Monday, June 30, 2008

For Immediate Release
Contact: Paul E. Nelson
Global Voices Radio/SPLAB!
Ilalqo, WA98002
http://splabman.blogspot.com/

Global Voices Radio / SPLAB! E-Fishwrapper

In this E-Fishwrapper, Sam Hamill & Ian Boyden's Habitations, 1st Thursday, Pioneer Square, Call for AUGUST POETRY POSTCARD FEST, Sustainable Auburn, Red Sky Reunion, DANCE OF THE FLANEUR Sunday 6 July, noon – 9pm.

1) Sam Hamill & Ian Boyden's Habitations, 1st Thursday, Pioneer Square.
(from the website) Davidson Contemporary is proud to release the newest Crab Quill Press publication, Habitations. This unique artist book of original paintings represents a collaboration of the artist Ian Boydenand the poet Sam Hamill (founding editor of Copper Canyon Press and Poets Against War). The artist sees this work as a major extension of ideas central to the “Northwest School”. The pigments used in the paintings contain fossilized whale ear bone, fossilized shark tooth, fossilized cave bear tooth, cuttlefish ink, freshwater pearl, opal, loess, basalt, granite, lava, and petrified wood. The words and images are deeply grounded in our region on multiple levels. (This is the most remarkable book I have ever seen and Sam will be there this Thursday on 1st Thursday, July 3rd, 6-8P, at 313 Occidental Avenue S.)

2) Year Two August Poetry Postcard Fest

When is the U.S.P.S. going to give us the dough we need for the fancy marketing campaign to have thousands of these little poems flying all over the freakin' planet?!? (Who knows? Til then the sturdy, but irregular, E-Fishwrapper will have to do. Anyway, we're doing it again. Last year we had 95 poets sending a card a day (whether they liked it or not) to another poet on a list. We're making that list, officially, NOW. Details HERE. God Bless Lana Ayers. Really.

3) Sustainable Auburn

Stop laughing you snooty Yuppie. Seriously, my non-profit efforts to help create awareness about sustainability in the former Slaughter are getting more official as we launch this effort. Nice little blog here. If you live around here and want to be on the steering committee, send me an email. I am Paul Nelson and I approved this message.

4) Red Sky Reunion
It's not yet official, but it's looking quite good for a series of Red Sky Reunion events in Seattle. There will be two workshops, one with Sam Hamill (no lie) and one with Jose Kozer. (Have I ever kidded you?) If you want details, email and I'll tell you what else is official so far, what's almost official and what, at this point, is either a wet dream or fevered hallucination, or both.

5) Did I mention the new film on Charles Olson, entitled Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place.

6) Mimi is at it again.

DANCE OF THE FLANEUR Sunday 6 July, noon – 9pm @ the SW corner of Green Lake (where Aurora meets Green Lake N, near the Shell Gas Station)
.........................................................

DANCE OF THE FLANEUR is an urban maneuver being undertaken in the Green Lake area of Seattle as a means to a more visible poetry-public interface.

At noon, on Sunday 6 July, this participatory, site-specific performance will take over Green Lake. 60+ umbrellas have been prepared with favorite lines from poems (painted, printed & trailing from ribbons). Volunteers will hand umbrellas to passersby who will carry them, with as much flair as they dare, around the lake. For the next 9 hours, they'll be passed from person to person in a constant parade. Local artists will present short dances with umbrellas and poets will read from them.

Walter Benjamin calls flanerie "a desperate attempt to fill the emptiness." Let us fill the empty somehow. Walk, dance, read, watch, picnic, nap –– do whatever, but do it with poetry.

Dance of the Flaneur commemorates the first anniversary of the year-long performance, "The Poetess at Green Lake," undertaken by A. K. Allin. Information on that project can be found at: http://thepoetessatgreenlake.blogstpot.com. Allin is a Seattle resident and artist with strong ties to the Green Lake area.

Dancers, poets, umbrella decorators & others, please get in touch by e-mail (mimiallin@gmail.com) or phone (617.460.6110).

