MUSELETTER #8
12/4/99
Hello everyone,
Museletter returns to your emailbox after a week's break for the Thanksgiving holiday. This week we hear from 3 of our far-flung Museletter correspondents, on both US coasts: Shann Palmer in Virginia and Victor Infante & Larry Jaffe in Southern California.
Remember, if you want to keep up with the latest items our correspondents are reporting but you haven't received your weekly Museletter yet, stop by our Poetry Currents page. And if you've misplaced a Museletter & want to refer back to it, they are archived on the site.
Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Your About.com Poetry Guides
POETRY IS EVERYWHERE AT ABOUT.COM
Back in 1997, we did a 3-part feature on Deaf Poetics. Like all our features it's still archived on the site, & we think it's worth your interest if you missed it:
- Part I, a poem by Bob Holman, "If I Were To Throw My Money"
- Part II, our interview with American Sign Language poet Peter Cook
- Part III, the conclusion of Peter Cook's interview, plus links
VIRGINIA/DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
It's a ring-aling, get out your mittens out kinda December
coming up in the Old Dominion, even up to the Beltway and beyond. . . poetry takes a back seat to Potomac Mills and the Williamsburg Outlet Malls, the varied carols you hear doing performance art in the food courts, comparing bargains and dysfuntional family stories! Happy Hannukkah, Merry Christmas and Glorious Kwanzaa to you all!
The regular readings in the greater DC area can be found here. That's the URL for the entertainment section for the Washington Post, and they give you phone numbers, maps, and all sorts of information.
There are not a lot of "specials" going on until the new year has passed us by, and I'd call first to confirm any gig, you never know. My worst nightmare is getting a parking place real close to something, only to find out the performers are stuck in Dayton in a snowstorm.
BUT on the bright side: The MYTH still rules!
THE MYTH: Washington DC's HOTTEST, Weekly POETRY SLAM!!! Sunday Nights 7:00-10:00 p.m. ~ CafeMyth.com ~ cafe and cyber bar ~ 3241 M Street NW ~ Washington, DC ~ one block from the corner of Wisconsin Avenue ~ Greater Washington DC's track to the National Poetry Slam ~ MC'd by DC Slammaster Toby DeBarr ~ $5.00 cover charge ~ meet your friends, bring your poetry ~ great food and java at the Cafe ~ Check us out on the Cafe's Web page under "events," or on The Poetry Kit event page, or in the The City Paper ~ check out CafedeSoul.com for Internet rebroadcasts of certain Myth events.
Take a look at the future plans! (Go to the site and get on their mailing list, too!)What a crew!
- Dec 12 - DEMETRIUS the POET/Trenton, NJ and LOTTIE MAE/DC
- Dec 19 - BRENDA MOOSSY/Fayetteville, Ark. and SHANNON WILLIAMS/VA
- Dec 26 - NO VENUE, HAPPY HOLIDAYS
- Jan 9 - DANIEL GREY KONTOR/Cleveland and CRYSTAL ADAIR/DC
- Jan 16 - FORESTINE BYNUM/MD and HIRAM LAREW/MD
- Jan 23 - TALAAM ACEY and FARAJI SALIM/NJ
- Jan 30 - JOHN POWERS/Providence and KAMILAH MOON/Baltimore
- Feb 6 - MONIQUE JARVIS/Hartford
- Feb 13 - JASON CARNEY/Dallas
- Feb 20 - MENTALFOOD: DARRYL LEE and KEN HARRIS/Brooklyn
- Feb 27 - LYN LIFSHIN/DC and MICHAEL MACK/Boston
- Mar 5 - COREY COKES/Boston
- Mar 12 - JASON RAPER/London, England and CHRISTINA SPRINGER/Pittsburgh
- Mar 26 - CLEBO RAINEY/Dallas
- Apr 9 - MAR HILL/NYC and TAMMY CARR/NYC
- Apr 23 - NO VENUE, HAPPY EASTER
- Apr 30 - BOB MOYER/Winston-Salem, NC
- May 7 - PHILLIP HASOURIS/Brocton, MA
- May 14 - MICHAEL SALINGER and SARA HOLBROOKE/Cleveland
Here's what's happening in Roanoke, Virginia
POETRY SLAMS:
Every other Monday at Chilli Peppers @ 19 Salem Avenue, Roanoke, VA 9pm. Dates: Dec 6th, Dec 13th *Special Occasion/Guest 1999 National Poetry Slam Winner Roger Bonair-Agard. Free show, all ages welcome.
