuPlessis on Virginia Woolf; Erica Hunt on Samuel Beckett and James Baldwin; Jena Osman on Charles Reznikoff; Bob Perelman on Louis Zukofsky; and Rae Armantrout on Emily Dickinson. Conceived by UPenn profs Bob Perelman and Al Filreis, “9 poets” was funded by the Kelly Writers House, the Modernist Studies Association, and the Creative Writing Program of the Department of English at Penn. My life closed twice before its close; so much depends upon a rose is a rose is a rose…

Upcoming poetry events at the Kelly Writers House:

• Wednesdays, November 8 & 29, 8 pm
  (Skip November 22 due to the Thanksgiving holiday)
  Speakeasy: Poetry, Prose, and Anything Goes is a popular biweekly open-mic performance series run by students and open to all.
  
  
• Saturday, November 18, 4 pm
  Laughing Hermit Series presents Toby Olson and Ken Kalfus, admission is a donation.

LAMONT STEPTOE OVERSTANDS, STILL STANDS
“Vietnam won't be over for me until they throw dirt in my face,” said Lamont Steptoe midway through his September 15 reading at the A Space, 4722 Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia, 215.727.0882, a benefit to raise legal funds for “R2K prisoners” -- the local demonstrators arrested during this summer's Republican Convention in the City of Brotherly Love. “My life has been a series of hurricanes. In Vietnam I was nailed to the sky.” In the glossary of Dusty Road: a Vietnam Suite (Whirlwind Press, 1995), Steptoe defines “overstands” as “poet's invention, signifies a deeper perception than is implied in the word 'understanding.'” Being nailed to the sky gives one an overstanding -- a wide, and wide-awake, view of the “swamps of insanity,” “the tunnels of the spirit,” “the Himalayan terror of falling into the crevasse of death.” The minister of Steptoe's childhood church told him that “every black poet is a preacher and every black preacher is a poet.” Through the words he writes and the words he reads, Steptoe is still surviving the armageddons of poverty, racism, Vietnam, and the “permanent madness” of post-traumatic stress disorder. Let's hope his redemptive words don't “fall out of history like dominos / tumbling into oblivion.” Let's hope Lamont Steptoe keeps writing poems 'til they throw dirt in his face.

THE SCHUYLKILL VALLEY JOURNAL CELEBRATES TEN YEARS OF LOCAL POETRY
On Sunday, October 8, at the Manayunk Art Center, 419 Green Lane, Philadelphia, 215.482.3363, The Schuylkill Valley Journal marked its tenth-anniversary issue with a reading by fifteen poets whose work has appeared in this annual literary “magazine of local writers.” Editor Jim Marinell hosted the event, and among the poets reading were B.E. Kahn, Emiliano Martin, Dan Maguire, Nathaniel Smith, and Kelley White. The afternoon concluded with some comments from Barbara Battista about her concurrent exhibit of diner photos, followed by a really nice reception.

Upcoming poetry event at the Manayunk Art Center:

• Sunday, December 3, 2 - 4 pm
  Connie Bretz, Tina Devine, and Ruth Scult, $4 donation, refreshments.

PO-ANGEL KIM DEANGELO MAKES HEAVENLY DEBUT AT BORDERS SPRINGFIELD
“Walking faithfully in spiritual lunacy… is OK with me,” says poet/lyricist Kim DeAngelo, who earned her halo as heavenly hostess of the P.M.S. reading series at The Point, 800 W. Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, 610.517.0988. On Thursday, October 12, at Borders Springfield in the Springfield Square South Mall, 1001 Baltimore Pike, presented by Poets & Prophets, 610.328.POET, DeAngelo shared her poems about deities and demons: the rain, the moon, domestic abuse, the media's beauty myth. Giving wing to her rhythmic words was the music of Lee Goldstein's keyboards and Kelliann Monahan's vocals. “She moves, grooves, heals and swerves as her body curves, living out from within, beauty God-given.” One can sense that Kim's own heart-strength was hard-earned, that her commitment to bring a message of healing and hope, particularly to youth and women of abuse, comes from having “pulled (her)self inside out and broke free.” “For a girl to heal, voice is the only rig.” Keep speakin' it, Kim.

