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dateline: Chicago, October 2005

A growing list of events in new media and literature in this month's Newswire...

jump to: poetry in video | poetry in print | local Chicago events | links we like

in Milwaukee: Thomas A. Clark
at Woodland Pattern Book Center

Join Woodland Pattern Book Center on Sunday, October 9, 7:00 PM for an evening with Scotland poet and book artist Thomas A. Clark. In an extension of some of the formal possibilities of poetry, Thomas A. Clark’s work often appears as site-specific installations in galleries, public spaces or in the landscape. In this tradition Woodland Pattern will also host a retrospective exhibition of fine books published by his and Laurie Clark’s Moschatel Press, as well as a site-specific text installation by Laurie Clark. A reception will follow the reading.

"... a quiet, exact poet, the closest thing Scotland has ever had to a true Objectivist."

- Ron Silliman

"Most extraordinary articulation of the sound of things, be they words or the flowers in the springtime. No one lives more clearly, nor more wisely - and the joy in that fact is absolute."

- Robert Creeley

Thomas A. Clark was born in Greenock, Scotland, in 1944. His earliest contacts, in the mid 60s, were with the international Concrete Poetry movement. In 1973, with the artist Laurie Clark, he started Moschatel Press. At first publishing small books and cards by Ian Hamilton Finlay, Jonathan Williams, Cid Corman and others, it soon became a means of formal investigation within his own poetry.

Thomas A Clark’s first collections were published by The Jargon Society, from North Carolina; Some Particulars (1971), A Still Life (1977), Ways Through Bracken (1980). Other publications include Madder Lake (Coach House Press, Toronto 1981), The Tempers Of Hazard (Palladin, London 1993), Tormentil & Bleached Bones (Polygon, Edinburgh 1993), One Hundred Scottish Places (October, Eindhoven, Holland 1999), Distance & Proximity (Pocketbooks, Edinburgh 2001). A new collection, A Path To The Sea, is due from Arc Press, Yorkshire, later this year.

Sunday, 9 October, 2005 at 7:00 PM. Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Admission is $6 members; $7 seniors, students, and advanced purchase; $8 general public. Phone 414-263-5001 or click to the Center's website for more info.


echoes of big bucks slamming in Berkeley

Berkeley will host a $1000 poetry slam on October 19. Local poets must qualify in competition. Out-of-town poets should live within a four-hour drive of Berkeley, and must pre-register before competing. If you or a colleague are interested, please contact MC Charles Ellik directly by e-mail.

Charles Ellik is the host of the Berkeley Poetry Slam, and was the subject of an interview last year on the subject of large-stakes prizes in e-poets' own Plain Text.

 

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poetry as therapy, poetry in video

Association calls for poetry on video.

The screening at the annual conference of the National Association for Poetry Therapy will take place in Boston in April 2006. This is an open call to all poetry video artist and their works made since 2003. Maximum total running length is 10 minutes. Submission deadline is Wednesday, 8 March, 2006. Send DVD or VHS screener, cover letter (including full contact information, exact running time of film and one-sentence bio of director) and SASE for return to:

Karen vanMeenen, Poetry Video Submission
c/o Afterimage, 31 Prince St.
Rochester, NY 14607

Note: Films cannot be returned unless an SASE is supplied with submission


Italian video poetry call for submits

Submission guidelines of the Potenza Film Festival 2005 are now available online. The Potenza festival explores new language in the cinematic arts. For 2005's Festival, taking place from 13 to 17 December, there will be four competitions:

  • International Short Films
  • Basilicata Shorts
  • International VideoPoetry
  • International PhoneMovies

Please remember that the deadline for applying and sending the material is 10 November, 2005.

Download the official notice with the regulations as well as the entry form on www.potenzafilmfestival.it.


Detour: the new frontier
- video pioneers in Newark NJ

The Newark Artist Collective issued this essential post: "Because art has never been about compromising. And like water always seeks the path of least resistance. When blocked we deviate and proceed to detour at the same time slowly but persistently continuing our chosen path. We, like water must flow whether it is by slowly eroding the barriers of institutional constraints or by creating a detour."

And so creative detours there will be. The Newark Artist Collective will host the Detour event 13 through 16 October, 2005 at various Newark, NJ independent galleries and spaces. The event will have a focus on artists of color and from the greater Neward area.

