going on now
July 16, 2019
If you happen to be in — or traveling to — Los Angeles, New York, or Moscow, between now and August 3, 2019, check out the goings-on at The Film and Video Poetry Symposium…
over 30 international films and will screen in three cities: Moscow, Los Angeles, and New York City. In addition, the symposium will feature 9 guest speakers, educational workshops, poetry readings, and a gallery exhibit celebrating the work of 18 artists and poets. Our audience will experience poetry films, performing arts, videopoetry, experimental media, poetry readings, essay films, media installations, and films from the avant-garde.
The Symposium is a program of The Film and Video Poetry Society (FVPS), which encourages film and video poets to further their ongoing explorations by providing a platform for these artists to activate, collaborate, discuss, and maintain creative work developed through the convergence of these art forms.
See the complete Symposium schedule here.
Poets in the Park
July 15, 2019
In a perfect storm of too-many-wonderful-things-going-on, here’s another option for Saturday, July 20, 2019: Poets in the Park returns to Anderson Park in Redmond, this year with an environmental theme, Celebrating the Land.
Events begin at 11:00am and continue non-stop (well, 5 minutes between performances) until 6:00pm on the park’s two stages and the cabin. With scores of poets participating, there will be a wide array of readings, workshops, exhibits, a book fair, and activities for one and all. Bring your own lunch. All events and activities are free.
Poets in the Park is sponsored by the Redmond Arts & Culture Commission, the Redmond Association of Spokenword, and 4Culture, directed by Michael Dylan Welch, and supported by loads of volunteers. Read all about it.
The Clown*
July 14, 2019
2019 Walk Award
By Gavin James Karney, Grade 6
A cheerful clown
bouncing and dancing,
in a small circus.
Late at night.
Noticing he is a horror.
. . . . .
*Copyright 2019 by Gavin James Karney. Broadside illustrated Christian Anne Smith.
typing visual stories
July 13, 2019
While we’re on the subject of visual poetry (see yesterday’s post about the Sackner Archives), we should mention the dazzling work of Leslie Nichols. Nichols types portraits. For example, Siobhan, pictured above, is a 9.5-inch square portrait of artist Siobhan Liddell created by Nichols on a manual typewriter with text from “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes” written by Sarah Grimké in 1837. What has your typewriter done lately?
reasons to go to… Iowa City
July 12, 2019
We’ve posted before about the Sackner Archive, Ruth and Marvin Sackner’s astonishing collection of some 75,000 pieces of visual and concrete poetry. Housed at the Sackner’s residence in Miami for many years, the entire collection has now found a new home at the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections. The archive will be open by appointment to students, scholars, and the general public starting January 2020.
Read the announcement here, browse the archive online here, or start planning your 2020 trip to Iowa City, A UNESCO City of Literature.
oink if you love poetry
July 11, 2019
If you love pigs, poetry, or both, you’ll definitely want to come on out to Everson, Washington, on Saturday, July 20, 2019, for SpeakEasy 25: Pig Tales, A Passel of Poetry.
SpeakEasy’s first outdoor gathering will feature two beloved poets: the “Pig Poet,” David Lee, and Seattle’s own Paul Hunter.
The reading will take place at 4:00pm in an open field at Alluvial Farms, at 6825 Goodwin Road, Everson, just across the street from the Cloud Mountain Farm Center. If you want to sit down, BRING A CHAIR, and please BRING SUN PROTECTION! Farm tours will be available (meet the pigs!) and pastured pork will be for sale (bring a cooler for your purchases).
More David Lee here. More Paul Hunter here. More SpeakEasy here.
