SMALL PRESS TRAFFIC'S
2009 SPRING SEASON:
JANUARY 16, 2009 Poets' Theater: plays by Bhanu Kapil, Stan Apps, Daniil Kharms, Wendy Kramer, Tetra Balestri & more!
JANUARY 23, 2009 Poets' Theater: longer plays by Leslie Scalapino, Vanessa Place, Raymond Pettibon, & more
JANUARY 30, 2009 Poets' Theater: Inter-media work & videos by Linh Dinh, Heriberto Yépez, Konrad Steiner, Henry Hills, Paolo Javier & Dennis Somera, Ariana Reines, Dillon Westbrook, Karla Milosevich, Cassie Riger & Amanda Davidson, Bill Luoma, Claudia Rankine, & more!
FEBRUARY 6, 2009 Kaia Sand & Yedda Morrison & Kim Rosenfield
FEBRUARY 20, 2009 Christian Bök & Rachel Zolf
MARCH 6, 2009 Rae Armantrout & Laura Sims
MARCH 13, 2009 Stacy Szymaszek & Craig Santos Perez
MARCH 27, 2009 SPT Presents: Bay Area Student Writers (CCA Oakland Nahl Hall)
APRIL 10, 2009 Donna de la Perriere & Claire Chafee
APRIL 18, 2009 Tan Lin & Chet Weiner (21 Grand 416 25th Street, Oakland 6:30 pm)
APRIL 25, 2009 Julie Patton & Kit Robinson
MAY 1, 2009 Stephen Vincent & David Lau
MAY 8. 2009 Eleni Stecopoulos & Maggie Zurawski
MAY 15, 2009 Susana Gardner & Elizabeth Treadwell
Monday, December 22, 2008
SPT ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Small Press Traffic is pleased to announce Samantha Giles as the organization's new Executive Director.Samantha Giles was born in Oakland and raised in Santa Monica, California. She returned to the Bay Area in 1996, to complete her Bachelors of Social Work at San Francisco State University. From 1999 to 2004, she was the Community Arts Program Director for Central City Hospitality House, providing artistic access for homeless people in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. Her extensive administrative, programmatic and curatorial work during her tenure there helped stabilize and grow a program of disparate, often unheard voices. In 2008, she received her MFA from Mills College, where she also served as Managing Editor for 580 Split. Her work appears in numerous journals and webzines.
Samantha will serve as the Director beginning January 1, 2009.
We look forward to working with Samantha and to seeing you all in the year ahead!
The Small Press Traffic Board of Directors
David Buuck, Jessica Wickens, Lauren Shufran, Chris Chen, Gloria Frym, Scott Inguito, Barbara Jane Reyes, and Cynthia Sailers
"Locals" MLA Reading 12/30 @ Hotel Utah
For those of you San Francisco for the MLA, please come join us for this companion reading to the big MLA reading on the 28th, this one featuring over 30 Bay Area poets. The reading will start promptly at 7pm, at the nearby club Hotel Utah. Featuring: Melissa Benham, Alan Bernheimer, Brandon Brown, Xochi Candelaria, Norma Cole, Sarah Anne Cox, Del Ray Cross, Brent Cunningham, Donna de la Perriere, Steve Dickison, Stacy Doris, Steve Farmer, Gloria Frym, Susan Gevirtz, Rob Halpern, Javier Huerta, Scott Ignuito, Andrew Joron, David Lau, Joseph Lease, Dana Teen Lomax, Bill Luoma, Laura Moriarty, Stephen Ratcliffe, Barbara Jane Reyes, Cynthia Sailers, Leslie Scalapino, Lauren Shufran, giovanni singleton, Suzanne Stein, Chris Stroffolino, Elizabeth Treadwell, Stephen Vincent, Alli Warren, Chet Weiner, Rob Wilson & more!
hosted by David Buuck & Small Press Traffic.
Tues Dec 30, 7pm, $2
Hotel Utah
500 4th St. @ Bryant, SF
see you there!
David Buuck
Small Press Traffic
hosted by David Buuck & Small Press Traffic.
Tues Dec 30, 7pm, $2
Hotel Utah
500 4th St. @ Bryant, SF
see you there!
David Buuck
Small Press Traffic
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
This Saturday 12/13: Bev Dahlen Reading & Tribute!
Small Press Traffic is pleased to present:
A Beverly Dahlen Reading & Tribute
Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 3 pm
Timken Hall, CCA
Refreshments will be served
Please join Small Press Traffic in recognizing the work of Beverly Dahlen. This community event includes statements about Beverly's writing from:
Ron Silliman
Stephen Vincent
Lauren Shufran
Charles Alexander
Jocelyn Saidenberg
Bruce Boone
Elizabeth Robinson
Rob Halpern
Kathleen Fraser
Beverly Dahlen will read a selection of her work, along with pieces that haven't been made public previously. This retrospective/fete honors one of the Bay Area's foremost writers. Please join us!
A native of Portland, Oregon, Beverly Dahlen has lived in San Francisco for many years. Her first book, Out of the Third, was published by Momo's Press in 1974. Two chapbooks, A Letter at Easter (Effie's Press, 1976) and The Egyptian Poems (Hipparchia Press, 1983) were followed by the publication of the first volume of A Reading in 1985 (A Reading 1—7, Momo's Press). Since then, three more volumes of A Reading have appeared. Chax Press published A Reading 8—10 (1992); Potes and Poets Press: A Reading 11—17 (1989); Instance Press: A Reading 18—20 (2006). Chax Press also published the chapbook A-reading Spicer & Eighteen Sonnets in 2004. Ms. Dahlen has also published work in numerous periodicals and anthologies. A forthcoming issue of Crayon will publish poetry and her essay on beauty.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
This Friday 12/5: Scott Inguito & The Sonneteers (Ben & Sandra Doller)
BRING A BOTTLE OF WINE & GET SCOTT'S NEW CHAPBOOK!
Friday, December 5, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall
Refreshments will be served
Scott Inguito lives in San Francisco, teaches in San Jose, and paints in his garage. His most recent project is called PANDAFUCK, a suite of poems inspired by the pointless, the ill-tuned yet well-intentioned, the black and white of it all. Dear Jack (2008), a book of poems, is out on Momotombo Press. You can find his paintings at scottinguito.com
Sandra Doller (née Miller) has a new name. Her first book Oriflamme was published by Ahsahta Press in 2005, and her second collection Chora is forthcoming from Ahsahta in 2010. Sandra Doller is the founder & editrice of a fancy magazine & press, the curiously named 1913. She teaches at Cal State San Marcos and lives way out west with her man, Ben Doller (né Doyle) and their pup Ronald Johnson.
Ben Doller (né Doyle)'s first book of poems, Radio, Radio, was selected by Susan Howe as winner of the 2000 Walt Whitman Award. His second book, FAQ:, will be published by Ahsahta Press in 2009, and his third book, Dead Ahead, is forthcoming from Fence Books. He co-edits the Kuhl House Contemporary Poets series and teaches in Antioch's Low-Res MFA program. Wherever he lives, he lives with his lady, Sandra Doller (née Miller) and their boxador, Ronald Johnson.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Check out: http://www.sptraffic.org/html/supporters.htm
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
This Friday 11/21: Jocelyn Saidenberg and Beth Murray!
Friday, November 21, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall
Refreshments will be served
Jocelyn Saidenberg is the author of Dispossessed (Belladonna, 2007), Negativity (Atelos, 2006), Dusky (Belladonna, 2002), CUSP (Kelsey Street Press, 2001), and Mortal City (Parenthesis Writing Series, 1998). She is an editor and publisher of KRUPSKAYA Books, a small press publishing collective, and also works as a librarian at the San Francisco Public Library. Born in New York City, she currently lives in San Francisco.
