Charles Bernstein Web Log

Bx Museum panel with Perloff, Sieburth, Bernstein; new Antin

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:09:51 -0800

PERFORMA 09
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 15, 1:00pm
North Building—2nd Floor
Admission: Free
Marjorie Perloff and Richard Sieburth, and Charles Bernstein
will discuss topics related to the legacy of futurism.

note also:
Nov. 15 Peforma events with Tan Lin amd John Yau

recommended:
David Antin
"Words to the Wise"
(2009)

link | 11-07-09-x

Keith Waldrop on Close Listening

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:12:44 -0800

Keith Waldrop

Close Listening
Art International Radio, operating at ARTonAIR.org
November 7, 2009

Program 1: Keith Waldrop: full reading of selected poems (25:51): MP3

Program 2: Keith Waldrop in conversation with Charles Bernstein (30:13): MP3

link | 11-07-09

Willumsen's painting of private poetry reading 1915

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:06:50 -0800

When I was in Århus, Denmark, last month
Jean-Marie Gleize and I noticed this paining of a private poetry reading in the Århus museum.
Jens Ferdinand Willumsen
Sophus Clausssen Reading Poems
1915

link | 11-06-09

New Paintings by Susan Bee

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:28:32 -0800

The Lady Lilith
[for Emma]
(2009, oil on linen, 20 x 16 ").

Susan Bee
New Paintings
(2009)

Angels in the Woods (16 x 20")
Angel Sings (16 x 18")
Behind Bars (16 x 20")
Drive By (14 x 18")
Girl by the Window (18 x 14")
Harbor of Illusions (37 x 50")
My Valentine (8 x 8")
Shoreline Blues (16 x 20")
Starburst (12 x 16")
Woman Tormented by Demons (18 x 14")

The Gaze
(12 x 16")

link | 11-03-09

Recommended new books by Dowling, Bettridge, and Fischer

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:44:31 -0800

Sarah Dowling
Security Positions
Montreal: Snare Books
In these exquisitely reserved poems, the relation of person to body, stare to reflection, touch to sight is incised in a poetic dry point that cuts deep. Sarah Dowling’s Security Posture is both elusive and evocative. It shimmers with erotic precision.

Joel Bettridge
Presocratic Blues
Tucson: Chax Press
We breathe in Greek and exhale the pure products of Americana; a vernacular philosophy. Joel Bettridge not only knows this but has strummed it in poems witty, raucous, and bluesy.

Norman Fischer
Questions/Places/Voices/Seasons
San Diego: Singing Horse Press
Fischer's most rhetorically expansive book. In the four works that comprise this this book, Fischer absorbs the energies from his great translations of the Psalms and the narrative elan of Sailing Home and continues the self-reflective lyric work of his pervious books. In the "Voices" section he speaks through several personae, including one Reb Yosl of Kemenetz, "a simple tailor of Lithuania," whose prayers are tonic because so down-to-earth. Here's a poem called "Err" in the voice of Elena Rivera: "letters, not yet words // tear freedom loose // from rude wretched world". The final and longest section of the book, "Seasons" is vintage Fischer, a serial poem of mostly one to three words, clusterd in one tofour line stanzas: An astonishing and exuberant work.

link | 11-02-09-x

Foreman's Idiot Savant

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:44:31 -0800

Got to see this last night. Richard Foreman in classic form: part happening, part Dada, part Surrealism, part reverie, part Pirandello, part Brecht, part mesmerizing, always bend-bending; totally Foreman. Dafoe is a powerful counterweight to the Foreman circus, exerting a sheer physical presence as one of Foreman's recurring Quixotic figures (Don Juan, King Rufus, and the Mind King go to Poetry City).

The New York Public Theater
October 27 - December 6
$65/$75 Saturday evenings.
But for readers of this site:
$40 tickets.
Valid performances are 10/27--11/15.
The code is SAVANT4

link | 11-02-09

Bernstein recordings for McGann@70

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:55:21 -0800

Recordings made on the occasion of Jerome McGann's 70th Birthday in 2007

For Love Has Such a Spirit that if It Is Portrayed it Dies (from Controlling Interests)(6:01): MP3
The Simply (from The Sophist)(15:58): MP3
from Lines of Swinburne (from The Sophist)(1:15): MP3
A Foin Lass Bodders Me by Louis Zukofsky (6:04): MP3
Don't Get me Wrong (from Girly Man)(1:30): MP3
Shenandoah (from Girly Man)(2:39): MP3
Lenny Paschen Redux (1:00): MP3
Wherever Angels Go (from Girly Man) (1:37): MP3
Sad Boy's Sad Boy (1:25): MP3
Loneliness in Linden (1:16): MP3
from Canti Antichi (from Girly Man) (1:00): MP3
Dea%r Fr~ien%d, (3:38): MP3
Shenandoah (2:39): MP3

link | 10-30-09

NY Post on Emma: "Paradise Lost"