TONYA MARIE EVANS SHINES BRIGHTLY AT BORDERS WYNNEWOOD
On Wednesday, October 18, Tonya Marie Evans brought her brand of inspirational spoken word to the 'burbs, as Borders, 80 E. Wynnewood Avenue, Wynnewood, 610.642.0362, hosted the release party for SHINE!, her second book of poetry, with companion CD. Joining Evans for her three-poem set was vocalist/poet Stephanie Renée and keyboardist/producer Damon “Mr. Dizzy Fingers” Bennett. Evans says of her shine, “But it is God given, / and I've claimed it / and now I own it.” This shiny apple didn't fall far from the tree. Evans and her dynamic mom, Susan Borden Evans, both lawyers, co-founded FYOS Entertainment to publish poetry and fiction by authors of African descent. Both Shine! and Evans' first book of poems, Seasons of Her (1999), are available directly from FYOS Publishing, 215.972.8001.

PEW FELLOWS IN POETRY READ AT THE ART ALLIANCE
On Monday, October 23, recent recipients of the Pew Fellowship in Poetry, Nathalie Anderson and Jeanne Murray Walker, kicked off the Festival of Poets, one of several series hosted by the Philadelphia Art Alliance during its 2000-2001 85th anniversary season, 251 S. 18th Street, Philadelphia, 215.545.4302. Professor of English Literature at Swarthmore College, Anderson read poems prompted by a friend's wedding, a painting from the Ulster Museum in Ireland, a sweating Italian musician in England, and her aging father's ability to still whistle. Her images and sounds are sensual: “no leaf falls for love”; “sluicing his skin to fluency”; “the savannah of fine hairs on your thigh.” Anderson is an active player in the local poetry community, and manages a comprehensive monthly email literary calendar that you can receive by writing her at nanders1@swarthmore.edu.

Walker, a playwright and University of Delaware professor as well as poet, is less the contemplative relisher of moments as is Anderson, and more the global observer. She opened with “Studying Physics with Molly,” about remembering and not remembering her own childhood education -- a poem “to praise my beautiful teacher… to praise how the word switched on in my head.” “We live in a world knit together by a computer virus,” she said matter-of-factly before reading “I Love You”: “The heart can only stand so much love. Love can destroy your hard drive.” In “Learning to Love,” Walker reminds us that Adam did not have a choice of wives, that we all must travel “the long journey back to learning to love what has been given.”

“Dedicated to bringing innovative and integrated visual and performing arts to the community,” the Philadelphia Art Alliance will also host the following recent awardees of the Pew Fellowship in Poetry:

• Tuesday, February 6, 2001, 6:30 pm
  Sonia Sanchez
• Monday, April 2, 2001, 6:30 pm
  Daisy Fried and Ron Silliman

Reserve a seat for these free programs by calling Matthew Pruden, Program Coordinator, at 215.545.4302.

BREATHING IN THE WORD, BREATHING OUT PO-PRANA FIRE ITS LIFE FORCE
The Shambhala Meditation Center of Philadelphia, 2030 Sansom Street (3rd floor), is holding a monthly poetry discussion group on the last Wednesday of each month, from 7:30 - 9:00 pm, with a half-hour meditation sitting at 7:00 pm. Meeting for the first time last month, the group is a forum for people to present poetic works, either one's own or that of another poet, and to discuss them with other interested lovers of the word. Since the Shambhala Center is a meditation center, they expect to view the poetry through a meditative lens, in the hopes of revealing other layers of meaning and awareness. Attendees are invited to bring one poem that they wish to read and consider in a new, contemplative context. Contact Sandra L. Chaff at chaffs@erols.com for further information.

