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Today's poem is from "The Crystal Text" by Clark Coolidge. The Slowdown is currently taking a break. We'll be back soon with new episodes from a new host. This week, we're revisiting some favorites from Major Jackson's time as host. Today's episode was originally released on July 2 2024. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry negotiates that space between our inner life and the relational world we share with others. Magically, we make plain what we feel and observe to convey what some might call a soul. I often describe poetry as a mirror that reflects back our interiority. But today's poem wonders if such perspective is even possible, given that we barely know who we are — making the enterprise of connection through art deeply indeterminate and delicate.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Today's poem is from "The Crystal Text" by Clark Coolidge. The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Major writes… “Poetry negotiates that space between our inner life and the relational world we share with others. Magically, we make plain what we feel and observe to convey what some might call a soul. I often describe poetry as a mirror that reflects back our interiority. But today's poem wonders if such perspective is even possible, given that we barely know who we are — making the enterprise of connection through art deeply indeterminate and delicate.” Celebrate the power of poems with a gift to The Slowdown today. Every donation makes a difference: https://tinyurl.com/rjm4synp
Read by Terry Casburn Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman
Recently — and by chance — we purchased two american compilations on vinyl, one entitled ‘10+2: 12 American Text Sound Pieces’ (1975) and the other ‘New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media: Women In Electronic Music’ (1977). While the first record is focused on american sound poetry, the second one is a careful introduction to the heroines of mid Seventies electronic music milieu. After this coincidental buy we discovered that both records were published by 1750 Arch Records, an American avant-garde music label, founded in the sixties in the homonymous recording / archival studio located at 1750 Arch Street, Berkeley, California. The episode features: Aram Saroyan, Laurie Spiegel, Beth Anderson, Ruth Anderson, John Giorno, Megan Roberts, Clark Coolidge, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Johanna M. Beyer, Anthony Gnazzo, Laurie Anderson, Charles Dodge, Annea Lockwood and Charles Amirkhanian.
Hosted by Al Filreis and featuring J. C. Cloutier, Michelle Taransky, and Clark Coolidge.
Wednesday Reading Series John Coletti is the author of Deep Code (City Lights, 2014), Mum Halo (Rust Buckle Books, 2010), Same Enemy Rainbow (fewer & further 2008), and Physical Kind (Yo-Yo-Labs 2005). With Anselm Berrigan, he is the author of the limited edition Skasers (Flowers & Cream, 2012). He has served as editor of The Poetry Project Newsletter and recently worked on a libretto for Excelsior, an opera composed by Caleb Burhans commissioned by Chicago's Fifth House Ensemble, which premiered in 2013. Clark Coolidge is the author of more than forty books of poetry and other, including Space, Solution Passage, The Crystal Text, At Egypt, Now It's Jazz: Writings on Kerouac & The Sounds, The Act of Providence and most recently 88 Sonnets and A Book Beginning What And Ending Away. Forthcoming, Selected Poems 1962-1985, Station Hill Press. In 2011 he edited a collection of Philip Guston's writings and talks for U Cal Press. Initially a drummer, he was a member of David Meltzer's Serpent Power in 1967 and Mix group in 1993-1994. He traveled to Paris September 2013 where his work was the subject of a symposium at Universite d' Est. Currently he has returned to active drumming in duos with Thurston Moore and the on-going free jazz band Ouroboros.
Hosted by Al Filreis and featuring Brian Reed, Maria Damon, and Craig Dworkin.
Brian Reed, Maria Damon and Craig Dworkin break down "Blues for Alice" by Clark Coolidge with host, Al Filreis.
