Featured resources
From "Down To Write You This Poem Sat" at the Oakville Gallery
- Charles Bernstein, "Phone Poem" (2011) (1:30): MP3
- Caroline Bergvall, "Love song: 'The Not Tale (funeral)' from Shorter Caucer Tales (2006): MP3
- Christian Bôk, excerpt from Eunoia, from Chapter "I" for Dick Higgins (2009) (1:38): MP3
- Tonya Foster, Nocturne II (0:40) (2010) MP3
- Ted Greenwald, "The Pears are the Pears" (2005) (0:29): MP3
- Susan Howe, Thorow, III (3:13) (1998): MP3
- Tan Lin, "¼ : 1 foot" (2005) (1:16): MP3
- Steve McCaffery, "Cappuccino" (1995) (2:35): MP3
- Tracie Morris, From "Slave Sho to Video aka Black but Beautiful" (2002) (3:40): MP3
- Julie Patton, "Scribbling thru the Times" (2016) (5:12): MP3
- Tom Raworth, "Errory" (c. 1975) (2:08): MP3
- Jerome Rothenberg, from "The First Horse Song of Frank Mitchell: 4-Voice Version" (c. 1975) (3:30): MP3
- Cecilia Vicuna, "When This Language Disappeared" (2009) (1:30): MP3
- Guillaume Apollinaire, "Le Pont Mirabeau" (1913) (1:14):
MP3
- Amiri Baraka, "Black Dada Nihilismus" (1964) (4:02): MP3
- Louise Bennett, "Colonization in Reverse" (1983) (1:09): MP3
- Sterling Brown, "Old Lem " (c. 1950s) (2:06): MP3
- John Clare, "Vowelless Letter" (1849) performed by Charles Bernstein (2:54): MP3
- Velimir Khlebnikov, "Incantation by Laughter" (1910), tr. and performed by Bernstein (:28) MP3
- Harry Partch, from Barstow (part 1), performed by Bernstein (1968) (1:11): MP3
- Leslie Scalapino, "Can’t’ is ‘Night’" (2007) (3:19): MP3
- Kurt Schwitters, "Ur Sonata: Largo" performed by Ernst Scwhitter (1922-1932) ( (3:12): MP3
- Gertrude Stein, If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso (1934-35) (3:42): MP3
- William Carlos Willliams, "The Defective Record" (1942) (0:28): MP3
- Hannah Weiner, from Clairvoyant Journal, performed by Weiner, Sharon Mattlin & Rochelle Kraut (2001) (6:12): MP3
Selected by Charles Bernstein (read more about his choices here)
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Posted 1/22/2021
"Whenever poetry becomes a topic movingly discussed by many people for whom it is not a daily — indeed, not even a monthly — thing," Filreis begins, "I realize once again what draws me to it ever and always. In a poem, how you say what you say is as important as, sometimes more important than, what you say. Is that a radical view? After all, content is central to communicating. But what about times when communication has broken down?" He then turns to the example of Allen Ginsberg's iconic poem "Howl," and specifically, "the riveting performance Ginsberg gave before a huge, engaged, at times ecstatic audience in Chicago in 1959" that you can hear here. "How Ginsberg says 'Howl' is as important as what he says, for sure. Words about crying out can themselves cry out." "So that is poetry," he affirms. "A form of saying. Not so much the things being said."
Later, he turns to the example of Erica Hunt, who'll be joining us shortly as the first of this year's Kelly Writers House Fellows: "Whenever I read — or, better, hear recited — [Hunt's] poem 'Reader we were meant to meet,' I think about how and why I cannot help but listen, cannot turn away from hearing, must attend. Because the poet is not just talking to me, but about me — about why I am necessary 'even in the failure to communicate.'" "Poems I admire require my involvement in the project of 'toppl[ing] distinctions' between who gets to talk and who is being asked to listen," Filreis tells us, "And that and only that kind of engagement — the convergence of writer and reader, of speech-maker and audience, of the talker and the silent, of the poet as subject and the reader normally supposed to be an object — will 'ease doubt.'"