Beth Murray practices homeopathy for people and animals. Since she became a homeopath, she mostly reads materia medica and doesn't submit her work to magazines. She is in the process of a adopting a child from the foster system. She lives in Alameda with her dog, Laney. The Island has everything to do with her experience there.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Timken Lecture Hall
Refreshments will be served
Jocelyn Saidenberg is the author of Dispossessed (Belladonna, 2007), Negativity (Atelos, 2006), Dusky (Belladonna, 2002), CUSP (Kelsey Street Press, 2001), and Mortal City (Parenthesis Writing Series, 1998). She is an editor and publisher of KRUPSKAYA Books, a small press publishing collective, and also works as a librarian at the San Francisco Public Library. Born in New York City, she currently lives in San Francisco.
Beth Murray practices homeopathy for people and animals. Since she became a homeopath, she mostly reads materia medica and doesn't submit her work to magazines. She is in the process of a adopting a child from the foster system. She lives in Alameda with her dog, Laney. The Island has everything to do with her experience there.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Friday 11/14: Joan Larkin & Sandy Florian
Friday, November 14, 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall, CCA
Refreshments will be served
Joan Larkin’s My Body: New and Selected Poems received the Publishing Triangle’s 2008 Audre Lorde Award. David Ulin of the Los Angeles Times has called Larkin’s voice “unsentimental, ruthless and clear-eyed…. This is poetry without pity, in which despair leads not to degradation but to a kind of grace.” Her previous books include Housework, A Long Sound, Sor Juana’s Love Poems (translated with Jaime Manrique), and Cold River, winner of a Lambda Award. Larkin co-founded Out & Out Books during the feminist literary explosion of the seventies and co-edited the groundbreaking anthologies Amazon Poetry and Lesbian Poetry with Elly Bulkin and Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time with Carl Morse. Her collection A Woman Like That was nominated for Publishing Triangle and Lambda nonfiction prizes in 2000. Larkin teaches in Drew University’s low-residency MFA program in Poetry and Poetry in Translation and will be Wichita State University’s Spring ‘09 Visiting Poet.
Sandy Florian is the author of Telescope (Action Books, 2006), 32 Pedals & 47 Stops (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2007), The Tree of No (Action Books, 2008), and Of Wonderland & Waste (the launching Sidebrow Press, 2009). She lives and works in San Francisco.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Timken Lecture Hall, CCA
Refreshments will be served
Joan Larkin’s My Body: New and Selected Poems received the Publishing Triangle’s 2008 Audre Lorde Award. David Ulin of the Los Angeles Times has called Larkin’s voice “unsentimental, ruthless and clear-eyed…. This is poetry without pity, in which despair leads not to degradation but to a kind of grace.” Her previous books include Housework, A Long Sound, Sor Juana’s Love Poems (translated with Jaime Manrique), and Cold River, winner of a Lambda Award. Larkin co-founded Out & Out Books during the feminist literary explosion of the seventies and co-edited the groundbreaking anthologies Amazon Poetry and Lesbian Poetry with Elly Bulkin and Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time with Carl Morse. Her collection A Woman Like That was nominated for Publishing Triangle and Lambda nonfiction prizes in 2000. Larkin teaches in Drew University’s low-residency MFA program in Poetry and Poetry in Translation and will be Wichita State University’s Spring ‘09 Visiting Poet.
Sandy Florian is the author of Telescope (Action Books, 2006), 32 Pedals & 47 Stops (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2007), The Tree of No (Action Books, 2008), and Of Wonderland & Waste (the launching Sidebrow Press, 2009). She lives and works in San Francisco.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
This Friday 11/7: C.S. Giscombe & Caroline Bergvall
Caroline Bergvall and C.S. Giscombe
Friday, November 7, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall
Refreshments will be served
Caroline Bergvall (London) is a writer and poet. Her latest collection of texts was entitled FIG (Salt, 2005), part 2 of her series Goan Atom (volume first published by Kruspkaya, 2001). Her work is frequently multilingual, performative and collaborative. She has developed audioworks, visual textwork, net-based pieces, live performances, both in Europe, Scandinavia and in North America. Recent presentations include. readings at MOMA (NY'2007 and 2008), as part of their Modern Poet Series, MOCA (LA,07), Digital Writing evening (Tate Modern, April'08); the earlier project Say: "Parsley", a sound and language installation, has just been re-sited at Museum of Contemporary Arts (MuKHa, Antwerp, May-Aug 08); new pieces from her text cycle Shorter Chaucer Tales were presented at DIA Arts Foundation (NY June'08 ) and published by Belladonna as a one-off "Alyson Singes", as well as new chapbooks published in Scandinavia. Recent writer's talk and presentation at the Conceptual Poetry and its Other symposium (Tucson, Arizona May'08), as well as readings in Sweden (October'08). Her critical work is concerned with performativity, mixed-media writings and multilingual poetics. Director of Performance Writing, Dartington College of Arts (1995-2000); Dartington Fellow (2000-2006); Co-Chair of the MFA Writing Faculty, Bard College (2004-2007). She is currently the recipient of an AHRC Arts Fellowship in Britain (2007-2010).
C. S. Giscombe teaches at UC Berkeley and lives in Oakland. He has received awards and grants from the Canadian Embassy, Fund for Poetry, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, and others. His recent poetry books are Here, Giscome Road, and Prairie Style; his prose book (about black Canada) is Into and Out of Dislocation. His work has been included in the Best American Poetry, the Oxford Anthology of African American Poetry, Bluesprint: Black British Columbia Literature and Orature, Lyric Postmodernisms, and elsewhere.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
Friday, November 7, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall
Refreshments will be served
Caroline Bergvall (London) is a writer and poet. Her latest collection of texts was entitled FIG (Salt, 2005), part 2 of her series Goan Atom (volume first published by Kruspkaya, 2001). Her work is frequently multilingual, performative and collaborative. She has developed audioworks, visual textwork, net-based pieces, live performances, both in Europe, Scandinavia and in North America. Recent presentations include. readings at MOMA (NY'2007 and 2008), as part of their Modern Poet Series, MOCA (LA,07), Digital Writing evening (Tate Modern, April'08); the earlier project Say: "Parsley", a sound and language installation, has just been re-sited at Museum of Contemporary Arts (MuKHa, Antwerp, May-Aug 08); new pieces from her text cycle Shorter Chaucer Tales were presented at DIA Arts Foundation (NY June'08 ) and published by Belladonna as a one-off "Alyson Singes", as well as new chapbooks published in Scandinavia. Recent writer's talk and presentation at the Conceptual Poetry and its Other symposium (Tucson, Arizona May'08), as well as readings in Sweden (October'08). Her critical work is concerned with performativity, mixed-media writings and multilingual poetics. Director of Performance Writing, Dartington College of Arts (1995-2000); Dartington Fellow (2000-2006); Co-Chair of the MFA Writing Faculty, Bard College (2004-2007). She is currently the recipient of an AHRC Arts Fellowship in Britain (2007-2010).
C. S. Giscombe teaches at UC Berkeley and lives in Oakland. He has received awards and grants from the Canadian Embassy, Fund for Poetry, Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, and others. His recent poetry books are Here, Giscome Road, and Prairie Style; his prose book (about black Canada) is Into and Out of Dislocation. His work has been included in the Best American Poetry, the Oxford Anthology of African American Poetry, Bluesprint: Black British Columbia Literature and Orature, Lyric Postmodernisms, and elsewhere.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
Monday, October 20, 2008
Edwin Torres and Albert Flynn DeSilver: this Friday 10/24
Small Press Traffic is thrilled to present:
Edwin Torres and Albert Flynn DeSilver
Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall
Refreshments will be served
EDWIN TORRES has collaborated with a wide range of artists, creating performances that intermingle poetry with vocal & physical improvisation, sound-elements and visual theater. He has received poetry fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The Foundation For Contemporary Performance Art, The Poets Fund and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. He has taught workshops at Naropa University, St. Marks Poetry Project, Bard College, Mills College and Miami University among others. His work has been published in many anthologies, and his CD, Holy Kid (Kill Rock Stars Records), is in the sound archives of The Whitney Museum for American Art. He is co-editor of the poetry journal/DVD Rattapallax. His books include The PoPedology Of An Ambient Language (Atelos Books), Fractured Humorous (Subpress), The All-Union Day Of The Shock Worker (Roof Books) and I Hear Things People Haven't Really Said. His recent project is a collaboration with Spanic Attack (www.spanicattack.com) called NORICUA, a noh-boricua inspired non-movement gaining worldwide momentum, whose non-ideologies have been performed in the Bronx, Berlin, Loisaida and Puerto Rico.
