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Events For over 35 years SPT has been at the heart of where
experimentation and community intersect. This season we continue to present a
multi-pronged conversation that highlights some of the concerns of our
readers’ work. These conversations include: bodies, communities and
empires. Dialogues are intended to
engender discussions around the themes of bodies, communities, and empires,
putting each reader's writing into broader contexts and ongoing debates
around poetics, politics, and practice. Join us for a night of costumed ribaldry, artistic
blasphemy, and cultural craziness, along with drinks, food and other wonders!
As part the first night of SPT's annual fundraiser we will present
performances, and surprises: Including plays by: Dodie Bellamy, "Turn on the Heat, by A.A.
Fair" (directed by
Kevin Killian) Rodney Koeneke, "The Impertinents" (directed by Lauren Shufran) Stephen Boyer, "Bidgood Opening - Life on
Mars" (directed by Stephen Boyer) Brent Cunningham, "The Event" (directed by Brent Cunningham) Jan 22: Poets Theater This year's Poets Theater Fest
celebrates the release of the epic Kenning Anthology of Poets Theater:
1945-1985, edited by Kevin Killian and David Brazil. As part of SPT's annual
fundraiser, we will be staging several works from the anthology. Jan 24: Poets Theater In the final installment of Poets
Theater 2010, we will present the first ever off-site event, with multiple
simultaneous performaces staged in and around the CCA campus. Activities
begin at the beautiful Grad Writing Studio. ALL POETS THEATER EVENTS ARE $20 admission for this annual fundraiser; a
three event pass is $40. Jan 30: Brenda Coultas and Cedar
Sigo on communities Brenda Coultas is the author of The Marvelous Bones of
Time and A Handmade Museum, both published by Coffee House Press. She has
most recently served as a visiting poet at Long Island University in
Brooklyn, NY. Cedar Sigo is a poet and sometime teacher, active in
the art and literary worlds since 1999. He studied writing and poetics at the
Naropa Institute. He is the author of seven books and pamphlets of poetry,
including two editions of Selected Writings (Ugly Duckling Presse , 2003 and
2005) and most recently, Expensive Magic (House Press, 2008). Feb 12: Evelyn Reilly
and Angela Carr on empires at Nahl Hall, CCA
Campus, Oakland Evelyn Reilly’s most recent book is Styrofoam. She is
currently working on Material Science, an exploration of the language of
siteless architectural forms. Other works include Fervent Remnants of
Reflective Surfaces and Hiatus. Angela Carr is a poet and translator who lives in
Montréal. Her books include The Rose Concordance, Ropewalk, and Risk
Accretions, part of a set of chapbooks called Handwerk. Feb 19: Spring Ulmer
and Jen Hofer and Erica Hunt on empires at Nahl Hall ,CCA
Campus, Oakland Spring Ulmer grew up off the grid in the backwoods of
Vermont. The author of Benjamin's Spectacles and The Age of Virtual
Reproduction, she currently teaches at John Jay College and Fordham
University. Jen Hofer’s most recent publications include a series
of anti-war-manifesto-poems titled one (Palm Press, 2009); The Route, an
epistolary and poetic collaboration with Patrick Durgin (Atelos, 2008); and a
translation of books two and three of Dolores Dorantes by Dolores Dorantes (Counterpath
Press and Kenning Editions, 2008); She lives in Los Angeles, where she
teaches and works as a Spanish-language interpreter, and writes letters for
people in public spaces at her Escritorio Público. Erica Hunt works at the forefront of experimental
poetry and poetics, critical race theory, and feminist aesthetics. Her books
include: Arcade, with artist Alison Saar, Piece Logic, and Local History. She
is currently president of The Twenty-First Century Foundation which supports
organizations addressing root causes of social injustice impacting the Black
community. Feb 26: Lasana Sekou
and Taylor Brady on empires Lasana M. Sekou is considered the leading writer of St.