Certainly, this feels pertinent to our present moment; however what we've offered here is just a small taste of Filreis' mini-essay, which merits reading in full. You can do so by clicking here.
Posted 1/21/2021
Today we're catching up with last week's news that Tongo Eisen-Martin has been named San Francisco's eighth poet laureate. Mayor London Breed offered these hopeful words while making the announcement: "I've had the pleasure of working with Tongo when he was teaching artist at the African American Arts and Culture complex, and I've seen his remarkable ability to spur creativity in youth and inspire them to find their own voice." Breed continued, "His work on racial justice and equity, along with his commitment to promoting social and cultural change, comes at such a critical time for our city and our country." In his introductory comments, Eisen-Martin acknowledged San Francisco's long and thriving poetic history, while striving for even greater outreach and inclusivity: "As deep into the various communities of the city as our poets have already brought the craft, I want to push even further into places where poetry has not yet permeated. Give poetry even more of a mass personality; as mass participation has always been the staple of what could be described as San Francisco futurism." We recently added an October 2019 reading by Eisen-Martin (along with Eric Dolan and Fego Navarro) from the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive's reading series, organized by Cole Solinger. Listen in to that set, along with readings by Trisha Low, Elaine Kahn, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, Ocean Escalanti, Vasiliki Kitsigianis Ioannou, and Jheyda McGarrell, by clicking here.
Posted 1/17/2021
January 17th marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Beat legend Gregory Corso. While the loss of any poet is a tragedy, one feels especially sorry for Corso, who had finally attained some modicum of hard-fought peace and closure in his final years, leaving behind the traumas that had marked his childhood and reuniting with his mother after decades of separation (as detailed in the late Gustave Reininger's criminally neglected documentary, Corso: The Last Beat). We launched our Gregory Corso author page in June 2017, with assistance from Raymond Foye. There, you'll find five full readings plus one individual poem recorded between the 1970s and 1990s. The earliest recording is an April 1971 reading at Duke University, which is followed by an August 1985 appearance at the San Francisco Art Institute as part of their "Art of Poetry" series. Jumping forward to the 90s, there's a March 1991 Brooklyn College reading notable for the appearance of Corso's iconic late poem "The Whole Mess ... Almost" and for the half-hour candid conversation recorded in the car on the way home. From December 1992, there's a stellar reading in New York City also featuring Herbert Huncke, John Wieners, and Allen Ginsberg, and finally, from March 1993, we have a half-hour reading from Rutgers University including "I Met This Guy Who Died," "Earliest Memory," "Youthful Religious Experiences," and "Friends," among other poems.
Ginsberg famously offered high praise for his dear friend, calling him "a poet's Poet, his verse pure velvet, close to John Keats for our time, exquisitely delicate in manners of the Muse," who "has been and always will be a popular poet, awakener of youth, puzzlement & pleasure for sophisticated elder bibliophiles." He continues, judging Corso as "'Immortal' as immortal is, Captain Poetry exampling revolution of Spirit, his 'poetry the opposite of hypocrisy,' a loner, laughably unlaurelled by native prizes, divine Poet Maudit, rascal poet Villonesque and Rimbaudian whose wild fame's extended for decades around the world from France to China, World poet." Per his request, and with the help of donations from his fans worldwide (I still remember the call for funds and might have sent in $5), Corso's ashes were interred in Rome's Cimitero Acattolico right next to the grave of his greatest poetic hero, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and in close proximity to Keats. His tombstone bears his poem "Spirit," written as his epitaph during his lifetime. While that poem — and many more — are on my mind today, the one that seems like the most appropriate tribute is another classic Corso poem addressing mortality that includes a good dose of his trademark humor, "How Not to Die." We have a great recording of Corso reading it at that 1993 Rutgers reading [ MP3] and here's the poem in its entirety:
How Not To Die
Around people if I feel I'm gonna die I excuse myself telling them "I gotta go!" "Go where?" they wanna know I don't answer I just get outa there away from them because somehow they sense something wrong and never know what to do it scares them such suddenness How awful to just sit there and they asking: "Are you okay?" "Can we get you something?" "Want to lie down?" Ye gods! people! who wants to die amongst people?! Especially when they can't do shit To the movies — to the movies that's where I hurry to when I feel I'm going to die So far it's worked
Want to read more? Visit the PennSound Daily archive.
