Thursday 17 Poets! Poetry Reading: Berrigan, Fiorini, and Jones

THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010 @ 8:00 p.m.

Gold Mine Saloon
701 Dauphine Street
504.586.0745

Please join us as 17 Poets! Literary & Performance series presents a reading/performance featuring poets EDMUND BERRIGAN, JESSICA FIORINI and JAMEY JONES on THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2010, 8:00pm @ The Gold Mine Saloon. And be sure to bring your luminous words & jests for yet another amazing evening of mirth, fantasm & reverie!

Feature will be followed by Open Mic hosted by Jimmy Ross (sign-up begins @ 7:30 p.m.)...storytellers, poets, fiction writers, essayists, vocalists & performance artists are welcome.

Below is a copied source from Lynda BelieveDat Woolard on facebook. It's very informative as to Gulf Information and resources regarding this BP disaster. Thank you to Lynda for compiling all of these great resources:


"For those of you who have the romantic vision of scrubbing turtles and rinsing off pelicans with Kevin Costner or Sean Penn, I'm afraid to tell you (Michael) that it isn't going to happen. The workers BP has hired as well as the volunteers with non-profits working on the response have all had hazmat or wildlife rescue training. If you have those skills, they definitely want you (call Tri-State Rescue: 866-557-1404)... otherwise there is a list of ways you can help below (which I will add to as more info becomes available)... it may be long, but come on man, I've done most of the research for ya... lol.

EASY TO DO: First the simplest thing you can do is text WILDLIFE to 20222 to donate $10 to the National Wildlife Federation. 97% of funds raised through this text drive will go directly to efforts rehabbing animals in the Gulf. (More info: http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Conservation/Threats-to-Wildlife/Oil-Spill/Mobile-Giving.aspx )

Second easiest thing to do is eat Louisiana seafood. There are still areas that are safe to fish in the Gulf and our fishing communities need the support. Whatever they're catching, go buy ya some!

VOLUNTEER: I did speak with someone at the main response center today and volunteers are needed now. Tasks that untrained people can do include administrative work, taking inventory, pre-beach cleaning (no idea what that means), and translating.

Sign up here: http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/page/2931/46359/ and call to follow up if you get antsy: 1-866-448-5816.You can also sign up with one of the various groups working in the area. Efforts seem to be largely coordinated through the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. Visit http://www.crcl.org/ and fill out a volunteer form or call 1-800-LACOAST (1-800-522-6278) or 225-767-4181.

Alternately you can see the other groups they are working with and sign up through their websites here: http://lagulfresponse.org/home.html or here: http://action.sierraclub.org/Oil_Spill_CleanUp

Birdwatchers have a special job being asked of them through eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/survey-gulf-coast-birds. They are looking for people to visit beaches and report findings on the state of the birds there... this does not include touching or disturbing the wildlife... watching and monitoring only. You can also have a nice meal at a restaurant in the beach community while you're visiting and help support the locals.

Organize a food drive. I know I've been banging this drum for a year now, but because of state budgetary cuts made last year, our food banks have been depleted for quite some time and need more food than ever now. The Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana is leading this charge: http://no-hunger.org/ There is information on their website about how to conduct a drive or you can give them a call and they'll be happy to set you up. If you live in Marrero, the West Jefferson Medical Center is collecting cans. Bins for food donations will be located in the hospital's atrium, the Fitness Center, Cafe Jefferson and the Physician's Center through May 31.

Here are some additional specific volunteer hotlines to call: To report oiled shoreline : 866.448.5816 To report oiled wildlife: 866.557.1401 To submit alternative response technology, services or products: 281.366.5511

To submit your vessel as a vessel of opportunity skimming system: 281.366.5511

Additionally, if you are in an effected area or have a boat and are going out in the Gulf, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has created an "Oil Spill Crisis Map" that will allow Gulf Coast residents to report fishers out of work, endangered wildlife, oil on shore, oil sheens and other effects of the oil spill. The map can be viewed at http://oilspill.labucketbrigade.org/.

Reports can be made at that site, or by texting 504.272.7645, e-mailing bpspillmap@gmail.com or tweeting with the hashtag #BPspillmap. Eyewitness reports for the map require a description, and location information such as an address or GPS coordinates.And while there is debate as to whether or not these will ever be used (why the heck not, I ask???)

The Ritz-Carlton New Orleans is working with Matter of Trust: http://www.matteroftrust.org/, an environmental nonprofit group, to collect donations of nylons, hair and fur, which can be used in making booms for containing oil. Drop off donations at the Ritz-Carlton, 921 Canal St. Call 504.670.2817 for more information.Monitor other opportunities to volunteer by checking out this group on FB: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=103141509730378

DONATE: These are all fabulous groups working on the oil disaster at various levels. Please support them if you can.Gulf Restoration Network: http://www.healthygulf.org/
Tri-state Bird Rescue: http://www.tristatebird.org/
Voice of the Wetlands: http://www.voiceofthewetlands.org/
Gulf Aid: http://www.gulfaid.org/
Second Harvest: http://no-hunger.org/
Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans: http://www.arch-no.org/
The Greater New Orleans Foundation: http://www.gnof.org/

LEGISLATIVE : Without getting into the politics of offshore drilling, there is still a very important piece of legislation that calls to your congressperson and senators could help. Right now an effort to up the liability cap for oil companies is stalled. Your calls can make a difference. Find your congressman here: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml and your senator here: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

See story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/robert-menendez-pushes-bi_n_561011.html and here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/gulf-oil-spill-frustratio_n_588556.html

STAY INFORMED

Finally, I have to say there are too many sources of info on this issue to list, but there's a pretty comprehensive list of what the Obama administration has done so far here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/5/23/869212/-What-Obama-is-doing-about-the-BP-oil-spill (P.S. Glad he's coming to Louisiana this Friday cos I still want more!). And if you're on twitter, you can get the latest here: http://twitter.com/Oil_Spill_2010.

Also, for those of you in my district, I have to say Congressman Cao is on top of this thing and has been a great source of information. Check it out and sign up for updates here: http://josephcao.house.gov/OilSpill/"

New Orleans This Week: Art Panel, Book Signing, and Photogrpahy!

If you are feeling helpless and overwhelmed with the destruction of our way of life here in Louisiana, please feel free to join in any of these artistic community events to restore your soul. Art may be the only thing that saves us; certainly BP, the Army Corps and the Federal Gov't will not.


Arts Education Panel:

"Please join us at The Front , 4100 St Claude St. New Orleans, on Thursday, May 27th @ 6:30 pm for the second installment of Back Talk at the Front. This month's discussion is on the topic of Arts Education in the Greater New Orleans Area. Facilitating this discussion will be a panel of arts educators from public, private, high school, grade school, university level, and extracurricular institutions. As our arts community enjoys this period of growth, we must be diligent in our support of every available opportunity to expose students to The Arts. On the 27th, we will explore some of these current opportunities, address some of the needs not being met, and discuss what can be done in the face of an ever-shrinking budget. As always, audience participation is welcomed, and everyone is invited to add to the conversation.