ALBERT FLYNN DESILVER has recently begun his tenure as Marin County's very first poet laureate. He is the author, most recently of Letters to Early Street (La Alameda Press, 2007), and Walking Tooth & Cloud (French Connection Press, 2007). Andrei Codrescu has said about Letters to Early Street: "This is one of our poets and we stand behind him (or to his side) in any fight, physical or literary, he might be involved in. Except maybe the situation he describes thus: 'A stuffed moose has just capsized in my bed.'" Albert has published more than one hundred poems in literary journals worldwide including Zyzzyva, New American Writing, Jubilat, Jacket (Australia), Poetry Kanto (Japan), Van Gogh's Ear (France), Hanging Loose, Exquisite Corpse, and many others. Some of his letters in correspondence with the poet Paul Hoover will be featured in the new book Letters to Poets: Conversations about Poetics, Politics, and Community (Saturnalia Books, 2008).
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
Edwin Torres and Albert Flynn DeSilver
Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall
Refreshments will be served
EDWIN TORRES has collaborated with a wide range of artists, creating performances that intermingle poetry with vocal & physical improvisation, sound-elements and visual theater. He has received poetry fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The Foundation For Contemporary Performance Art, The Poets Fund and The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. He has taught workshops at Naropa University, St. Marks Poetry Project, Bard College, Mills College and Miami University among others. His work has been published in many anthologies, and his CD, Holy Kid (Kill Rock Stars Records), is in the sound archives of The Whitney Museum for American Art. He is co-editor of the poetry journal/DVD Rattapallax. His books include The PoPedology Of An Ambient Language (Atelos Books), Fractured Humorous (Subpress), The All-Union Day Of The Shock Worker (Roof Books) and I Hear Things People Haven't Really Said. His recent project is a collaboration with Spanic Attack (www.spanicattack.com) called NORICUA, a noh-boricua inspired non-movement gaining worldwide momentum, whose non-ideologies have been performed in the Bronx, Berlin, Loisaida and Puerto Rico.
ALBERT FLYNN DESILVER has recently begun his tenure as Marin County's very first poet laureate. He is the author, most recently of Letters to Early Street (La Alameda Press, 2007), and Walking Tooth & Cloud (French Connection Press, 2007). Andrei Codrescu has said about Letters to Early Street: "This is one of our poets and we stand behind him (or to his side) in any fight, physical or literary, he might be involved in. Except maybe the situation he describes thus: 'A stuffed moose has just capsized in my bed.'" Albert has published more than one hundred poems in literary journals worldwide including Zyzzyva, New American Writing, Jubilat, Jacket (Australia), Poetry Kanto (Japan), Van Gogh's Ear (France), Hanging Loose, Exquisite Corpse, and many others. Some of his letters in correspondence with the poet Paul Hoover will be featured in the new book Letters to Poets: Conversations about Poetics, Politics, and Community (Saturnalia Books, 2008).
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
Monday, October 6, 2008
This Friday 10/10: Kate Colby & Matvei Yankelevich (OAKLAND campus)
Small Press Traffic is thrilled to present:
Friday, October 10, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
at the CCA Oakland Campus, Nahl Hall 5212 Broadway in Oakland
Kate Colby is the author of Unbecoming Behavior (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2008) and Fruitlands (Litmus Press, 2006), which received a Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Recent writing has appeared in Aufgabe, New American Writing and NO: a journal of the arts. She lives in Providence, RI, where she works as a copywriter and editor.
Matvei Yankelevich is the author of a long poem, THE PRESENT WORK (Palm Press, 2006). His translations of Russian poetry & prose have been published in several anthologies and in periodicals including Harpers, New American Writing, and The New Yorker. He is the translator of TODAY I WROTE NOTHING: THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF DANIIL KHARMS (Overlook, 2007) and a co-translator of OBERIU: AN ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN ABSURDISM (Northwestern, 2006). His translation of Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem "A Cloud in Pants" is included in NIGHT WRAPS THE SKY: WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT MAYAKOVSKY (FSG, 2008). His writing has appeared in Boston Review, Damn the Caesars, Fence, Octopus, Open City, Typo, and various other literary journals. He teaches Russian Literature at Hunter College in NYC and volunteers as en editor in the collective of Ugly Duckling Presse. He lives in Brooklyn.
Please note the special location for the above event!
CCA's Oakland campus — Nahl Hall.
For directions to the Oakland campus:
http://www.cca.edu/about/directions.php
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Check out: http://www.sptraffic.org/html/supporters.htm
Friday, October 10, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
at the CCA Oakland Campus, Nahl Hall 5212 Broadway in Oakland
Kate Colby is the author of Unbecoming Behavior (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2008) and Fruitlands (Litmus Press, 2006), which received a Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Recent writing has appeared in Aufgabe, New American Writing and NO: a journal of the arts. She lives in Providence, RI, where she works as a copywriter and editor.
Matvei Yankelevich is the author of a long poem, THE PRESENT WORK (Palm Press, 2006). His translations of Russian poetry & prose have been published in several anthologies and in periodicals including Harpers, New American Writing, and The New Yorker. He is the translator of TODAY I WROTE NOTHING: THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF DANIIL KHARMS (Overlook, 2007) and a co-translator of OBERIU: AN ANTHOLOGY OF RUSSIAN ABSURDISM (Northwestern, 2006). His translation of Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem "A Cloud in Pants" is included in NIGHT WRAPS THE SKY: WRITINGS BY AND ABOUT MAYAKOVSKY (FSG, 2008). His writing has appeared in Boston Review, Damn the Caesars, Fence, Octopus, Open City, Typo, and various other literary journals. He teaches Russian Literature at Hunter College in NYC and volunteers as en editor in the collective of Ugly Duckling Presse. He lives in Brooklyn.
Please note the special location for the above event!
CCA's Oakland campus — Nahl Hall.
For directions to the Oakland campus:
http://www.cca.edu/about/directions.php
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Check out: http://www.sptraffic.org/html/supporters.htm
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
This Friday 10/3: Innovative Fiction Reading
Back by Popular Demand
SPT Presents An Innovative Fiction Event
featuring: Jaime Cortez, Sesshu Foster, R. Zamora Linmark, Kate Schatz, and Leni Zumas.
Friday, October 3, 7:30 p.m.
Jaime Cortez is a San Francisco Bay Area artist, writer and cultural worker. He was raised between Mexicali, Baja California and Watsonville, Alta California. Jaime’s extensive experience includes work in AIDS prevention, education, and arts management. His graphic novella, Sexile, about a transgender HIV activist from Cuba, was nominated for an American Library Association Award, and the HIV prevention comic anthology Turnover, which he edited, was a finalist for the Independent Publishers award. Jaime has exhibited his visual art at venues across the Bay Area including the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Oakland Museum of California, The Lab, and other alternative art spaces. He has been working on a short story collection slated for publication in 2008 by Suspect Thoughts Press.
Sesshu Foster has taught in East L.A. for twenty years, as well as at the University of Iowa, the University of California, Santa Cruz and the California Institute for the Arts. His work has been anthologized in The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry and, recently, Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond. His local readings are archived at www.sicklyseason.com. His most recent books are the novel Atomik Aztex (City Lights Books, 2005) and World Ball Notebook (City Lights Books, 2009).
R. Zamora Linmark is the author of the novel Rolling The R’s, which he’s adapted for the stage, and two poetry collections, Prime Time Apparitions and the just-published The Evolution of a Sigh. A recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, his prose, poetry, and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies in the U.S. and the Philippines. Currently at work on another novel and a collaborative book project with Lisa Asagi, Justin Chin, and Lori Takayesu,Linmark divides his time between Manila and Honolulu.