For more info, e-mail the producers or phone 206-984-3186.


words & images in Seattle:
Reel to Real, 12 October

Poets Jaime Curl, J. Wesley Fullerton, and Megan Snyder-Camp will astound and amaze you with their wordplay at this month's Reel to Real, Wednesday, 12 October at On the House, 1205 E. Pike Street in Seattle's Capitol Hill (conveniently down the street from the Elysian Pub).

The show starts at 7:30 with a humorous videopoem that was a big hit at the last Poetry Festival. "Sandwiches," directed by Jennifer Labbienti based on a poem by David Donnell, is a noirish story of a woman who's looking for love and a sandwich.

Next month's Reel to Real is on 9 November, featuring poetry from Marjorie Manwaring and Lana Hechtman Ayers, and creative nonfiction from Jessica Rockers. Read more about the poets and the show.

 

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Karasick's latest:
The House that Hijack Built

Adeena Karasick is one of Canada's foremost language poets, and author of the recently published The House that Hijack Built from Talonbooks along with the award winning and critically acclaimed volumes: Genrecide, Dyssemia Sleaze, The Arugala Fugues, Memewars and The Empress has no Closure. Karasick has been featured across Canada, shared the mic with Marvin Tate last year at Chicago's Myopic Poetry Series, and is featured right here in the Book of Voices. Charles Bernstein says, "Karasick’s is less a poetry of ideas than ideas of poetry – plural, cascading, exuberant in their cross-fertilization of punning and knowing, theatre and theory."

Karasick's unique poetry in print is available through Talon Books of Canada.

 

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getting post mod at Myopic
on 16 October

The Myopic Poetry Series will feature local experimental poets Raymond Bianchi and Jennifer Karmin in October. For the past thirteen years, Myopic Bookstore has hosted weekly readings and writers' talks by local and national authors.

Raymond Bianchi is a native of Suburban Chicago, the child of Italian immigrants, and educated at the University of Iowa. Ray lived and worked for most of the 1990's in Bolivia and Brazil; in Bolivia in a men's prison and in Brazil in international business and publishing. He is married to the Brazilian artist Waltraud Haas. His work has appeared in Tin Lustre Mobile, Moria, Poesia y Cultura, The Economist, Moria, Antennae, Red River Review, and Fiera di Lingue. Ray is also editor of chicagopostmodernpoetry.com. He is the author of a chapbook, The Suburban Manifesto, and his first book Circular Descent is available from Blazevox press.

Jennifer Karmin is a poet, artist, and educator who has published, performed, exhibited, taught, and experimented with language throughout the U.S. and Japan. Her multidisciplinary projects intersect writing with sound and image. Currently at home in Chicago, she is a founding member of the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise, curator with the SpareRoom Time-Arts Cooperative, and co-host of the Red Rover Reading Series. Jennifer works as a Poet in Residence in the public schools and teaches creative writing to immigrants at Truman College. She earned her B.A. in the Poetics Program at the University of Buffalo and M.F.A. in the Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

7:00 PM Sunday, October 16th at Myopic Books, 1564 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago (Wicker Park). Phone 773-862-4882. Admission is free. For deeper clicking and reading, follow these links: chicagopostmodernpoetry.com, antigravitysurprise.org, spareroomchicago.org, and myopicbookstore.com


Myopic Poetry Series for October 2005

The Myopic Poetry Series is a weekly venue for poetry, fiction, and occasional talks, hosted by Chuck Stebelton. This month's reading schedule is:

  • Sunday October 2 - Chicago Noir hosted by Adam Levin
  • Sunday October 9 - Melissa Buzzeo and Amina Cain
  • Sunday October 16 - Raymond L. Bianchi and Jennifer Karmin (see post mod listing above)
  • Sunday October 23 - Matvei Yankelevich and Anna Moschovakis

Profiles for two of this month's Myopic artists:

Born in 1977 in New York, Melissa Buzzeo has worked as a counselor, curator, professor and palm reader. City M, was published in 2004 by Leona Press (New York) and is presently being translated into French for inclusion in a Quebecois journal. Disparate work has been translated into Catalan, anticipating publication in Spain. A second chapbook, In The Garden of the Book, is forthcoming from NO press (Calgary). Currently she is reaching towards translation in living space.

