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Notes from the Walla Walla Poetry Party 2003, by Denis Mair Stone Soup Revisited, by Linda Lerner Poetry Africa 2003 2003 National Poetry Slam: The Midwest Connection And On That Farm He Had Some Poets Returning to the Open Mic Ritual Zebra International Poetry Film Festival If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em, or How the Beat Chicks Hatched Speech Acts: Poetry in performance at the Educational Alliance Arts School Poetry Down Under Scrubbin’ Da Scroll: The Author, the Auctioneer & the Acquiring Mind Writers, Publishers, Librarians and Dreamers: A report from Zimbabwe Against All Odds Bumbershoot, “A Word Bath” Extreme Poetry in the North Woods How To Train For the World Heavyweight Poetry Bout Championship -- and Lose! (Part I) How To Train For the World Heavyweight Poetry Bout Championship -- and Lose! (Part II) Issue Zero: “The Lady in Stripes” Lyrik am Lech Festival Diary Notes from the Scene at the 11th National Poetry Slam PanCanadian WordFest in Calgary, October 2000 Poetry and Art in Santa Fe Reviews That Should Have Been Written: Poetry, The Press, and Public Space Slam ’n Me Women of Eritrea: Fighters and Poets 60 Minutes: The Poets Slam Back! All Together Now! All Together Now! Part II Busted for Poetry! Letter from Chicago: National Poetry Slam 1999 The Literary Kicks Summer Poetry Happening New York Heavyweight Poetry Bout The Peoples’ Poetry Gathering David Thomas’ DISASTODROME David Thomas’ DISASTODROME, Part II Frankfurt Buchmesse: The SemiCento, Part II International Poetry Olympics Making Real Yeats’ Gyres The San Francisco Bay Area Book Festival Slam Grows Up As It Blows Up Society of Underground Poets Festival, Lexington, KY Taos Poetry Circus & World Heavyweight Poetry Bout Frankfurt Buchmesse Frankfurt Buchmesse.2 How the Ginsberg Memorial That Didn’t Happen. . . National Poetry Slam 1997 Poetry and the Public Sphere Adrienne Rich & Eavan Boland at DIA Rotterdam International Poetry Festival Word:Life, the First Poetry Concert & Seminar
2004
Denis Mair’s notes from the 2003 Walla Walla Poetry Party, condensed for About Poetry by klipschutz, plus a previously unpublished poem by Denis, “Try a Little Dialogue.”
Linda Lerner tells the story of her return visit to Stone Soup in Boston, a homecoming to the venue where for three decades Jack Powers has enabled poets to experience “the condition of poetry.” Plus two poems: “the poem the rare soul,” by Linda Lerner, and “A Condition, Not an Event,” by Andrew Gettler.
2003
Bob Holman returned from the 7th annual Poetry Africa festival held in Johannesburg, South Africa in May, 2003 with a renewed sense of the power of gathered poets... “Africa, specifically South Africa, is ready for a larger voice in world poetry, and Poetry Africa shows how to do it...” And he brought a passel of poems from the African poets for our readers pleasure.
Midwest Museletter correspondent Greg Gillam on the biggest Nationals ever, “a nation of poetic temperaments” gathered on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago in August 2003. Can Chicago do it again? How will the Heartland teams fare in the competition? How is Poetry Slam evolving at what seems to be a turning point in its history?
UK correspondent Tim Gibbard offers a glowing report of the Poetry and Spoken Words Tent at this year’s Glastonbury Festival: “One of the marvels of Glastonbury is how you’re constantly having your Unexpected Button pushed.”
On the open mic poetry scene you can see & hear not only up-&-coming younger poets, but also established writers & performers who come back for the special energy of an open mic -- poets like Avotcja, profiled here by our Northern California correspondent Martha Cinader.
2002
“Poetry works. It communicates at levels that subvert the systems of follow-up studies and statistics. And the prizewinners at Zebra prove this” -- an account of the first Zebra International Poetry Film Festival by your guide Bob Holman, who served as judge on the Zebra Awards panel.
Marj Hahne writes on seeing the women of the Beat generation doing poetry at Beatfest -- “Thank the Goddess... they persisted in spite of their invisibility.”
Wanda Phipps reviews a typical poetry reading: Mayhem & madness as the theorist is made to sit under the chair and the stage manager asks for 50 more bucks but the audience decides to go to the bar instead!
2001
Museletter correspondent Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz brings NYC-style poetry slam to the Land Down Under, at the New Voices Festival in Melbourne, Australia.
Brian Hassett was in the room when the gavel went down on Jack Kerouac’s venerated On the Road typewriter-roll at Christie’s, & here’s his poetic account of the proceedings.
Lourdes Vázquez came back from last summer’s Zimbabwe International Book Fair with “two boxes of books, magazines, folk art, two broken sculptures, a terrible cold” & having met many of Africa’s greatest contemporary writers.
2000
Bob Holman writes from the January 2000 conference on “African Languages and Literatures into the 21st Century” in Asmara, Eritrea: . . . a historic event, a Future-now. . . which is Loop to Past.
