Portland poet and erotica writer Shanna Germain is hosting a poem-a-day project this month. Pick up your daily prompts and post your poems here: http://notwithoutpoetry.wordpress.com/
I recently posted an interview with Portland poet Sage Cohen, the author of The Productive Writer, a helpful guide filled with ideas on how to organize your writing and increase your success as a professional writer. Our conversation is the latest in my series of interviews with “Partners in Truth and Beauty:” http://christopherluna-poetry.blogspot.com/2011/03/partners-in-truth-and-beauty-march-2011.html
Please also take a look at the April edition of Writing the Life Poetic, the e-zine edited by Sage Cohen which features columns by local writers Brittany Baldwin, Kristin Berger, Sage, Dale Favier, M, Toni Partington, Shawn Sorensen, Steve Williams, and myself:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs010/1100476723030/archive/1104984931851.html
I am very happy to announce that we will be returning to Cover to Cover Books for a special open mic reading and celebration of National Poetry Month and four years of poetry at the bookstore. I am very proud of the Vancouver poetry community for sticking with us as we toured the series, and am grateful to the individuals and businesses who stepped up to help during our temporary period of homelessness. You have proved to everyone that in Vancouver, WA, poetry matters.
Please come out to see the new space, share your work, and hear some great poetry. Mel is not yet licensed to serve coffee, but we are permitted to bring food and drink. So if you are so inclined, bring a dish or beverage to share.
THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF GHOST TOWN POETRY
TO COVER TO COVER BOOKS
NOW IN A NEW AND IMPROVED LOCATION!
OPEN MIC POETRY
HOSTED BY CHRISTOPHER LUNA
AND TONI PARTINGTON
7pm
THURSDAY, APRIL 14
(and every second Thursday)
COVER TO COVER BOOKS
6300 NE St. James Rd., Suite 104B(St. James & Minnehaha)
Vancouver, WA
all ages & uncensored since 2004
Christopher Luna and Ernesto Claros at Niche March 26
Photo by Olinka Broadfoot
Then, on Saturday, April 23, return to Niche for the latest in a series of multilingual readings I have organized to bring poetry to a larger audience and to honor the diversity of American culture. We will hear poetry read in Spanish, Italian, Slovenian, Romanian, and Vietnamese. For more details, see item 8 below.
Along with the exciting readings listed below, you can read about the return of Burning Word and the WPA, and Big Bridge publisher Michael Rothenberg’s burgeoning social justice movement 100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE.
May your April be
an eternally blossoming
flower of linguistic wonder,
Christopher Luna
THE WORK
POETRY NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Objects of the Sacred and Profane: Ceramic Sculpture and Poetry by Willa Schneberg at Guardino Gallery (Portland, OR).
2. Figures of Speech Critique Group April 10/ Susan Wooldridge & Barbara LaMorticella + open mic at In Other Words Books (Portland) April 19
3. The Studio Series featuring Kathleen Halme & Wendy Willis + open mic Stonehenge Studios (Portland) April 10
4. Greg Chaimov, A. Molotkov, and Sandra Stone at Moonstruck Chocolate (Lake Oswego, OR) April 17
5. "Your Voice Here" open mic featuring Becca Yenser at St Johns Booksellers (Portland) April 20
6. Allison Apotheker + open mic at Paper Tiger Coffee (Vancouver, WA) April 21
7. “A Celebration of Poetry in Jazz” with Lawson Inada and Emmett Wheatfall (Portland and Seattle) April 22-23
8. Multilingual poetry at Niche Wine and Art (Vancouver) featuring Ernesto Claros, Kelly Lenox, Christopher Luna, Tina Tran, and Silvia Maria Vasiu April 23.
9. Last Monday Poetry featuring David Cooke (Hillsboro, OR) April 25
10. Verse in Person with Dan Raphael, Michael Berton, and Pat Vivian at Northwest Branch Library (Portland) April 27
11. The return of Burning Word and the Washington Poets Association
SUBMISSION CALLS
1.