Amina Cain has published her work in 3rd bed, Bridge, and Spinning Jenny and has a story forthcoming in the Denver Quarterly. She is interested in awkwardness in writing, art, human relationships, and public interaction. She teaches in the English department at Columbia College and co-curates the Red Rover experimental reading series at the Spareroom cooperative. She lives in Chicago.

Future featured readings include Andrew Zawacki and RM Vaughan (November 13); Tyehimba Jess and Krista Franklin (November 20), and Simone Muench and Barry Silesky (December 11).

The Myopic Poetry Series convenes Sundays at 7:00 PM, at Myopic Books, 1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor, Chicago (Wicker Park neighborhood). Admission is free. Click to the Series website for full info.


13 October: music & poetry at the Elbo Room

Bopping from Chicago to Russia and back, poet and book artist Andrei Rabodzeenko will read/perform his original work with The Homeland Security Orchestra, a project of his friends in The Dirty Blue.

Thursday, October 13th 2005, 9:00pm, 21+ show. The Homeland Security Orchestra, with The Wandering Endorphin, Scottish McMillan and The Chicago Guitar Circle, and special guest: poet Andrei Rabodzeenko. At the Elbo Room, 2871 N. Lincoln Ave Chicago, IL 60657 (Lakeview). Phone 773-549-5549. Cover: $5, HSO @ 9:50 PM.


Danny's Series, 12 October:
Sam White & Christian Hawkey

Sam White's debut collection The Goddess of the Hunt is Not Herself is now available from Slope Editions. He has published his poems in many journals including Jubilat, the Paris Review, the Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and American Letters & Commentary among others, and is a recent MacDowell fellow in poetry. He currently teaches at the University of Rhode Island, and lives at Monohasset Mill, an art collective on the west side of Providence.

"[This book] is a thrilling love-and-guts battle between the so-called natural world and the belligerent fact of Sam White's imagination. The outcome is there beautiful, troubling poems."

- Peter Richards

Christian Hawkey is the author of The Book of Funnels (Verse Press, 2004). He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the Pratt Institute.

"Christian Hawkey's poetry is landscape poetry in the true sense of landscape—not a segment of the earth's surface posing for its picture, but an open, undetermined space in which all kinds of crazy mental and physical things are going about their business simultaneously. What emerges is a portrait of a medium like the one we live in, with all its unexpectedness. The Book of Funnels is one of the strangest and most beautiful first books of poetry I have read in a long time."

- John Ashbery

Danny's Reading Series happens monthly at Danny's Tavern, 1951 W. Dickens (near the corner of Armitage and Damen; Bucktown). Phone 773-489-6457. This is a 21-and-over venue, so please bring ID. Click for more info. Next Month: Wednesday, 16 November: Laura Sims and Bin Ramke.


Red Rover experiment #4:
"Hand-me-down", set for 22 October

The Red Rover Series {readings that play with reading} will hold its fourth event in October. Each event is designed as a reading experiment with participation by local and national writers. Experiment #4 is "Hand-me-down" and will feature seven Chicago writers reading each other's work: John Beer, Kathleen Duffy, Susannah Felts, Jonathan Messinger, Sheelah Murthy, Kerri Sonnenberg, and Febronio Zatarain.

John Beer's poems and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals, including Barrow Street, Court Green, Crowd, Chicago Review, Chicago Tribune, The Canary, Colorado Review, Iowa Review, Review of Contemporary Fiction, and Verse. He is poetry editor for Bridge and co-curator of the Danny's Reading Series.

Kathleen Duffy's interdisciplinary practice includes community-based performance, writing, and installation art. She has taught workshops and performed poetry in New York, Portland, Buffalo, and Chicago; and published internationally. Kathleen co-founded the public art group Anti Gravity Surprise to forge alliances with other artists, activists, community groups, and the general public. Using collaboration as a political force, she is the Education and Outreach Director of The Dill Pickle Food Co-op initiative in Chicago.

Susannah Felts teaches writing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She contributes regularly to the Chicago Reader, and recently completed a novel.

