Charles Bernstein: Portraits, Series 1

Régis Bonvicino, June 29, 2006

Régis and I were riding through the outskirts of São Paulo on our way to Campinas.The World Cup was on and Régis shares Brazil's big-time enthrallment with the series. At one point, in an email, Régis reprimanded me for referring to the "Australia and Brazil game." "In Brazil, you never write the 'Brazil - Australia game', but 'Brazil x Australia'. The x meaning the match, the 'hardness' of the game .... It sounds like a battle, for us, not like a game." Régis told me he was devoted to a local football team and went to almost all their games."My team's name is Palmeiras (Palms), founded in 1914 by Italian immigrants to keep alive Italian traditions in São Paulo." I asked him how the team was doing.
(mp4, 23 seconds, 3 mb)

George Lakoff, July 4, 2006

George came to visit Susan Bee and me on the Fourth of July. He was in town to promote his new book, Whose Freedom?: The Battle Over America's Most Important Ideal. I asked him why John Kerry had failed to respond forcefully to the Swift Boat smears. You can hear Susan in the background.
(mp4, 1 min., 8 mb)

Leslie Loses Her Breath, November 12, 2006

Leslie Scalapino was in New York for the Poetry Project panels on her work. She came by our place for lox & bagels. I asked her about the time she literally lost her breath in Tibet.
(mp4, 48 seconds, 7.8 mb)

Mimi Gross
Mimi believes the key thing about doing portraits is the relationship you have with the subject. A couple of years ago, she did a portrait of Felix and me. We were at Herring Cove beach and Mimi, as always, had brought a sketchbook. Talking to Mimi gave me the idea to do these portraits. (mp4, 40 sec., 5 mb)

Loss Peqeuño Glazier
I was back in Buffalo and at one my favorite spots, Ted's Red Hots (the one on Niagara Falls Boulevard). We got to talking about Cuba, which we had visited, together with  Ernesto Livon-Grosman, Johanna Drucker, and Brad Freeman, in January 2003. Loss met his future wife on that trip. I asked him what he liked to eat in Havana.
(mp4, 1 min., 7.4 mb)

Caroline Bergvall
In June, 2005, I was invited to read at poetry festival in Norway. I couldn't go, but I urged the organizers to invite Caroline, who grew up, at least partly, in Norway, but nobody there (at least among the poets I know) were aware of that. But they sure are now.
(mp4, 32 seconds, 4.3 mb)

Video Portraits Home Page

• Portraits series 1 : Régis Bonvicino, George Lakoff, Heny Hills, Mimi Gross, Loss Pequeño Glazier, Caroline Bergvall
• Portraits series 2 : Pierre Joris, Wystan Curnow, Levhi Lehto, Robert Grenier, James Sherry, Johanna Drucker
• Portraits series 3 : Ann Lauterbach, Karen Mac Cormack, Steve McCaffery, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Nick Piombino, Richard Tuttle
• Portraits series 4 : Rod Smith, Nicole Brossard, Douglas Messerli, Peter Middleton, Norman Fischer, Tina Darragh
• Portraits series 5 : Myung Mi Kim, Charles Alexander, Alan Davies, P. Inman, Phong Bui, Bob Perelman
• Portraits series 6 :Kenneth Goldsmith, John Yau, Peter Gizzi,  Dubravka Djuric,  Elizabeth Willis, Tan Lin
• Portraits series 7 : John Ashbery, Rae Armantrout, Emma Bee Bernstein, Susan Howe, Sigmund Laufer
• Portraits series 8: Maggie O'Sullivan, Christian Bök, Darren Wershler, Tonya Foster, Marty Ehrlich & Erica Hunt, Lev Rubinstein
• Portraits series 9: David Antin, Ted Greenwald, Jerome Rothenberg, Diane Rothenberg, Ron Silliman, Joel Kuszai
• Portraits series 10: Peter Gizzi, Elizabeth Willis, John Tranter, Bruce Andrews, Cecilia Vicuña, Tom Raworth
• Portraits page 11: Ben Yarmolinsky, Hank Lazer, Marjorie Perloff, Alan Loney, Claude Royet-Journoud, Li Zhimin
• Portraits page 12: Arkadii Dragomoschenko, Susan Howe, Ernie Gehr

Thanks for Steve McLaughlin for technical and design assistance. These video recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the artist. ©2006-2012 Charles Bernstein. Used with permission of Charles Bernstein. Distributed by PennSound.