Charles Bernstein


back to Bernstein PennSound main page

Full Readings & Talks

Anthology Film Archives, April 3. New York, 1977

Place Center, New York, Dec. 18, 1977

Folio Books, Washington, DC, 1978: MP3
Introduction by Doug Lang
As If the Trees by Their Roots Had Hold of Us (from Senses of Responsibility) (time marker 2’36”)
Loose Shoes (from Senses of Responsibility) (6’17”)
“Likening Then” (9’43”) Shade?
St.McC (from Shade) (10’29”)
For – (from Shade) (12’00”)
from Faculty Politics (from Poetic Justice) (22’00”)
Roseland from Parsing (12’43”)
Soul Under (from Shade) (27’42)
Palukaville (from Poetic Justice) (30’25”)

West End bar, New York, March 12, 1978

Six Fillious Reading (with McCaffery, Higgins, et al), February 7, 1979

Reading at the Grand Piano, San Francisco, February 20, 1979 (46:29)

Reading in the Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard College Library, December 11, 1980 (50:54): MP3

Introduction by Stratis Haviaris
Palukaville (from Poetic Justice) (2’24”)
Poem (from Shade) (8’33”)
For – (from Shade) (10’44”)
Simple Pleasures (from Controlling Interests) 19’37’
March (25’28”) (from Stigma)
Sprocket Damage (from Islets/Irritations) (26’53”)
Islets/Irritations (31’10”)
Island Life (from Controlling Interests) (37’20”)

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, Spring 1980, with Hannah Weiner and James Sherry (20:06): MP3

Legend, read by Andrews, Silliman, DiPalma, Bernstein — March 10, 1981

Ithaca, NY, May 8, 1982

The Poetry Project, St Mark's Church, New York, October 17, 1983 (39:50): MP3
Fear and Trespass (from The Sophist) 2’34”
from Resistance (9’56”)
Searchless Warrant (from The Sophist) (19’15”)
Prosthesis (21’35”) (from The Sophist)
Preface to Content’s Dream (24’04”)
The Voyage of Life (28’00”) (from The Sophist)
Dysraphism (from The Sophist) (30’13”)

Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, New Poetics Collqueum, August, 1985

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, January 9, 1988, with Bruce Andrews (10:59): MP3

University of Arizona, Feb. 2, 1988

Temple University, Philadelphia - November 15, 1988: MP3

Kootenay School of Writing -- 1989 reading

MLA Off-Site Reading, Bick's Books, Washington D.C., December 28, 1989
segmented reading here  

Naropa Institute, Boulder, Co., Summer 1991 (35:39): MP3
0:00 "not even sure I can represent myself"
0:17 Reveal Codes (from Dark City)
13:28 Reading the Tree (from Rough Trades) TEXT
28:54 Influence of Kinship Patterns upen Perception of an Ambiguous Stimulus (from Dark City)

UC-Berkeley, February 7, 1995, ntroduced by Douglas Messerli (recorded by A.L. Nielsen): (35:21) MP3

With Robert Creeley and Susan Howe at SUNY Buffalo - March 31, 1995

 Sun & Moon Press salon, Los Angeles, Feb. 28, 1998 (recored by A.L. Nielsen): (19:58) MP3

"Cortland Review": 1999 New School (NY) Reading and Interview (with David Lehman)

from the libretto to Shadowtime at Kelly Writers House, UPenn, Oct. 13, 2000

Harvard University - February 21, 2001

The Line Reading Series, January 15, 2002

Live at Kelly Writers House, UPenn, September 25, 2003

Brooklyn Poetique, Sept. 12, 2004

From Radio Poetique's Poetic Brooklyn, September 13, 2004

Segue at Bowery Poetry Club, New York, October 2, 2004

Discrete Reading Series,Chicago, November 21, 2004

Mills College, Oakland, November 9, 2004

Five Poems from Girly Man, studio recording, December 20, 2004

Recording Session at the Charles Morrow studios, Dec. 22, 2004:
1. "Didn't We" (from World on Fire in Girly Man)
2. "Castor Oil" with Emma Bee Bernstein (from Gilry Man)
3. " War Stories" with Emma Bee Bernstein (from Gilry Man)
4. "Likeness" (from Gilry Man)
5. every lake..." (from Let's Just Say in Girly Man