Jonathan Messinger is the books editor for Time Out Chicago and editor of THISisGRAND: Stories of Chicago's Rapid Transit. He is also co-publisher of Featherproof Books, a new small press in Chicago publishing mini-books of fiction and perfect-bound, full-length novels. In 2004 he founded The Dollar Store Show, an evening of readings and comedy at the legendary Hideout tavern. He's worked as a newspaper and wire reporter, and his fiction has appeared in various magazines. He was recently named one of Chicago's "30 Under 30" by UR Chicago.

Sheelah Murthy is of multi-racial descent, Filipino and Asian Indian, was born in Canada, and raised in the United States. She is an interdisciplinary artist and licensed professional massage therapist who works with installation, video, performance, and the cusp between these mediums. She now teaches film/video at Columbia College and performance at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as: Exit Art Gallery, NYC; The Kitchen, NYC; The Substation in Singapore; Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, Colorado; South by Southwest Film Festival; and the Women's International Film Festival in Seoul, South Korea. Her projects deal with issues of culture, representation, global appropriation, and the power play that informs them.

Kerri Sonnenberg lives in Chicago where she directs the Discrete Reading Series that she founded with Jesse Seldess. She is the author of The Mudra (Litmus Press, 2004) and Practical Art Criticism, a chapbook (Bronze Skull, 2004).

Febronio Zatarain is a poet and educator who emigrated to the United States in 1989. Since then he has been tied to projects of literary factories and cultural magazines, like Hoy, La Raza, and Contratiempo. He teaches at Truman College.

Event begins at 7:00 PM, Saturday, 22 October, at SpareRoom, 2416 W. North Avenue, Chicago (Humboldt Park/Bucktown area). Suggested donation $3. Click to the SpareRoom website for more info. Red Rover Series is curated bi-monthly at the SpareRoom by local writers Amina Cain and Jennifer Karmin. In December, the series will host Experiment #5 focusing on Greek translations.


30 October: Girlie-Q Variety Hour
at the HotHouse

Yes, kittens, it’s true! Another installment of the Girlie-Q Variety Hour is coming your way with gorgeous ghouls, ghouls, ghouls; a costume contest; a full set by the "Spooked Tomatoes"; and a special pre-show lobby puppet show!

The show will feature the new Girlie-Q Ensemble, a collection of performers whose credits create a "who's who" and "what’s what" of queer, dance, puppet, drag, and other performance. Performers hail from prior Girlie-Q shows, Gurlesque Burlesque, Belmont Burlesque, Michelle L’Amour’s Star and Garter Burlesque, Incurable Theater, New Millennium Theater Company, PAC/Edge Festival, Heartless B!tch Productions, and the Chicago Kings, to name just a few.

Incorporating drag, burlesque, vaudeville, digital media, music, and performance art, The Girlie-Q Variety Hour breaks down division between different "camps" of performance. The show mixes gender performance, striptease, dance, comedy, and radical sexual art with "lowbrow" interests. The Girlie-Q Variety Hour is guaranteed to titillate, entertain, dazzle…and make you think.

The ensemble is Betty Cracker (Rose Tully), Bevvy O'Bosom (Beverly Spangler), Bloody Belle (Amanda Bly) Clare de Lune (Meredith Miller), Girlie Pink, Holly Wouldn't (Holly Alcorn), Honey Maker (Leah Moyers), Jyldo (Jyl Fehrenkamp), Lil' Ms. Bedgood (Rhonda Bedgood), Maxie Nuance (Stephanie Mably), Minxy McVixen (Tamale Sepp), Miss Bea Haven (JT Newman), Miss von Livid, Mistress Overdone (Jenn Tyburczy), Naughty Natanya (Natanya Rubin), Rick Shaw, Saucy Cockteau (Nicole Garneau), Strawberry Fields (Sheila Chalakee) & Titi Touche.

"For the very adult"

- Lin Bremer about the Girlie-Q Variety hour on "Bremer’s Best", WXRT-FM

"My number one choice [in the festival this year] is the Girlie-Q Variety Hour"

- theater critic Johnathan Abarbanel commenting about the Girlie-Q PAC/Edge show on WBEZ-FM’s "Hello, Beautiful"

"Great energy! Bravo!"