7)SEPTEMBER SUBTEXT

~ a writing event ~

SUBTEXT invites you to A WRITING EVENT on September 3rd. We hope you will CREATE NEW WORK that explores, disagrees, exploits, negates, parodies, riffs, amplifies, exonerates, extols, exemplifies and/or vilifies the quotations (and their sources, if you wish) below. You can choose to read your work in any of the sections where you think it fits. Please plan to read for no more than 3-4 minutes. Thanks and we’re looking forward to it.

I. Writing to Point

A point is that which has no part.

--Euclid, Elements: Book of Definitions

II. Writing to Enclave

Moving into elsewhere music moves us
to boulders.
These columns. Shadows secure in thunder.
As boats move thick against water, forests
contained by sky.
These are contents.
Loss gropes toward its vase. Etching the way
Driving horses around the Etruscan rim.

--Barbara Guest, Turler Losses

III. Writing to Point, Writing to Enclave

Literature is not innocent; it is guilty and should admit itself so.
--Georges Bataille, Literature and Evil

a permanent Riotocracy
--Herman Melville, The Encantadas

email Nico V. if you've any questions: shoehorns@msn.com

and don't forget Mickey O'Connor this Wednesday at Subtext

Subtext's new blog for upcoming readings and history: http://subtextreadingseries.blogspot.com/

So back to the non-profit activities which leave me inspired, with time for creativity and golf. (I could have broken 90 today if not for the two balls hit into the water! ARGH! Hey, cool little article on MY LITTLE GIRL! So pleased about her accomplishments. Also pleasing, the Sox sweeping the Cubs and the return of POSTCARDS. The coolest thing ever. Try it, you'll like it and will give your letter carrier something to talk about. One of them said last year: Hey, these are pretty good! If you are interested in the Sam Hamill workshop (October) or the Jose Kozer workshop (late January, with one in Spanish in early February, email me. Guy on the golf course today asked if my balls were sticky. I told him I just adjust my stance and it works out.

xoxo President Postcard.

Want off this email list? Just ask.

Paul E. Nelson

Global Voices Radio
SPLAB!
American Sentences
Organic Poetry
Poetry Postcard Blog

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

For Immediate Release
Contact: Paul E. Nelson
Global Voices Radio/SPLAB!
Ilalqo, WA98002

http://splabman.blogspot.com/

Global Voices Radio / SPLAB! E-Fishwrapper

In this E-Fishwrapper, Free Acupuncture Session, David Rizzi wins Lohman Prize, Call for Burning Word Committee Members and a Monday Meeting, Office Space for Writers, Subito Press Annual Book Competition, a new CD from Vancouver's Heather Haley and news about Sam Hamill.


1) Augusto Romano is the best Italian Acupuncturist in Kent.

OK, maybe that's not saying much, but a free introductory session does. He's at it again, that crazy Paisan, who says Hello Xi! when the needle frees up a blockage. He wants YOU, the dedicated Fishwrapper Fiend, to call him and set up a free appointment at his Kent or Queen Anne office. Is he giddy because his beloved Celtics just won their 17th NBA Title? Probably, but I told him I would Fishwrap this weeks ago and I'll want a free session down the line when my Medical Insurance lapses. Any minute now. Call 206. 229.7219. Get a session before he moves to California. (WTF?!)

2) Jeanne Lohmann Contest Prize Winners' Reading Tomorrow (Wednesday) night

June 18, 2008- Sean Brendan-Brown - Olympia - David Rizzi - Seattle, Olympia Poetry Network Reading only, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Traditions Café and World Folk Art 300 - 5th Avenue SW, Olympia

July 16, 2008 - Michael Magee, featured reader

3) Poetry Festival Committee Needed

In April of 2009 the WPA will be hosting a poetry festival in Seattle,
Washington. The exact details of what this festival will look like are
completely undecided as of this time and awaiting a committee's input.
One thing is certain, it will be a reinvention of the poetic word like
a phoenix rising from the Seattle concrete.