Martin and one of the most prolific Caribbean poets of his generation. His books
of poetry include Maroon Lives: For Grenadian Freedom Fighters, Quimbé: The
Poetics of Sound, Big Up St. Martin: Essay & Poem, and The Salt Reaper:
Poems from the Flats. Taylor Brady lives in San Francisco. He is the author
of several books of poetry and prose, most recently Occupational Treatment
(2006), and Yesterday's News (2005), and is the co-author with Rob Halpern of
Snow Sensitive Skin (2007). Recent poems, beginning to accumulate under the
title Pamphlets, Rants, Tracts & Ballads,
attempt a series of extrapolations, re-readings, and polemics with and
against the grain of the writers and musicians who instruct him. He is active
in the Nonsite Collective, and has recently edited the collected essays of
Will Alexander for 2010 publication. March 6: Harryette
Mullen on bodies Harryette Mullen’s
books include Tree Tall Woman, Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T (1992), Muse
& Drudge (1995)—the latter three of which were collected into her most
recent book, Recyclopedia which received a PEN Beyond Margins Award. In 2002,
she published both Blues Baby: Early Poems and Sleeping with the Alphabet, a
finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award,
and the Los Angeles Times Book Award in poetry. March 12: on
communities Immortal Cupboard in
Search of Lorine Neidecker with filmmaker Cathy
Cook and a lecture by
Jonathan Skinner: Thoughts on Things:Poetics of the Third Landscape co-sponsored by Kino 21 and Poetry Center at Artists Television Access 992 Valencia St. San Francisco, CA Filmmaker Cathy Cook takes cues from Niedecker’s work
and the Wisconsin heritage they share to explore the poetry and life of
Lorine Niedecker (1903 – 1970.) Cook has exhibited her award-winning work
extensively in both solo and group shows including screenings at MOMA and the
Whitney Museum; she is an Associate Professor of Film/Video in Visual Arts at
The University of Maryland – Baltimore County. Jonathan Skinner’s poetry collections include With
Naked Foot and Political Cactus Poems. He founded and edits the journal
ecopoetics, which features creative-critical intersections between writing
and ecology. Skinner teaches in the Environmental Studies Program at Bates
College, in Central Maine. March 13: Ronaldo
Wilson on bodies a reading and discussion of The Visible Black Body: An
Interventionist's Reflection Ronaldo V. Wilson is the author of Narrative of the
Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man, winner of the 2007 Cave Canem Poetry
Prize, selected by Claudia Rankine and Poems of the Black Object. He holds a
PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center, is a co-founder of the Black
Took Collective, and currently teaches at Mount Holyoke College. March 20: Bruce
Andrews and Leslie Scalapino on bodies and empires Bruce Andrews was born in Chicago on April Fools Day,
1948. He is the author of several dozen books of poetry and performance
scores, most recently, Swoon Noir. Andrews has taught Political Science at
Fordham University since 1975 and as composer, sound designer & live
mixer, since the mid 1980s, he has been Music Director for Sally Silvers
& Dancers. Leslie Scalapino is the author of more than thirty
books of poetry, inter-genre fiction-poetry-criticism and plays, including
Day Ocean State of Stars' Night: Poems and Writings 1989 and 1999-2006;
Zither & Autobiography; The Tango; and Orchid Jetsam. She is the editor
of O Books. April 9: Ammiel
Alcalay and Charming Hostess singing Sarajevo Blues on empires An essayist,
editor, translator, poet, and scholar, Ammiel Alcalay is the author of many
texts including: After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture, the cairo
notebooks, from the warring factions, and Memories of Our Future: Selected
Essays, 1982-1997. He teaches at Queens College, CUNY and the CUNY Graduate
Center. Charming Hostess is a whirl of eerie harmony, hot
rhythm and radical braininess. Our music explores the intersection of text
and the sounding body-- complex ideas expressed physically, based on voice
and vocal percussion, handclaps and heartbeats, sex-breath and silence. April 17: Aaron
Vidaver and Dorothy Trujillo Lusk on empires Aaron Vidaver is a writer and editor living on unceded
Coast Salish territories in Vancouver, BC. He edits Documents in Poetics,
Working Papers in Critical Practice and The Rain Review of Books and his