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:18:57 -0800

click on image for readable version; or go to hi-res

"Paradise Lost," New York Post
Nov. 1, 2009

link | 11-01-09

Performa NY Events: Lin, Yau, Bernstein

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:18:57 -0800

Chalk Playground, LitTwitChalk
Tan Lin
In cooperation with the Museum of Chinese in America
P.S. 2 playground, 122 Henry St. NY NY
Saturday, November 14 1:00pm
A performance-based chalk translation and street drawing in a parking lot. Chalking of a Futurist manifesto, a Chinese manifesto, and a collaborative, real-time poetry “line” installation piece by New York writers. Writers include: Bruce Andrews, Chris Alexander, Joe Amrhein, Anselm Berrigan, Lee Ann Brown, Yina Chun, Sarah Gambito, Kristen Gallagher, Kenneth Goldsmith, Paolo Javier, Eric Laine, Joseph Legaspi, Frances Richard, Katherine Sanders, Oliva Shao, Phillipa Shao, Jeremy Sigler, Danny Snelson, Helena Zhang, and others.Chalk Playground is preceded by a live street-chalking exercise, TwitChalkLit, beginning at 9am at 315 West 36th street and terminating at P.S. 2 at 12:30pm. YouTube: TwitChalkLit.TwitChalkLit is rain or shine.For further details and updates: see Twitter: chalkknit.

The Futurisms of American Poetry
Charles Bernstein and John Yau
Museum of the Chinese in America
215 Centre Street (between Grand and Howard) /// New York, NY
Saturday, November 14 4:00pm
A reading/performance event with Charles Bernstein and John Yau.
With an introduction on Futurism in China by Defne Ayas.
Introduction by Chris Alexander and Kristen Gallagher. Organized by Tan Lin. I will be giving a performance of "Recantorium: A Bachelor Machine after Duchamp after Kafka" Sponsored by the Asian American Writers Workshop, Museum of the Chinese in America, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University, and the Chinese American Association for Poetry and Poetics. FREE, with museum admission.

link | 10-28-09

Bergvall on Serpentine London poetry event

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:18:57 -0800

Caroline Bergvall
on the Serpentine Poetry Marathon
at the Poetry Foundation web site

" ...
The Poetry Marathon used the idea of “poetry” very loosely, nearly archaically. It is more to do with doing and making (language) than with applying the stricter and formal bounds of any art form per se. Indeed the remit for “poetry” this weekend is “performances from leading poets, writers, artists, philosophers, scholars, and musicians.” As such it is an umbrella term, a reminder that everybody writes, sometimes. However, in the context of a highly secluded British poetry culture, perhaps they’ve taken the idea one step too far. ...

...A closer look revealed that only a very small handful of poets from the many (established and less established) scenes of Britain were represented. The gender and ethnicity count among these was also troublingly unequal, where this is in fact the one thing the Brit Po establishment has represented quite systematically, even at the expense of other, more formally pertinent values. This struck me as the clearest sign of the scission between visual arts and poetic practice in Britain. ...

....Furthermore, although a number of the chosen artists are known for dealing with writing and language pertinently and intrinsically as part of their artwork ... it was something of a disappointment to see so many of them react with undisguised anxiety at that same word, “poetry.” Otherwise lucid, articulate artists found themselves in the throes of open self loathing, “I don’t know poetry,” “I dont know what to read,” choosing to calm the audience by reading from known values such as Eliot, Ted Hughes, Lorca, and Hamburger’s Celan, rather than tracing their own engagement with writing as part of the event. Here, poetry itself was treated as a historical, in the sense of acquired, decorative, rather than productive, mode of functioning. ....

