August 6, 2010 Poetry Lab

it's summer, it's hot - meltingly so. This Poetry Lab will feature "the Dans" (Dan Vera of Washington DC & Dan Maguire of Baltimore, MD)

here's bios of each poet :


Dan Vera lives in Washington, DC. He's the author of The Space Between Our Danger and Delight (Beothuk Books, 2008), editor of the Gay culture journal White Crane, publisher of VRZHU Press and Souvenir Spoon Books. He is the founder of Brookland Area Writers & Artists, and a member of DC Poets Against War, and the Triangle Artists Group. His poetry has appeared in Delaware Poetry Review, DC Poets Against The War, Konch, Gargoyle, Full Moon on K Street: Poems of Washington, D.C., and Pacifica Radio's nationally broadcast Peace Watch program.

"The poetry of Dan Vera is clear, strong, honest and funny. He’s the sharp-eyed observer in the corner who doesn’t say much, but makes every word count. He handles the political and the personal with equal grace, even as the lines blur. Whether he's ruminating on the perils of bilingualism, giving voice to the bewilderment of his Cuban immigrant family, cursing the censors who tried to repress gay writers over the years, waiting for the late great poet Sterling Brown to turn the next corner in Washington, D.C., or taking delight in all things delightful, Dan Vera is damn good company. You’ll see." — Martín Espada

"To read Dan Vera is to believe the world is actually a good place after all – a place where the reputation of poetry is redeemed with humor and kindness. I read this book first to know it; then I read it again for all the reasons poetry brings us closer. This is what we first understood poetry to be, miraculous and humble. In the deepest part of the heart where we truly reside, there is always a wish that poetry will rinse off artifice. This is it. When reading Dan Vera, we are married to the 3 hearts of poetry: intelligence, style, and honor. This is the most satisfying book of poems we can read if we want to witness language with a real poet as its servant."— Grace Cavalieri

"Ranging through landscape and history, family legacy and gay life, Dan Vera’s poems are melodic, lucid, and concise examinations of “the limits of earthly loving.” They remind us of what blessings the world possesses and what flesh-hating forces endanger those delights." Jeff Mann

"Dan Vera's debut collection...is just like the cover image -- full of sparks. And also like the sparkler, the poems crackle and burn...reminded me of Ted Kooser, but also the whimsy often found in the work of our poetry grandfather, Walt Whitman."
— Collin Kelley

"Dan's work 'delights' with its humor and irony. And his love poems are understated in the best way." — Francisco Aragon

Dan Vera
Author of The Space Between Our Danger & Delight
beothukbooks


Bio: Dan Maguire

Dan Maguire is a native Philadelphian who now lives in Baltimore. His work has won several prizes and awards and has appeared in The Mad Poets Review, The Schuylkill Valley Journal, The Comstock Review, The Paterson Literary Review, Big City Lit, the Philadelphia Inquirer and others.

In May of 2000, the editors of The American Poetry Review selected him for a special workshop with the poet Robert Bly. He was awarded first prize for poetry at the Philadelphia Writer's Conference in 2000, and again in 2001. He has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes.

In February of 2004, he was invited to read at the Library of Congress of the United States. He has led poetry workshops through the Gloucester City (NJ) Adult Education Program, and the 2 Rivers Writers group. In 2005, he led one of the sessions at the first joint-workshop for disabled and non-disabled poets, held at Inglis House in Philadelphia.

Also in 2005, he was selected by poet Gerald Stern as a prize-winner in The Mad Poets Society’s national contest. He led one of the workshops at the National Convention of State Poetry Societies, and in 2006 presided over one of the two poetry groups at the Philadelphia Writers Conference.

In 2009, he won the Almeda Boulton Memorial Award from the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, and in 2010, coming full circle, he judged the poetry competition at the Philadelphia Writers Conference.

His most recent publication, Finding the Words, was published by Plan B Press in the fall of 2008. It's now on its 5th printing

July 2, 2010 Poetry Lab

(reb livingston, stevenallenmay, natalie lyalin)

6 questions with Natalie Lyalin

1) Like a number of poets who have participated in the Poetry Lab, I notice that you are also an editor. What led you to the role of editor, and is there a bit of DIY in that decision? Taking control of the "means of production"?

I really wanted to create spaces for the poems and poets that I loved. That is the inspiration for both of my editing projects - GlitterPony Magazine and Agnes Fox Press.