- Chicago burlesque reviewer Ray Koltys on his website, batmo.com/burlesque

On Sunday, October 30, the Girlie-Q Variety Hour plays at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo in Chicago (South Loop). Doors open at 7:00 PM, and the show is at 8:00 PM. Featuring special guest stars Kitty Victorian (from Washington D.C.), the Hellcat Hussies, and RTG Dance; musical guests the “Spooked Tomatoes” and DJ Sandie; and emceed by Minxy McVixen. Coming up: Ho-ho-holiday Follies, Sunday, November 27, 2005. For more information on the show, performer bios and photos, links, and other fun, check out girlieq.com.


16 October: Cin Salach
and Ten Tongues, at RhinoFest

Evolution takes time. And on top of it, "Ars longa, vita brevis." as they say. Few performers can sustain the interest over a generation. But you should meet a most beautiful exception to this belief: Cin Salach and Ten Tongues.

The ensemble has shape-shifted over the years, but has always included a top core group of musician/performers. And, of course, the group is headed by the incomparable Cin Salach. The Tongues have evolved, lately in the absence of key founder/collaborator Mark Penner-Howell, but he returns to Chicago for a performance as part of the annual Rhino Theatre Festival, produced by Curious Theater Branch.

At the Prop Theater (front room), 3502-4 N. Elston Avenue, Chicago. (west Lakeview/Riverview neighborhood) Curtain time is Sunday, 16 October, 2005, at 7:00 PM. Performance runs about an hour. Tickets are $15 or pay what you can. For reservations and info call 773-267-6660, or click to the organizing group's website.


Living Memory/Living Absence: new
work by Anida Esguerra, 20 October

Cambodian American artist Anida Esguerra will be premiering her first solo show of new interdisciplinary work in Chicago on 20 October. Those who follow Esguerra know that she has been moving in new directions with her work, bringing her to a new nexus. Living Memory/Living Absence marks the return of Anida Yoeu Esguerra to her birth country after 25 years of absence. The multimedia work traces her poetic fears of returning to a country she never knew. Esguerra performs poetry with movement inspired by Butoh set against a video backdrop of the sites and sounds of her memories of Cambodia. Presented as part of the 10th Annual Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, the evening includes an opening musical performance by Amy Homma.

Performed, Written & Created by Anida Yoeu Esguerra
Dramaturg & Director: Robert Karimi
Movement Director: Nicole LeGette
Video Artist: Masahiro Sugano

Asian Improv Arts Midwest presents “Living Memory/Living Absence”, 20-22 October, 2005 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday), 8:00 PM at Links Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield, Chicago, IL 60657 (Lakeview neighborhood). Phone 773-281-0824, or click to the venue website. For background on the program, see the artist's statements. Admission $12; $10 students.


11 October at the Poetry Center
Aleksandar Hemon

Born in Sarajevo, Hemon arrived in Chicago in 1992, and began writing in English in 1995. He is the author of Nowhere Man and The Question of Bruno, which appeared in Best Books of 200 lists nationwide and won several literary awards. He has been published in 18 countries and his work regularly appears in The New Yorker, Esquire, Granta, McSweeneys, Paris Review and Best American Short Stories. For his event at The Poetry Center, Hemon will read from his work, sign books, and answer audience questions.

6:30 PM, 11 October, 2005 in the Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 112 S Michigan Ave (downtown). $10/person, free for Poetry Center Members and SAIC students, faculty and staff. This event is sponsored by The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. The Poetry Center is in Residence at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.


Molly Malone's on 10 October:
James Ballowe

The Molly Malone's Open Mic, with your hosts Nina Corwin and Al DeGenova invites you to be part of one of the most highly respected open mics in the Chicago area. This month, Molly's welcomes J.D. Smith.

James Ballowe is the author of THE COAL MINERS, Spoon River Poetry Press. His poetry, written over the past four decades, has appeared in over twenty magazines, including SALMAGUNDI, ASCENT, BOUNDARY 2, and SOUTHERN REVIEW. His work has been anthologized in several places, including ILLINOIS VOICES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY POETRY ed. by Kevin Stein and G. M. Murray and PRAIRIE VOICES: POETS OF ILLINOIS, ed. by Lucien Stryk.