Back Talk at The Front is a series of monthly lectures, brought to you by The Front, focusing on topics important to the cultural community of New Orleans. This series is free and open to the public. Please stay tuned each month for more information on Back Talk."

Book Reading/ Signing:

You are invited to book reading/signing at McKeown's Books
Thursday - May 27, 2010 - 6:00 PM
That Powerless Feeling by Aaron Handy, Jr.

Local author Aaron Handy has written an autobiographical
Vietnam war narrative about the day to day interactions
of a group of young combatants. Come join us as we celebrate
the launching of this powerful anti-war book.

McKeown's Books and Difficult Music
4737 Tchoupitoulas
New Orlean, LA 70115
895-1954



New Photography Exhibit at NOMA:

NOMA presents the exhibition The Therapist: Photographs by Donald Woodman from May 22 through July 11. The exhibition consists of sixty-one photographs spanning four-year period (1997-2001) during which Woodman photographed his therapist, Dr. Donald Fineberg in Santa Fe, at the beginning of each of their sessions together. Says Woodman, "The relationship between therapist and patient served as a vehicle for exploring interpersonal relationships and personal identity. The images reflect both the tenor of the session and the emotions of the moment ranging from humor to pathos."

Marshes are dead. They won't come back.

Dear BP: Fuck you, you fucking fucks. May you choke for eternity on this mess.

Oil Spill Closing Beaches and Killing Marshes

The beach at Louisiana’s Grand Isle State Park was closed because of oil, according to a listing yesterday on the state Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism’s website. The state Department of Wildlife & Fisheries also announced additional recreational and commercial fishing closings yesterday.

Pictured: Paper Plate Covered in Oil on Beach, From AudubonMagazine.org

Read full article about Grand Isle Beach Closings.

"Billy Nungesser, president of Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish, toured the oil-polluted marshes of Plaquemines Parish on Wednesday and said:"Had you fallen off that boat yesterday and come up breathing that stuff, you probably wouldn't be here today.

Oil started washing ashore in Louisiana this week, approximately 50 miles northwest from where the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank. In a part of Plaquemines Parish in an estuary called Pass a Loutre, reeds in the marshlands that were normally green with life, are now brown and dead, saturated with oil. P.J. Hahn, the director of the Parish Coastal Zone Management Department, reflecting on the environmental disaster:"It's so sad when you look around here and you just think of what was here, what's happening to it now and what's eventually gonna happen to it. Unless we stop that oil out there, it's just going to continue to keep coming in here and wipe out everything we have. ... I think we're just starting to see the first wave of what's really coming and what's really coming I think is going to be devastating."

Environmentalists are especially concerned about Louisiana's Breton National Wildlife Refuge. Established in 1904 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it's the second-oldest refuge in the country. Located north of the parish, the refuge is part of the Chandeleur Islands which are situated in the Gulf of Mexico. A nesting ground for tens of thousands of birds, including the brown pelican, the marshland has for time immemorial provided a sanctuary for the wildlife of this region. '

-From Examiner.com

Biggie smalls - juicy and Alice Notley-Supa Juicy

I watched the Notorious bio on biggie smalls last week. A few days later Dave was watching a bio. on Abe Lincoln on the History channel. The announcer made some comment as to Abe's belief that a person could be anything they want to be. And I told Dave that I got the exact same impression from Biggie: "Sky's the Limit." Who knew those two had so much in common. Thanks to Dorothea Lasky who reminded me on her FB page that Friday would have been Biggie's 38th B-day.

And I have this little fantasy that Alice Notley really likes her some Biggie Smalls. It's lines like this that facilitate this fantastic notion: "The womb a vibrant/ pocketbook with a clasp to lock you in" from Dancing in the Dark (read it in your very own copy of Muthafucka 2).

Support small press

Here's a good way to spend your money.






Muthafucka Issue 2





Sam King, John Niekrasz,Angel Escobar,Kristin Dykstra,Mohammed Khair-Eddine,Pierre Joris,Alice Notley,Dot Devota,Phil Cordelli,Norma Cole,Quinn Latimer,Matthew Klane,Hoa Nguyen,Lucas Farrell and more








100 copies, side-stapled w/ two-layer transparency/vellum coverEdited by Mitch Taylor, mitchmailer AT yahoo DOT com
Designed by Cannibal Books, flesheatingpoems AT gmail.com



Cannibal Books makes really beautiful hand sewn chapbooks. Support them as well.

Poetry Bombs and Mother's Day

From the New York News Today, an article reminding us that neither poetry nor your mother is a chore (bore?):

"Mothers Day Poems Needn’t Be a Chore

No money for a mother’s day gift- no problem all you need is a pen, some paper and some coloured pencils. Now look, your mother has been looking after you, loving you, giving you guidance, offering solutions to all your problems since before you could open your mouth to cry for some more breast milk. So the very least that you could do is show your appreciation by giving her a cheerful smile and a little poem to show your gratitude and do you know what, showing her a little gratitude will make her want to look after you until at least next mother’s day."

Wait, what is this about?

I've lost my train of thought. This article is too cerebral for me. In other news...

The poet, S.A. Griffin, and the bomb, Elsie, will be in New Orleans this weekend. Read more about the Poetry Bomb project. The Poetry Bomb reading will be on Sunday, May 9th at 3 p.m. at the Maple Leaf bar.

Here's an interview with poet S. A. Griffin.

My copy of the anthology Not For Mothers Only from Fence Books came in the mail today. They didn't lie; they did get it here by Mother's Day! And it is amazing. I wish I had read some of these poems seven years ago when I first became a mother, but better late than never. I love that the editors open with Mina Loy, namesake for our first child, Mina Evelyn. At least, I had her insights into motherhood seven years ago.

And a small poem for our newest little girl, Issa Mae:

For Issa

hiccuping sigh
oil on dark water
fragile days

four fingered grasp
for one of my fingers
locked love's lullaby

rock-a-bye baby
all the world gasps
a sea barren

17 Poets! Featured Readers

You can now follow 17 Poets! on Facebook.


Thursday, May 6, 2010
Please join us in celebration as 17 Poets! Literary & Performance series presents a reading/performance featuring novelist and short story writer MOIRA CRONE and poet DAVE BRINKS (Dave's Birthday Party!) on Thursday, May 6, 2010, 8:00pm @ The Gold Mine Saloon. And don't forget to bring your luminous words & wisecracks for yet another amazing evening of mirth, fantasm & reverie!




Moira Crone is a widely published short story writer and novelist. She received the Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction from the Southern Fellowship of Writers in 2009 for the body of her work.A native of Eastern North Carolina, she lives in New Orleans.

Her publications include, What Gets Into Us (2006), Dream State (Jackson: The University Press of Mississippi in 1995), A Period of Confinement (New York: G.P. Putnam and Sons, 1986, Paperback, New York: Harper and Row, 1987. French Translation: Paris: Gallimard 1986); and The Winnebago Mysteries and Other Stories (New York: The Fiction Collective/? Braziller 1982).