From Willa Schneberg:
Hi Everyone,
My ceramic sculpture exhibit entitled Objects of the Sacred and Profane will be on display from March 31 - April 24 at the Guardino Gallery, 2939 NE Alberta. The work is inspired by Cambodian street vendors, Torah pointers, Tibetan vajras, and the guard towers at Auschwitz/Birkenau. Painter Anna Magruder is also featured. I will give an Artist Talk & Poetry Reading, Sat. April 16th, 3-4PM. For more information visit www.guardinogallery.com
Hope you can drop by.
All best,
Willa
2.
From Steve Williams
Our next events:
Join us for our Critique Group (open to the public) at In Other Words located at 14 N Killingsworth in north Portland, on Sunday, April 10th at 4 p.m. Bring 8-10 copies of a poem you'd like feedback on from the group.
Also at In Other Words, our April reading features Susan Wooldridge and Barbara LaMorticella. As always we'll have cookies, poetry prompts, and broadsides that you can pick up by donating to the bookstore ($1-$5). We also have an open mic so don't be shy -- bring a poem or two and add your voice to the evening.
Susan was here two years ago for the OSPA conference and her workshop was given to rave reviews. In conjunction with our reading, Susan will be doing a workshop for the creative writing program at Roosevelt High School and another workshop for VoiceCatcher. There are a few spots left in the workshop to benefit VoiceCatcher and you can sign up by going to their web site at www.voicecatcher.org.
We first heard Barbara LaMorticella at the long running series hosted by Christopher Luna at Cover to Cover books in Vancouver (by the way Cover to Cover is reopening in their new site after an October fire on April 1st. Info at http://www.covertocoverbooks.net/). We were impressed then and know you will be impressed with her grass roots humor and biting commentary on a variety of subjects.
Bios:
Susan presents writing and creativity workshops around the U.S. She’s in her seventh year of a series to foster creative expression among people of all ages and backgrounds in rural California libraries sponsored by Poets and Writers organization and the California Center for the Book. Susan helps people begin to begin to play with language and imagery. She encourages everyone to begin a collage journal and some of her workshops now include collage with found objects. Her workshops have been featured in Poets and Writers magazine. Susan’s home base is a co-housing village in Chico, California, at the edge of Bidwell Park (or Sherwood Forest)–where Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood was filmed.
Barbara LaMorticella is a long-time co-host of KBOO’s Talking Earth poetry show. Her second collection of poetry, Rain on Waterless Mountain,was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. She’s twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, was a Poetry in Motion poet, and won a Bumbershoot Big Book Award and the first Northwest Poets Concord prize. She has given over 200 poetry readings and organized and hosted many poetry events, and is the recipient of the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award for Outstanding Contribution to Oregon Literary Life.
Figures of Speech hosted by Steve Williams and Constance Hall
3.
From Leah Stenson:
The Studio Series
Poetry Reading and Open Mic
In March, the Studio Series will feature
Kathleen Halme and Wendy Willis
Sunday, April 10th 7-9 pm
Stonehenge Studios
3508 SW Corbett Avenue, Portland 97239
Free and open to the public, The Studio Series is held monthly on second Sundays. For more information, please contact organizer and host Leah Stenson at leahstenson@comcast.net
Kathleen Halme grew up in Wakefield, a post-mining and logging town in Michigan's upper peninsula. She completed her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan, where her work was awarded the Hopwood Creative Writing Award. Her honors include a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry, a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in anthropology, and an Oregon Literary Fellowship. Her poems have appeared widely in journals, including Poetry, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, Virginia Quarterly Review and Anthropological Quarterly. Her three books of poetry are Every Substance Clothed, winner of the University of Georgia Press Contemporary Poetry Series and the Balcones Poetry Prize, Equipoise published by Sarabande Books and Drift and Pulse from Carnegie Mellon University Press. She lives with her husband in Portland, Oregon.
