Read Kenneth Goldsmith’s blog at poetryfoundation.org as he discusses the symposium.
The Conceptual Poetry YouTube Challenge was sponsored by Book Stop Used Books.
Check out the winning video Chamanismo here.
Also check out this notable entry by Peter Cicariello with music by Alan Sondheim, Claustrophobic Alphabet.
And here’s the starter video, created by Jonathan VanBallenberghe.more on
Conceptual Poetry & Its Others: AZ Poetry Center
Conceptual Poetry and its Others
with keynote speaker
Marjorie Perloff
May 29-31, 2008
WITH FEATURED ARTISTS
CAROLINE BERGVALL, CHARLES BERNSTEIN, CHRISTIAN BÖK, CRAIG DWORKIN, KENNETH GOLDSMITH, TRACIE MORRIS, COLE SWENSEN
The forthcoming publication of Craig Dworkin and Kenneth Goldsmith’s Anthology of Conceptual Poetry (based on the online Ubuweb Anthology of Conceptual Writing) is only one sign of the recent interest in the “tensions between materiality and concept” (Dworkin), in a “new new formalism,” based on constraints, both the Oulipo and Cagean variants, on citationality and found text, on sound play, and visual device. Is such “non-expressivist” poetry too extreme? Conceptual Poetry and Its Others brings together a variety of leading poets to debate the issue.
ROUNDTABLE REPSONDENTS
Charles Alexander, CHAX Press, Tucson; Laynie Browne, UA Poetry Center; Graca Capinha, University of Coimbra, Portugal; Barbara Cole, SUNY, Buffalo; Wystan Curnow, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Stephen Fredman, Notre Dame; Jesper Olsson, OEI Magazine, Sweden; Vanessa Place, Les Figues Press, Los Angeles; Brian Reed, University of Washington, Seattle; Linda Reinfeld, Rochester Intstitute of Techonology; Marie Smart, University of Southern California; Jonathan Stalling, University of Oklahoma Read more…
Lightning in a Bottle: workshop notes
I have lots I want to share about the workshops and my thoughts about my workshop experiences; we attended quite a few over the course of the weekend and a lot of important information was shared. However, I don’t have time right now to do that post justice so just a few quick notes and I hope you’ll come back for a fuller report complete with links to websites etc.
No one directly referred to NASA’s James Hansen’s assertion that: ““If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385ppm to at most 350ppm,” as quoted by Bill McKibben in the LA Times Opinion section May 11, 2008.
But this prophecy hung like a cloud in the Lucent Dosier Temple of Consciousness in the Lucent Healing Arts area at Lightning in a Bottle, and the ideas behind it echoed throughout the event, and in many people’s minds as they struggled with wanting to be part of the solution and being part of the problem at the same time.
Speakers and panelists such as Daniel Pinchbeck, Jay Weidner, Sharron Rose, Eric Werbalowsky, Bianca Chavez, Sage Brizzie, Jonathan Fisher and Joan Stevens urged participants to learn how and grow their own food and solutions.
more soon…
“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385ppm to at most 350ppm,” according NASA’s James Hansen as quoted by Bill McKibben in the LA Times Opinion section May 11, 2008. The whole article follows:
Civilization’s last chance
It’s not just the economy: We’ve gone through swoons before. It’s that gas at $4 a gallon means we’re running out, at least of the cheap stuff that built our sprawling society. It’s that when we try to turn corn into gas, it helps send the price of a loaf of bread shooting upward and helps ignite food riots on three continents. It’s that everything is so tied together. It’s that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the “limits to growth” suddenly seem … how best to put it, right.
All of a sudden it isn’t morning in America, it’s dusk on planet Earth.
There’s a number — a new number — that makes this point most powerfully. It may now be the most important number on Earth: 350. As in parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
A few weeks ago, NASA’s chief climatologist, James Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several coauthors. The abstract attached to it argued — and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper — that “if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.”
Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points — massive sea level rise and huge changes in rainfall patterns, among them — that we’ll pass if we don’t get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them, judging by last summer’s insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be behind us.
So it’s a tough diagnosis. Read more…
Lightning in a Bottle 2008: art notes
Well it ain’t no Burning Man, that’s all I can say.