Dave Brinks was born in ‘67 and raised in New Orleans, poet and essayist Dave Brinks’ heritage is Acadian French and Choctaw. Brinks is editor-in-chief of YAWP: A Journal of Poetry & Art, publisher of Trembling Pillow Press, director of 17 Poets! Literary & Performance Series, and founder of The New Orleans School for the Imagination. His poems and essays have appeared in dozens of magazines, newspapers, journals and anthologies in the US and overseas, and have been translated into French and Romanian. In addition, Brinks' works have aired on NPR’s Hearing Voices and PBS’ News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and also have been featured in National Geographic Traveler and Louisiana Cultural Vistas. He is the author of six books including the acclaimed The Caveat Onus (Black Widow Press 2009), as well as two new collections forthcoming from Black Widow Press: The Light on Earth Street and The Geometry of Sound.


On Jan 19, 2010 Brinks and his wife, poet Megan Burns, celebrated the birth of their third child, daughter Issa Mae!

Post-K still and then what...

Dave took this picture when he came in to check on our house in Sept. 2005. This is the train track at the end of our block that separates us from Greenwood Cemetery.

I keep thinking back to those days in part because we have been watching Treme on HBO and in part because it's easier to go there than to sit and watch the gulf fill up with oil.

They are tearing down a house just down the street. We've watched so many bulldozers come in and level homes. We sit next to a gutted house, across the street from a gutted house, and behind us: they have finally torn down and prepared a lot for rebuilding. It's been five years and some people are just starting.

When they tore my mom's house down; they broke open the roof to find the wooden bassinet that I used as a baby sitting in the attic. She had forgotten it was up there. The bulldozer scooped it up and set it down at my mom's feet. I think about that image a lot. The cradling of the bassinet in the yellow bucket, and the hoses pumping water, and the silence after the storm, and the trees holding our memories in their rings.

Tree Removal

We had to remove a giant Hackberry tree from our backyard today, and it's Dave's birthday. What a strange gift. The trunk was infested with borer beetles, and apparently while the tree is quite hard, any damage can quickly rot the inside. The trunk, especially at the base, was almost hollowed out and extensively rotten. It took a crew an entire day to hack away at the tree taking it down. I watched from our back bedroom window, and it was like watching a death.

This is a picture where you can see the Hackberry growing over the back of our falling down garage, post-K. The sad thing is our garage still looks like that only flatter on the roof as Hurricane Gustav dropped a huge limb from the Hackberry on it. Now you can see straight over our garage roof to the house. It's a huge vacant spot where that giant tree stood.

It's sad to think that we took this out of the picture and left in its place a small pile of wood chips and a rotten stump. I keep thinking it was our responsibility to take care of the tree and that we can plant a new tree, but it's strange to be in charge of removing something that has been around longer than you. We saved two huge slices from a healthy, thick limb for the kids. That tree stood in eight feet of water for three weeks after the federal flooding of New Orleans. I think that's when the infestation started, the toxic water probably weakened the trunk. Five years out and things are still falling victim to the storm's carnage.

In other good news though, New Orleans now has a new mayor. They said it would take five years for New Orleans to recover from the storm and here we are. Hopefully, the next five years turn a corner on lingering problems and fallout from Pre-Katrina and Post-Katrina days. And the oil spill grows and pushes its way to shore...

I felt like this portion of this Whitman poem watching our tree shrink to just a bare, naked trunk as the day went by.

From Song of the Redwood-Tree:

"But in my soul I plainly heard.

Murmuring out of its myriad leaves,

Down from its lofty top, rising two hundred feet high,

Out of its stalwart trunk and limbs—out of its foot-thick bark,

That chant of the seasons and time—chant, not of the past only, but the future."

I wonder if the birds and squirrels notice the vacancy. Where something once was is now empty space. The air has to expand to feel/feed the place where the tree sat for so many decades, and now the sun's rays fall in a different pattern across our backyard.

Whitman loved his trees, from Specimen Days:

Aug. 4, 6 P. M.—Lights and shades and rare effects on tree-foliage and grass—transparent greens, grays, &c., all in sunset pomp and dazzle. The clear beams are now thrown in many new places, on the quilted, seam’d, bronze-drab, lower tree-trunks, shadow’d except at this hour—now flooding their young and old columnar ruggedness with strong light, unfolding to my sense new amazing features of silent, shaggy charm, the solid bark, the expression of harmless impassiveness, with many a bulge and gnarl unreck’d before. In the revealings of such light, such exceptional hour, such mood, one does not wonder at the old story fables, (indeed, why fables?) of people falling into love-sickness with trees,

Audubon Zoo: Language of Conservation, Poet Mark Doty

Poet Mark Doty has been working with the Audubon Zoo to create poetry installations that focus on celebrating nature. The exhibits will go on display May 15th. This is a wonderful initiative and puts poetry out there into the world where it should be. Thankfully, you don't need a huge grant to install your own poetry in the world. Just some chalk and a sidewalk or maybe some homemade magnets that you gift in a public place. Outside of property damage and just littering, there are numerous ways to gift the world with your words.

Write a poem on a leaf and then leave it on picnic table under a rock for someone to discover.



From the website:

Language of Conservation

"Find poems that celebrate the natural world at Audubon Zoo! As part of the "Language of Conservation" project Audubon is introducing 37 poetry installations into the Zoo's landscape. Look for writings in a water fountain, hanging from a tree or painted around a garden.

Premieres May 15, 2010
Audubon Zoo"


*******I keep writing the language of conversation instead of conservation. I would like to see an installation called the language of conversation. Maybe installed in elevators or public restrooms or gas stations....

Fence Mother's Day Special

Fence Books is offering a great deal on a poetry anthology written about mothering, child rearing, etc. Great deal with a great line up of contributors such as: ann lauterbach, mina loy, bernadette mayer, thylias moss, hoa nguyen, alice notley, sharon olds, alicia ostriker, maureen owen, and so on.

From the Fence Email:

"Today's the day to get the perfect gift for any mother, mother-to-be, past mother, grandmother, or actually anyone who's ever been born. It's Not for Mothers Only, and we're so eager for it be read that we're offering it for $10. If you order the book today, we can guarantee its arrival at the destination of your choice by May 9.

The picture on the cover of the silhouette of a woman in a state of extreme pregnancy, with an image of a fetus kind of drifting outside of her inside a box with a dotted line around it, indicates that this is pregnancy/birth/parenting of mind and spirit--not necessarily biological and sometimes immanent. Introductions are by editors Catherine Wagner and Rebecca Wolff."

Counterpath Press: New Book from Laynie Browne

Laynie Brown has a new book out and it's an homage to an amazing Mayer book. See below the info. fresh from Counterpath Press.


Browne's book The Scented Fox (Wave books, 2006) was chosen by Alice Notley in the National Poetry Series. It's one of my favorite poetry books and I used to read parts of it to Mina at night before bed. It's a blend of lyrical poetry and prose. Another favorite of mine that is also reminiscent of Mayer's experiments in form is Daily Sonnets, also from Counterpath Press, 2007.



Here's a review for The Scented Fox where the reviewer says the poems are like vicodin. I sure did enjoy them but they didn't make me feel all itchy and rashy...well, that's just me being allergic to vicodin and all.


