Poetry & Art for Your Weekend’s Pleasure: India Radfar, Lee Ann Brown, Joan Day

Tonight, Friday March 26 at 7:30pm, my dear poet friend and fellow Burning Mom Lee Ann Brown will be in Venice/LA from NYC (where she’s a prof of poetry) to read at Beyond Baroque from her recently released The Book of Practical Pussies,” a collection which she co-edited, published, and which includes selections of her own poetry. Read more about the collection here.

LEE ANN BROWN is the author of Polyverse (Sun & Moon Press), winner of New American Poetry Series Award, and The Sleep That Changed Everything (Wesleyan University Press).  She is editor and publisher of Tender Buttons Press,  holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University, and is currently Associate Professor of English at St. John’s University in New York City. Her song cycle, The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time and other readings can be found online at PENNSOUND and The Electronic Poetry Center.

“I’m going to sing some unpublished ballads, and new sonnets,” says Lee Ann in an email.

Lee Ann will be reading with LA poet INDIA RADFAR. Her recent book of poetry, Position & Relation (Station Hill/Barrytown Books), is a formal farewell to the rivers and mountains of the Catskill region of New York State. She currently lives in L.A., a member of California-Poets-in-the-Schools and the National Association for Poetry Therapy,  and is completing her next book, I Thought Joan Miro Was a Woman.

India Radfar says by email, “I’m going to project the view from the mountain in Woodstock from which I wrote the poems on a screen behind me as I read. That mountain was a replacement for the hill in Lesbos that Sappho climbed, as legend tells us, to compose her poetry. I will also show a picture of Sappho’s hill. I’ll also read from my version of an untranslatable text,  The Phaistos Disc or Phaistos, Crete.”

While in LA, there’s plenty of arts opportunities! The other day, following an industry tasting of Gelinas Wines, on our way home, Jane and I stopped by LACMA to see what was hanging: a huge Renoir exhibit, and in the same building, a marvelous Serra installation. The Renoir exhibit is $20 and with that, you get in free to the rest of the museum which is conveniently open until 8pm.

On Saturdays, Beyond Baroque offers “The Saturday Afternoon Poetry Workshop” which currently has room for several additional poets, beginners to advanced. Get feedback in a small encouraging environment from 1:30 – 4:30 in the bookstore. Call Bob Foster, 323-848-9671 for more info, or come with an original poem and ten copies.

Tomorrow night at Bell Arts, 452 N. Ventura Ave, in the Vita Arts Center, you can make a pocket shrine with artist Jeanne from 6-9pm. During that activity, take a break and saunter over to the Bell  Arts Community Room for the Friday on Saturday reading at 7:30pm with feature Joan Day and an open mic too.

This weekend is also a good time to get your STEAMPUNK on! Get out to the thrift stores and yard sales and see where your creativity and inventiveness take YOU! More Steampunk news and ideas coming right up!