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New at PennSound
- September 20 Kimberly Alidio Book Launch Event and December 8 In-Flux Reading added in the Belladonna* Series
- John Richetti reading Clement Clark Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas", December 10, 2020
- Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive: Fall Poetry Reading Series, 2019
- Rachel Blau DuPlessis Reading from Late Work and Around the Day in 80 Worlds, October 2020
- Vivien Bittencourt and Vincent Katz, Hanuman Presents!: A Reading at the Poetry Project, New York, May 18, 1989
- Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Pog Reading, Tucson, Arizona, October 10, 2020
- Henry Hills, Plagiarism (1981)
- Reading and Discussion with Rae Armantrout and Bob Perelman on Zoom at The San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books, August 28, 2020
- John Richetti reading Poe, Coleridge, Tennyson, and Whitman at home for PennSound Classics, September, 2020
- Tyrone Williams reading at Zaza Performance Series, August 7, 2020
- Three readings from Tim Dlugos, c. 1974-84
- John Richetti reads Walt Whitman at his home, September 2, 2020
- Jacques Roubaud reading at la Libraire Texture, Paris, December 4, 2019
- July 7 In-Flux readings and August 18 Matters of Feminist Practice Journal Launch Part 3 added in the Belladonna* Series
- Ed Roberson reads at The Mackey Sessions in Durham, NC, September 20, 2018
- Nathaniel Mackey reads with Our True Day Begun Soon Come Qu'ahttet at The Mackey Sessions in Durham, NC, September 21, 2018
- Michael Ruby reads from The Star-Spangled Banner, 2020
- Michael Ruby reads from The Mouth of the Bay, 2019
- Michael Ruby reads from The Edge of the Underworld, 2019
- Dozens of added recordings and new archival information added to the S Press Collection
- Lisa Robertson and sabrina soyer perform translations of Troubadour poet Na Castelloza in Brussels, 2020
- Trevor Joyce reading at Effie Street, February 24, 2020
- Adrienne Rich reads for WBAI Radio, April 30, 1972
- Adrienne Rich reads for City Arts & Lectures, San Francisco, November 30, 1993
- Adrienne Rich, from A Sign / I Was Not Alone, 1977
- Ted Joans performing in Amsterdam, 1964
- Erín Moure reads for the Kelly Writers House Fellows Program via Zoom, March 30, 2020
- Peter BD and Rachel James read for Breaking Through at the Kelly Writers House, January 29, 2020
- Erica Hunt reads at the Kelly Writers House, November 4, 2019
- Shiv Kotecha and Bianca Rae Messinger read for Breaking Through at the Kelly Writers House, November 20, 2019
- Dottie Lasky, Emily Pettit, and Meeree Orlandini read for the Whenever We Feel Like It Series at the Kelly Writers House, November 5, 2019
- Donna Stonecipher and Daniel R. Biddle in City Planning Poetics, Episode 8: Urban Ruins, at the Kelly Writers House, October 7, 2019
- Laura Mullen reads at the Kelly Writers House, September 24, 2019
- Kate Colby reads at the Kelly Writers House, September 18, 2019
- Marjorie Welish reads for Time Sensitive at the Kelly Writers House, September 17, 2019
- Marcus Slease reads five poems by Grzegorz Wroblewski
- Fred Moten at The Mackey Sessions
- New Readings in the Belladonna* Series, Spring 2020
- Reading and Discussion at CAAPP, University of Pittsburgh, September 30, 2019:
Julie Patton and Tyrone Williams
- Ezra Pound, "Reading and Collections," with D. G. Bridson, April 1959
- Peter Gizzi reading from Sky Burial, on Zoom, May 11, 2020
- Maggie O'Sullivan reads at Eric Mottram Conference
- John Richetti reading several
Alfred, Lord Tennyson pieces, recorded at home, April 17, 2020
- Peter Gizzi reading in Brooklyn, January 4, 2020
- Readings at the Centre international de poésie Marseille, 1985–1994:
Claude Royet-Journoud,
John Taggart, Alexandre Skidan,
Olivier Cadiot, Rosmarie Waldrop,
Julien Blaine, and Christophe Tarkos
- Soundeye International Poetry Festival: A documentary film by Adam Wyeth, edited by Keith Walsh
- New Author Page: Kenneth Rexroth
- Stephen Ratcliffe on KWMR's Original Minds, West Marin Radio, March 7, 2020
- Daphne Marlatt reads passages from Steveston
- Nathaniel Mackey and Marty Ehrlich performing at Hugo House, Seattle, WA, September 22, 2019
- Rosmarie Waldrop and Laynie Browne reading in Providence, RI, March 5, 2019
- Tom Raworth reading at the Faultline Theater, San Diego, California, February 27, 2000
- George Quasha reading in Barrytown, NY: Hearing Other, July 30, 2019 and Dowsing Axis, December 28, 2019.