NATHANIEL MACKEY AND JAY WRIGHT AT THE WWCAC
On Friday, November 17, at 7:30 pm, Nathaniel Mackey and Jay Wright will be appearing at the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center, Cooper and 2nd Streets, Camden, NJ, 856-964-8300. Admission is $6/general, $4/seniors and students, and free for members. Mackey will also be giving a workshop at the WWCAC on Saturday, November 18, from 11 am - 1 pm, the registration deadline for which has passed. A poet, novelist, and scholar, Nathaniel Mackey blends a multitude of cultural influences with the spontaneity of improvisational jazz. He is the author of Four for Trane, Septet for the End of Time, Eroding Witness, Outlandish: “Mu” Fourth Part-Eleventh Part, School of Udhra, Song of the Andoumboulou, What Said Serif, Bedouin Hornbook, Djbot Baghostus's Run, and Atet A.D. (forthcoming in 2001). A professor of literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Mackey is the editor of the literary journal Hambone and co-editor of the anthology Moment's Notice: Jazz in Poetry and Prose. His book of critical essays, Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cross-Culturality, and Experimental Writing, is now available in paperback from University of Alabama Press.

MAD POETS SOCIETY POEMING AT THE MOUTH IN PA SUBURBS
Eileen D'Angelo and Camelia Nocella, co-editors of the Mad Poets Review, are hustling to publish Volume 15 in time for the Wednesday, November 29 annual reading by contributors and contest winners, at 7:30 pm at the Hunt Club Mansion, Rose Tree Park at Route 252, Media, PA, 610.586.9318, email madpoets@voicenet.com, Web site join.at/madpoets. Expect Peter Baroth, Teresa Quigley, Amy Laub, and Bill Van Buskirk among the many great readers, with an open reading to follow.

Don't miss the Mad Poets Society's traditional holiday poetry reading on Wednesday, December 6, at 7:00 pm at the Haverford Public Library, Darby and Mill Roads, Havertown, PA. One of the best-attended MPS events last year, this giant open reading allots at least five minutes per poet, and is a good opportunity for new poets to share their voices. Holiday-theme poetry is not required, but signing up by 6:45 pm is strongly recommended.

Other upcoming Mad Poets Society events:

• Wednesday, November 15, 7:30 pm
  Ed Francis with open reading to follow, at the Gryphon Café, 105 W. Lancaster Avenue, Wayne, PA, 610.688.1988.
  
  
• Thursday, November 16, 7:30 pm
  J.T. Barbarese with open reading to follow, at Barnes and Noble, 720 Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr, 610.520.0355.
  
  
• Thursday, December 7, 7:00 pm
  J.C. Todd and Bill Van Wert with open reading to follow, at Chester County Book and Music Company, 975 Paoli Pike, West Goshen Center, West Chester, PA, 610.696.1661.

RIVERSIDE READING SERIES IN EASTON, PA
Michael Steffen invites some fine area poets up his way to participate in his monthly First Friday reading series, 7:30 pm at the First United Church of Christ, 27 North 3rd Street, (corner of 3rd and Church Streets, Alley, access through back entrance), Easton, PA, 770.422.9101. Refreshments, an open mic, and musical entertainment by Don Skelly will accompany the following lineup:

• December 1, 2000, Joanne Leva
• February 2, 2001, BJ Ward
• March 2, 2001, Aaren Yeatts Perry
• April 6, 2001, Meg Kearney
• May 4, 2001, Sandy Crimmins
• June 1, 2001, Doug Goetsch

CULTURAL RENAISSANCE IN WEST CHESTER, PA
On Saturday, November 18, at 4:15 pm, Gerald Barrax, Jennifer Fisher Bryant, and Kate Northrop will be reading their poetry at the Second Presbyterian Church, 114 S. Walnut Street, West Chester, PA, a block-and-a-half south of Market Street, between Barnard and Miner Streets. Preceding the reading will be an open house and exhibit of works by neighborhood artists, with admission charge, but the poetry reading is free, and will be followed by an open reading. For more information, contact Nathaniel Smith at n_smith@fm.supernet.com.