From Counterpath Press Email:

"The Desires of Letters, by Laynie Browne (ISBN 978-1933996-19-6)


'Motherhood and housewifery and other worldly concerns of the female artist-provider ride rampant here in this bustling exploding book of prose & poem meditations. One of our best writers does it again' (Anne Waldman). Prose, verse, letters, and plays, The Desires of Letters is a passionate commentary on writing, mothering, and the navigation of politics, community, and imagination. An homage to Bernadette Mayer's The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters, the book begins at the onset of the 2003 Iraq war and becomes 'transformative . . . [in] its negotiation of the global and the domestic, beauty made bittersweet with annoyance and exhaustion, all that advice about how to raise a child and write at the same time' (Juliana Spahr)."




Learn more about the author:


Interview with Laynie Browne

Poets and Writers Presents Local Workshop: May 1

Valentine Pierce sent me a link to an upcoming event next weekend at the Bywater branch library. I think her workshop is invaluable for writers, poets who want to learn and improve on their performances. 17 Poets! has been running open mics since 2003, and Dave and I have heard too-many-to-count performances over the years during the open mic section that have varied from stunning to painful. Delivery and execution is a skill, and it's part of the process of completing the actual work of writing the poem. There are some really common sense tools that even seasoned readers often forget to employ that would make their readings more engaging.



Pictured: Valentine Pierce, 2005, reading at the 17 Poets! recording for the PBS News Hours with Jim Lehrer


During the Summer Writing Program at Naropa University, Bobbie Louise Hawkins would give a talk every year to students about stage performance. It was a wonderful compedium of tips and tactics that she learned in her many years as a performer and as an audience member at Naropa.

I can remember our first open mic night back in 2003 at the Gold Mine Saloon. We had just a handful of participants that came out for that first venture, but we did have an interesting character come in and strip down to his birthday suit in order to recite. Dave tactfully pointed out that we don't have a license in the Quarter for that kind of performance, and the young man put his underwear on and preceded to sing some quite lovely English ballads. I think his nudity had something to do with the pastoral. But case in point, know where your reading and how your performance will go over before you disrobe.


Valentine's Blog is under places to look: Backpocketpoet. Her book Geometry of the Heart was published by Portals Press.

Special Poetry Event Funded by Poets & Writers, Inc.

N.O. Public Library
Alvar Branch:
913 Alvar St, New Orleans, LA 70117

May 1, 12 - 2 p.m.

Valentine Pierce presents "Stand Up, Look Up, Speak Up: How to Present Your Poetry in Public"
Poets are encouraged to bring a poem for reading.
Reading is limited to 12 poets/1 poem (2–4 minutes in length).
Please call 504.596-2667 by April 26, 2010 to sign-up.

Congrats to Moose!

Big Easy Award Winners:

BEST ORIGINAL WORK OF THEATRE

"Loup Garou"

Raymond “Moose” Jackson, ArtSpot Productions, Mondo Bizarro

Pictured: R. Moose Jackson playing at the 17 Poets! Reading Series

Loup Garou was an amazing play. I'm thrilled that Moose received recognition in his first foray into playwriting. I'm shocked that Kathy Randels and Nick Slie who were nominated for Best Producer and Best Lead Actor were not also awarded. Dave and I went to go see this play out in the heart of City Park when I was about 8 months pregnant. They provided seating, but I brought my own since sitting for two hours at that point could get pretty uncomfortable.

This is exactly how a play should be written, produced and presented to an audience. I was quite certain at one point that Nick Slie, who plays the lead character, the loup garou, was going to blow us all up with a gas tank and a flame thrower. The set for this play was unbelievable and what made it even more fun was the unintentional audience, say a guy walking his dog in the background who had no idea why this guy was running around baying at the moon for a captive audience.

Whenever I'm watching something so visually and vocally stunning; I feel like an infant when they get overstimulated and they need to turn away. It's like you want it to be over, because your brain can't process it all at once and you don't want it to end, because it's so good.

I feel this way about chocolate, peanut butter and milk sometimes as well. But you can have that anytime, and we can only hope the powers that be will bring back the loup garou for our viewing pleasure.

Jazz/ Poetry Month: Celebrating Day One Jazz Fest

It was a wet day for opening Jazz Fest this year, but I heard on WWOZ Wednesday night this version of Theodore Roethke's Poem The Waking recorded by Kurt Elling. It's really beautiful, and The Waking was one of those first poems I remember reading in school and falling in love with the way the words worked.


From NPR's website links to some poetry inspired jazz including the Elling recording:

"April is Jazz Appreciation Month, as well as National Poetry Month. This week's Take Five celebrates both art forms in the same place. "

Read and Hear More

I also heard on George Ingmire's show on Wed. that Henry Butler's documentary The Music's Gonna Get You Through is going to be on PBS this Sunday. I might have to double DVR Treme and this as I've been falling asleep so early thanks to Issa's three hour feeding schedule.

And when is John Sinclair gonna be on Treme reading some poetry?

Seventh Birthday Poem

Mina turned seven in November.

Here is her birthday poem. It's for me really, not her.

Seventh Birthday

what is more painful than loss
the distinct knowledge of that which you held
in the palm
cradled newborn head
reaching far beyond your fingers
by this time there is no stopping it
the world too will end
child limbs that wrangle outside
your longest reach
writing on a poem that's already been written
be careful, dear love, these days
arch out final moments of smallest bodies
rush headfirst into a decade of making
smiles and conversations
yet to be designed
foolishly we think our paradise is out there
not slipping forever past our fingertips
the friction of our lives hurtling
before the vaccuum descends

Panel on Carville, LA at the Tenn Williams Fest

So, a few weeks ago I went to the panel on Carville, LA at the Tenn. Williams Fest. They had James Carville, Marcia Gaudet, Neil White, and Jose Ramirez talking about their experiences and books revolving around the National Leprosarium that was built in Carville, LA. I've linked to the author's books above, because they are all really good reads. I've been writing about Carville since 2005 and stopped literally because of Hurricane Katrina. I wrote the book Memorial and Sight Lines instead. But I went back to the Carville book because the Federal government built the morgue to identify bodies found in the floodwaters in Carville, LA. There is a poem in Memorial and Sight Lines that references this morgue.

At this point I have done a ton of research on Hansen's Disease and the history of the leprosarium, but it was wonderful to hear the panelists speak. Primarily, Ramirez's story is touching as a patient at the hospital during the sixties. In his talk, you could still hear his discomfort with the L word (leprosy) and his need to impart the incredible stigma associated with this disease.

Ironically, while all the panelists were cognizant of the stigma and even told stories about the patients' reactions to terms such as "being treated like a leper," an audience member still stood up and asked if there were any more patients in Carville at the "leper colony." I could see all the panelists cringe when the words came over the microphone. Neil White deftly referred to the center by its name as a hospital for the research of Hansen's Disease.

Here are some highlights from my notes:
Ramirez: "There is a great deal to be learned from being institutionalized."

Neil White who was actually a federal prisoner at the hospital during the short time that both patients and federal prisoners were housed on the grounds: talked about the eclectic convergence of patients, prisoners, staff, doctors, guards, etc. A unique mixture not to be seen again.