writing has appeared in Parser, Anarcho-Modernism, Studies in Practical
Negation, XCP, Counter-Interpellation and in two collaborative sequences,
Field Guide To Feral Ornaments (with Roger Farr and Steven Ward) and Get Me
Off This / S I T U A T I O N (with David Fujino). Dorothy Trujillo Lusk is a Vancouver-based public
historian and hostage negotiator. Her books include Ogress Oblige, Oral
Tragedy, Redactive, Volume Delays, and
Sleek Vinyl Drill. April 23: Truong Tran
and Mary Burger on bodies Truong Tran is best known for his five books of poetry: the book of perceptions (1999), placing the accents (1999), dust and conscience (2002), within the margin (2004), and four letter words (2008). He is also a
creative writing teacher at San Francisco State University and Mill’s
College. He is also a visual artist. Mary Burger is a writer, editor, and publisher. Her
books include A Partial Handbook for Navigators, Sonny, The Boy Who Could Fly, among others. She is co-editor of the
anthology Biting the Error: Writers Explore Narrative, and of Narrativity, an
online forum for theoretical writing on narrative. She edits Second Story
Books, featuring cross-genre works of innovative narrative. April 25:
Kindergarde SPECIAL TIME: 5:30PM on communities Thanks to a generous Creative Work Fund Grant, Small
Press Traffic proudly presents: Kindergarde: Avant-Garde Poems, Plays,
Stories & Songs for Children.
Featuring the work of Sarah Anne Cox, Douglas Kearney, Camille Roy,
Jaime Cortez, Juan Felipe Herrera, Juliana Spahr, Susan Gevirtz, Brent Cunningham,
Bhanu Kapil, Robin Blaser, and others, this is an evening of theater not to
be missed! Directed by Chris Smith,
with Costumes and Set Design by Patrick Maloney, and under the Creative
Direction of Dana Teen Lomax, this SPT event is sure turn on people of all
ages! April 30: Laynie
Browne and Lee Ann Brown on bodies at Nahl Hall, CCA
Oakland Campus Laynie Browne is
the author of nine collections of poetry and one novel. Her most recent publications include: The
Desires of Letters, and Roseate,
Points of Gold. Lee Ann Brown is the author of Polyverse (Sun &
Moon Press, winner of New American Poetry Series Award), The Sleep That
Changed Eveything (Wesleyan University Press) and collaborations such as
Nascent Toolbox with Laynie Browne. She
has performed her poetry internationally and is the editor and publisher of
Tender Buttons press. Born in 1963 in
Saitama-ken, Japan and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, Brown now lives
in New York City and Marshall, NC. She
holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University and is currently
Associate Professor of English at St. John's University in NYC. Her song cycle, The Thirteenth Sunday in
Ordinary Time and other readings can be found at the websites, PENNSOUND and
The Electronic Poetry Center. May 7: Eileen Tabios
and Susan Gevirtz on communities Susan Gevirtz's recent books include Aerodrome Orion
& Starry Messenger (forthcoming from Kelsey Street Press),
Broadcast, and Without Event:
Introductory Notes (forthcoming from eohippus labs. Along with teaching
locally at various Bay Area institutions, with Greek poet Siarita Kouka she
runs The Paros Symposium, on Paros island, an annual meeting of poets and
translators from Greece and the United States. Eileen R. Tabios has released 15 print, four electronic
and 1 CD poetry collections, an art essay collection, a poetry
essay/interview anthology, and a short story collection. Her most recent book
is Rosary of Thorns: Selected Prose Poems 1998-2009. May 11: Charles
Bernstein and Norman Fischer on communities Radical Poetics and Secular Jewish Culture Co-sponsored by Taube Center for Jewish Life 3200 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94118 8:00pm-9:30pm A conversation and book launch with poets Charles
Bernstein and Norman Fischer This new
collection of essays (from the University of Alabama Press) by Jewish poets
and writers (including Paul Auster, Jerome Rothenberg, Marjorie Perloff and
others) highlights key issues of identity, and self–representation, and
aesthetic practice for Jewish poets in the 20th century. Join two contributing poets, Charles
Bernstein and Norman Fischer, for a discussion on how being Jewish reflects
on their poetics and how the tradition of the avant garde informs their
identities as Jews. May 22: SPECIAL EVENT:
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