Brian Ang

PennSound & Politics

Short Range Poetic Device, 2010

Short Range Poetic Device was a four episode radio show of discussions with and readings by poets, hosted by Stephen Collis and Roger Farr, as part of the alternative media resistance to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, February 12-28, 2010.

Short Range Poetic Device
Poetry and Poetics Streaming Against the Totality
Vivo Media Arts, Vancouver, British Columbia, February 16-17 and 23-24, 2010

#1, February 16, 2010:

  • Stephen Collis, “Tactical Propositions, or, Pwn the Odium”
  • Roger Farr, from “Secure Channels” (Surplus, 2006)
  • Donato Mancini, “If Violence (Hey You)” (Buffet World, 2011)

Ron Silliman, 2009

“Can you curl your tongue?” from “Force”

In this 2009 publication celebration of the Alphabet, Ron Silliman reads 48 minutes of selections from across the book.

Ron Silliman
The Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, February 17, 2009
Recording:
Introduction by Jessica Lowenthal
Recorded statement by Rachel Blau DuPlessis, “Silliman’s Alphabet and Poesis” (an excerpt is played at the celebration)
Introduction by Charles Bernstein
Introduction by Bob Perelman
Reading (from the Alphabet, 2008):

  • “Albany” (1979-80; pp. 1-2)
  • “Force” (1979-80; pp. 43-48)
  • from “Non” (1987-89; “In Gargoyle 32/33, Dan Beaver writes…,” pp. 356-357)
  • from “Paradise” (1984; first section, pp. 410-411; last two sections, pp. 425-431)
  • from “VOG” (circa 1985-99): “For Larry Eigner, Silent” (pp. 607-609)

The celebration begins with a deluxe set of introductions. Jessica Lowenthal notes that “Ron Silliman’s Alphabet has been in the making for three decades,” with its composition beginning in 1979 with “Force.” Rachel Blau DuPlessis argues counter-intuitively that “writing a long poem for Silliman was not a decision about length or grandeur or the sublime. It was a way of solving certain problems. The length is extraneous. Working out a problem—sentences for Silliman—was the trigger. Some length is needed to make the point.”

Charles Bernstein, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, 2005

In this episode of Close Listening, Rachel Blau DuPlessis discusses her long poem Drafts, the relation between poetry and politics, and the contemporary state of gender issues in writing with host Charles Bernstein, and reads a selection from Drafts.

Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Close Listening recording session, University of Pennsylvania, April 27, 2005
Conversation with Charles Bernstein
Draft 20: Incipit (Drafts 1-38: Toll, 2001)
Draft 25: Segno (Drafts 1-38: Toll, 2001)
Draft 63: Dialogue of Self & Soul (Torques: Drafts 58-76, 2007)
Draft 46: Edge (Drafts 39-57, Pledge, with Draft, unnumbered: Précis, 2004)
Draft 64: Forward Slash (Torques: Drafts 58-76, 2007)
from Draft 51: Clay Songs (sections 4, 5, 10, and 12; Drafts 39-57, Pledge, with Draft, unnumbered: Précis, 2004)
Draft 61: Pyx (Torques: Drafts 58-76, 2007)

Bruce Andrews, 2001

Photo from LINEbreak

In this 2001 reading, Bruce Andrews gives a “half an hour tour through the ten planetary bodies” of Lip Service, his recasting of Dante’s Paradiso.

Bruce Andrews
Segue Series at Double Happiness, New York City, April 7, 2001
Introduction by Brian Kim Stefans and Reading (from Lip Service, 2001):

from “Earth”:

  • from “Earth 1” (“DEAR …” to “get over you circumlocution for Paradise”)

from “Moon”:

  • from “Moon 2” (“And this” to “becomes a sexual part.”)
  • from “Moon 6” (“But I’m jealous of your idiotic sleek smooth operator” to “declension of possessions in heat.”)
  • from “Moon 9” (“Hell is psychology:” to “the rehabilitation of failure, make me fall.”)
  • from “Moon 10” (“Why don’t you get” to “pretty crumbleable.”)

from “Mercury”:

  • from “Mercury 6” (“Freedom of information act’s controversial vendetta” to “on your breath;”)
  • from “Mercury 9” (“dressed to detoxify pliable dissection’s disobedience –” to “pride in bodystocking diaspora.”)

Barrett Watten, 1999

Photo from the Poetry Project

In this 1999 reading, Barrett Watten collages poetry and criticism from 1-10 (1980), Bad History (1998), Poetics Journal 10: “Knowledge” (1998), and criticism eventually collected in The Constructivist Moment: From Material Text to Cultural Poetics (2003).

Barrett Watten
The Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, November 15, 1999
Introduction by Carine Daly
Reading:

  • Mode Z (1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • Non-Events (stanza 1; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • “Does poetry have any knowledge […]” (“What I See in ‘How I Became Hettie Jones,’” Poetics Journal 10: “Knowledge,” 1998)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 2 and 3; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • Bad History IV: “Museum of War” (Bad History, 1998)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 4 and 5; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • “It is important that the graphically modified noun language […]” (The Constructivist Moment: From Material Text to Cultural Poetics, 2003)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 6 and 7; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • Bad History X: “The Executor” (Bad History, 1998)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 8 and 9; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • “There is a competing possibility […]” (“What I See in ‘How I Became Hettie Jones,’” Poetics Journal 10: “Knowledge,” 1998)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 10 and 11; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • Bad History Section E: “Event” (Bad History, 1998)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 12 and 13; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • “Instead of ant wort I saw brat guts […]” (The Constructivist Moment: From Material Text to Cultural Poetics, 2003)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 14 and 15; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • Bad History XIX: “Free Trade” (Bad History, 1998)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 18 and 19; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • Bad History XXI: “Vulture” (Bad History, 1998)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 16 and 17; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)
  • Bad History XXII: “Fantasia” (Bad History, 1998)
  • Non-Events (stanzas 18 through 25; 1-10, 1980; Frame (1971-1990), 1997)

Watten begins with “Mode Z,” the first poem in 1-10, the book strategically chosen to begin the non-chronological Frame (1971-1990). Watten adapts this organizational gesture to the composition of the poetry reading. “Mode Z” consists of New Sentences calling for the clearing of the past and the agency to construct the present: “Could we have those trees cleared out of the way? / And the houses, volcanoes, empires?” “Prove to me now that you have finally undermined / your heroes [….] Start writing autobiography.” Its repetition in 1999 reaffirms its permanent revolution, self-critically exceeding Watten’s own subjectivity, since in the nineteen years since 1-10 a new generation of poets has developed with Watten as a hero to be potentially undermined, evidenced by the adulatory introduction by the younger Carine Daly.