Every Thursday Wit's End @ Hanging Rock, Rt311/419 in Salem, VA 9pm. Never a cover charge, always free!
Second Sundays Poetry Readings at Cantos Books on Campbell Avenue, Roanoke, VA 2-4pm. Free as always, anyone welcome.
Lyn Lifshin will be reading from her new book. Here's a contact for the next event: February 13, 2 pm, WRITERS CENTER, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815, 301-654-8664.
And in Richmond, Virginia??
Well, the whole place shuts down so we have time to keep single white candles in every window, and make those fancy colonial pineapple displays we all put above our front doors!
The bookstores are too busy selling (yay!) to have many poets around; we tend to brood and drink too much coffee, but we did manage to sneak in a poetry/millennium party at Border's on Broad Street! The last Tuesday of the month is open mike -- bring your best December 28, we're gonna party like it's. . . hey, you know what I mean!
Recently, at the Virginia Museum, I have heard Dave Smith, Philip Levine, Gregory Donovan, Lucille Clifton (rescheduled because of the hurricane) and just last night I heard Richard Howard, editor of The Paris Review. He read from his latest book, Trappings, from Turtle Point Press. He autographed every copy bought, and I counted at least 40 people in the sign-mine line. Buy more books!
The Poetic Principle Series starts up again in February, first Tuesday, with Yusef Komunyakaa and later John Ashbery! They wouldn't tell me who else was coming -- I guess they were afraid I would have a heart attack. (I adore John Ashbery!)
Let's see. . . that leaves the Monthly Muse, a group meeting sponsored by Maggie Wang. She reports:
On December 11, 1999, the second Saturday of the month, The Monthly Muse will resume the "salon" of original new readings by creative writers. Please call me for further updates and information, 804-354-8298, or email for more info.
Earlier this week, a group of multi-discipline jazz studies students displayed their talents as they regaled the regular open mike night at Border's with "Jazz Inspired Poetry" for class projects. It's always great to see new people opening up to the mike. They were mostly juniors and seniors from the University of Richmond, and they were busy finding stories in Monk, Miles, and Coltrane, to mention a few. There was a trumpet that was a prop, a girl singer, a saxman, and a few who used tapes of other jazz works to back them up. Michael Davison, music department, and Dona Hickey, English, are to be commended for bringing the class to a live performance venue. I hope we see some of them again at the events. Twelve regulars read until past ten after they left.
And did I mention Lucille Clifton??
She was recently a feature on the Bill Moyers special Fooling With Words, where she was one of the livelier readers. (Someone named Bob Holman was on for a few minutes, too -- wish I'd seen more of HIM!) She went non-stop at the Virginia Museum, speaking to a full house for more than an hour and a half, though she was exhausted from the previous night's events at the National Book Awards in DC. Seems her people, the Sayles, originally hailed from this state, and she had a good deal to say about history and memory. Her poetry is pointed and fabulous. Go see her if you get the chance.
Beltway Readings -- Dean Blehert
For a great update of more beltway and thereabouts readings, check out Words & Pictures. It's a comprehensive site run by Dean Blehert, a wonderful poet! He was featured last year at the Austin International Poetry Festival and has a great calendar page with links, updates and much, much more! I'm not sure, but you can probably get a Ronco Genuine Poetry Kit there too! (Kidding, Dean, just kidding!)
I'm sure there's more -- there always is! Thanks for the nice email I've received from readers. Keep sending dates and places -- you'd be surprised who reads these pages. I got a nice note from Kelly Cherry, featured in this month's Poets & Writers Magazine. She has Virginia roots and is doing some teaching here in the spring; she'll be at the Virginia Festival of the Book (previous report) and I'll keep you posted on that.
May the New Year bring prosperity and inspiration!
ORANGE COUNTY/SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
All My New Friends!
Goodness, gracious! Start writing one of these Internet thingies and suddenly you find yourself swamped by fifteen gazillion NEW BEST FRIENDS!!!! Cool. I'm an Aquarius, so EVERYONE'S my friend! Unless they're jerks, but none of THEM email me, so THAT'S all right. Amongst the cool new friends I've made in this process are Zkot Pendelosandes, who edits Le Chantier, a Web zine out of Argentina. I've never been to Argentina, but Zkot tells me there's a lot of poetry going on down there. "I enjoy it here," says Zkot, a U.S. native, "although the poetry scene is kind of limited to places such as Buenos Aires and Uruguay (it may surpriseyou, but Uruguayans are extremely literate people, and there are many poets and poetry lovers among them), although other cities in the interior sometimes have a group of people who organize poetry readings; it sort of depends on the dynamics of the particular town (visual art, on the other hand, is much more widespread here). Fortunately a fair amount of poets, particularly in Argentina, find their way to Le Chantier and send me material. Quite often it's love-based and sentimental, which doesn't interest me too much, but other times they delve into some interesting themes. Also, there's a problem with originality here in Latin America, down to the point where one writer sent me a story in which he copied a particular character right out of 100 Years of Solitude."