Armadillo statue on the desk; research center in New Iberia. (Nine-banded armadillo is a carrier of HD, symbol of HD research)

James Carville talked about the sterilization of the mail coming out of Carville. Stamps falling off the Stars.*

(*The Star was a periodical written at Carville.)

Ramirez spoke about the scars in the soul vs. physical scars as well as the impact on his mother and mothers in general who either could not protect their children or who were diagnosed with HD and had their children taken from them.

Gaudet referenced Whitman's "I saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing" talking about the large oak near the hospital

No constitutional lawsuits were ever brought by patients who were stripped of their civil liberties while at Carville.

A audience member who as a nurse had never seen a patient with HD prompted Ramirez to mention that most physicians receive 10 minutes of training in regards to HD. Each panelists' repsonse to the nurse was that she proabably had comes across a patient with HD, she just didn't know it, or they were misdiagnosed.

Coca Cola didn't want to supply the glass bottles to the hospital because they might be returned, so they refused return shipments. Patients boycotted Coke for Pepsi and began to use the Coke bottles that couldn't be returned to line the flower beds and walkways. Neil White referenced a patient saying: Coca Cola bottles still a Coca Cola bottle, it's just found a new purpose.


******Sorry for any typos; Issa insists that I hold her and type one-handed.

Love Poems

I like poems that use multiple choice answers and syllabi. I want to write poems with more charts and graphs.

ELENA GEORGIOU's In-Class Assignment*

Text below from Tarpaulin Sky:

http://www.tarpaulinsky.com/Fall03/EGAssignment.htm

Speaking of graphs:

Here is a cool one from Diagram 10.1 on suicidal poets and their controls:

http://thediagram.com/10_1/suicidalpoets.html

From the site's description:


A total of 158 poems by poets who committed suicide were analyzed for differences in language between early (written within 2-3 years of the poet's first recorded poem), middle (written 2-5 years halfway between their earliest and final poems), and late (written within 1 year of suicide) poems....
In general, the results indicate that certain features of poetry may be associated with suicide. Most intriuging was the combined linguistic evidence to support a social integration approach. That is, the suicide group's poetry contained more first-person singular self-references throughout their careers.
The suicide group used a significantly higher percentage of sexual words throughout all phases of their careers.

Allison Cobb: Green-Wood

Been reading, and have read, Alllison Cobb's Green-Wood, (Factory Books, 2010):

This is a photo I took in Green-Wood when Dave and I went up there to read in the church on the grounds. There is Tracey McTague, amazing MC, for the Green-wood Reading.

Here is an online excerpt from Cobb's text:

http://chax.org/eoagh/issue3/issuethree/cobb.pdf

This is an amazing book with some interesting parallels for me.

One:

I live next to a Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans.

Two:

Tracey McTague of Lungfull Magazine , among other amazing things, invited Dave and me to read at the Brooklyn Green-Wood Cemetery in 2007. On this fabulous night of poetry among the gravestones and history, Tracey first told me that she and Brendan were pregnant with their little girl Aurora.

Three:

I am slightly obsessed with funeral rituals and the dead, so the context of the book is appealing to me.

Four:

But more importantly, it is a long poem filled with tons of cerebral facts and bits of informtation from the listing of trees to herbicides and Emerson digging up his dead wife. I love this.

Five:

Jacket Magazine,Issue 40, just published my article on Bernadette Mayer's Midwinter Day, another long poem that is fond of lists and various tidbits of info. to tickle your brain.

So, everyone should immediately read this book. And visit Greenwood cemetery as well. Both book and place are amazing.

Baby Issa would like me to stop going on about this and pick her up now.

One last thing:

Allison Cobb Interview

NOMA Event: Patti Smith

From the NOMA Website:

On Thursday, April 22nd, the night before JazzFest opens in New Orleans , artist and musician Patti Smith will present a talk at NOMA entitled "On Photography" at 6:00 pm in the Museum's Stern Auditorium. Her talk will accompany the opening of an exhibition of forty-five photographs by Smith, donated by the artist to the museum in 2009 and 2010.

Patti Smith is an interdisciplinary artist of the highest order. She has excelled in the diverse fields of poetry, prose, music, drawing, film and photography. Her friendship and artistic relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe was recently documented in her best-selling memoir Just Kids. Copies of the book will be on hand in the Museum Shop for Smith to sign following her talk.The source of inspiration for much of Patti Smith's poetry and music has often been key figures of French culture, including Arthur Rimbaud, Nicole Stéphane, Jean Genet, Antonin Artaud and RenŽ Daumal, so we find many of the inspirational photographs Smith has taken derive from her frequent Parisian and French sojourns.

Patti Smith: A Donation to NOMA will be on view in the 2nd floor Contemporary Art Galleries from April 22 until July 3. The artist will present a talk entitled "On Photography" on Thursday, April 22, at 6 p.m. in the Stern Auditorium.

Solid Quarter Submissions

I'm opening submissions for Solid Quarter Magazine once again.

Solid Quarter features the work of four poets focusing on long poems or serial poems.

Work that you think is too long to be accepted elsewhere!

Please send your work to the email meganaburns@aol.com attached as a word .doc with the subject:
Solid Quarter Submission

This will be issue 3. Contributors will receive issues and are invited to attend the reading at the Gold Mine Saloon 17 Poets! Reading Series

17 Poets! reading Series

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010 @ 8:00 p.m.
17 Poets! Literary & Performance Series hosts a reading featuring poet RAYMOND "MOOSE" JACKSON and fiction writer JENNIFER STEWART.

** JENNIFER STEWART **
Ms. Stewart is a 2006 graduate of UNO's Low-Residency MFA in poetry. She currently works for the Low-Residency Program as the Coordinator of the Study Abroad Programs in Writing. She earned her undergraduate degree, a BA in History and English, at Emory & Henry College in 2001. Publications include Florida English, Sentence, Poets' Corner - Fieralingue, Exquisite Corpse, and Big Bridge. Ms, Stewart lives in New Orleans, writes in coffee shops, and in her spare time, teaches people how to bend funny ways.

**R. "MOOSE" JACKSON**
When it comes to poetry, Mr. Jackson is considered one of New Orleans' most favorite sons. He is the author of Illusion Fields and most recently Bitter Ink. Jackson is a consummate world traveler of the earth's byways, railways, and highways. In the fall 2009, he astounded audiences with his play Loup Garou produced by Art Spot Productions. As a professional human being, Jackson is arguably second to none. His poems have appeared in dozens of publications including YAWP: a Journal of Poetry & Art, Big Bridge, and Exquisite Corpse.

Visit 17poets.com for more info.

New Favorite Poem by Michael Ford

Read my New Favorite Poem by Michael Ford published by SoandSo:

Lizzie Borden, What's all the fuss about?

Go ahead and read all the work. This new online publication has some stunning words.