Wendy Willis is a poet, mother, and democracy builder who lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Her peripatetic lifestyle that allows her to make dinner in Portland one night and be at work in the coalfields of West Virginia the next lends to her poems a lexicon of the Republic with a strong dash of the domestic. She is the interim director of the Policy Consensus Initiative and has published poems in a variety of regional and national journals including VoiceCatcher, the Bellingham Review and Poetry Northwest. Wendy lives in Southeast Portland with her two daughters, her husband and his son, and their two unruly dogs.
4.
From Joan Maiers:
LOCAL AUTHORS CELEBRATE NATIONAL POETRY MONTH
Joan Maiers hosts a poetry reading featuring Greg Chaimov, A. Molotkov, and Sandra Stone on Sunday, April 17 at 6:30 PM. Space is limited, so arrive early. Abundant, accessible parking. New books available for purchase and signing. Free and open to the public. $5 donation suggested to assist Haitian girls' orphanage. Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe, 45 S. State Street in downtown Lake Oswego, OR. Contact: 503-697-7097.
5.
We'll be doing our second open mic--"Your Voice Here"--on the third Wednesday of the month, the 20th of April, at St Johns Bookseller, 7-9, 8622 N Lombard Street. Our featured reader will be Becca Yenser. We had a nice turnout out last month when Dan Raphael read, and we're hoping to get even more folks this time. Any way you could pass this info on to your readers would be appreciated. Thanks!
Tom Lavoie
6.
From Dan Nelson:
Hey all you poetry lovers,
A big "Thank You" to everybody who attended or publicized our March reading at Paper Tiger. Alex Birkett was entertaining and profound , as usual, and our open mic readers took us through the gamut of emotions and reactions.
On Thursday, April 21st at 7pm at Paper Tiger, (703 Grand Blvd in Vancouver, about a mile east of I-5 between Mill Plain and Evergreen) we will be featuring the wonderfully understated poetry of Allison Apotheker. Allison wowed us all at the Barnes and Noble reading hosted by Shawn Sorenson back in December and I am thrilled to be bringing her back to the 'Couve. Alison Apotheker is Chair of the English Department at PCC. She has poems published in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, Crab Orchard Review, Cream City Review and many other national literary magazines. Her poetry has won an Oregon Literary Arts fellowship, twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was recently featured on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac. Her first book, Slim Margin was released in 2008.
So come on down on the Third Thursday of April for great beverages, great pastry and great company with some of the best poets and people in the Pacific Northwest. As always we will have an open mic both before and after Allison moves us with her outstanding work. Hope to see you there.
Dan Nelson
360-334-1129
nelsondaniel59@yahoo.com
7.
In honor of National Poetry Month, celebrated Poets Lawson Inada and Emmett Wheatfall are joining together for “A Celebration of Poetry in Jazz.” Performances are in Portland on Friday, April 22nd and in Seattle on Saturday April 23rd. Visit www.petersonentertainment.com for show details.
“A Celebration of Poetry in Jazz” has been created to share the works of these inspired and gifted writers. Lawson & Emmett bring their diverse backgrounds, styles and experiences to life in thoughtful and expressive poetic story. Using music to accent their poetry, these performances are inspiring and evocative. Their mutual love of jazz and music allows this very special concert program to take place.
Lawson Inada’s performance will feature works that are greatly influenced by his childhood experiences while at internment camps during WWII. Lawson’s inspiration comes from dreams, memories and experiences. He will also explore Japanese poetic forms and the interplay of how his life-long love of jazz has influenced his poetry. Lawson cites jazz as the strongest influence in his writing and has done live collaborations with Andrew Hill, Mal Waldron and Jimmy Smith.
Emmett Wheatfall’s material covers romance, faith, betrayal and the matters of life. His words are set to a fierce, sensitive and moving accompaniment that crosses the boundaries of jazz into blues, funk, soul and gospel.
Accompanying the poets are musicians Noah Peterson and Larry Nobori on saxophones, Gordon Lee on piano, Andre St. James on upright bass and Tim DuRoche on drum-set.