Kate Schatz lives in Oakland and is the author of Rid of Me: A Story, published by Continuum Press as part of their acclaimed 33 1/3 series. She’s a co-founder and editor of the Encyclopedia Project, and her work can be found in Bitch!, Denver Quarterly, LTTR, Kitchen Sink, and various other publications. She received her MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University, and a double BA in Women’s Studies/Literature with a Creative Writing concentration from UCSC. Kate is currently working on a novel about electroshock therapy and Christian Science, and a story collection called Help You To See Forever Too.
Leni Zumas is the author of the story collection Farewell Navigator (Open City, 2008). Her work has appeared in New York Tyrant, Quarterly West, Harp & Altar, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere. A 2008 Fellow in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts, she teaches creative writing at
Hunter College.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10 sliding scale
and begin at 7:30 PM in Timken Lecture Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111--8th Street, San Francisco.
SPT Presents An Innovative Fiction Event
featuring: Jaime Cortez, Sesshu Foster, R. Zamora Linmark, Kate Schatz, and Leni Zumas.
Friday, October 3, 7:30 p.m.
Jaime Cortez is a San Francisco Bay Area artist, writer and cultural worker. He was raised between Mexicali, Baja California and Watsonville, Alta California. Jaime’s extensive experience includes work in AIDS prevention, education, and arts management. His graphic novella, Sexile, about a transgender HIV activist from Cuba, was nominated for an American Library Association Award, and the HIV prevention comic anthology Turnover, which he edited, was a finalist for the Independent Publishers award. Jaime has exhibited his visual art at venues across the Bay Area including the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Oakland Museum of California, The Lab, and other alternative art spaces. He has been working on a short story collection slated for publication in 2008 by Suspect Thoughts Press.
Sesshu Foster has taught in East L.A. for twenty years, as well as at the University of Iowa, the University of California, Santa Cruz and the California Institute for the Arts. His work has been anthologized in The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry and, recently, Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond. His local readings are archived at www.sicklyseason.com. His most recent books are the novel Atomik Aztex (City Lights Books, 2005) and World Ball Notebook (City Lights Books, 2009).
R. Zamora Linmark is the author of the novel Rolling The R’s, which he’s adapted for the stage, and two poetry collections, Prime Time Apparitions and the just-published The Evolution of a Sigh. A recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, his prose, poetry, and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies in the U.S. and the Philippines. Currently at work on another novel and a collaborative book project with Lisa Asagi, Justin Chin, and Lori Takayesu,Linmark divides his time between Manila and Honolulu.Kate Schatz lives in Oakland and is the author of Rid of Me: A Story, published by Continuum Press as part of their acclaimed 33 1/3 series. She’s a co-founder and editor of the Encyclopedia Project, and her work can be found in Bitch!, Denver Quarterly, LTTR, Kitchen Sink, and various other publications. She received her MFA in Literary Arts from Brown University, and a double BA in Women’s Studies/Literature with a Creative Writing concentration from UCSC. Kate is currently working on a novel about electroshock therapy and Christian Science, and a story collection called Help You To See Forever Too.
Leni Zumas is the author of the story collection Farewell Navigator (Open City, 2008). Her work has appeared in New York Tyrant, Quarterly West, Harp & Altar, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere. A 2008 Fellow in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts, she teaches creative writing at
Hunter College.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10 sliding scale
and begin at 7:30 PM in Timken Lecture Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111--8th Street, San Francisco.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
This Friday: Aaron Shurin & Anne Waldman with Ambrose Bye
Friday, September 26, 7:30 p.m.
Aaron Shurin’s new book is King of Shadows, a collection of narrative essays, just out from City Lights. Other books include Involuntary Lyrics (Omnidawn, 2005), A Door (Talisman House, 2000) and The Paradise of Forms: Selected Poems (Talisman House, 1999). His honors include National Endowment, California Arts Council, and San Francisco Arts Commission literary fellowships. A longtime Bay Area educator, he directs and teaches in the MFA Writing Program at the University of San Francisco.
Anne Waldman is an internationally celebrated poet, performer, professor, editor and cultural/political activist and the author, most recently of Red Noir (Farfalla, McMillen & Parrish), In the Room of Never Grieve (Coffee House Press), Structure of the World Compared To A Bubble (Penguin Poets), and Outrider (La Alameda Press). She also co-edited The Angel Hair Anthology and Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action. She founded (with Allen Ginsberg and Diane diPrima) the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa University in Boulder, the first Buddhist-inspired school in the western hemisphere. Her CDs include Battery: Live at Naropa and The Eye of The Falcon (with Ambrose Bye) and Matching Half (with Ambrose Bye & Akilah Oliver). She has participated in festivals in Berlin, Wuhan, (China), and Mumbai in the past year. Forthcoming: Humanity/Manatee, and the complete Iovis trilogy.
Ambrose Bye, musician (keyboard, guitar, voice) and composer, son of poets Anne Waldman and Reed Bye, grew up in the environment of The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, counting Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs as “poetic” godfathers. He graduated from The University of California, Santa Cruz and has studied at the music/production program at the Pyramind Institute in San Francisco. He has performed on stage with Anne Waldman and Bob Holman in New York’s Issue Project Room in a program that included Steve Buscemi reading form the work of William Burroughs and accompanied Anne Waldman at The Boulder Theatre’s “Music and Poetry for Progressives” headlined by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Jello Biafra. He is working on new project which includes the poet Amiri Baraka.
At SPT, Anne Waldman and Ambrose Bye will perform selections of Matching Half, their exciting 2008 CD with poet-performer Akilah Oliver, which mixes poetry and experimental music. These original compositions & soundscapes bring a new dynamic to “spoken word.”
Sunday, September 14, 2008
D.S. Marriott & Anselm Berrigan this Friday 9/19
Small Press Traffic is thrilled to present:
Anselm Berrigan and D.S. Marriott
Friday, September 19th 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall
Refreshments will be served
Anselm Berrigan's most recent publication is Have A Good One (Cy Press, 2008), an entrail-length serial work. Books include Some Notes on My Programming, Zero Star Hotel, and Integrity & Dramatic Life, all published by Edge Books. A Non Sequitur-commissioned collaborative piece with composer David Frist was performed in NYC at The Flea Theater this past August as part of a four-night run of composer/poet collaborations. Berrigan lives in New York City, and is Co-Chair of Bard College's inter-disciplinary summer MFA writing program - a teaching gig with no classwork.
D.S. Marrio
tt was born in the UK and was educated at the University of Sussex. He has taught there and currently teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has written many articles on poetics and is the author of On Black Men (Edinburgh/Columbia, 2000); Haunted Life (Rutgers University Press, 2008); and Incognegro (Salt Publications, 2006). Hoodoo Voodoo is his latest book of poetry (Shearsman, 2008).
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
(just off the intersection of 16th & Wisconsin).
Small Press Traffic
Literary Arts Center at CCA
1111 -- 8th Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
415.551.9278
Anselm Berrigan and D.S. Marriott
Friday, September 19th 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall
Refreshments will be served
Anselm Berrigan's most recent publication is Have A Good One (Cy Press, 2008), an entrail-length serial work. Books include Some Notes on My Programming, Zero Star Hotel, and Integrity & Dramatic Life, all published by Edge Books. A Non Sequitur-commissioned collaborative piece with composer David Frist was performed in NYC at The Flea Theater this past August as part of a four-night run of composer/poet collaborations. Berrigan lives in New York City, and is Co-Chair of Bard College's inter-disciplinary summer MFA writing program - a teaching gig with no classwork.
D.S. Marrio
tt was born in the UK and was educated at the University of Sussex. He has taught there and currently teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He has written many articles on poetics and is the author of On Black Men (Edinburgh/Columbia, 2000); Haunted Life (Rutgers University Press, 2008); and Incognegro (Salt Publications, 2006). Hoodoo Voodoo is his latest book of poetry (Shearsman, 2008).Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to
current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
(just off the intersection of 16th & Wisconsin).
Small Press Traffic
Literary Arts Center at CCA
1111 -- 8th Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
415.551.9278
Monday, September 8, 2008
Geyser!, a new play by Kevin Killian & Wayne Smith - this Friday!
Friday, September 12, 7:30pm
Please arrive early; all seats $10 as a benefit for Small Press Traffic.
Join us for refreshments prior to the event.