2) You are on a "book tour" currently - how did that come about?

On the suggestion of my friend Heather Christle, I contacted Mike Young and Rachel B Glaser. Their books are coming out from Publishing Genius this fall, and we all decided to do this tour/road trip together. Mike and Rachel and amazing, so I knew that going on the road with them would be super great. And it has been!

3) Recently you spent time in Jerusalem, how did that affect your writing? Is PLACE important in your work?

Place is definitely important to my work, but not in a geographical sense. I mean that I don't necessarily want to write about a location, but more so my impression of the location. I make things up a lot and superimpose my own sense on geography. Jerusalem allowed me a lot of time to write, but I did not write about Jerusalem. I did write about Moses, so maybe Jerusalem did have some influence on me.


4) I saw an altered Gucci ad - (text provided by you?) Are you drawn to ad copy as an inspiration or as a reaction? Or was the specific image that led to the piece?

The text is mine. That piece was a reaction and a bit of inspiration. I like the absurdity of fashion advertisement. The bigger the brand, the more insane the add -- like the Marc Jacobs ads with Victoria Beckham. But the add you are asking about, in that case I felt like the image was so odd that something had to be said other than "buy these clothes."

5) We left the Philly for DC area in 2004. My understanding is that there has been a great deal of poetic prowess happening in Philadelphia since, What has your experience been like living in Philadelphia?

I love philadelphia. There are some supremely exciting poets living there -- CA Conrad, Michelle Taransky, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Ish Klein, and many many others. I think it is a special poetry place. There are new venues and reading series popping up. You should come visit!

6) When did you start writing and what was the first book of poetry you bought for yourself?

I would say that college, my junior and senior year, was when the "real" poems started surfacing. And my first book? I can't recall. But I remember being fascinated by Edna St.Vincent Millay's "Not In A Silver Casket." I think that's on

6 questions with Reb Livingston

1) How long have you been writing poetry? When did you realize it was something you "couldn't avoid"?

Since college, so almost 20 years. I could avoid writing poems, but I'd have to find something else to make in its place. I become depressed when I'm not creating something.



2) Have dreams always been central to your writing? Is it the imagery or the surrealist nature of dreams that most affect you?

I only occasionally incorporate dreams into my poetry. In my most recent book, God Damsel, I think there are two phrases that come directly from dreams and there's only one poem in Your Ten Favorite Words, "No Bra Required," that's influenced by a dream. I'm trying to incorporate more dream material into my current project, but I'm not so sure how well that's working. Perhaps it's because dreams are much more than "writing material." I get a lot of advice and guidance from my dreams, in writing and in everyday life. Dreams are our connection with our oracle. I take them very seriously.



3) What was your motivation in starting No Tell Motel?

I always wanted to edit a magazine. Seven years ago I noticed poets my age or younger launching their own publications and I felt both jealous and smug (because I thought they were "doing it wrong.") Finally it occurred to me that I didn't have to be jealous or smug, I could start my own magazine and show everyone how it's done.




4) Who have been your influences along the way?

Anne Sexton was my first major influence as an undergrad. Later Nicholas Christopher, Amy Gerstler, Federico Garcia Lorca. Now, I don't know, I feel lost. Maybe there's some influence from Alice Notely and Fanny Howe? I'm influenced by C.G. Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, fairy tales, tarot and certainly dreams.




5) How has parenthood affected your writing?

Time. What happened to it? I also find that I tend to repeat things in my poems like I repeat myself in daily life. "What did I just say?!?"




6) What was the first book of poetry you bought for yourself?

The first poetry books I purchased were for an introductory poetry course, Cornelius Eady's The Gathering of My Name and The Best American Poetry 1990 (edited by Jorie Graham). Eady's poems were probably the first that I ever felt any connection. The first book of poetry I purchased for myself voluntarily was The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton.

June 2010 Poetry Lab

(from left: stevenallenmay, Lauren Bender, Allison Clapp, Mike Maggio, Graham Pilato)


I knew what I was getting with Lauren Bender. I have seen her perform/present 3 times previously and each time was completely different from the time before. I say "perform/present" instead of "read" since that's what she does. Reading my interview with her is instructive. Her background in visual arts helped to create her aesthetics as well. Twice I took in Lauren's performance at DCAC in Washington and at that time I had merely a glimpse of an idea to find a space similar where I could also present artists like Ms. Bender. My lucky break was finding The Soundry. The primary difference between DCAC and The Soundry is that The Soundry is an arts incubator while DCAC is a gallery and performance space.