Lawson Inada is a true, American, literary talent. He was named Oregon State Poet in 1991 and served as the Oregon’s Poet Laureate 2006-2010. His collection of poems “Before the War” was the first book of poetry by an Asian American to be published by a major New York publishing house. Considered a pioneer in Japanese-American literature, Lawson has received many honors and awards. He won the American Book Award for his work “Legends from Camp” in 1992. He won the Oregon Book Award for Poetry in 1997, the Pushcart Prize for Poetry in 1996 and was honored at the White House for a “Salute of Poetry and American Poets.” He is a Professor Emeritus of English at Southern Oregon University, received two Poetry Fellowships from the NEA, was a Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry in 2004 and currently serves as the Steinbeck Chair for the National Steinbeck Center.
Emmett Wheatfall is a rising star in the world of poetry. He burst onto the scene with his recorded work, “When I Was Young” a music and poetry collaboration with producer Noah Peterson. Featured in Wine and Jazz Magazine, Emmett was called “…one of the most original and powerful debut jazz artists of the year.” “When I Was Young” is currently on air at various stations throughout the country including WWOZ, New Orleans, KMHD, Portland and WPRB, Princeton University. Emmett is a gifted orator and is sought out for his speaking ability. He has done voice-over work and is an annual presenter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s "I Have A Dream Speech" for various organizations during Black History Month. He has two published collections of poems, “He Sees Things” and “We Think We Know” and an audio CD of his poetry entitled, “I Speak.” Emmett has several poems published online for organizations celebrating and promoting African-American Poetry.
The first show is Friday, April 22nd at the First Unitarian Church located at 1211 SW Main St in Portland, OR. Show time is 7:30pm, tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/163203
The second show is Saturday, April 23rd at the Daniels Recital Hall located at 811 Fifth Ave in Seattle, WA. Showtime is 7pm, tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/163198
Please join Lawson Inada and Emmett Wheatfall for a rare and special evening of Poetry in Jazz.
For more information, please visit www.petersonentertainment.com
Peterson Entertainment POB 86066 Portland, OR 97286 www.petersonentertainment.com 503-703-9516
503-774-2511
Nancy Anne Tice
Northwest Artist Management
nwam11@gmail.com
http://www.nwam.com/
8.
Stu Jackson and Christopher Luna perform at Niche March 26
Photo by Olinka Broadfoot
Niche poet laureate Christopher Luna invites you to join us for an evening of poetry from around the world. Listen and enjoy poems read in Italian, Slovenian, Spanish, Romanian, Vietnamese, and English.
Learn about other cultures as you bask in the music of another language. This special reading is being held in honor of National Poetry Month and the diversity of the people of the Pacific Northwest.
7pm
Saturday, April 23
Niche Wine and Art Bar
1013 Main Street
http://lekkerentertainment.blogspot.com/
Multilingual poetry read by Ernesto Claros (Spanish), Kelly Lenox (Slovenian), Christopher Luna (Italian), Tina Tran (Vietnamese), and Silvia Maria Vasiu (Romanian).
Stu Jackson and Ernesto Claros perform at Niche March 26
Photo by Olinka Broadfoot
Ernesto Claros was born in El Salvador and witnessed of the atrocities of the civil war. He became a pacifist at the age of 18 and made the journey to the United States on foot.Kelly Lenox (http://www.kellylenox.com/Welcome.html) is a poet and translator of Slovenian poetry. Her writing and translations have been published in the US, Ireland, England, and Slovenia. She is also the coordinator the Vermont College MFA program's summer residency in Slovenia.
Stu Jackson and Christopher Luna perform at Niche March 26
Photo by Olinka Broadfoot
Christopher Luna is Niche’s poet laureate and the host of Ghost Town Poetry, an open mic poetry reading that takes place on the second Thursday of the month at Cover to Cover Books. He is also the co-founder (with Toni Partington) of Printed Matter Vancouver (http://www.printedmattervanc.wordpress.com/) and the editor of “The Work,” a monthly poetry newsletter about literary events in Portland and Vancouver.