Small Press Traffic
Timken Lecture Hall at California College of the Arts
1111 8th Street
San Francisco, California 94107
415 551 9278
with
Stephen Boyer
Taylor Brady
David Brazil
Gerald Corbin
Craig Goodman
Glen Helfand
Cliff Hengst
Scott Hewicker
Tanya Hollis
Colter Jacobsen
Kevin Killian
Mac McGinnes
Anne McGuire
Karla Milosevich
Rex Ray
Laurie Reid
Jocelyn Saidenberg
Wayne Smith
Suzanne Stein
Margaret Tedesco
The small town of Geyser, Oregon was once the setting for a television series that attempted to combine elements of family drama and science education. The show was in its second season in 1978 when a tragedy on set caused it to shut down midseason, and now that it’s been released on DVD, Geyser! has found new fans to join the tiny cult audience it’s known since its untimely cancellation—and they’re all flocking to Oregon this summer, as the brave little town welcomes back members of the original cast and the worldwide fan club at a Geyser! festival. But the town has secrets. Mayor Constance Strode, struggling with her own family drama, tries to promote tourism while fending off the attentions of Bobo, leader of a radical clown collective on the outskirts of town. Screen actor Dennis Quaid, who first sprang to national attention as the young hero of Geyser! returns to the scene of the series with the bewildering knowledge that all of his female recent co-stars, from Reese Witherspoon to Ellen Barkin, have been swept away to sea. Rival TV talk show hosts Rick Penny and Kitty Potter return to wring every scrap of drama and nostalgia to the airwaves, while Marjorie Cantrell, the first lady of the American theater and star of the lamented TV show, Geyser!, emerges from a 30 year retirement in grand Sunset Boulevard fashion with her loyal butler, Crimmins. As excited fans gather from round the world, the hot water coursing through the deep underground caverns below them gurgles, groans and steams to the surface. It’s all in a town—and a show—called Geyser!
Kevin Killian is a poet, novelist, critic and playwright whose recent work includes “Kiki: The Proof Is in the Pudding,” a retrospective exhibition at Ratio 3, a book of reviews Selected Amazon Reviews (2006), a collection of poetry, Argento Series (2001), two novels, Shy (1989) and Arctic Summer (1997), a book of memoirs, Bedrooms Have Windows (1989), and two books of stories, Little Men (1996) and I Cry Like a Baby (2001). He has also edited a collection of short stories by the late Sam D’Allesandro, The Wild Creatures (2005). For the San Francisco Poets Theater Killian has written over thirty plays, including Stone Marmalade (1996, with Leslie Scalapino) and Often (2001, with Barbara Guest).
Wayne Smith is a visual and sound artist who lives and works in San Francisco. He collaborated with Berlin-based artist D-L Alvarez on a sound and video installation shown at the Derek Eller Gallery, New York, in April 2007. New work will be shown at 2nd Floor Projects, San Francisco, in November 2008. Recording as Aero Mic’d, he has released four CDs, the latest being “I Think You’re Great.” In August 2008, joined by Cliff Hengst and Scott Hewicker, Aero Mic’d performed at the Schindler House in Los Angeles as part of the “sound.” series, organized by SASSAS (The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound).
Please arrive early; all seats $10 as a benefit for Small Press Traffic.
Join us for refreshments prior to the event.
Small Press Traffic
Timken Lecture Hall at California College of the Arts
1111 8th Street
San Francisco, California 94107
415 551 9278
with
Stephen Boyer
Taylor Brady
David Brazil
Gerald Corbin
Craig Goodman
Glen Helfand
Cliff Hengst
Scott Hewicker
Tanya Hollis
Colter Jacobsen
Kevin Killian
Mac McGinnes
Anne McGuire
Karla Milosevich
Rex Ray
Laurie Reid
Jocelyn Saidenberg
Wayne Smith
Suzanne Stein
Margaret Tedesco
The small town of Geyser, Oregon was once the setting for a television series that attempted to combine elements of family drama and science education. The show was in its second season in 1978 when a tragedy on set caused it to shut down midseason, and now that it’s been released on DVD, Geyser! has found new fans to join the tiny cult audience it’s known since its untimely cancellation—and they’re all flocking to Oregon this summer, as the brave little town welcomes back members of the original cast and the worldwide fan club at a Geyser! festival. But the town has secrets. Mayor Constance Strode, struggling with her own family drama, tries to promote tourism while fending off the attentions of Bobo, leader of a radical clown collective on the outskirts of town. Screen actor Dennis Quaid, who first sprang to national attention as the young hero of Geyser! returns to the scene of the series with the bewildering knowledge that all of his female recent co-stars, from Reese Witherspoon to Ellen Barkin, have been swept away to sea. Rival TV talk show hosts Rick Penny and Kitty Potter return to wring every scrap of drama and nostalgia to the airwaves, while Marjorie Cantrell, the first lady of the American theater and star of the lamented TV show, Geyser!, emerges from a 30 year retirement in grand Sunset Boulevard fashion with her loyal butler, Crimmins. As excited fans gather from round the world, the hot water coursing through the deep underground caverns below them gurgles, groans and steams to the surface. It’s all in a town—and a show—called Geyser!
Kevin Killian is a poet, novelist, critic and playwright whose recent work includes “Kiki: The Proof Is in the Pudding,” a retrospective exhibition at Ratio 3, a book of reviews Selected Amazon Reviews (2006), a collection of poetry, Argento Series (2001), two novels, Shy (1989) and Arctic Summer (1997), a book of memoirs, Bedrooms Have Windows (1989), and two books of stories, Little Men (1996) and I Cry Like a Baby (2001). He has also edited a collection of short stories by the late Sam D’Allesandro, The Wild Creatures (2005). For the San Francisco Poets Theater Killian has written over thirty plays, including Stone Marmalade (1996, with Leslie Scalapino) and Often (2001, with Barbara Guest).
Wayne Smith is a visual and sound artist who lives and works in San Francisco. He collaborated with Berlin-based artist D-L Alvarez on a sound and video installation shown at the Derek Eller Gallery, New York, in April 2007. New work will be shown at 2nd Floor Projects, San Francisco, in November 2008. Recording as Aero Mic’d, he has released four CDs, the latest being “I Think You’re Great.” In August 2008, joined by Cliff Hengst and Scott Hewicker, Aero Mic’d performed at the Schindler House in Los Angeles as part of the “sound.” series, organized by SASSAS (The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound).
Friday, August 1, 2008
Call for Applications: SPT Executive Director
POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT:
Executive Director for Small Press Traffic
Small Press Traffic announces a call for applications for the position of Executive Director, to begin employment on January 1, 2009.
Since 1974, Small Press Traffic has been at the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area’s innovative writing communities, bringing together a diverse constituency of independent readers, writers, and independent presses through our influential reading series, poets theater festivals, conferences, and publications. Graciously housed at the California College of the Arts, we remain autonomous, and thus depend upon outside funding for our operating expenses. Currently, we are looking for a highly skilled and creative Executive Director to provide both artistic vision and financial leadership.
The Executive Director at Small Press Traffic serves as both the Artistic and Financial Manager for the organization. S/he ensures that (a) the overall quality and diversity of programming is consistent with Small Press Traffic’s history and mission and (b) that the organization conducts its community and financial affairs in a professional and timely manner. Areas of responsibility include, but are not limited to: event programming, budget and finance, fundraising, and public relations. Above all, the Executive Director serves as the public face of the organization, and is responsible for helping shape the vision and direction of Small Press Traffic, as well as being open and responsive to our dynamic and diverse communities of writers, readers, and audience members.
Programming: The Executive Director, in consultation with the Board of Directors, oversees the planning and development of Small Press Traffic’s artistic program, which includes live literary events, fundraisers, the website, archives, publications, and any other forms of literary presentation and preservation.
Fundraising: The Executive Director initiates and coordinates Small Press Traffic’s fundraising efforts. These efforts include submitting grant applications to government and private funding agencies, meeting and corresponding with potential funders, cultivating individual members and donors, planning and hosting benefit events, assisting the Board of Directors with its fundraising initiatives, submitting reports and payment requests to individuals and agencies, and pursuing new fundraising opportunities.