When I started The Poetry Lab, Lauren Bender was one of the first people I contacted. I was put in touch with Mike Maggio through a posting on the George Mason English Dept. listserv. When I contacted him, he readily accepted my invitation. Only afterwards did he mention cloudism which never was clearly defined, nor actually should it have been. What I gleamed from his work I got again from my interview with him and some postings of his work online.

But he said "Happening" and I knew what that was. Not that I ever attended a Happening, but I was very aware of them. Also, Mike Maggio stated that one of his influences is Yoko Ono. 'Okay', I said to myself, 'Fluxus as well.'

When the event itself began, my cohort and myself discovered the perimeters of where a performance at The Soundry could begin; The Front Door! A white cord ran from the edge of the counter in the front of the building and wove its way to the room where the event took place. Past painters working on their canvasses, down hallways, around corners.

We were led to the performance of "cloudism" by a mime in a bowler (hints of "Ghosts Before Breakfast"?), holding onto the cord as we proceeded. Once we entered the room, we found a TV set on white noise. A cellist. A mannequin's torso. A ladder leading into the clouds. Pens dangling from the ceiling. A human sized shadow wearing a T-shirt which would, in short order, be written on (the shadow turned out to be Mike Maggio). The mime pulled members of the "audience", actually witnesses more than audience members as there were no seats. People climbed the ladder to see a large blue eye gazing down on them. People used the dangling pens to write on the shadow and the torso. The cellist began to play, the white noise on the TV rose to annoyance.

Nothing like this had taken place before at the Poetry Lab (all of 5 months old), and it led to some awkward moments as people coming to attend a "poetry reading" found themselves in a much difference space. Some time later the shadow fled the scene, and confused members of the audience followed - outside, into the parking lot and back through the front door. The performance was over, although no one was certain. Unlike a movie, there were no "end credits".

Allow me to offer some here : cloudism is Mike Maggio, Allison Clapp, and Graham Pilato. The cellist is Tina Hughes.

After a brief intermission, Lauren Bender took the stage and presented a new text/video piece called "Epic Ochre
Subverts Other", which was about fear, travel, the desert, and telepathy. While a film was shown on a large screen, Bender read a prepared text. It was completely different from the preceding event yet equally engaging and challenging. Overall, the evening was nearly exactly what I had imagined the Poetry Lab would become back in November 2009 as I dreamt this all into being.

Bravos all around.


stevenallenmay

dirty laundry

Curating a series is not for the faint of heart. Neither is hosting the series. Any number of things can happen to change one's plans; 2 foot blizzards can cancel events, for example. Features might fail to show up. Sociopaths might come and pretend to be poets in order to slime an audience with their filth - wait, I just had to deal with this one.

When an audience goes from over a dozen women one month to ZERO women the following month, you know there's a problem. I identified the problem right away : a "poet" in the open reading segment of the series was sleazing the audience with his, um, "art". I knew I had to do something. Don't get me wrong : I am a strong believer in freedom of speech. However, one's right to offend doesn't have blanket protection when as a host it drives people out the door. A "poet" screaming about being censored is not protected when he assaults the audience. There are limits. People who attend events at least ought to be warned that they MIGHT be abused - no, actually, no they ought not be subjected to abuse. There is no component within the Poetry Lab FOR abuse. And to heap abuse on women specifically is totally unacceptable.

I have written provocative and sexual material but I would never read these pieces in a room with small children in it. Some people seem to believe that their right to write obscene material trumps a person's right not to be exposed to said material. I have a wife and a daughter, I am sensitive to these sort of woman hating poisonous barbs.

And as host, I won't stand for it. The very nature of the Poetry Lab is to be slightly off-kilter. Granted. But don't attend with your venom towards women, or gays, or afro-americans, or arabs - leave it at home or leave yourself at home. You won't get your 5 minutes here.


stevenallenmay
curator and host
The Poetry Lab
Vienna, VA

6 questions with Mike Maggio

Mike Maggio along with Lauren Bender are the features to our June 4th event. He is presenting something called "cloudism" which figured into my 6 questions :

1) What is “cloudism”?
Cloudism is a conceptual piece which reaches back for its inspiration to the avant-garde art movements of the 20th century, specifically fluxus and dadism. It attempts to expand intellectually on those movements and, hopefully, succeeds in doing so.