Silvia Maria Vasiu hails from Sibiu, Romania. In 2010 she graduated from Lucian Blaga University with a Bachelor's Degree in teaching Romanian and English. Her dissertation discussed bear hunting in the writing of William Faulkner and Mihail Sadoveanu. Currently attending Clark College to get a Dental hygiene degree, Silvia is fluent in Romanian and English and also knows some Latin, Spanish and German. She has done translation has written a chapter for the forthcoming Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Writers.
9.
HILLSBORO LAST MONDAY POETRY GROUP
135 SE 3rd Ave., Hillsboro
April 25, 2011, 7:00-9:00 PM
For April, our Last Monday Poetry group will be led by David Cooke, who lives and writes in Portland. His debut poem Edges won the Ruth Stone Poetry Prize and was nominated for a 2010 Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Hunger Mountain, Flatmancrooked, A River & Sound Review, Heavy Hands Ink and has been featured in performances at the Blackbird Wine Shop, The Press Club, Show and Tell Gallery, Stonehenge Studio, and KBOO’s Talking Earth. He’s also known as The Lawn Guy throughout Portland and Lake Oswego for his lawn maintenance business. Much of his current work is included in his forthcoming chapbook, Discretion.
His theme for April will be Impossible Objects, a discussion on the use of ambiguity to create depth, breadth and variety in poetry.
10.
From: Melissa Sillitoe
Venue: Multnomah County's Northwest Branch Library, NW 23rd and Thurman
When: April 27, 7:00-8:00 p.m. FREE
Contact: Melissa Sillitoe, 503-459-1703
dan raphael recently published Impulse & Warp: The Selected 20th Century Poems, which contains poems from dan raphael's first 13 collections. Children of the Blue Supermarket, a CD in performance with saxophonist Rich Halley and drummer Carson Halley, was released this February. Current poems appear in Rattapallax, Otoliths, Snakeskin and Heavy Bear. Active for a long time as a reading organizer, performer and publisher in Portland, OR, dan has appeared in places like Bumbershoot, Wordstock, Powell's Books, Eastern Oregon U, and the Portland Jazz FestivaOn and currently curates the Market Day Reading Series at St Johns Booksellers.Michael Berton lives and works in the Alphabet district. Enjoys tai chi, tequila, world traveland reading James Joyce. He has been published recently in Night Bomb Review, Liebamour,and Pot Luck Magazine. He is former poetry editor of The Cereal Box Review.
Pat Vivian was born in Michigan and kept moving west until she saw the Columbia Gorge and decided to make the Pacific Northwest home. She has worked as a forest fire lookout, hospice caregiver, technical writer, journalist, shelter volunteer and educational assistant to kids with developmental disabilities. Her poems have appeared in Calyx, the Oregonian and other Northwest journals and anthologies. Her chapbook A Luminous Trail Through the Wilderness was published in 2000 by 26 Books/Unnum Press. Pat has served as an editor for Portlandia Press and for Fireweed: Poetry of Oregon.
11.
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:30:30 -0400
From: newsletter@washingtonpoets.org
Subject: Washington Poets Association is Back!
WPA Revitalization is Underway
Join in the support of poetry!
Are you interested in serving on the WPA Board of Directors?
Email president@washingtonpoets.org to volunteer.
Would you like to be a Burning Word volunteer?
Multiple opportunities are available, including event promotions, program ad sales and program design, facebook page mgmt, day of event doors, tabling, sales and more. Volunteering can be exchanged for admission.
Interested? Contact Burning Word Director Michael Schein at wryink@comcast.net
Washington Poets Newsletter
Dear Friend of the WPA,
Welcome to the new WPA newsletter a place for news, events, writing prompts and poetry. Please read on to find out about the revitalization of the WPA, the return of Burning Word, and the long awaited release of Cascade #2.
WPA Revitalization
The WPA is back! Where did it go? Well, nowhere but since late Spring of 2009 it experienced a significant and quick loss of directors critically impairing its ability to provide programming to its membership.