"

link | 10-28-09-x

"every lake" read in Oslo plus Bergvall, &&

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 09:18:57 -0800

from Girly Man

every lake has a house
& every house has a stove
& every stove has a pot
& every pot has a lid
& every lid has a handle
& every handle has a stem
& every stem has an edge
& every edge has a lining
& every lining has a margin
& every margin has a slit
& every slit has a slope
& every slope has a sum
& every sum has a factor
& every factor has a face
& every face has a thought
& every thought has a trap
& every trap has a door
& every door has a frame
& every frame has a roof
& every roof has a house
& every house has a lake

MP3

I recorded this in Oslo on October 23
for a recording related to Oslo Poesifestival 2009
Hear/read also poems by
Torgeir Rebolledo Pedersen | Øyvind Berg | Caroline Bergvall

link | 10-26-09

Regis Bonvicino on Close Listening and PM3 reasding at KWH

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:14:50 -0700

Close Listening
withRégis Bonvicino
October 13, 2009 at Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania
Art International Radio, operating at ARTonAIR.org / PennSound

Conversation with Charles Bernstein (29:27): MP3
Reading (34:52): MP3

Segmented Reading: Translations Read by Bernstein

Introduction (2:15): MP3
El Mataa (1:08): MP3
El Mataa (1:09): MP3 tr. Odile Cisneros
"Imagem impossível," interspersed with "Image Impossible"(3:12): MP3 tr. Charles Bernstein
Outra tempestade (0:42): MP3
Another Storm (0:48): MP3 tr. Odile Cisneros
Poema sério (0:48): MP3
Serious Poem (0:37): MP3 tr. Odile Cisneros
Tatugem (0:55): MP3
Tattoo (2:11): MP3 tr. Charles Bernstein
Azulejo (0:34): MP3
Blue Tile (0:27): MP3 tr. Charles Bernstein
Azulejo (0:26): MP3
Caminho de hamster (1:12): MP3 tr. Odile Cisneros
The Hampster's Way (1:14): MP3
Definitions of Brazil with Charles Berstein (7:21): MP3
Cocaine Kate (3:58): MP3 tr. Charles Bernstein and Maria do Carmo Zanini
Prosa (0:55): MP3
Prose (1:04): MP3 tr. Charles Bernstein
Untitled (1:05): MP3
Sem título (1:14): MP3 tr. Odile Cisneros

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Poems for the Millennium, vol. 3
ed. Jerome Rothenberg and Jeffrey Robinson
Panel and Reading
at Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania
Oct. 7, 2009

Complete Discussion (1:22:09): MP3 / MOV

Complete Reading (1:46:24): MP3 / MOV

segmented reading:

Introduction by Charles Bernstein (3:41): MP3
Introduction by Michael Gamer (4:46): MP3
Jerome Rothenberg and Jeffery Robinson (11:51): MP3
Charles Bernstein (12:12): MP3
Jerome Rothenberg (3:38): MP3
Rachel Blau DuPlessis (12:04): MP3
Jeffery Robinson (6:29): MP3
George Economou (13:33): MP3
Jerome Rothenberg (3:02): MP3
Rochelle Owens (16:05): MP3
Jeffery Robinson (1:50): MP3
Bob Perelman (13:33): MP3
Jerome Rothenberg (1:23): MP3

N.B. cut 4 [(12:12): MP3] is a montage
For Emma:
After Edward Lear’s “The Old Man of Whitehaven”
My tr. of an 1847 poem from Hugo’s Les Contemplations
From Swinburne, “The Ballad of Burdens”
My tr of Heine’s "Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht" followed by my poem after "Der Tod" from Shadowtime:
“The Introvert,” after Wordworth’s The Hermet
An excerpt from Whitman’s “RESPONDEZ!”
My tr. of Baudelaire’s “Enivrez-vous”: “Be Drunken”
Blake’s “The Sick Rose” from Song of Experience

link | 10-25-09

A. L. Nielsen on Close Listening

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:21:02 -0700

A. L. Nielsen:
Close Listening Reading and Conversation

& as written up by Mike Hennessey on PennSound Daily

Nielsen in conversation with Charles Bernstein (31:24): MP3

Nielsen's Reading of Selected Poems (25:38): MP3

Introduction (0:56): MP3
Self-Organizing Networks (0:58): MP3
This Is One Way to Begin (0:23): MP3
Halcyon Road (0:32): MP3
The News (0:11): MP3
Unsub (027): MP3
The Virginia Monologues (6:06): MP3
Petirroja (1:15): MP3
My Dinner with Andrea (1:34): MP3
1/2 a Poem for David Bromige (0:59): MP3
Exemplary Sentences (2:49): MP3
The Very Large Array (0:59): MP3
Emily's List (0:23): MP3
Stained Glass Widow (1:21): MP3
Epistemological Hesitation (0:10): MP3
For Michael Davidson (1:18): MP3
Child of the Willows (0:47): MP3
Legal Notice (0:27): MP3
On the Disappearance of Species (0:31): MP3
Glottophagia (1:02): MP3
In the Land of a Thousand Dunces (0:19): MP3
untitled (0:17): MP3

link | 10-03-09-x

Leigh Davis (1955-2009)