Cloudism started as a piece I wrote a couple of years ago but has since become a collaborative effort and, as such, the emphasis is on malleability—on obfuscation – on what is seen and what is not. It is important to mention that Cloudism as it exists right now is much different from its original iteration due to the collaborative effort with Graham Pilato, Allison Clapp and Tina Hughes. And it will be still different once the audience members, who are really participants in the process, become part and parcel of the creative force.

Cloudism can be likened to the happenings of the 60’s in which the lines between audience and artist are blurred. We are creating an atmosphere which will allow participants to explore space and to interpret concept and then contribute to the final piece, a collaborative creation in which the end product – the poem – becomes an anonymous object. Anonymity is key – thus the phrase Cloudism by Cloudism. We hope to expand further on this by taking the poem object and displaying it in galleries where others can continue to respond. Thus, like the clouds in the sky, the possibilities are endless and Cloudism will never end.

What about the space within the Soundry prompted the creation of “cloudism”?
The original piece was created before we were presented with the space. However, the space at the Soundry has definitely influenced it. When you enter the Soundry, four of the five sense are immediately operative: taste, smell, sight and sound. So that as you walk in you, are immediately drawn into a sensual experience – whether it’s indulging in a cup of Mexican hot chocolate, listening to a live band or taking in the various art works that are displayed throughout. To this, we are adding touch, as this will be an essential component of “Cloudism.”

3) When did you start writing poetry? What’s that evolution been like for you?

I started writing poetry when I was in high school – quite a long time ago. At the time, I didn’t’ know what I was doing except that I was imitating the rhythms and rhymes we all grow up with in school. When I got to college, where I majored in English/Creative Writing, I started understanding something more about poetry – the use of imagery, for example, and the use of natural speech rhythms as a unit of measure -- and, in 2008, I completed my MFA at Mason which certainly exposed me to many more aspects of poetry, many of which I knew on an intuitive level had experimented with but which I did not have an intellectual grounding in. My poetry has gone from the explicit use of imagery to the experimental use of language, from the literal to the increasingly abstract.

Who have your influence/heroes been?
The biggest, I would have to say, is Yoko Ono. I have followed her from the beginning: her music, her performances, her art. She is constantly part of the repertoire of work I review constantly. Other influences are also musical: Leonard Cohen, whose lyrics are brilliant, and Joni Mitchell whose use of language, I think, has really raised the bar as far as lyrics are concerned. Poets include e e cummings, Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg, But I am also interested in the classics: English and Scottish ballads have always been of interest to me and have influenced some of my recent work. There is the whole rich treasure trove of English and American literature and of course the international greats like Gogol and Kafka to name a few. I could also mention film literature which has greatly influence me: directors like Fellini, Antonioni, Pasolini and Bergman whose work constantly intrigues me.

5) Tell me a little about your books to date, you have brought out three collections. Is that correct?

Yes, there are three, though in fact a fourth one is actually my first: a collection of poems on cassette called Your Secret Is Safe With Me, released back in 1988 by the now defunct Black Bear Publications. This collection, along with my latest, deMOCKracy, which was released in 2007, represent what most people associate me with: socio-political poems that address war, injustice, etc. deMOCKracy can best be described as viral, though there are some experimental and a couple of rather tame pieces in there as well. Oranges From Palestine is a chapbook which contains my Middle Eastern poems, many of which were written while I was living in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Sifting Through the Madness is a collection of short fiction – both the flash and the longer varieties -- many of which are experimental in nature and which contain a host of what some would consider rather bizarre characters.

6) Is there a “next step” in your creative journey? What might that be?

Well, I have lots of plans. I am planning another performance piece called “Big Black Reversal.” I have completed a novel, In the Valley of Granite and Steel, which I’m desperately seeking a publisher for and a new collection of collage/visual/concrete poems called I Flew a Kite which I’m also looking to publish. There are a couple of unpublished chapbooks – "Biodegradable" and "Haunted Garden" – as well. I’m also thinking of editing a volume of poems about computers, the internet and the influence the digital age has had on our lives. I’m currently working on short fiction more than poetry but it’s the performance arena that is drawing me in the most.