As of the date of your receipt of this newly launched newsletter the organization has a small group of devoted Interim Board members committed to revitalizing the organization and recruiting a full board of 15 new Directors from throughout the state. If you or anyone you know may be interested in serving on the Board and shaping the future of the WPA please contact president@washingtonpoets.org to volunteer and find out about upcoming Board meetings.
The WPA is financially sound and with its Interim Board is committed to providing the programming and resources members experienced in the past. Within the past 30 days the Interim Board established a co-sponsorship with the Icicle Creek Music Center to bring you back our vibrant Burning Word Festival at a new Central Washington location in the beautiful town of Leavenworth. The Interim Board is also able to announce the way too long related release of Cascade #2 as well as a this new monthly newsletter soon to be featuring member poetry.
The Interim Board is excited and appreciative of all the support of past and present membership to preserve this organization. We are looking forward to a new revitalized organization serving the needs of all Washington poets.
Please plan to join us in Leavenworth, Washington on May 22 for a membership meeting following the Cascade Release Reading at Icicle Creek Music Center on Day Two of Burning Word Poetry Festival
Burning Word is Back! May 21-22, 2011
Leavenworth, Washington
Burning Word returns billowing with poetic fire after a two year hiatus in a new location, Leavenworth, Washington in coordination with Icicle Creek Music Center.
The WPA is eternally grateful to Burning Word Director Michael Schein for his devotion to the creation of Washington poetry community and his vision to reignite the flame of Burning Word at its new location.
To read more about the two day festival taking place on May 21-22, 2011 and to purchase tickets:
http://icicle.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=150&catid=1&Itemid=141
Cascade #2 Release Reading at Burning Word
The Interim Board is ecstatic to announce that the long awaited Cascade #2 will be released at Burning Word 2011.
All individuals who were members of WPA as of January 2008 will receive a copy of Cascade #2 regardless of membership renewal in the interim. If however, your address has changed since 2008 or 2009 please send your new information to membership@washingtonpoets.org to ensure receipt of your copy of Cascade #2.
A release reading featuring poetry contest winners and journal authors will take place on day two of Burning Word on May 22, 2011 in Leavenworth. If you are a 2008 or 2010 WPA Poetry Contest winner or your poetry is featured in the second volume of Cascade please be on the look out for a future invitation communication with the details of the May 22, 2011 release reading.
Additional copies of Cascade #2 will be available for purchase on Amazon.com. Stay tuned to future newsletters for more details on how to purchase additional copies.
Upcoming Poetry
Send your upcoming poetry events for listing in the newsletter and on the website to newsletter@washingtonpoets.org.
In Seattle on April 2nd at 2pm? In coordination with the Seattle Public Library there will be a Poetry in Fremont reading at the Fremont branch featuring WPA members.
Spread the Word
Please send this email newsletter along to your network of friends and colleagues who may be interested.
Join in the support of poetry!
Here's to a new and exciting future for the WPA. Thank you all for joining in the support of poetry. We hope to see you all at Burning Word!
Sincerely,
WPA Interim Board
Karen Bonaudi - Treasurer
Nancy Dahlberg - Secretary
Donald Kentop
Angel Latterell - President
Jed Myers
Raul Sanchez
David Thornbrugh
Michael Dylan Welch
All past and present members listed with dues paid as of January 2008 will receive a copy of Cascade #2 to be officially released on May 21, 2011. The Cascade #2 Release Reading will take place at Burning Word in Leavenworth, WA at Icicle Creek Music Center on May 22, 2011. Upon release additional copies of Cascade #2 will be available for purchase on Amazon.com
Washington Poets Association
1037 NE 65th St. #324
Seattle
WA
98115
SUBMISSION CALLS
1.
Crow Arts Manor and the 2011 Chapbook Contest
First off, Burnside Review is introducing Crow Arts Manor, an arts center located in Northeast Portland. The space will be used for low-cost workshops, music, gallery space and a public library. Please visit our website at www.crowmanor.org. While there, sign up for our e-mail list or even a class!