Retired as the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English from Bradley University, Ballowe teaches creative writing and environmental ethics at the Morton Arboretum and on occasion at the Field Museum. He is has received two awards for poetry and one for his essays from the Illinois Arts Council and received a special award for poetry from Gwendolyn Brooks.

Poetry/fiction at Molly's is the second Monday of every month, at Molly Malone's Irish Pub, 7652 Madison Street, Forest Park, IL. Phone 708-366-8073. Cover is, "$5 if you can, $3 if you can't." 7:00 -- open mic sign-up begins; 7:30 -- open mic; 8:45 -- featured reader; 9:15 -- open mic continues if necessary.


KuumbaLynx is back for 2005,
starting 7 October

Open Mindz is a family affair! This art and cultural exchange series aims to exposes youth and their families to Chi-towns established and emerging emcees, spoken wordists, turntabilists, Bgirls/Bboys. Each first Friday of the month the evening opens with an arts workshop/discussion facilitated by featured artists. The event continues with an open mic and featured performances. The night closes out rocked by a special guest turntabilist.

This month, it's Soundz by DJ Intel, with Full Effect Theatrical Dance Ensemble: A theatrical dance ensemble blended with Hip-Hop, jazz, and funk M’Reld: ‘05 Def Poet and founder of the dynamic poetry ensemble "Verbal Balance" who has Opened up for artist such asTalib Kweli, Fantasia and Common.

Join KuumbaLynx for Open Mindz: a night of sharing and cultural fun, at 900 West Wilson Avenue (Uptown) from 6:00 to 9:00 PM for an all ages event (donation at door no one turned away). Food and snacks will be available for sale. Call 773-550-4229 or 550-3849 for more info, or click to


at Free Street thru 15 October:
Eternal Return

The Sun-Times' top theater critic Hedy Weiss recommends, "If you are feeling at all cynical these days - you might want to pay a visit to Free Street." This ensemble has consistently produced provocative, creative, and original works for years. Oh... and they're high school kids, too. "Eternal Return" uses theater, coutry-blues-gospel death songs, and video art to tell the story of eight young women effected in different ways by the same haunting memory.

Eternal Return runs Sept. 30 thru Oct. 15. Friday show time is at 7:00 PM. Saturday show time is at 2:00 PM. Free Street Theater is at 1419 W. Blackhawk (just east of Ashland between North & Division, north of the Division stop on the Blue Line.) Phone 773-772-7248 for reservations or info. Click to freestreet.org for the full story.


Mental Graffiti gets international
on 10 October

Mental Graffiti kicks it up a notch with two outstanding international performers:

Stephen Murray was born in Dublin in 1974. He was educated in Richmond , Surrey and was three times award winner in the WH Smith and Observer Young Writer of the Year Award. He moved back to Ireland in 1996 to his family's native Limerick and currently lives in Connemara, County Galway where he works as a stone mason. In April 2005, he won the Cúirt International Festival of Literature Poetry Grand Slam for "Love Noir" and, as the Cúirt Slam Champion.

Nora Gomringer is one of the leading slam poetry performers in Germany. She has won several poetry slams and has been a guest at many spoken word festivals. She works as a singer, and recites at poetry shows and performances. Her second volume of poetry, Silbentrennung- Syllabication, was published in 2002. she is also a German slammaster.

Show starts at 8:00 PM. Doors open and sign-up list fills after 7:30. $5 cover A 21-and-over venue. Mental Graffiti, at the Funky Buddha Lounge, 728 W Grand Avenue, Chicago (River West district, just east of Grand/Hasted/Milwaukee intersection).


After Hours fundraiser celebrates the 50th anniversary of Ginsberg's "Howl"

Friday, 7 October, 2005, After Hours magazine, the journal of Chicago writing and art, celebrates 50 years of "Howl" with poetry, art, and music. The program features Charlie Rossiter, Jared Smith, Cherie Caswell Dost, Al DeGenova and others reading excerpts of Allen Ginsberg’s milestone poem, fifty years to the date of its first public reading. "Howl" is regarded as a defining poem for a generation, and a key work that launched the Beat movement.