THE 8TH ANNUAL WINTER POETRY & PROSE GETAWAY
Peter Murphy is at it again with his 8th Annual Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway, January 12-15, 2001, at The Grand Hotel on the Oceanfront in Historic Cape May. Joining Peter this year will be poets Barbara Daniels, Douglas Goetsch, and J.C. Todd; singer-songwriter Nancy Falkow; and many other regional talents to deliver writing workshops in poetry, short story, novel, memoir, children's literature, and song; and art workshops in clay, jewelry making, and storytelling. There will also be a special creativity workshop for teachers. There is an Early Bard Discount of $25 if the registration fee is paid in full by November 15. For further information, visit the Web site at www.wintergetaway.com, and if you have any questions, you may email Peter at wintergetaway@hotmail.com or call him at 609.823.5076. Visit www.murphywriting.com for information about Peter's other writing programs.

SLAM! THE DOOR ON HUNGER IN HARRISBURG
After their standing-room-only Heavyword Poetry Championship back in July, the Harrisburg, PA poetry community wants to spread the word to regional poets about their “Slam! The Door on Hunger” event to benefit the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, on Saturday, December 16, at 5:00 pm, at the St. Moritz, 714 N. Third Street, Harrisburg, PA. This will be Harrisburg's first 2-person “team slam” with a $200 cash prize for the winning team and various gift certificates for runners-up. Props, costumes, and music will be permitted. The entry fee is $25 per team, and registration will end once 16 teams have signed up. Non-slammers may purchase tickets for $5 in advance or $7 at the door, plus the donation of at least one non-perishable food item. Interested parties can get registration forms and/or tickets by leaving a message at 717.234.0672, or by emailing organizer Randy Lee Gross at monkeyboy3_us@yahoo.com.

--Marj Hahne

READER-SUBMITTED POETRY NEWS BRIEFS

From D.J. Ludlow:
WRITERS HAPPY TO BE UNPENNED!
Normally a writer's most precious possession is their pen and they seldom pass up the opportunity to put pen to paper -- but for some writers the opportunity to be unpenned is an exciting new adventure. These are the writers and poets who find themselves hemmed in by the “pen” of a confining disability. It is with the vision and hope of openly and freely participating as equals in a literary world they are physically unable to access that an initial group of 18 disabled poets and writers from around the world have come together to launch an exciting new project -- Penned Voices Unlimited -- and to invite other disabled poets and writers from around the world to join them. Penned Voices Unlimited is not a society, neither is it a club, organisation, association, or institution. It is an entirely new concept -- a Group Internet Facility. By the use of the Manila software system the group have been able to provide a truly shared Internet site which allows each individual Contributing Member of the Penned Voices Unlimited Group to individually contribute to and maintain this site from around the World direct from their own computers using only their Web browsers.

From Donna DeMeyer:
The Savannah Series -- Third Sunday Poetry
A great place to hear featured readers and participate in a talented open mic. We gather at The Plymouth Coffee Bean Company, 884 Penniman, Plymouth, MI 48170, 313.454.0178 on the third Sunday of each month (except January & August). November 19, Brian Tell and his musicians bring word & song from Ypsilanti, MI. FREE EVENT -- All ages welcome.

From Ayodele:
Atlanta's SLAM CITY!, home of the 2000 Southern Fried Regional Slam Champions, kicked off its sophomore season on Saturday, November 4, with Atlanta Slam Team 2000 member, the #3 ranked Indie in the Nation at the 2000 National Poetry Slam, Mr. Venus Williams himself... Al Letson! New for the 2000-2001 season, SLAM CITY! is doing double time as we now slam twice a month -- switching to every 1st & 3rd Saturday (doors open @ 8, show starts @ 8:30). Upcoming features include: 11/18, Kenny Mostern (Team Santa Cruz 2000); 12/2, Christina Springer (Team Pittsburgh 2000); 12/16, a special triple feature starring Seed (Team Atlanta 2000), Brother Cazze (Team Winston-Salem 2000) & Ben Porter-Lewis (Team Hollywood 2000).

Paradigm Artspace
1123 Spring Street, NW
Atlanta, GA 30309
404.815.6991
www.bluemilk.net

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