University of Chicago, Nov. 20, 2006

Indiana University of Pennsylvania, April 11, 2006

Cue Foundation launch/reading for Girly Man, January 16, 2007

Segue at Bowery Poetry  Club, New York, April 28, 2007

McGann session (Poems for Jerome McGannn at 70), May 28, 2007

Mo Pitkin's, New York, June 6, 2007 (with John Ashbery)

Yale University Beinecke Library, Oct. 16, 2007: MP3 (49:49)

A Celebration of Jackson Mac Low's Thing of Beauty, January 18, 2008

"What, Me Conceptual?," Conceptural Poetry & Its Others, Poetry Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, June 2009.

A 40th Anniversary Celebration of Technicians of the Sacred, at the Bowery Poetry Club, September 14, 2008

Segue/BPC March 14, 2009
full reading (42:35): MP3
1. Manifest Aversions, Conceptual Conundrums, & Implausibly Deniable Links (8:58): MP3
2. Pompeii (1:08): MP3
3. Fold (3:44): MP3
4. The Sixties, with  Apologies (2:01): MP3
5. Stupid Men, Smart Choices (1:25): MP3
6. The Moment Is You (4:59): MP3
7. Won’t You Give Up This Poem to Someone Who Needs It? (1:17): MP3
8. The Honor of Virtue (0:30): MP3
9. Death on a Pale Horse (1:02): MP3
10. On Election Day (4:30): MP3
11. Morality (2:03): MP3
12. If You Say Something, See Something (0:52): MP3
13. Today Is the Last Day of Your Life Until Now (0:54): MP3
14. Time Served (1:42): MP3
15. And Aenigma Was His Name, O! (0:22): MP3
16. Be Drunken (1:57): MP3

New Reading Series at 21 Grand, Oakland, Calif., June 21, 2009 (46:16): MP3

photo: Alan Bernheimer

“In the Middle of the Way” (tr. of Drummond, beg. cut off)
Loneliness in Linden
Won’t You Give Us This Poem to Someone Who Needs It
Stupid Men, Smart Choices
Pompeii
Death on a Pale Horse
Sad Boy’s Sad Boy
The Sixties with Apologies
Two Stones with One Bird
Most Frequent Words in Girly Man
Fold
Lenny Paschen Redux
Dear Friend …
On Election Day
Morality
And Aenigma Was His Name, O!
Castor Oil“Tomorrow, Dawn …” (Hugo)
If You Say Something, See Something
Today Is the Last Day of Your Life Til Now
Time Served
Le Pont Mirabeau(Apollinaire)
Sapphics
“Madame Moiselle” from Shadowtime
Be Drunken (Baudelaire)
All the Whiskey in Heaven

Poetry and Cultural Studies: A Reader Launch Reading, the Bowery Poetry Club, September 19, 2009
from "A Blow Is Like an Instrument" (8:35): MP3

Poems for the Millennium III, Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, October 7, 2009 (12:12): MP3
For Emma: After Edward Lear’s “The Old Man of Whitehaven”; CB tr. of an 1847 poem from Hugo’s Les Contemplations; From Swinburne, “The Ballad of Burdens”; CB tr of Heine’s "Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht" followed by poem after "Der Tod" from Shadowtime; “The Introvert,” after Wordworth’s "The Hermet"; excerpt from Whitman’s “RESPONDEZ!”; CB tr. of Baudelaire’s “Enivrez-vous”: “Be Drunken”; Blake’s “The Sick Rose” from Song of Experience