On the “Six at the Six Gallery” reading:

If the birth of the Beat movement could be traced back to one event, it would probably be the first public reading of Allen Ginsberg's poem ``Howl''. October 7, 1955, at the now-defunct Six Gallery in San Francisco.

Howl, widely regarded as one of the great works of 20th century American poetry, is a 3,600-word torrent of unusually vivid and hellish imagery written in the long-line style of Walt Whitman's ``Leaves of Grass'' and echoing the rhythms of jazz. It has also become one of the most popular poems in U.S. history, having sold nearly a million copies in its City Lights edition.

Six new poets with new voices read that night, together they defined the future of American poetry. Featured were Philip Lamantia, Philip Whalen, Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, and Kenneth Rexroth, the host, who introduced Ginsberg.

Jack Kerouac sat on the side of the low stage, drinking from a jug of wine and shouting, ``Go!'' The audience of fewer than a hundred soon joined in with shouts of encouragement, exploding in applause at the conclusion, as Ginsberg left the stage in tears.

Friday, 7 October, 2005, from 6:30 to 9:00 PM. Open mic reading for current and past contributors to After Hours starts at 7:00 PM. Please help to support the future of After Hours magazine by contributing a small donaton at the door. Subscriptions and copies of After Hours will be available. At Studio 1819, 1819 N. Hermitage, 773-645-9009, Chicago (Bucktown district).


Reflections of Herself open mic at the Center on Halsted

Come to the first-ever, all-girl, all-queer open mic at Center on Halsted. "Reflections of Herself" is an open mic by, for and about lesbian, bisexual, queer and transgendered women aged 13-24. The program is organized by Nikki Patin, the Center's Young Women's Program Coordinator, poetry MC, and HBO Def Poetry featured artist. Share songs, stories, poems and other musings in a safe space with an all-female audience. Our first "Reflections of Herself" open mic will be Wednesday, October 5th, 5:30 PM. Refreshments will be provided.

Other monthly programs include:
2nd Wednesday: GrrlRebel—learn how to fight back
3rd Wednesday: GrrlActive—it’s your body...so own it!
4th Wednesday: GrrlPhun—sometimes we just need to chill!

Young Women's Program Open Mic at the Center on Halsted, the first Wednesday of every month, 5:30 PM. Located at 2869 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago (Lakeview). Recommended donation is $5 for audience members, and free for performers. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Invited audience and artists: All lesbian, bisexual, queer, transgendered women or straight female allies, aged 13-24. Click to the Center's website for more info.


ESS audio production workshops for Fall 2005

Advance registration required. Please call ESS at 312-850-9362 to register.

Recording Techniques I
conducted by Pete Wenger
Saturday & Sunday, 10/15/05 & 10/16/05, 10AM - 2PM
$60/$50 for students and ESS members
This is an intense two-day introduction to analog & digital recording in a creative, hands-on workshop atmosphere. The first day will be dedicated to introducing signal path, microphones, mixing console, multi-track recording, signal processing, and hard-disk recording with Pro Tools. The second day, participants will act as engineers in the produciton of an audio art work, including voice, instruments, and sound effects recording, focusing on both pragmatic and innovative approaches to the studio. The entire process of recording, from miking a sound to pressing record to listening back, will be covered. No previous recording experience necessary. Limited to eight.

Microphone Workshop
conducted by Carl Miller
Saturday and Sunday, 10/22/05 & 10/23/05, 10AM - 2PM
$60/$50 for students and ESS members
This is a detailed, interactive workshop on the particulars of microphones and how to use them. It is also about your ears and how to use them. Sharing many years of professional and DIY experience, Carl will cover different types of mics (condenser, dynamic, ribbon), pickup patterns, placement techniques, live and studio applications, and his own finely-crafted binaural recording set-ups. An incredible weekend with the ORIGINAL Mr. Microphone. Enrollment limited to twelve people

Introduction to the Digital Audio Workstation
conducted by Pete Wenger
Saturday & Sunday, 11/05/05 & 11/06/05, 10AM - 1PM
$60/$50 for students and ESS members
For people who are digital novices, or just need a brush-up, and would like to learn how to get started using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Explains how to set up a DAW as a project studio, or as a component of an existing analog studio. In-depth presentation of digital audio principles and terminology. Introduces standard DAW components as well as the ProTools software interface & the elements of a "Session". You'll learn how to: create a session in ProTools, navigate the Edit and Mix windows, import digital audio into a session, create audio regions, perform basic edit & mix functions, create simple automation with volume & pan graphs, and create a stereo file from your mix. Limited to six.