I've also been contacted by other Web zines -- some of which we've even had time to look at -- including The Quill, which I enjoyed very much. The best Web zine for my money, however, is Forbidden Panda by Boston's Kyria Abrahams.
Feeling New England
Speaking of Kyria -- she materialized at a few open readings in SoCal, then kicked some wicked stand-up at the Hollywood Improvisation, where the drinks were watered-down and expensive, and the staff was rude, but Kyria ruled, so we were content. We were accompanied by sometimes curmudgeonly poet Jaimes Palacio on this adventure, and had an all around good time. Send Jaimes a love poem at penguinboy88@hotmailcom. He'll appreciate it.
We were also visited by Boston folk-goddess Kris Delmhorst, who played fiddle and sang with the Catie Curtis Band at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. Kris gave us a review copy of her new CD, Appetite, and it is Soooooo good. You can check it out on her site at Folkzone. If you're wondering why the hell I'm going off on a folk singer in a poetry column, then you've never been to New England, where the two artistic communities are hopelessly intertwined -- I first saw Kris playing the poetry reading at the late Eleni's Midnite Café in Worcester, MA, hosted by Bill MacMillan. I also plan to include the lyrics to her song, "North Dakota," in a Road Anthology I edited that has, to date, killed two publishers without even being printed. THIS BOOK IS DANGEROUS!!! I'm just saying.
Lastly, we had a brief visit from Worcester's Greg "Diva" Lichniak, who partook of no poetry but accompanied us to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and got to feed a giraffe. Which was good.
Loose Ends
The best reading I've attended recently was at Darin's Café 207, featuring Blue Satellite editor Amelie Frank, "The Andy Kaufman of Poetry," Charles Ardinger and local poet Byrdman. Much fun! Also had a REALLY good feature at the Coffee Cartel in Redondo Beach and can't recommend their Tuesday night reading enough -- I even gave up Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be there! Now THAT'S dedication.
- Darin's Café 207
207 S. El Camino Real
San Clemente, CA
(949) 361-9093- The Coffee Cartel
1820 S. Catalina Ave.
Redondo Beach, CA
(310) 316-6554
Reading List
Several good books have ended up on my desk lately. The first is The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, edited by Alan Kaufman, which I promise an elaborate review of soon. The other is the iceworker sings and other poems by Andres Montoya. Read my review of it at the Orange County Weekly.
Lummox Lumbers On. . .
And finally, the voice of Long Beach working-class verse, Raindog, is still valiantly publishing his entertaining poetry zine, Lummox, which always features some great poems and interviews, and some highly interesting essays. Writes Raindog:
Here's the breakdown: Subs are $20 for 12 issues; $25 for 12 + bonus from Lummox Press; $75 patron (2 yrs + bonus x 2); $150 patron (3 yrs + bonus x 3 + named patron status; $300 patron (4 yrs + bonus x 4 + boxed collection of ALL Raindog books, signed -- 6 currently in print + named patron status). I'm also looking for "project patrons," specifically for a collection of poems called Maytag Heights -- 20% of sales to go to Habitat For Humanity, Long Beach -- and to help publish a limited edition perfectbound book, the first in the Little Red Book Master series, entitled The Wren Notebook by Rick Smith, with illustrations by Judith Bever and an introduction by Llyn Foulkes. Project patrons will be mentioned by name and/or organization.
Kei Kunihiro
Poetry is a small world, and Lord knows the Internet's made it smaller. So I guess we shouldn't have been surprised when OC impressario LOB informed us that Kei Kunihiro, the heavy metal poet from Tokyo, would be gracing Southern California with his presence again. A noted Japanese poet and Cyberpunk novelist, Kunihiro has read all over the world and accompanied several punk and noise bands. Definitely someone to catch while he's here!
(And Lob asked me to mention that he's open to touring poets from everywhere! His room -- Club Mesa -- is a lot of fun. Great poetry, lousy poetry, much alcohol and heckle-happy drunks mixed into a rollicking good time.)