Summer Brenner (PM Press) nominated for award

See a review I did for her nominated book here at Gently Read Lit and vote below:

Just go online to http://www.spinetinglermag.com/category/spinetingler-awards/ and vote for:

* Best New Voice - Summer Brenner, /I-5: A Novel of Crime, Transport and Sex /
* Best Cover - /I-5//: A Novel of Crime, Transport and Sex/
* Best Publisher/Imprint - PM Press / Switchblade

PM Press' New Releases Include:
* Benjamin Whitmer - /Pike/ ("This is what noir is, what it can be when it stops playing nice--blunt force drama stripped down to the bone, then made to dance across the page." --Stephen Graham Jones )

* Michael Harris - /Chieu Hoi Saloon/ ("Mike Harris' novel has all the brave force and arresting power of Celine and Dostoevsky in its descent into the depths of human anguish and that peculiar gallantry of the moral soul..." --John Shannon.)

New Books from bedouin books

hello book lovers---

bedouin books is proud to announce a new book of poems from liz collins, neo logo isms, as part of its winter/spring 2008-09 season.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
liz collins is:
'a poetess akin to HD in resonant lyric/womaness... [her] work is sacred elixir, a remedy we nearly forgot to recall'
antoinette nora claypoole, author/Oregon Literary Arts recipient

collins' work is: 'juicy, provocative and challenging... the poems read like sacred chants for a planet that awaits our attention'
Linda Saccoccio, artist and writer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

visit our website to order your copy
m.d'alessandroeditorwww.bedouinbooks.comt.

New Book by Summer Brenner

A note from Summer Brenner about her new book. Looks awesome!

To friends and acquaintances, near and far,

Attached is an announcement of my new book from PM Press/Switchblade: I-5, A Novel of Crime, Transport, and Sex. A 400-mile crime scene along the interstate from LA to Oakland. Not exactly scenic, but if you like sinister thrillers, this is an order form which directs you to a website <http://www.pmpress.org/> and/or PM's tel. 510.658.3906.

For schedule of events and readings in SF, LA, and NYC, check PM website.

Cheers! Summer Brenner

Advance comments: ..."insider's look at the seedy world of sexual slavery...." David Batstone, Not for Sale campaign.

"....This book bleeds truth -- and after you finish it, the blood will be on your hands." Barry Gifford, Wild at Heart.

"....Anya is a wonderful, believable heroine, her tragic tale told from the inside out, without a shred of sentimental pity....." Denise Hamilton, author and editor of Los Angeles Noir.

"...no better novel in the genre. Roll over, Willeford, tell Goodis the news." Owen Hill, poet and crime writer.

"...moves so fast you can barely catch your breath....." Julie Smith, author, journalist, and editor of New Orleans Noir.
.

It's April already?

National Poetry Month:
I read this poem that I wrote back in 2003 at Mina's school's morning assembly on April first to kickstart poetry month. I forgot that one of her nicknames was "goose" until I came across this poem.





“The Goose”

The goose’s beak trembles as it leans
Toward you to pluck stale bread
From your miniature hand.
Green goose muck stains your white
Leather shoes and my socks, thighs
And shorts where you climbed into my arms
After the geese’s excited squawking scared you.
Together we have eased down to goose-level,
Eye to eye. We coax it closer with tossed bits of bread.
We are almost still like the oaks dropping
Spiraling leaves. You and the goose step forward
Examining each other, cautiously deciding to continue
The exchange. Each is offering a measure of delight.
I stand back as you seem to fall from me, not painfully
But like a natural extraction. Like the changing of the seasons,
The world revolves from dangerous to safe. There will be
So many geese, my goose, that I will never see.

New Print Edition of Exquisite Corpse

Parts of the long poem I'm writing about the leprosarium in Carville, LA are in the new corpse. Dave has some wonderful poems in here as well. The whole magazine is amazing; they certainly came back into the print world with a bang!

ADVANCE COPIES OF EXQUISITE CORPSE ANNUAL #1 ON SALE NOW! Ed in Chief Andrei Codrescu presents artwork by Ralph Steadman, Joel Lipman; poetry by Diane di Prima, Bill Berkson, Alice Notley, Mike Topp, Jim Gustafson, Ruxandra Cesereanu; prose by Jerome Rothenberg, Willie Smith, Aram Saroyan, Lance Olsen, Davis Schneiderman; and more more more! So get your historic freak on!Send a check made out to "UCA" ($20 per issue) to Exquisite Corpse Annual/Department of Writing/University of Central Arkansas/Conway, AR 72035 or send PayPal payment to corpse_ed@yahoo.com.

For intl. orders please add $7.50 per issue for shipping. Lifetime subscriptions $100. Also available on Amazon.com .

http://www.corpse.org/

Rex Rose, Design Ed. Terry Wright, Associate Ed. Mark Spitzer, Managing Ed.

Spotlight on Small Press: bedouin books

Solid Quarter interview with Publisher Michael D'alessandro:

SQ: What will readers find coming from Bedouin Books Press?

md: readers will find 3 new books released this winter/spring season. the first will be published this month, a book of short fiction titled It Can Be That Way Still, by Shane Joaquín Jiménez. the upcoming two are books of poetry from liz collins and Scott Alexander Jones. also bedouin books' semiannual journal swap/concessions will have a new issue out in the spring focusing on short non-fiction.

SQ: Why did you want to start publishing?

md: i started publishing my own poetry under the bedouin books label in San Francisco, in 2003. i would make them by hand and consign them with City Lights Books, and sell a few now and then. it wasn't until 2007, when i wanted to produce a literary semiannual, that i decided to reinvent bedouin books as an independent publisher of works of literature in addition to the journal. now bedouin books hopes to put out 6 books a year from emerging writers in a small pocket format, handmade and covering a cross-selection of genres.

SQ: swap/concessions 3 focuses on short tales. Any reason for that particular genre?

md: swap/concessions is a way to test the genres in a digestable format. 3 writers come together with 3 works each. swap/concessions 3 features short fiction, whereas the first two issue featured poetry and comics respectively. i want bedouin books to expand to emerging writers who write in multiple genres.

SQ: Can you describe what's on the horizon for Bedouin Books in four words?

md: poetry chapbook and magazine

Below is a brief excerpt from the newest release from Bedouin Books. To order this book or the latest issue of swap/concessions please visit: http://www.bedouinbooks.com/

‘Hundreds of Miles’ by Shane Joaquín Jiménez from his forthcoming book of short fictions, It Can Be That Way Still published by bedouin books.

Hundreds of Miles

I knew a man at Briscoe who went on to death row. Only man I ever knew who went that way. We was celled together my last year incarcerated. He said he was a shaman, told me so out of his own mouth. Said he was the last of his people, the Quapaw tribe, but the ghosts of his ancestors walked this earth and talked to him. They showed him things of this world and the next.
Two, three days before they let him out, we was together in the mess hall. Two days. Suddenly, like it was just any damn thing, he took the tin coffee cup from my hand and overturned what was left in it onto my shoes. He looked at the grounds at the bottom as if he was reading the Sunday paper.

‘When you leave this place’, he said finally, ‘you go home. You go where you come from and you make peace. Any where else for you is death. And beyond that is finally Hell’.