- Peter Lamborn Wilson Reading Hoodoo Metaphysics, Saugerties, NY, July 15, 2019.
- Elaine Equi reading at 'T' Space, Rhinebeck, New York, July 14, 2019.
- Caroline Bergvall in conversation with David Wallace and Orchid Tierney, Arts Café at Kelly Writers House, November 4, 2014
- Sophia Naz reading in the Wexler Studio at Kelly Writers House, April 3, 2019
- New Double Change performances by Mónica de la Torre, Ann Lauterbach, and Charles Bernstein (with Olivier Cadiot and translator Abigail Lang), Paris, Fall 2019
- erica kaufman reading in the Wexler Studio at Kelly Writers House, November 5, 2018
- Kate Colby reading in the Wexler Studio at Kelly Writers House, October 25, 2018
- Close Listening with Charles Bernstein featuring Allen Fisher. November 29, 2019
- Angela Carr reading in the Wexler Studio at Kelly Writers House, October 18, 2018
- Adam Fieled's The Ballad of Robert Johnson at Westminster Arch, Philadelphia, 2011
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- Charles Bernstein, Ann Lauterbach, and Mónica de la Torre Double Change Readings
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- Close Listening with Charles Bernstein featuring Claude Royet-Journoud. November 24, 2019
- Belladonna Readings at Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop on October 30, 2019 and Chaim & Renee Gross Foundation on November 18, 2019
- Breaking Through featuring Shiv Kotecha and Bianca Rae Messinger, hosted by Simone White, Kelly Writers House, November 20, 2019
- New Author Page: Ted Enslin
- Cia Rinne reading texts by Vagn Steen, April, 2019
- Cia Rinne and Tomomi Adachi reading at the Haus für Poesie, Berlin, February 2, 2019
- Charles Bernstein reading at Dilluns de Poesia, Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, October 21, 2019
- Nathaniel Mackey reading with Marty Ehrlich, Hugo House, Seattle, September 22, 2019
- Close Listening with Charles Bernstein featuring Kit Robinson, October 6, 2019
- Kit Robinson and Uche Nduka reading at Unnameable Books, Brooklyn, October 6, 2019
- A selection of readings by Tom Weatherly
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- Jackson Mac Low, Bob Cobbing, and Tom Leonard reading at the Sound & Syntax International Festival of Sound Poetry, 1978
- Julie Patton readings filmed by Ted Roemer, circa 2013
- Double Change readings by Habib Tengour, Pierre Joris, Charles Bernstein July 25, 2019
- Steve Dalachinsky: New Author Page
- Aldon Nielsen Reading at Xavier University, April 25, 2016
- New works from Gar, The Fire of 'Bu, and other sound and video poetry by Eva Macali in Italiana
- Talks with Jennifer Scappettone and Haun Saussy, UChicago, January 23-24, 2018
- Etel Adnan interviewed by Jennifer Scappettone, Extra Video: Travels in Philosophy and Music, Paris, September 23 and 24, 2017
- Kenward Elmslie and Steven Taylor performing at Naropa University, July 23, 1991
- Pen America Conversation with Harryette Mullen and Erica Hunt, NYC, November 15, 2007
- New readings from Segue Series at ZINC Bar, 2016–19
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