Bob Redmond, our own Seattle/Pacific Northwest Museletter correspondent & emcee of the Lit Stage at this year’s Bumbershoot Seattle arts festival, invites us to bathe in the waters of the Mighty Po.
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz interviews the five young New York City poets taken to Vermont by ESPN for the 2000 Winter X-Games.
Bob Holman’s view from inside the ring, where he challenged Sherman Alexie for the title of World Heavyweight Poetry Champion at the 2000 Taos Poetry Circus Saturday night, June 17.
Bob Holman’s training regimen for the Bout. The goal: Peak Poetry Performance.
A letter from Michael Rothenberg about the March 2000 Literary Magazine Conference in New York, “a community shower town crier kind of party. . . weaving the antitradition small press tradition into the Web that is us now.”
Jerry Quickley writes on his trip into the crazy vibrant poetry scene in southern Germany.
Museletter correspondents Victor Infante, Robyn Su Millerz, Jason Pettus & Phil West report the competitive & festive goings-on at the National Poetry Slam in Providence, Rhode Island last week.
Bob Holman reports how two outrageous perfpoets corraled a mixed audience with aplomb: Clifton Joseph & Sheri-D Wilson.
Gary Glazner reviews two shows that bring together visual art & poetry: Allan Graham’s AS REAL as thinking & Cynthia Fusillo’s Romance Languages.
Marj Hahne reports the lively discussion between poets Charles Bernstein, Amiri Baraka, Eileen Myles & Jennifer Moxley, and reviewers Alan Golding & Steve Evans at the May 2000 Philadelphia symposium.
Shann Palmer tells the story of Slam’s first appearance in Richmond, Virginia: I’ll admit it. I had preconceived notions about Slam. . .
More Notes from the Front, brought back by Bob Holman from the Against All Odds conference on African Languages and Literatures into the 21st Century.
1999
November 28, 60 minutes devoted 12 of them to poetry. Slam poetry, to be exact. . . our newest Museletter correspondent, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, files the report.
Touring Switzerland with Le Cirque Electrique: The story of two American poets who ran away to join a Swiss rock’n’roll circus.
The troupe performs in what were once farm houses, castles & factory complexes, ending their trek across Switzerland with a New Year’s Eve party in Zurich.
Jean Howard gives us an eyewitness account of the 8th annual National Poetry Video Festival in Chicago.
Jason Pettus writes from the scene of the just-completed 10th Anniversary Nationals in Chicago.
Brian Hassett’s letter recounting the Web Anniversity party for Literary Kicks, July 21, 1999 at the Bitter End in New York City.
Sherman Alexie and Patricia Smith went six rounds head-to-head, poem-to-poem, and in the end it all came down to the Improvisational 7th Round.
As bombs drop on Kosovo. . . Take a long pull off the poem, Folks, the only alternative. . . Get close. Listen up. Dig in. Take notes. Stay smart. Eat Poetry.
1998
The Poet reports from backstage, on stage, front row center: I had the perfect Olympian vantage point for this Masterpiece of Spontaneous Creation.
“Refine yourself in the fire of the moment,” says Man to Mirror. “Burn baby Burn!” replies Mirror. . . Off you go then. Stand by, Earthman. Where?
Serial Poets Kill 4,000 at Bookfair Dinner: A report of the premiere performance.
To Feel the Poem Dance: A report from the First International Poetry Olympics held in Stockholm, Sweden via email interview with Gary Glazner, individual champion.
An account of a program of opposites, Lucie Brock-Broido reading with Bob Holman. . . & something tectonic was bound to happen.
Poetry sustained by community: The event was overflowing with an anarcho, dedicated-to-lit energy that mirrors the City by the Bay’s centrality to US poetics history.
A report from the 9th annual National Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas, August 1998: It was a treat and a tribute, a coming of age and a Headbanger’s Ball.
Report from the front: This year’s SoUPFest was a stunning example of poetry’s continuing engagement with the daily life of the nation’s citizenry.
New Heavyweight Poet Crowned! The one and only SofaSurf Poet Extraordinaire, Miz Juliette Torrez reports from the Taos Poetry Circus in Poetry Channel #46.
1997
READING meets up with COMMERCE. . . The second-hand stalls are the only place where you can buy a book.
“Yes, Yes”. . . Shona poet Chirikure Chirikure sings “And in Heaven, who knows / Maybe you’ll hear ‘Yes, yes’.”
Happened: A report from the trenches of the future from Birgitta Jonsdottir of Reykjavik, Iceland.
Controversy (and Poetry) reign as Mouth Almighty wins, Da Boogey Man becomes the first male slam champ at the 8th Annual Nationals in Middletown, Connecticut.
A report from the conference: “Why can’t the progressive agenda of The Nation extend to its poetry section?”
This reading was a song of, for, and by women, of, for, and by humanity.
Charles Simic’s “Defense of Poetry”: Life would be perfectly pointless if the poets didn’t tell you that all your loves and pains are significant and intelligible. . .
“Flames and dreams exiting from the tops of their skulls. . .”