The shaman himself went back home when they set him free. Had a job in a supermarket waiting for him from the parole board, stocking shelves on the graveyard shift. It was union and he got weekends off. Wasn’t long before he found a girl. This was down in Neches. This girl was fourteen years old, the paper said. She was in eighth grade. Wanted to be a dentist when she grew up, if you could believe that. Her daddy said she knew the name of every tooth in the human head. What that shaman did to her before he butchered her, and then after, I won’t repeat. But from what I understand, they never did find everything.

That shaman was given a small trial in Lubbock County and then sent on back to Briscoe State Penitentiary. They sent him to the row. Fried him shortly thereafter. I always wondered if his ghosts ever let him know what was coming. Maybe they didn’t have the heart. Maybe they just let him enjoy his damn coffee. First thing I did when they let me free was get as far away as I could get. I wasn’t concerned with where I ended up, how I got there, nothing. I went in straight lines, hundreds of miles off, until there was nothing that was familiar around me. I didn’t think once of the getting back.

These and many things are strange

Ok. I really did not write that poem.

And I wouldn't point it out except for the fact.

That someone commented on it.

And they called me Scott.

So, things are looking up.

Well...I got that going for me.

If I were scott, I would probably use the word "untrammeled."

If I were a dot, I would apply myself in various and numinous ways.

Vampires as it were. And other spookies. Cold a bit here in New Orleans.

Anselm Hollo was here last week. And I could not keep my Italian dinner down.
Not that the two are related. But Ed Sanders is here now. And so we have 1968 and poems for New Orleans to look forward and not back to.

We are very sad that Brendan, Tracey and Aurora are not coming. Damn you economy.

But very Happy that Phil and Bernadette will be here Wed. and Hannah will be here Thursday.

If you are looking for your poets and think you have misplaced them, don't be alarmed.
They are safe here in the New Or-leans!

New Poem

I wrote this great new piece that's already been published here (it's on page 3035) if you want to see the original.

http://www.forgodot.com/2008/10/issue-1-release-announcement.html

Refraining Solitude

Vegetation and mischief
Lusty and untrammeled
Prudence and glory
Shaking

Taking

More inborn than a
durability
Taking above a
man
Your inbred mankind
Refraining on a strength
At a congenital piece




I'm thinking about changing the word untrammelled though...it just doesn't sound like me....maybe just trampy.... wow, i sound really tense too. I need some valium.

The Vulva Song of Innana

I love this so much.

Nicole, you are my hero!

Maureen Owen and Mina

The wonderful Maureen Owen was here last week. She led a wonderful discussion here at the house with about 11 other poets. We talked about her own career in publishing Telephone books and then spent quite some time talking about the current state of reading and writing in schools and among children, especially why poetry gets such a bad rap in education as either hard to teach or confined to boring, overanthologized versions of the same-old poems. I was amazed to hear college professors reveal they had students who have never read a book or who are unfamiliar with the parts of speech.


As a result, all of the middle schoolers will be wading through an expansive lesson on these grammar "details." Sixth graders today will be collecting words for their 3-d project on bagging language into the 8 parts of speech.

Maureen gave a fabulous reading on Thursday night; also featured was the poet Gabe Gomez.


People often think we named Mina after Mina Harker, not Mina Loy. Isn't it interesting how the fictional character has more presence than the very real poet? No, not really. But maybe, yes.

I've been reading Bellamy's Mina Harker Letters, a wonderful juxtaposition to a flurry of Young Adults novels that I've been reading at the same time. And to complement Bellamy, I've been listening to Vintage Horror Radio podcasts before falling asleep.

New Poetry Books

I'm reading this book by Skip Fox, from BlazeVox [books] to review for YAWP Journal. It's amazing. At almost 300 pages, it's a huge poetry chunk to sink your teeth into. That's not in the review.

I also just got in the mail Mark Cunningham's new book from Tarpaulin Sky called Body Language. It's a flip book that meets in the middle. It's strange because we (Dave and I) were just talking about publishing flip books. I just started reading it last night, and I am enjoying it as well. I will probably write a review for it next week.

Graffiti Artist Visits New Orleans

3rd Anniversary/ 1st Evacuation Since...

More Than Halfway

infected season
if time won’t hold still
this life too is a dreary anger
let it come
take us what water that will
grasp at our designs
a life that falters as best can be described
it’s a short ride in darkening light
to a part of the city still trembling
and tethered
most of the block stays the same
looking further into the enveloping night
see how the homes have been beaten
a memory from childhood
taken out to lay down in disgrace
folded edges as witness palimpsest
danger overlapping disaster
shimmering gaze—all cities reject silence
desolate as is the world wrapped round us
the repetition of “towards recovery”
place holders these empty hulls
beached on the shore of this sunken city
exposed as a vacuum filling with anxiety
each time a breeze picks up in the Atlantic
each time a butterfly wing opens and closes
half way around the earth





Megan Burns
8.29.08

Ed Sanders and New Orleans

It seems that Gov. Jindal has secured enough MRE's to feed 350,000 people in the event of a hurricane heading straight for New Orleans this weekend. Since that end is covered, may I suggest grabbing your copy of the new Poems for New Orleans by Ed Sanders (North Atlantic Books), previously released in CD format and now available for your reading pleasure. It's a known fact the intonation of these poems aloud before your hurricane altar has the power to cool the gulf waters and turn the winds in our favor. Be prepared! Water, batteries, Sanders!

Solid Quarter Release Party

Solid Quarter (Issue II) Release Party and Reading at the 17 Poets! Reading Series. Pictured (l to r) Contributors David Rowe, Thaddeus Conti, Dave Brinks and Editor Megan Burns

The Solid Quarter release party was a huge success. Thank you to the readers and everyone who came out and picked up a copy of the second issue.

There will be another reading for Solid Quarter at Fuel Coffeehouse, 4807 Magazine St. on Sept 5th at 7:00 Pm.

Talkng to Amy Lynn Hess, Editor of Brown Bagazine

This photo shows my collection of Brown Bagazines. On the left is issue 5, the Borders issue, laid out and folded like a map with cross points for easy poet/ poem referencing. Issue 2 is the blue essay test booklet, no exam anxiety here just this issue's manifesto theme. There is the back-to-school issue (4) that comes in the handy trapper-keeper see thru folder for better poesy viewing. At top is the namesake of this magazine, the brown bag distribution center of issue 1. Leaning on the brown bag is the CD that came with the songwriting issue (3). Not only do the presentations of each theme centered issue continue to amuse, but Brown Bagazine has managed to create a strong presence in its first five issues by continually presenting charged and innovative work.

In issue 4, Rowland Sufi's A Drama breaks down the structure used in writing a dramatic play and inserts it into the narrative so that the text begins to resemble a complicated mathmatical formula. The solution may be attainable by confronting ideas of organization and narrative structure; it's possible that all of the bard's great plays were created using this formula.
Of particular note are Tim Armentrout's prose poems in issue 5. From stagnant ice, "it's a question of how empty space insulates itself. conversations above too chilled to hold anything in. cold shoulder isn't even the tip of the iceberg. presumption like a fork in the socket of your simple life." All three of Armentrout's pieces build on these turns in the language as they layer subtle images with a dynamic rhythm producing a momentum that pulls the reader along for the ride.
In Solid Quarter fashion (four questions), we interviewed the editor of the innovative and wonderfully packaged Brown Bagazine: Amy Lynn Hess.