Advanced Digital Audio Workstation
conducted by Lou Mallozzi
Saturday & Sunday, 11/12/05 & 11/13/05, 10AM - 1PM
$60/$50 for students and ESS members
This workshop takes a detailed look at the creative use of the digital audio workstation (D.A.W.) in the production of sound works. We will dissect music, audio art, installation, and cinema soundtracks produced on the ESS Pro Tools system, investigating the software’s attributes for each project. This will include plug-ins, advanced mixing techniques, signal path routes, alternative outputs, synchronizing to video for soundtrack production, and more. An excellent workshop for people with basic D.A.W. knowledge who want to unlock the system’s creative potential, or for more advanced folks who want to consider alternative approaches to production. Limited to five.

Advance registration required. Please call ESS at 312-850-9362 to register. Click to the organization's website for more info on ESS.


Homolatté for October 2005

Check out Chicago's weekly LGBT/Q coffeehouse for the latest in queer music and spoken word. This months' schedule for Homolatté includes:

October 5th: Aaron Frankel (spoken word) / Gregory Douglass

October 12th: special Homolatte 5-year Anniversary & Scott Free Birthday show w/ Marcus Waller, Rose Tully and Christopher Becerra

October 19th: Women & Children First's own Linda Bubon / music by Lin Boyle

October 26th: Outmusic open mic w/ Lars Von Keitz

Homolatté queer words and music, weekly on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 PM at Marrakech Expresso, 4747 N Damen Avenue (just south of Lawrence Avenue, Ravenswood neighborhood), Chicago. Phone 773-271-4541. Admission is free, though the host, Scott Free, invites guests to donate $5; all collections go the featured artists and only the artists. Full program listing is available at homolatte.com.

 

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links we like

Fresh links for October 2005...

Did you say, "Monsta funk?" If so, you hold the buzz-words to a site by e-poets' African contributor Kojo Baffoe, who keeps a blog on South African poetry and spoken word. If you were wondering how that community speaks, just click to find out.

Rock for Reading brings on the noise in service to literacy, libraries, and schools around Chicago. See the benefit concert coming on 26 October at the Vic, featuring Nickel Creek.

Poultry Broadside, a free monthly broadside series, is taking submissions on an ongoing basis. Check the Gunch Press blog for guidelines and a sample issue.

Anida Yeou Esguerra's website is up and loaded with tons of goodies, including videos and audio clips you can download. There are even some pic in the scrapbook section from her recent Asia performance/literary expeditions.

The Lycette Brothers' Not My Type site is a clever way of looking at typography, that verges on concrete poetry. Well, almost. Still, worth a watch! ... In a more verbal direction, but no less artistic, check out Blair and his spoken word, who's well-known and -admired in the Midwest, but gaining a strong national rep', too.

Xlibris, a strategic partner of Random House, is reaching out to small publishers and independent writers who are considering self-publishing. They have a special where you can get free copies of your book if you try them this month. (No, not a commercial endorsement here... However, if you're aching to get your work in print, this may be a solution for you.)

The Great American Poetry Show is more book than broadcast, though it's on the web, and available in PDF format. Open submits, year round... Taking a different approach, there's Effing Press... And being a bit more generalist, there's We Love Poems, a directory of poetry from all over the web... Looking for more random reads in a more southwesterly direction? Try Blond Chili, Cine Space, or OverUnderMag.com... and reaching a little further al sur, there's the stark textzi.net from México, D.F., edited by Ivan Monroy.

And how about a clutch of links around the recent MusiCircus, where new music, performance, and language arts convened at the MCA in the spirit of John Cage? Check these out: Bad At Sports; Likes To Do Other Things, art and culture in Chicago and around the world; or the homesite at the Chicago Composers Forum for the MusiCircus.


As always, we thank you for reading our monthly update, and also thank those who keep it supplied with news, announcements, leads, commentary, and positive buzz.

- Kurt Heintz, founder
e-poets network, Chicago


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