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:21:02 -0700

Leigh Davis (1955-2009)
New Zealand poet, a critic, an artist and a publisher

There is a good selection of Leigh's writing at www.jackbooks.com

-----

Ocotber 3, 2009

Dear Charles,
Leigh died this morning. There was no pain, indeed at no stage had there been any.
We have been reading a lot to him these last few weeks during which he has been bedridden
and unable to speak or read. In the time since he was first diagnosed he wrote two books,
Nameless and A Stunning Debut, the first of which will be published early next year.
love,
Wystan

-------

from New Zealand Book Council site

Davis was born in Wanganui. He attended Auckland University where he completed an MA First Class Hons in English. He went on to study at Victoria University of Wellington where he took numerous graduate papers including, economics, mathematics, and commercial law.

Since the early 1980s Davis has been a high profile businessman and merchant banker. He has worked in both the public and private sectors before going on to start JUMP - his management company.

Davis’s first book Willy’s Gazette (1983) won the Best NZ First Book of Poetry Award. Willy’s Gazette as well as co-editing the magazine AND with Alex Calder and Roger Horrocks from 1983 to 1985 established Davis as a leading avant-garde artist and public intellectual.

Late in the 1990s Davis returned to art/publishing with Station of Earth-Bound Ghosts (1998) an installation of flags (writing and visual art). Davis went on to publish Te Tangi a te Matuhi (1999) with Jack Books, another Davis project. Jack Books added their web site www.jackbooks.com in 2000 with the publication of General Motors a collection of poetry and visual art that is available as both a physical and virtual book.

In 2001 Jack Books published The Book of Hours, a trilogy that is available as both a physical and virtual book. Last year David’s poem ‘The Footstool’ from the General Motors collection was selected for the Best New Zealand Poems 2001.

Leigh Davis has published widely as a critic. His essays on art and letters have appeared in Landfall, ArtAsia Pacific, and Brief Description. He has also contributed to art ventures and promotions including public lectures on art and poetry, as well as participating in the Bad Language Series (with Artspace) in 2001.

Davis describes his work as 'Book length contemporary poems which engage their physical media (books, textiles, web) as ideas in the work.'

----

Leigh lived in Auckland. I had the pleasure to meet him a few times and I admired his work very much.

link | 10-03-09

PW Starred Review of Girldrive

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:21:01 -0700

Publishers Weekly web edition
starred review

Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism
Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein. Seal, $19.95 paper (256p) ISBN 9781580052733
Embarking on a road trip across the U.S. to engage with contemporary women, writer Aronowitz and the late artist Bernstein (1985-2008) assert that “all we want is conversation.” Through 127 casual discussions with female college students, burlesque dancers, musicians, nuns-in-training, single mothers, abortion clinic staffers and others, the authors privilege the unique experiences and perspectives of both established activists and women who hesitate to identify with any notion of feminism. Coupling luminous, enigmatic photography with insightful diary entries, the pair contribute sharp commentary on modern womanhood and gender issues. The project is most striking when exploring the personal stories of interview subjects, but the authors’ ambitious scope makes some encounters feel repetitive. Clearly a work of passion for Bernstein (who committed suicide before the book’s publication) and Aronowitz both, the authors share of themselves generously, imprinting the “open-ended, fluid conversation” with their voices, feelings and personalities. (Oct.)

link | 10-19-09-xx

Charles Bernstein Web Log

Bx Museum panel with Perloff, Sieburth, Bernstein; new Antin

Keith Waldrop on Close Listening

Close Listening Art International Radio, operating at ARTonAIR.org November 7, 2009

Willumsen's painting of private poetry reading 1915

New Paintings by Susan Bee

Recommended new books by Dowling, Bettridge, and Fischer

Foreman's Idiot Savant

Bernstein recordings for McGann@70

NY Post on Emma: "Paradise Lost"

Performa NY Events: Lin, Yau, Bernstein

Bergvall on Serpentine London poetry event

"every lake" read in Oslo plus Bergvall, &&

Regis Bonvicino on Close Listening and PM3 reasding at KWH

segmented reading:

A. L. Nielsen on Close Listening

A. L. Nielsen: Close Listening Reading and Conversation

Nielsen in conversation with Charles Bernstein (31:24): MP3

Nielsen's Reading of Selected Poems (25:38): MP3

Leigh Davis (1955-2009)

PW Starred Review of Girldrive

Close Listening
Art International Radio, operating at ARTonAIR.org
November 7, 2009

A. L. Nielsen:
Close Listening Reading and Conversation