Featuring Michael Hennessey's recollections of his own work with the archive
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
On November 18, 2013, Steve McLaughlin hosted a celebration of PennSound’s 10th anniversary. After introductory remarks offered by Al Filreis, there were short talks each by Charles Bernstein, Michael Hennessey, Danny Snelson, Katie Price, Steve McLaughlin himself, and Benjamin Behrend. Hennessey was not in Philadelphia for the event and had prepared a recording to be played. In this PennSound podcast, the 33rd in the series, we feature Hennessey’s retrospective (along with clips he prepared from various bits from the archive). Allison Harris edited the podcast and introduces it. Full audio and video recordings of the event are available at the Kelly Writers House web calendar entry.
Samba-poesia
Poetry in the streets
In December, I spent a vibrant night at the Cooperifa spoken word salon on the South Side periphery of São Paulo. The open-mic sessions take place every Wednesday at the bar of Zé Batidão, a neighborhood gathering spot in Jardim Guarujá, where up to 300 people of all ages converge weekly to listen to and perform poems. Over the last eleven years, Cooperifa (the name is a compound of cooperativa and periferia) has become well-known in São Paulo and throughout Brazil for uniting and strengthening, through poetry, a community that is marginalized in both social and geographic senses. Sérgio Vaz, a poet and founder of Cooperifa, is widely recognized as a community leader; in 2009, Época magazine named him one of the hundred most influential people in Brazil. Indeed, Cooperifa spoken word is something of a popular movement that has spread beyond São Paulo.