Public Relations: Small Press Traffic is a 34-year old organization with a reputation for offering high-quality programming that represents its commitment to a culturally diverse avant-garde. It is important that Small Press Traffic maintains good working relationships with writers, artists, arts and literary organizations, funding and government agencies, the press, and other groups and organizations connected with the Bay Area arts and literary communities. It is also crucial for the Executive Director to be able to maintain a balance between her/his curatorial visions and the desires of our audiences, and to be able to work constructively with the Board and the wider Small Press Traffic constituency to continue to uphold and extend our mission.
Budget and Finance: The Executive Director, in consultation with the Board, plans and manages Small Press Traffic’s annual operating budget. S/he is responsible for ensuring vendors are paid in a timely manner, that accurate financial and fiduciary records are kept, and that actual expenses do not exceed those proposed in the annual operating budget. The Executive Director is also responsible for oversight of interns and volunteers, as well as outside contractors (such as designers, accountants, etc.).
Compensation: $27,000 annual salary. While the workload can vary widely, depending on fundraising cycles and event schedules, the position typically requires an average of twenty-five (25) hours per week. The position comes with an initial 18-month contract, followed by one-year renewable contract(s), with annual evaluation process. Benefits are contingent on available funding.
Position begins January 1, 2009. To apply, please send CV, cover letter, and three letters of recommendation to:
Small Press Traffic
California College of the Arts
1111 8th Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Applications must be postmarked no later than September 15, 2008. Electronic applications are discouraged, though applicants are welcome to email to confirm receipt of mailed applications.
Small Press Traffic is an equal opportunity employer. Women, people of color, disabled, and LGBTQ persons are encouraged to apply.
www.sptraffic.org
smallpresstraffic@gmail.com
Executive Director for Small Press Traffic
Small Press Traffic announces a call for applications for the position of Executive Director, to begin employment on January 1, 2009.
Since 1974, Small Press Traffic has been at the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area’s innovative writing communities, bringing together a diverse constituency of independent readers, writers, and independent presses through our influential reading series, poets theater festivals, conferences, and publications. Graciously housed at the California College of the Arts, we remain autonomous, and thus depend upon outside funding for our operating expenses. Currently, we are looking for a highly skilled and creative Executive Director to provide both artistic vision and financial leadership.
The Executive Director at Small Press Traffic serves as both the Artistic and Financial Manager for the organization. S/he ensures that (a) the overall quality and diversity of programming is consistent with Small Press Traffic’s history and mission and (b) that the organization conducts its community and financial affairs in a professional and timely manner. Areas of responsibility include, but are not limited to: event programming, budget and finance, fundraising, and public relations. Above all, the Executive Director serves as the public face of the organization, and is responsible for helping shape the vision and direction of Small Press Traffic, as well as being open and responsive to our dynamic and diverse communities of writers, readers, and audience members.
Programming: The Executive Director, in consultation with the Board of Directors, oversees the planning and development of Small Press Traffic’s artistic program, which includes live literary events, fundraisers, the website, archives, publications, and any other forms of literary presentation and preservation.
Fundraising: The Executive Director initiates and coordinates Small Press Traffic’s fundraising efforts. These efforts include submitting grant applications to government and private funding agencies, meeting and corresponding with potential funders, cultivating individual members and donors, planning and hosting benefit events, assisting the Board of Directors with its fundraising initiatives, submitting reports and payment requests to individuals and agencies, and pursuing new fundraising opportunities.
Public Relations: Small Press Traffic is a 34-year old organization with a reputation for offering high-quality programming that represents its commitment to a culturally diverse avant-garde. It is important that Small Press Traffic maintains good working relationships with writers, artists, arts and literary organizations, funding and government agencies, the press, and other groups and organizations connected with the Bay Area arts and literary communities. It is also crucial for the Executive Director to be able to maintain a balance between her/his curatorial visions and the desires of our audiences, and to be able to work constructively with the Board and the wider Small Press Traffic constituency to continue to uphold and extend our mission.
Budget and Finance: The Executive Director, in consultation with the Board, plans and manages Small Press Traffic’s annual operating budget. S/he is responsible for ensuring vendors are paid in a timely manner, that accurate financial and fiduciary records are kept, and that actual expenses do not exceed those proposed in the annual operating budget. The Executive Director is also responsible for oversight of interns and volunteers, as well as outside contractors (such as designers, accountants, etc.).
Compensation: $27,000 annual salary. While the workload can vary widely, depending on fundraising cycles and event schedules, the position typically requires an average of twenty-five (25) hours per week. The position comes with an initial 18-month contract, followed by one-year renewable contract(s), with annual evaluation process. Benefits are contingent on available funding.
Position begins January 1, 2009. To apply, please send CV, cover letter, and three letters of recommendation to:
Small Press Traffic
California College of the Arts
1111 8th Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Applications must be postmarked no later than September 15, 2008. Electronic applications are discouraged, though applicants are welcome to email to confirm receipt of mailed applications.
Small Press Traffic is an equal opportunity employer. Women, people of color, disabled, and LGBTQ persons are encouraged to apply.
www.sptraffic.org
smallpresstraffic@gmail.com
Changes at SPT
Small Press Traffic welcomes two new board members:
Gloria Frym & Barbara Jane Reyes - both are long-time Bay Area writers & activists in a variety of local communities, and we look forward to having them on the board.
At the same time, we are sad to announce that board member Stephanie Young has chosen to move on, after many years of service - our thanks for all the hard work, Stephanie - you'll be missed!
In the interests of transparency, here is how SPT choses its board members: current board members, along with the Director, discuss and nominate potential candidates (including those who have expressed interest and/or have been recommended to us by members of the community), and we then discuss and build consensus toward a list of finalists. After gauging each candidate's interest, availability, and compatibility, the board holds a vote.
SPT is always looking for energetic, committed volunteers and potential board members!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Aggression Conference follow-up
Check out the conference page for comments from the organizers & feedback from the public...
Cabaret Postponed (again)
Regrettably, due to a number of factors, we've had to once again postpone our cabaret. Hopefully we'll be able to pull it off later this year - stay tuned!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
This weekend: Aggrrrression Conference!
Aggression: a conference on contemporary poetics & political antagonism
Coming up on May 30 & 31
for conference schedule, panel descriptions and advance readings & materials, please see the conference site. please note that Saturday's events will take place on the Oakland campus of CCA.
Coming up on May 30 & 31
for conference schedule, panel descriptions and advance readings & materials, please see the conference site. please note that Saturday's events will take place on the Oakland campus of CCA.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Friday May 23: Jennifer Firestone & Matthew Shenoda
Friday, May 23, 7:30 p.m.
Jennifer Firestone, a SF poet currently living in Brooklyn, is the author of the book Holiday (Shearsman Books, 2008), and the chapbooks Waves (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2007), from Flashes (Sona Books, 2006), and snapshot (Sona Books, 2004). Jennifer’s work has appeared in numerous journals, including How2, 14 Hills, 580 Split, Boog City, MIPOesias, Can We Have Our Ball Back, Dusie and Moria. She is the co-editor of the anthology Letters To Poets: Conversations About Poetics, Politics and Community, forthcoming from Saturnalia Books, and she is Poet in Residence at Eugene Lang College at the New School University.
Matthew Shenoda is a faculty member in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. Author of Somewhere Else, winner of the 2007 Hala Maksoud Award for Emerging Voice, and a 2006 American Book Award, his latest collection, Seasons of Lotus, Seasons of Bone, will be published in 2009 from BOA Editions.
Jennifer Firestone, a SF poet currently living in Brooklyn, is the author of the book Holiday (Shearsman Books, 2008), and the chapbooks Waves (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2007), from Flashes (Sona Books, 2006), and snapshot (Sona Books, 2004). Jennifer’s work has appeared in numerous journals, including How2, 14 Hills, 580 Split, Boog City, MIPOesias, Can We Have Our Ball Back, Dusie and Moria. She is the co-editor of the anthology Letters To Poets: Conversations About Poetics, Politics and Community, forthcoming from Saturnalia Books, and she is Poet in Residence at Eugene Lang College at the New School University.