Here are Kunihiro's SoCal dates:
- 12/5 Sun: Beyond Baroque, 4:45pm
681 Venice Blvd, Venice, (310)822-3006- 12/6 Mon: Luna Sol Cafe, 10:00pm
2501 W. 6th Street, LA, (323)957-4897- 12/7 Tues: Moon Dog Cafe, 7:30pm
7160 Melrose Ave, W. Hollywood, (213)936-4604- 12/8 Wed: Club Mesa, 9:00pm
843 W. 19th Street, Costa Mesa, (949)642-8448- 12/9 Thurs: Laguna Beach Brewing, 8:00pm
4224 Pacific Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, (949)494-6649
or Aaah! Capella, 7:00pm
5907 Lankerskin Blvd., N. Hollywood, (818)509-6738- 12/10 Fri: Moonglow Cafe, 8:00pm
11116 Magnolia Blvd, N. Hollywood
Skratch This!
Lob also asked us to mention "I am currently the 'poetry editor' (a title that i have made up and assumed) for Skratch Magazine, a PUNK/INDIE edged magazine with 75,000 in circulation, and going up to 90,000 in January. Poets can submit 'moderate' sized poems (NO EPICS!) for consideration. Send TYPED poems to: SKRATCH c/o Thee Instagon Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Huntington Beach, CA 92648-0894 USA (include SASE if you want your poems returned) or email them to: skratch-poetry@tif.org. I am going to hate myself for doing this. . . I know I am. . ."
Well, Lob, far be it from US to stand in the way of Poetic Masochism. . . .And that about covers it.
LOS ANGELES
Winsome Words from La La Land
Well here we are at the beginnings of December. The veritable threshold of the holiday season and the poetry quest continues. We have some good news, some bad news and we refuse to write about the ugly news.
Holy Fools Week
My good buddy S.A. Griffin and his pal James Stauffer have created the HOLY FOOLS WEEK ~ Big Beat Road Show Vortex 2000 for September 26 thru October 1, 2000. S.A. describes the festival as an "energy banquet of beatitude and beat culture to take place in the heartland and heart of the continental U.S. The Holy Fools performance will include art, film, music, dance, cars and words, words, words. . . a portal thru which the past and the future will pass and come together as the present in an inclusive dance where everyone and everything is and will be beat. On the road trips from across the nation to converge at Wichita in a parade of poetic hoo-hah. A symphony of all things still possible spinning symbiotic at the vortex."
LA Loses Weekly Reading
The Hyperpoets' free Wednesday night poetry reading series at the Rose Café will end January 12, 2000. Poets Richard Beban, Jeanette Clough, Kaaren Kitchell, Jim Natal and Jan Wesley have run the weekly reading series as the Hyperpoets since March of 1997, first at a CD store called Hyperdisc, then at the Rose. In addition, the five have presented occasional readings at many other venues, including Santa Monica's Rico Gallery, Venice's independent Small World Books, and Santa Monica's Barnes & Noble. The poets want to get back to their writings, but one wonders why they simply did not turn the read over to someone else or train new hosts to replace themselves. The world can ill afford the loss of successful readings.
Poetic Gurus
Don Campbell of the San Gabriel Valley has long been a poetic impresario pushing the cause through reads, workshops, in schools and simply acting as an ambassador for poetry wherever he is. Don currently hosts a weekly reading on Tuesday nights in Pasadena at the Borders on Lake Street. He also conducts a series of workshops for emerging poets and has a Web site that features local and international poets. Don is also one of the prime moving forces behind the coming San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival along with Ryan Oba.
John Citizen of London is my other poetry guru. He conducts the ever-popular Tuesday night read at the Poetry Café in London and seems to be one of the poetry grand marshals of London. Aside from being an extremely affable person, John brings a lot of enthusiasm (not always matched by the sometimes rather stoic London crowds). He knows the London poetry scene inside out, featuring at most of the venues. I met him at the Austin International Poetry Festival last April. The Poetry Café is located at 22 Betterton Street in London and has regular poetry events throughout the week, including the aforementioned Tuesday. Why is it that some of the best reads are on Tuesday nights?
Six Women RevealedThat's it for this week folks.
Six Women Revealed is a one-night poetry show presented by Katie O'Loughlin & Blue at Little Motor City Art Venue, 7600 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles. Featuring performances by: Katie O'Loughlin, Blue, Carmen Vega, June Melby, Nikol Hodges, and Theo Ray. Check em out for sure!
ml, larry