Solid Quarter: What made you want to start a literary magazine?

Amy Lynn Hess: I was casually flipping through Poet's Market at the end of Naropa University's Summer Writing Program in 2006, and I realized there was a distinct lack of grassroots, easy-does-it, tactile, visceral, labor-of-love-type journals that were promoting the poetic conversation. It made me want to start a literary magazine to challenge the very corporate idea of what a literary magazine or journal really is. It is a place for current writers to share their own current ideas - glossy papers and perfect-bindings not required - just thoughtful and sparky writing that begets more thoughtful and sparky writing.

SQ: Where did the idea for a magazine in a brown bag originate from?

ALH: At its best, my work is blue collar and unpretentious. There's nothing more blue collar and unpretentious than a brown bag. The link between brown bags being symbolic of the type of work I appreciate and being a marvelously inexpensive way to mail the kind of work I wanted to collect came to me one night in Boulder as I was tossing around on a pull-out loveseat under a borrowed sheet and stolen quilt. I just couldn't calm my monkey-mind after that, and from there the mission statement emerged.

SQ: Why do you work with themes in your issues?

ALH: Various writers asked for themes last year as they were planning submissions, and I responded by adding specific subtitles to each issue this year. I think it has helped move the literary conversation forward. When all of the submitting writers are thinking along the same lines, I can edit a journal that moves as though a type of conversation. Writers also have the chance to respond to one another later in the season, in the "literary conversations" issue. It's very important to me to offer a space where writers can converse and respond to one another through fiction and nonfiction poetry and prose. I also think it has been a helpful way to guide my own writing as the year progresses.

SQ: Describe brown bag's eclectic mix of contributors and contents in four words.

ALH: Black dirt; rolling sweat-stains.


For more info. on Brown Bagazine and Amy Lynn Hess' press Gypsy Daughter, visit:
http://www.gypsydaughter.com/

Brown Bagazine Subscriptions, only $15.00 for 4 issues! Buy through PayPal on the Gypsy Daughter website.

Small Press Focus: Bedouin Books

A short note from editor Michael D'alassandro about all the great things happening over at Bedouin Books.

"greetings booklovers----
bedouin books, independent publishers of handmade works of literature and poetry, fiction and non-fiction is now open for business. browse the various features this website has to offer:

http://www.bedouinbooks.com/

the in-print and online features include:

- a semiannual literary journal swap/concessions
- online literary journal agora (edited by kaen joyler)
- annual poetry chapbook- the pamphlet poets series
- an editor's log of news, progress and updates

some future features will include:
- a reviews and literary criticism page
- online quarterly poetry magazine
- excerpts of all published works

as editor, i began this 25-year publishing project in 2003 with the promotion of my own writing. now, with the expansion of the website and a growing list of titles and authors, i hope to grow bedouin books into a fully functioning independent publisher. thank you in advance for taking a look at the website. bedouin books is taking orders, see website for details.
sincerely,
michael-----

m.d'alessandro, editor"

Guitars, Pies and Moving Type

The fabulous Willy Gantrim on guitar singing for us on Thursday evening.

Hannah has left us. She made many pies while she was here and broke many hearts, I hear, in the Bywater. Word is she will be back this way in October and using her secret key to enter the kingdom of babylon. Here is a photo from her reading Thursday night.

And I have been learning to set type and run the printing press (below) with the owner of Verna Press, Peter Anderson. Here is a photo of him cleaning the rollers as we prepare to change ink colors. We finished making a small broadside of one of my poems last week. Next, we move on to making a larger broadside with an image using a color we are still trying to create. Everyone says printing presses are addicting, and they are right.

Solid Quarter's Second Issue release party is this Thursday night. Readings by Thaddeus Conti, David Rowe, Dave Brinks and Megan Burns. Copies of Solid Quarter are only $4.00.

Photo and Book Review

Here's an old photo of a collection of oddities. Painters and poets: (L to R, photo by poet Lenny Emmanuel) Painter William Warren, Poet Danny Kerwick, Painters Tasha Robbins and Herbert Kearney, Poet Dave Brinks, Painter Romano Zamprioli and Poet Jimmy Nolan. As the small date indicates, one year before Dave and I even met. And now nearly half of the artists in this photo gone from New Orleans and sorely missed. I'm posting it to show the wonderful host of this evening's art opening Danny Kerwick who opened up his studio, Simpatico Studios on Magazine to showcase some beautiful artwork by Pat Kaschalk and handmade books by himself. Dave and I made a nice purchase, an image I will share soon.

My review of Kristin Prevallet's I, Afterlife: Essays in Mourning Time is up at Tarpaulin Sky.

They are also reading chapbook manuscripts now, so check it out and submit to an awesome press.

Tuesday's Dinner and More

Tuesday's dinner with our guests Hannah and Willy as well as lovely painter Daniel Finnigan consisted of salmon and softshell crab on a bed of crayfish pasta. Also included were grilled squash and other chef Brinks' secrets. If this poetry should not pan out and New Orleans becomes a dry town putting the Gold Mine out of business; we will be able to fall back on Dave's unrealized dream of opening a restaurant. In fact, we'll just use the same building and call it the Golden Mustard.


Solid Quarter Release Party will be August 14th at the Gold Mine Saloon 17 Poets! Reading Series. Readers include Dave Brinks, Thaddeus Conti, David Rowe and Megan Burns.

I've been reading C.D. Wright's new book: Rising, Hovering, Falling. It's a pleasant break from the Leprosy in America and imperialism and leprosy books that I am also engrossed in at the moment. We're deep in house construction again as we build some bookshelves to hold our obsessions in place.

And here is the piece I read at the open mic last night. I am trying to come to terms with the amount of damage this oil spill has done to our already traumatized ecosystem here along the river. I'm not sure what these terms resemble though.



How Trauma is like a Boat


What if there was a place where unwanted people could go to be put away in total anonymity united by their diagnosis. Think of the bodies in their lingering daydreams crowded skin to skin and all the end lines delivering to their own peculiar disasters: slavery, work camps, exile. Removal of any large group of people is problematic; the goal is the hasty evacuation of a city hours after the call is made. This is the loveliness of fiction. For some, removal is another form of torture and death. So, the young doctor administers a sleep aid and is called a murderer. Several will be blamed for the murder of a few while the murder of many is protected by the legal status of immunity. Committees designed to protect enact their right to be faultless for faulty designs, faulty responses; there is no fault it turns out that can be premeditated. Leprosy is like a storm; something still feared even in the face of knowing that you may survive it. But this depends on the ability to construct a cohesive narrative. One both navigable and lightweight as you will have to carry it downriver. And then, here too, turn away from the oil spill’s gleam on the water as it coats the exotic nature of your phrasing: what you would garnish for explanation. Gather in the hull this delicate ecosystem for safe travel to a foreign land. It was never about oil for these small beasts; all water safe from the threat of spills and their antecedents. Imagine trauma like a boat passing by unnoticed on the clipped wing of the horizon.