Matthew Shenoda is a faculty member in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. Author of Somewhere Else, winner of the 2007 Hala Maksoud Award for Emerging Voice, and a 2006 American Book Award, his latest collection, Seasons of Lotus, Seasons of Bone, will be published in 2009 from BOA Editions.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Donate to Community Thrift & SPT wins
SPT is on the verge of losing its connection to Community Thrift, which raises about $500 for SPT annually. We need to sell at least $200 in donated goods by June 1st or they will cut off our ties. Please donate all you can and pass this info far and wide. It is important that you earmark the revenues for SPT at the time of donation. Please spring clean for SPT!
Monday, May 5, 2008
This Friday at SPT: Miranda Mellis & Dawn Lundy Martin
Friday, May 9, 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall 7:30 p.m.
Refreshments will be served
Miranda Mellis is the author of The Revisionist (Calamari Press) and a founding editor at The Encyclopedia Project. Her work has appeared in Harper's, Tin House, Post Road, Fence, McSweeney's, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction and an NEH grant. In her former life as an aerialist in the tiniest circus in the world, she toured with Sister Spit in 1998. She teaches at the California College of the Arts.
A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering, Dawn Lundy Martin's new poetry collection, published by the University of Georgia Press, won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize in 2006. Dawn is completing
her Ph.D. in English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is an assistant professor in the English Department, University of Pittsburgh. She is the co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation, a national organization for young feminists.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
(just off the intersection of 16th & Wisconsin).
Directions & map
Timken Lecture Hall 7:30 p.m.
Refreshments will be served
Miranda Mellis is the author of The Revisionist (Calamari Press) and a founding editor at The Encyclopedia Project. Her work has appeared in Harper's, Tin House, Post Road, Fence, McSweeney's, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of the John Hawkes Prize in Fiction and an NEH grant. In her former life as an aerialist in the tiniest circus in the world, she toured with Sister Spit in 1998. She teaches at the California College of the Arts.
A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering, Dawn Lundy Martin's new poetry collection, published by the University of Georgia Press, won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize in 2006. Dawn is completing
her Ph.D. in English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is an assistant professor in the English Department, University of Pittsburgh. She is the co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation, a national organization for young feminists.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale, free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
(just off the intersection of 16th & Wisconsin).
Directions & map
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sat 4/26: An Evening of Innovative Fiction
featuring Amanda Davidson, Yuri Herrera, Summi Kaipa, & Chris Nagler
Saturday, April 26, 2008 7:30 p.m.
CCA's Oakland Campus, Nahl Hall
5212 Broadway, Oakland
For Directions to CCA's Oakland Campus please see: http://www.cca.edu/about/directions.php
Please note the special *Saturday* date and
special *Oakland* location for this SPT event
Amanda Davidson is a San Francisco-based writer and multi-
media artist. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Famous
magazine, Viz. Inter-Arts, Encyclopedia Volume F-K, and elsewhere.
She co-edits Digital Artifact Magazine and maintains several alter-
egos online at partedinthemiddle.com.
Born in Actopan, México in 1970, Yuri Herrera is a Ph.D. Candidate
at the University of California, Berkeley in Hispanic Language and
Linguistics. He received a M.F.A from University of Texas in El
Paso and his B.A. from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México in Political Science. Herrera edits the literary journal El
perro and is the author of Trabajos del reino (a novel), Este es mi
nahual! (a short story for children), and has contributed to several
anthologies of short stories in Spanish.
Summi Kaipa has authored several chapbooks, including The
Epics (Leroy Press), One: I Beg You Be Still (Belladonna), and
most recently The Language Parable (Corollary Press). For eight
years, she was the editor of Interlope, a magazine publishing
innovative writing by Asian Americans, and in 2002, she received
a Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize to write and produce her first play.
Kaipa is currently completing a doctorate in clinical psychology and
is slowly writing her first full-length manuscript.
Christian Nagler is a fiction writer, translator, and performer. In
2005 he received his M.F.A. from Brown University. His work has
appeared most often in the form of handmade artist's books.
Recently, he has been performing with Anna Halprin's Sea Ranch
Collective, and with Severine La Pan Vaux's Dance company in
France, and translating the works of the Salvadoran philosopher
and economist Alberto Masferrer. He teaches community art at
San Francisco State and is working on a novel.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale,
free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Check out: http://www.sptraffic.org/html/supporters.htm
Saturday, April 26, 2008 7:30 p.m.
CCA's Oakland Campus, Nahl Hall
5212 Broadway, Oakland
For Directions to CCA's Oakland Campus please see: http://www.cca.edu/about/directions.php
Please note the special *Saturday* date and
special *Oakland* location for this SPT event
Amanda Davidson is a San Francisco-based writer and multi-
media artist. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Famous
magazine, Viz. Inter-Arts, Encyclopedia Volume F-K, and elsewhere.
She co-edits Digital Artifact Magazine and maintains several alter-
egos online at partedinthemiddle.com.
Born in Actopan, México in 1970, Yuri Herrera is a Ph.D. Candidate
at the University of California, Berkeley in Hispanic Language and
Linguistics. He received a M.F.A from University of Texas in El
Paso and his B.A. from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México in Political Science. Herrera edits the literary journal El
perro and is the author of Trabajos del reino (a novel), Este es mi
nahual! (a short story for children), and has contributed to several
anthologies of short stories in Spanish.
Summi Kaipa has authored several chapbooks, including The
Epics (Leroy Press), One: I Beg You Be Still (Belladonna), and
most recently The Language Parable (Corollary Press). For eight
years, she was the editor of Interlope, a magazine publishing
innovative writing by Asian Americans, and in 2002, she received
a Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize to write and produce her first play.
Kaipa is currently completing a doctorate in clinical psychology and
is slowly writing her first full-length manuscript.
Christian Nagler is a fiction writer, translator, and performer. In
2005 he received his M.F.A. from Brown University. His work has
appeared most often in the form of handmade artist's books.
Recently, he has been performing with Anna Halprin's Sea Ranch
Collective, and with Severine La Pan Vaux's Dance company in
France, and translating the works of the Salvadoran philosopher
and economist Alberto Masferrer. He teaches community art at
San Francisco State and is working on a novel.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale,
free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Check out: http://www.sptraffic.org/html/supporters.htm
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Eileen Myles & Zoe Whittall this Friday 4/19
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Timken Lecture Hall 7:30 p.m.
Refreshments will be served
Please note the special *Saturday* date for this SPT event.
Zoe Whittall is the author of the novel Bottle Rocket Hearts
(Cormorant, 2007) and two volumes of poetry, including the
recent Emily Valentine Poems (Snare, 2006) and The Best
Ten Minutes of Your Life (McGilligan, 2001). The Globe and Mail
recently called her, "the cockiest, brashest, funniest, toughest,
most life-affirming, elegant, scruffy, no-holds-barred writer to
emerge from Montreal since Mordecai Richler." Her stories
and poetry have been anthologized widely in books like Baby
Remember My Name edited by Michelle Tea, Red Light:
Superheroes, Saints & Sluts edited by Anna Camilleri, Brazen
Femme edited by Anna Camilleri and Chloe Brushwood-Rose,
With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn edited by Amber
Dawn and Trish Kelly, and Breathing Fire Two: Canada's New
Poets edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane. She was born
on a sheep farm in rural Quebec and has lived in Toronto
since 1997.
Over the last three decades Eileen Myles has written, produced,
and performed a multitude of poems, plays, articles, libretti. In
1992, she conducted an openly female "write in campaign" for
President of the United States. She has toured internationally
with Sister Spit's Rambling Road Show and is considered
"America's best known unofficial poet." In Sorry, Tree (Wave
Books, 2007), Myles describes "some nature" as well as the
transmigration of souls from the east coast to the west. She's
a "rock star of modern poetry" according to Bust magazine and
we're glad to have here back at SPT.
Timken Lecture Hall 7:30 p.m.
Refreshments will be served
Please note the special *Saturday* date for this SPT event.