Harvard University, Barker Center, October 5, 2009
complete reading (59:19): MP3
1. introduction by Stephanie Sandler (1:53): MP3
2. "In the Middle of the Way" (tr. of Carlos Drummond de Andrade) (1:01): MP3
from Recalculating (work in progress):
3. The Sixties with Apologies (1:38): MP3
4. Fold (3:07): MP3
5. The Honor of Virtue (0:14):MP3
6. Sad Boy's Sad Boy (1:10): MP3
7. Loneliness in Linden (1:07): MP3
8. On Election Day (3:45): MP3
9.: Dear%r Fr~ien%d, (3:01): MP3
10. The Twelve Tribes of Dr. Lacan (2:05): MP3
11. The Truth in Pudding (13:19): MP3
12. Morality (1:25): MP3
13. Won't You Give Up This Poem to Someone Who Needs It? (1:07): MP3
14. Stupid Men, Smart Choices (1:25): MP3
15. Two Stones with One Bird (1:12): MP3
from All the Whiskey in Heaven: Selected Poems:
16. Dear Mr. Fannelli (4:42): MP3
17. from "The Republic of Reality (0:50): MP3
18. Rivulets of the Dead Jew (0:32): MP3
19. Doggy Bag (1:14): MP3
20: from "Today is not Opposite Day" (0:35): MP3
21: every lake (1:08): MP3
from Recalculating:
22. Catullus 85 (0:10): MP3
23. And Aenigma Was His Name, O! (0:16): MP3
24. tr. of Hugo, Les Contemplations #XIV (Demain, dés l'aube ...) (1:05): MP3
25. If You Say Something, See Something (0:36): MP3
26. Today Is the Last Day of Your Life 'til Now (0:39): MP3
27. Time Served (1:25): MP3
28. The Introvert (O:45): MP3
29. Sapphics (0:34): MP3
30. tr. of Baudelaire, "Be Drunken" (1:10): MP3
31. tr. of Apollinaire, "Le pont Mirabeau" (1:22): MP3
Coda:
32. "Madame Moiselle" from Shadowtime (0:34): MP3
33. “All the Whiskey in Heaven” (1:16): MP3
Recorded by the Woodberry Poetry Room Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard.

Coming in from the Cold: Celebrating Twenty Years of the MLA Off-Site Poetry Reading at the Philadelphia Mariott, December 29, 2009
complete reading (8:20): MP3

University of Washington, Bothel. Jan. 6, 2010
Reading: MP3
Q&A: MP3
recorded by Joe Milutis

Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, January 7, 2010
introduced by Jeanne Heuving : MP3
recorded by Joe Milutis

Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver at W2 Gallery, Jan. 8, 2010: MP3
Recorded by Fred Wah

Reading at the Banff Center (Alberta, Canada), "In(ter)ventions: Literary Practice at the Edge," Feb. 20, 2010

Launch and Signing of All the Whiskey in Heaven, Zinc Bar, NY, March 28, 2010

a reading of Charles Bernstein's poetry by friends and poets

1. Thom Donovan: "Come Shadow Come" (0:42): MP3
2. Thom Donovan: "Kiwi Bird in a Kiwi Tree" (1:04): MP3
3. Thom Donovan: "Bricklayer's Arms" (5:06): MP3
4. Kenny Goldsmith: "Lift Off" (7:20): MP3
5. Erica Hunt: "As If the Trees by Their Roots Had Hold of Us" (4:54): MP3
6. Erica Hunt: "The Influence of Kinship Patterns upon Perception of an Ambiguous Stimulus" (5:43): MP3
7. Dorothea Lasky: "Of Time and The Line" (2:57): MP3
8. Dorothea Lasky: "Thank You for Saying Thank You" (2:24): MP3
9. Peter Gizzi: "Didn't We" (1:36): MP3
10. Peter Gizzi: "The Years as Swatches" (1:16): MP3
11. Tan Lin: from "The Italian Border of the Alps" (6:39): MP3
12. Elizabeth Willis: "The Voyage of Life" (3:39): MP3
13. Elizabeth Willis: "Let's Just Say" (3:10): MP3

read by Charles Bernstein:

14. "Solidarity Is the Name We Give To What We Cannot Hold" (5:13): MP3
15. "Verdi and Postmodernism" (1:00): MP3
16. "This Poem Is Intentionally Left Blank" (0:55): MP3
18. from "Today's Not Opposite Day (): MP3
17. "All the Whiskey in Heaven" (1:27): MP3

complete reading (59:32): MP3

PennState University, Dec. 2, 2010: MP3
from All the Whiskey in Heaven and Recalculating. Introduced by Jeffrey Nealon. Roughly: "Unready, Unwilling, Unable," "Palukaville, "from 'Ambliopia," "Loneliness in Jersey City," "Every True Religion Is Bound to Fail," "Poems for Rehab," ""The 60s with Apology," "Theory of Flawed Design," For [Name Redacted], "Evaluation," "The Ballad of the Girly Man," "All the Whisky in Heaven."

Reading for Art, Fantasy, and Experience at the Gross Foundation, New York, December 12, 2010
complete reading (14:25): MP3
complete discussion (11:27): MP3

Boise State MFA Reading Series, March 18, 2011 (1:04:13): MP3

Copenhagen, Gyldendal, May 8, 2011 (27:53): MP3

University of California, Los Angeles, intro Brian Kim Stefans, May 16, 2011 (1:16:50): MP3

Poetry Project,, St. Mark's Church, New York, October 5, 2011 (44:40): MP3; video

Poetry Foundation, Chicago Humanties Festival, November 13, 2011 – poetry reading only (45:48): MP3; Complete with intro and discussion (1:04): MP3
track list for reading only: 0:00: Chimera; 0:51: Autopsychographia (after Pessoa); 1:40: Unready, Unwilling, Unable; 8:22: In Utopia; 10:09: The Sixties, with Apologies; 11:47: Armed Stasis; 12:24: Pompei; 13:22: Two Stones with One Bird; 13:40: A Theory's Evolution; 15:08: Long Before the Rain, I Wept; 15:49: This Poem Is in Finnish; 18:19: The Bound Listener; 24:09; Dea%r Fr~ien%d; 27:32: The Introvert; 28:28: At Sunset ...; 28:59: Sapphics; 29:45: Before You Go; 34:42: Strike!, 44:14: Misfortune; 44:48 Chimera

Lyric Nation: 3 poems read with Felix Bernstein for The Nation, Jan. 3, 2012: "Chimera," Strike!, "All the Whiskey in Heaven"@The Nation
Three poems ( 10:19): MP3
1. Chimera (1:13): MP3
2. Strike! (7:55): MP3
3. All the Whiskey in Heaven (1:05): MP3

Artist's Institute, Jan. 7, 2012, New York, wirth Paolo Javier
1. "Likeness" (improvisaton, based on poem in Girly Man): (04:02): MP3
2. "Live of the Toll Takers" (Dark City): (17:57): MP3
Discussion with Javier (42:12): MP3

Xavier University, Feb. 1, 2012, Cincinnati, OH (34:06): MP3

University of California, San Diego, May 2, 2012, introduction by Michael Davidson, discussion (cut-off) follows:
(140:59): MP3

Gallery Eof, Paris, reading Pied bot with tr. Martin Richet: "St McC," "Poem," "of course," "Take, Then, These," and at 15:33 "Dodgem" (read simultaneously) (from Shade) and new poems ("Autsopsychgraphia," "Dear Friend," "Strike!"): March 22, 2012 (32:11): MP3

back to Bernstein main page

These recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2009 Charles Bernstein. Used with permission of Charles Bernstein. Distributed by PennSound.