The Poetry Episode! Anne Waldman with Steve Lacy! Clark Coolidge with Alvin Curran! Carla Harryman with Jon Raskin! FLARF! Susana Gardner, Aaron Belz, Ron Silliman, Leslie Scalapino, Jackson Mac Low, Hannah Weiner, Marcella Durand, David Antin, Heather Fuller, Jen Hofer! (starts at 00:00) “Ice” ~ Anne Waldman ~Live in Amsterdam 6.2.91 (Soyo Records) (starts at 02:26) ”Herso Mashup 1″ ~ Susana Gardner* (starts at 03:22) ”Good Directions” ~ Jen Hofer ~ Snake Hiss: A Transcendental Friend Audio Project (Transcendental Friend, 1999) (starts at 04:29) ”A Pile of Trees and an Actuary” ~ Aaron Belz* (starts at 05:33) ”Song for Asa” ~ Jon Raskin / Carla Harryman ~ Open Box(Tzadik, 2012) (starts at 11:14) Selections from Snips and War and Pee. ~ Rod Smith ~ Flarf Orchestra (Aerial/Edge, 2012)** (starts at 19:54) ”I Loved My Father” ~ Katie Degentesh ~ Flarf Orchestra(Aerial/Edge, 2012)** (starts at 23:12) ”The Dog Fox” and selections from “The Gospel of Justin” ~ Michael Magee ~ Flarf Orchestra (Aerial/Edge, 2012)** (starts at 27:26) ”Drew Gardner” ~ Rodney Koeneke Flarf Orchestra(Aerial/Edge, 2012)** (starts at 32:06) “Open Box II” ~ Jon Raskin / Carla Harryman ~ Open Box(Tzadik, 2012) (starts at 42:54) “Fish Speech” ~ Jon Raskin / Carla Harryman ~ Open Box(Tzadik, 2012) (starts at 47:58) “from OZ” ~ Ron Silliman (starts at 53:55) “from Bum Series” ~ Leslie Scalapino (starts at 58:42) “from Spoke” ~ Hannah Weiner (12-14 from Live at the Ear(Elemenope Productions, 1994) (starts at 1:04:19) “Excerpt from Phoneme Dance in Memoriam John Cage” ~ Jackson Mac Low & Anne Tardos ~ All Poets Welcome (Univ. of California Press, 2003) (starts at 1:08:21) “Hunt” ~ Marcella Durand ~ Snake Hiss: A Transcendental Friend Audio Project (Transcendental Friend, 1999) (starts at 1:10:08) “Who Are My Friends?” ~ David Antin ~ All Poets Welcome(Univ. of California Press, 2003) (starts at 1:13:16) “from Pieces of an Hour (‘Dear John Cage’)” ~ Anne Waldman with Steve Lacy ~ Battery (Fast Speaking Music, 2003) (starts at 1:17:46) “Stereo” ~ Anne Waldman ~ Alchemical Elegy (Fast Speaking Music, 2001) (starts at 1:21:49) “Herso Mashup II” ~ Susana Gardner* (starts at 1:23:51) “Mine” ~ Alvin Curran with Clark Coolidge ~ Maritime Rites(New World Records, 2004) (starts at 1:35:00) “Mr. Fibitz” ~ Aaron Belz* (starts at 1:36:35) “Stricken” ~ Heather Fuller ~ Snake Hiss: A Transcendental Friend Audio Project (Transcendental Friend, 1999) *Recorded by the poets exclusively for Papers for the Border. ** Tracks 6-9, from the Flarf Orchestra CD, features music written and conducted by Drew Gardner. More information can be found here: http://www.aerialedge.com/DrewGardnerFlarfOrchestraCD.html Anne Waldman’s “Ice,” also known as “You’re Like Ice,” was published in her book Journals and Dreams (Stonehill Press, 1976). It’s part of a larger poem titled “In April.” “Pieces of an Hour” was originally published in IOVIS: All Is Full of Jove (Coffee House Press, 1992) and republished in The Iovis Trilogy: Colors in the Mechanism of Concealment (Coffee House Press, 2011). “Stereo” was published in Marriage: A Sentence (Penguin, 2000). Susana Gardner’s pieces are from her recent book HERSO: An Heirship in Waves (Black Radish Books, 2011). Aaron Belz’s poems “A Pile of Trees and an Actuary” and “Mr. Fibitz” are from his book Lovely, Raspberry (Persea Books, 2010). Carla Harryman had this to say about “Song for Asa”: “Song for Asa” was published as a broadside in a very limited edition for a reading series in New Orleans. I believe it was also published in a very little magazine that came out Naropa, possibly in about 1999. Other than that it makes an appearance, broken up, in Gardener of Stars, a Novel. Harryman’s “Fish Speech” was published in Memory Play (O Books, 1994) and reprinted in 12 x 12: Conversations in 21st-Century Poetry and Poetics (University of Iowa Press, 2009). “Open Box II” is a selection from her book Open Box: Improvisations (Belladonna Books, 2007). The text of “Song for Asa” is sung by Aurora Josephson. Text for “Open Box II” is read by Carla Harryman and Jon Raskin. Text for “Fish Speech” is read by Aurora Josephson, Jon Raskin, and Roham Sheikhani. Rod Smith’s recording is comprised of selections from two manuscripts: Snips and War and Pee. Katie Degentesh’s poem is from The Anger Scale (Combo Books, 2006). Ron Silliman’s “OZ” is a portion of his long workThe Alphabet (University of Alabama Press, 2008). Leslie Scalapino’s “bum series” can be found in her book Way (North Point Press, 1988). Hannah Weiner’s “Spoke” is from the book of the same name (Sun & Moon, 1984). Marcella Durand’s “Hunt” is unpublished. David Antin’s “Who Are My Friends?” was published in Selected Poems, 1963-1973 (Sun & Moon, 1991). “Mine” features Clark Coolidge reading from his book Mine: The One that Enters the Stories (The Figures, 1981; republished, 2004). From the CD liner notes: “Also heard is Arlan Coolidge, retired chairman of the Brown University Music Department, reminiscing about Block Island, Rhode Island, in 1918 and playing a portion of the popular 1917 song “Smiles” on the violin. This material is mixed with the foghorns of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, all three horns on Block Island, and the foghorn on the Block Island Ferry during its crossing.” Heather Fuller’s “Stricken” was published in her book perhaps this is a rescue fantasy (Edge Books, 1997).