The best art there at Lightening in the Bottle was the stages and other shade structures made of bamboo, fabric and other “natural” (well non-petroleum based) materials. An artist named “Shrine” did the Treehouse Stage and Gerard Minakawa did the Bamboo Stage as well as the shade structure at the Fishbon encampment. These are truly inspiring; we were planning on doing something with bamboo and now we have so many ideas! I hope to post some of the images soon of what others did and what we plan to do as we do it.
You could also call all the ornamented dreadlocks and skin art. I didn’t see too much creativity in dress (lots of the road warrior aesthetic, stuff that looks handmade but was made by someone else rather than the wearer, lots of the vaudeville-esque tutus too).
I expected to see more henna art but the weather meant most people kept covered up. I know the henna artwork by Karen at Kawoni Studios in Ventucky that adorned my leg was covered most of the time.
UP NEXT: workshop notes
Lightning in a Bottle 2008: music notes
We set up under the oaks and by the river in Kids Camp on a sunny Thursday afternoon and wandered the camp a bit, dancing some here and there and catching an “undress” rehearsal by Lucent Dossier, looking forward to a weekend of dancing and art and learning a la Burning Man Festival.
And then on Friday it rained. From Friday 6am on and off until ….well, the whole event was a bit damp (and organizers and participants seemed unprepared).
FRIDAY: That said, the musical highlight for us was Friday night show by WEST INDIAN GIRL on the Bamboo Stage (even though because of the rain they started late, we missed most of it, and they had the set cut short). That is one talented band! Beautiful harmonies–we would have loved to have seen more musical groups like them at LIB, although we caught a good groove from Marques Wyatt on the Woogie Stage after West Indian Girl.
SATURDAY: A second musical highlight was the Saturday night performance by the YARD DOGS on the Bamboo Stage. Now they know how to put on a show! Read more…
These Brothers They: A Memorial Poem
these brothers they broadside published in ARTLIFE 1999
These Brothers They
Let me tell you
what I know about the Vietnam War.
I know nothing
except
I didn’t understand the headlines
I couldn’t look at the pictures
My parents sold the TV.
Let me tell you what
I know about the Vietnam War.
I know nothing
except
it seemed dramatic, romantic, exciting
dancing girls, long hair, flowing skirts
angry faced raggedy protesters
yelling and waving signs
I flashed peace signs at strangers
my father called me passé
I didn’t understand why they burned that bank
or why my father’s face grew dark.
Let me tell you what I
know about the Vietnam war.
I know nothing
except
the boys that came back
wiry, tattooed, eyes flashing wild
addicts all clinging to Jesus
these boys they
took my seven year old hand they
held it held it held it
I didn’t understand what
I saw in eyes that burned into mine
I didn’t know what to say about their nightmares
but when they gave me their dreams
I wanted him to sail around the world
and him to travel to Africa
send me postcards
come back for me
build me a house
grow a garden
I would stay sweet and honest
I would keep listening
these boys these brothers they
worshipped my mother, my father
these boys these brothers they
stayed with us they
hugged and played with
my younger sister, my brother, they
gathered near, too near
as if by touching us they
could touch Peace.
Let me tell you what I know
about the Vietnam war.
I know nothing
except
these young men their eyes
winning one battle only to lose
this other these boys I knew
who came back they these brothers they
didn’t really come back
these boys these brother they
died here disappeared here they
took a part of me with them.
Let me tell you what I know about
the Vietnam war.
I know nothing
except
I was born in 1962
I have lived twice as long as
these boys, these brothers
I lived for 10 more years but
they didn’t come back
I lived for twenty more years and
they haven’t come back and
I have lived for 30 more years and
when I see one on the street
Levi’s hung low over boy hips
white t-shirt pulling tight over
worked muscles: could it be he?
No.
If he had survived
the demons, the addictions he
would be 50 he
would have sons he
would have grandsons and
his children his
grandchildren he
would take a hand in his
and hold it hold it hold it.
In the US, we celebrate Memorial Day today. Few of us do more than take advantage of a day off, but we have a day off to remember those who have lost their lives to war. For me, remember those who have gone to war reminds me of the importance to work for peace.
A little background to this poem: in the late 1960s and early 1970smy mom worked with Viet Nam war vets and other addicts in the Port Hueneme area near Point Mugu Base. Because of the Port and the Base, drugs were very easy to find. For many years, I wanted to write about the war and the vets I knew, and the sorrow I felt, and one day at a stop light this poem came to me, and I wrote it down. Yes, I am the speaker in the poem.
you might also check out readwritepoem and take a ride on the poetry train
art predator 