One need not be a member of the WPA to be on this committee, but it is
highly encouraged that one become one. All that is desired is people
willing to commit at least 40 hours of their life to doing actual
work on this festival between now and April, an open mind, and a
dedication to poetry.

First meeting will be June 23rd at Faire Gallery & Coffee at Melrose
and Olive Way in Capitol Hill at 6:30pm. Contact Angel Latterell, WPA
President, for details at angellatterell@gmail.com.

4) Shared Office Space with Literary Organizations:

Need one or two writers, or grant writers, or non-profit literary organizations to share office space with 2 Seattle-based literary organizations. Excellent University District location at 43rd and Roosevelt; light-filled space. $165/month and $165
deposit. A wonderful deal for right party. For more information, e-mail Phoebe Bosche, editors@ravenchronicles.org, or phone her at 206-364-2045. Available now.

5) Subito Press of the University of Colorado announces its Annual Book Competition. We will publish two books of innovative writing, one each of fiction and poetry. Submissions will be accepted from June 2 to August 15 (postmark date).

Submit manuscripts of up to 70 pages of poetry or up to 100 pages of (double spaced) fiction along with a $20 reading fee and an 8.5 x 11 SASE if you would like a copy of the winning entry in your genre. Manuscripts should include two cover sheets: one with title only, the other with title, author's name, address, e-mail, and phone number. All submissions will be judged anonymously by the creative writing faculty at the University of Colorado; friends, relatives, and former students of University of Colorado creative writing faculty are not eligible. Simultaneous submissions o.k.; please notify Subito immediately if your ms. is accepted elsewhere. Winners will give a reading at the University of Colorado. Notifications of winners will occur by December of 2008.

Send mss. to :

Subito Press
Department of English
226 University of Colorado, Boulder,
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0226

6) I had a chance to go to Vancouver to check out the new film on Charles Olson, entitled Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place. Henry Ferrini, Vince's nephew, created the film and worked for 12 years to get it financed and produced, and while it is aimed at an audience that does not know who Olson was, this is a must-see for any poet. It'd be nice to see this in Seattle sometime. (Subtext? Are you listening?)

I hung out with Heather Haley while in Vancouver, the most beautiful city I have ever seen, and Heather's new CD is a cross between poetry and Joy Division. Of her work, Karen Solie said: "What I see as one of your big strengths, your originality, has to do with the content you choose but perhaps more so your tone with it....Your work resists any simplistic approach toward it as settled in a particular emotion. You tend to write a lot about domestic situations-families, home lives and relationships of one variety or another, familiar natural environments-but the work isn't domesticated. It reflects the nature of language as both a domestic product and as wild-impossible to fully manage or control. You take a lot of risks in your poems...You have a good instinct for the weirdness of language, the sound and rhythm...

Click above for the link to Heather's beautiful website and listen to cuts from the CD.

7) Sam Hamill is involved in a magnificent poetry/painting project that will be featured at the Davidson Gallery, at 301 Occidental Avenue South on the first Thursday of July, the 3rd. I hope to see you there.

So long since the last E-Fishwrapper, so sorry for that lapse. I have MUCH MORE free time these days. Running the WPA Board drained me of almost every last bit of creative energy and almost all my desire to see another poet, ever, but tequila and golf with Sam helped ease those concerns (he warned me about the task) and here I am with more poetry stuff.

Some in the WPA would change the name of the Burning Word Festival, which may move to Seattle next year. Get on the committee and make the Festival happen in 2009. Angel Latterell is going to do some cool things with that cranky, old organization.

Lana Ayers axed me about the August Poetry Postcard Fest and I am in. Details coming soon, so if you want IN to the postcard thing, drop Lana an email. I have cc'd her at a couple of different addresses and one of them must be current, eh?

Well, life on the Rez wasn't what I imagined, so here I am back in job search mode, but some good things are coming up on the radar screen and details soon, I hope.

xoxo President Postcard.

Want off this email list? Just ask.

Paul E. Nelson

Global Voices Radio
SPLAB!
American Sentences
Organic Poetry
Poetry Postcard Blog

Ilalqo, WA 253.735.6328 or 888.735.6328