Second, Mary Szybist is judging this year's chapbook contest. Submissions are now open and run through June 30th. Complete details are available here, http://www.burnsidereview.org/contests.php
Take care,
Sid Miller
Editor
BurnSide Review
sid@burnsidereview.org
2.
100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE: An Anthology
(Ed. Anny Ballardini & Obododimma Oha, in collaboration with MICHAEL ROTHENBERG)
"We will turn to the idea of the messianic in Chapter Ten of this book, but for the moment it suffices to stress that both Benjamin and Agamben employ the term in singular fashion. For them, a messianic idea of history is not one in which we wait for the Messiah to come, end history, and redeem humanity, but instead is a paradigm for historical time in which we act as though the Messiah is already here, or even has already come and gone. What is so difficult about Agamben's use of the term messianic is how radically it is to be distinguished from the apocalyptic. Agamben says that to understand "messianic time" as it is presented in Paul's letters "one must first distinguish messianic time from apocalyptic time, the time of the now from a time directed towards the future" (LAM, 51). To this he adds, "If l had to try to reduce the distinction to a formula, I would say that the messianic is not, as it is always understood, the end of time, but the time of the end" (LAM, 51). The model of time corresponding to this idea is one that no longer looks for its decisive moment in a more or less remote future, but instead finds it in every minute of every day, in this world and in this life; and it is through such expressions as "dialectics at a standstill" and "means without end" that the two thinkers aim to return our gaze from the distant future to the pressing present." ( from GIORGIO AGAMBEN: A Critical Introduction, Leland de la Durantaye, 2009, p. 120)
Set in the context of this split between "the end of time" and "the time of the end" is Michael Rothenberg's recent invitation for the global writing public to participate in "a demonstration/ celebration of poetry to promote serious social and political change" titled 100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE on 24 September, 2011. As protests for political reforms sweep across North Africa, the Middle East, in some parts of Europe, in the United States, with the recent disasters in The Gulf of Mexico and in Japan, one cannot help thinking about the "Rothenberg Project” as a highly significant creative response to change as something more than an adjustment to the way social relations are constructed.
Obododimma Oha and Anny Ballardini, in collaboration with Michael Rothenberg’s event, will edit and feature outstanding poetic compositions for the 100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE on Fieralingue's Poets’ Corner. Visual artwork, poems, poetic fiction, poetic nonfiction, and photographs to be submitted for consideration should go beyond the simple and gratuitous statement that ‘a change is needed.’ Our present, our Messianic time requires a STILLSTELLUNG (Benjamin’s word) translated by Dennis Redmond in On the Concept of History (1940) with “an objective interruption of a mechanical process” into which we have been engulfed. Dennis Redmond continues in his explanation of STILLSTELLUNG: “rather like the dramatic pause at the end of an action-adventure movie, when the audience is waiting to find out if the time-bomb/missile/terrorist device was defused or not.” We feel that we are living in a similar situation, and we are in need of a Stillstellung followed by ideas to offer our politicians, to make students/friends/our communities more aware of how we can change, revise history, start over again.
Visual works and photographs for submission are to be saved in JPEG format, while texts, which should not have rigid formatting, are to be in Word. All submissions should be emailed to the editors anny.ballardini@gmail.com and obodooha@gmail.com by September 1, 2011 with "100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE" in the Subject line.
Best wishes,
Obododimma Oha
Anny Ballardini
SIGN UP TO JOIN US AT 100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE-- THE EVENT
Ps. If you are interested in signing up to participate as a reader, organizer or attendee, in the 100 Thousand Poets for Change event on September 24, 2011, (in your town) please go to Facebook for more details and indicate that you would like to attend the event.
Link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106999432715571 .
At Facebook you will be able to read more about event organization ideas and our thoughts about “what kind of change.” Over a thousand people have already signed up and over twenty cities have begun to organize events for their communities. JOIN US!!
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