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, Fifteen years of Subtext, John Olson review, June at Open Books, Red Sky Reunion dates, Gary Snyder on KUOW, ICL rental space and the ramblings of a man about to see his daughter graduate high school.

1) Subtext is 15 this year and it is a remarkable accomplishment. It has become internationally known for its commitment for avant garde poetics and I have been blessed to see many remarkable readers there, including Barrett Watten, Anselm Hollo, Lissa Wolsak, Fred Wah, George Bowering and many more, as well as local poets Nico Vassilakis, Robert Mittenthal, C.E. Putnam, Daniel Comiskey, John and Roberta Olson, Willie Smith and many, many more. I last did a feature there about 9 years ago and have been attending the readings as often as I could make the 60 mile round trip drive since they were at the old Speakeasy Café before the fire.

So, tonight, with Kansas poet Jim McCrary, I return for a feature. I had been hoping the Slaughter book would be out, but will be reading poems from that and a couple of new poems from a current project. It’s at the Good Shepard Center at 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N in Wallingford, in the Chapel, a remarkable place for a performance and folks gather at 7:30.

http://subtextreadingseries.blogspot.com/

2) Speaking of one of those Subtext folks, one of the brightest and more creative poets in town is John Olson. See a review of a recent John Olson interview here:

http://stevenfama.blogspot.com/2009/05/john-olson-poetics.html

With this excerpt, comparing his poems: . . . to clouds. The philosopher Karl Popper once said, ‘life is not a clock, it is a cloud.’ Clocks are predictable: mechanical, orderly, and rational. Clouds are capricious. Their being is circumstantial. Clouds are the products of multiple events: temperature, humidity, wind direction, altitude. No two clouds will ever be alike. It is the same with experience. Experience is always interactive. The prose poem is obviously the best vehicle for simulating life and consciousness as they are experienced.

3) June events at Open Books:

Thursday, June 4, at 7:30 PM, CHRIS FORHAN reads from his just published collection, "Black Leapt In"; he is joined by ALESSANDRA LYNCH, whose most recent book is "A Terrible Cloud at Twilight."
http://www.openpoetrybooks.com/calendar/archives/000359.html

Tuesday, June 16, at 7:30 PM, JOSHUA BECKMAN reads from "Take It."
http://www.openpoetrybooks.com/calendar/archives/000363.html

Thursday, June 18, at 7:30 PM, VICTORIA CHANG joins us to read from
"Salvinia Molesta."
http://www.openpoetrybooks.com/calendar/archives/000360.html

Sunday afternoon, June 28, at 3 PM, we'll be hosting A READING FOR THE BIRDS. Judith Kitchen, Duane Niatum, Rick Barot, Christianne Balk, Pamela Gross, and Stan Sanvel Rubin read from the anthology "A Poets Guide to the Birds." We'll be making a donation of at least 10% of sales to the Seattle Audubon Society to honor the day.
http://www.openpoetrybooks.com/calendar/archives/000362.html

4) Red Sky Reunion series will continue Sunday, October 5 and into 2010, on Mondays, 7 - 10 pm: January 25th, February 22nd, March 22nd & April 19th.

5) Did you miss Gary Snyder on KUOW? I caught the last half, have downloaded the whole thing, but have not yet heard Gary READ A POEM! (Did he?) http://kuow.org/program.php?id=17633

6) ICL Rental Space

The Institute for Community Leadership seeks your assistance in passing the word along!

Planning a work gathering or special family event? The O’Dell Center now has rental facilities for weddings, family gatherings, business and spiritual retreats, workshops or classes. Facilities include meetings rooms, classrooms, kitchen, staging rooms, outdoor gazebos, meditation hut, walking paths, salmon bearing stream, welcoming totem, large meadow and Spiritwood Forest. Facilities uniquely feature the nature and diversity of the Pacific Northwest.

For more information, please see our website: http://www.odellcenter.org

7) Poets on Whidbey: Michael C. Ford & David Ossman
At the Rob Schouten Gallery
Saturday, June 13
7:00 PM, Free.

Michael C. Ford and David Ossman met in the late 1960s in Los Angeles, fellow poets in a city not then known as a community of writers and artists. In the forty years since, they have both received Grammy nominations (for Spoken Word) and Ford¹s Emergency Exits was honored with a 1998 Pulitzer nomination. Ossman has gone on to perform and broadcast his work in many venues, including "All Things Considered" on NPR.

Surprisingly, the two poets have never shared the same evening, until now. Their joint reading begins at 7:00 PM on Saturday, June 13 at the Rob Schouten Gallery at Greenbank Farm on Whidbey Island.

The Rob Schouten Gallery is located on Whidbey Island at Greenbank Farm at 765 Wonn Rd. C-103, Greenbank, WA. For more information call 222-3070 or email info@robschoutengallery.com

8) Pub Crawl in Burien?
I want to let everyone know about an event some friends of mine are organizing:

Summer Poetry Pub Crawl 2009 - Sat June 13th at 6:45 pm in Burien

Poets, Performance Artists, Friends and many others will bring poetry to the streets of Burien Washington as we eat and drink, read poetry and then drink some more!

Poets and friends will descend upon the Burien Neighborhood and visit up to 10 pubs in a 6 block vicinity. Dress up (like your favorite real or imagined poet…"look it's Emily Dickinson, Ann Sexton, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Bill Shakespeare, Chuck Bukowski, the Unknown Poet!") and bring poems to recite to the crowd. A few guitar pickers and singers may join us as well.

We will bring POETRY to the PUB people of Burien on Saturday June 13th!!

[Details online at: http://www.meetup.com/seattlesingles/calendar/10512107/]

RR graduates in 11 days and can then demand my car FULL TIME! ARGH! As you know, she’ll be attending Northwestern in Evanston, IL to study Journalism and graduate in four years to resume her Starbucks career. NO! That’s a Joke, son. Perhaps the financial model of journalism will be sorted out and we won’t have as much INFOTAINMENT as now. Lawd have Mercy!
So. we’re preparing for that fiesta and a visit by Ma & Pop, which should be good entertainment for the first few hours.

Oh, check out my latest Hugo Class offering, four nights in July with lots of writing:
http://www.hugohouse.org/news/#107
and remember Write-O-Rama at HH this Saturday.
Ciao,
xoxo President Postcard.
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