Zoe Whittall is the author of the novel Bottle Rocket Hearts
(Cormorant, 2007) and two volumes of poetry, including the
recent Emily Valentine Poems (Snare, 2006) and The Best
Ten Minutes of Your Life (McGilligan, 2001). The Globe and Mail
recently called her, "the cockiest, brashest, funniest, toughest,
most life-affirming, elegant, scruffy, no-holds-barred writer to
emerge from Montreal since Mordecai Richler." Her stories
and poetry have been anthologized widely in books like Baby
Remember My Name edited by Michelle Tea, Red Light:
Superheroes, Saints & Sluts edited by Anna Camilleri, Brazen
Femme edited by Anna Camilleri and Chloe Brushwood-Rose,
With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn edited by Amber
Dawn and Trish Kelly, and Breathing Fire Two: Canada's New
Poets edited by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane. She was born
on a sheep farm in rural Quebec and has lived in Toronto
since 1997.
Over the last three decades Eileen Myles has written, produced,
and performed a multitude of poems, plays, articles, libretti. In
1992, she conducted an openly female "write in campaign" for
President of the United States. She has toured internationally
with Sister Spit's Rambling Road Show and is considered
"America's best known unofficial poet." In Sorry, Tree (Wave
Books, 2007), Myles describes "some nature" as well as the
transmigration of souls from the east coast to the west. She's
a "rock star of modern poetry" according to Bust magazine and
we're glad to have here back at SPT.
Reid Gómez Benefit 4/20
Sunday, April 20, 2008
California Wasn't Good For Us,
A Benefit Reading for Reid Gómez
Co-hosted by Small Press Traffic and Many Goats
Timken Hall Lecture Hall 2:00 p.m.
Refreshments will be served
Please note the special *Sunday* date
for this co-sponsored SPT event.
California Wasn't Good For Us,
A Benefit Reading for Reid Gómez
All OUT and All SKIN
California Wasn't Good For Us, a benefit reading for
San Francisco Native and Navajo writer Reid Gómez.
Featuring a landmark line up of queer American Indian
artists: Jewelle Gomez, Kim Shuck, Reid Gómez and
Master of Ceremonies, L. Frank. In the spirit of
radical feminism Jewelle Gomez, Kim Shuck and the
legendary L. Frank have joined co-host Small Press
Traffic in the first and only benefit for Reid Gómez
since her ill-fated and misdiagnosed ruptured
appendix in 2002. Contrary to urban myth, Reid did
not die, but she remains permanently disabled after
nearly four years of hospitalizations and
reconstructive/reparative surgeries. With no health
insurance, no state or federal financial support, Reid
continues to struggle to manage her physical therapy
regime (5 hours daily), and the ironic inability to
sit for long periods of time. At this time her most
urgent need is the purchase of a new computer and data
recovery. In this age even a writer who still writes,
ala Capote, prone and with pen and paper, requires
access to a computer to print and circulate work. As
Reid is not able to hold a job, and does not qualify
for state or federal disability, her only means of
support is through her writing.
Reid Gómez will be giving her first major reading
since her health crises and will read from her newly
finished novel, California Wasn't Good For Us. When
she was about to die all she could think was, "I can't
believe I'm going to die and not finish Cebolla's
story, how pathetic." Well, she finished in September
2007, and it took her the next year to get the
manuscript typed. She is eager to get this novel,
rather Rabelaisian in length and content, out to the
public. In 1995 she won the Astraea Lesbian Writers
Fund Emerging Writers Award.
Writer and activist Jewelle Gomez (Cape Verdean,
Ioway, Wampanoag) is the author of the double Lambda
Award winning novel, The Gilda Stories. Her
adaptation of this work was taken to 13 cities by the
Urban Bush on a tour titled, "Bones and Ash: a Gilda
Story." She is an original Gap Toothed Girl, and
contributor to the groundbreaking anthologies Home
Girls and Reading Black Reading Feminist. She was
awarded a literature fellowship from the National
Endowment of the Arts, and her writing has appeared in
numerous periodicals: The San Francisco Chronicle, The
New York Times, The Village Voice; Ms Magazine,
ESSENCE Magazine, The Advocate, Callaloo and Black
Scholar. More information about Ms. Gomez can be
accessed at http://www.jewellegomez.com/bio.html.
L. Frank is a Tongva/Ajachmem elder and activist,
deeply loved and respected by the California Indian
community. World renown for her painting as well as
her photography, and unequaled in her unique brand of
coyote humor. Her comic, Acorn Soup, appears
regularly in News From Native California, and her most
recent book is First Families: A Photographic History
of California Indians. L. says, "My art is cultural
maintenance. I am the art janitor . . . koo koo ka
choo." She is a board member of the Advocates for
Indigenous California Language Survival.
Cherokee poet Kim Shuck is the recipient of the
Native Writers of the America's First Book Award for
her 2005 book Smuggling Cherokee. She has an MFA in
weaving from SFSU, and was a member of the board of
directors for Califorina Poets in the Schools.
********************************************************************************
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale,
free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Check out: http://www.sptraffic.org/html/supporters.htm
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
(just off the intersection of 16th & Wisconsin).
Directions & map: http://www.sptraffic.org/html/directions.htm
Please note the special dates for these events.
We'll see you at SPT!
California Wasn't Good For Us,
A Benefit Reading for Reid Gómez
Co-hosted by Small Press Traffic and Many Goats
Timken Hall Lecture Hall 2:00 p.m.
Refreshments will be served
Please note the special *Sunday* date
for this co-sponsored SPT event.
California Wasn't Good For Us,
A Benefit Reading for Reid Gómez
All OUT and All SKIN
California Wasn't Good For Us, a benefit reading for
San Francisco Native and Navajo writer Reid Gómez.
Featuring a landmark line up of queer American Indian
artists: Jewelle Gomez, Kim Shuck, Reid Gómez and
Master of Ceremonies, L. Frank. In the spirit of
radical feminism Jewelle Gomez, Kim Shuck and the
legendary L. Frank have joined co-host Small Press
Traffic in the first and only benefit for Reid Gómez
since her ill-fated and misdiagnosed ruptured
appendix in 2002. Contrary to urban myth, Reid did
not die, but she remains permanently disabled after
nearly four years of hospitalizations and
reconstructive/reparative surgeries. With no health
insurance, no state or federal financial support, Reid
continues to struggle to manage her physical therapy
regime (5 hours daily), and the ironic inability to
sit for long periods of time. At this time her most
urgent need is the purchase of a new computer and data
recovery. In this age even a writer who still writes,
ala Capote, prone and with pen and paper, requires
access to a computer to print and circulate work. As
Reid is not able to hold a job, and does not qualify
for state or federal disability, her only means of
support is through her writing.
Reid Gómez will be giving her first major reading
since her health crises and will read from her newly
finished novel, California Wasn't Good For Us. When
she was about to die all she could think was, "I can't
believe I'm going to die and not finish Cebolla's
story, how pathetic." Well, she finished in September
2007, and it took her the next year to get the
manuscript typed. She is eager to get this novel,
rather Rabelaisian in length and content, out to the
public. In 1995 she won the Astraea Lesbian Writers
Fund Emerging Writers Award.
Writer and activist Jewelle Gomez (Cape Verdean,
Ioway, Wampanoag) is the author of the double Lambda
Award winning novel, The Gilda Stories. Her
adaptation of this work was taken to 13 cities by the
Urban Bush on a tour titled, "Bones and Ash: a Gilda
Story." She is an original Gap Toothed Girl, and
contributor to the groundbreaking anthologies Home
Girls and Reading Black Reading Feminist. She was
awarded a literature fellowship from the National
Endowment of the Arts, and her writing has appeared in
numerous periodicals: The San Francisco Chronicle, The
New York Times, The Village Voice; Ms Magazine,
ESSENCE Magazine, The Advocate, Callaloo and Black
Scholar. More information about Ms. Gomez can be
accessed at http://www.jewellegomez.com/bio.html.
L. Frank is a Tongva/Ajachmem elder and activist,
deeply loved and respected by the California Indian
community. World renown for her painting as well as
her photography, and unequaled in her unique brand of
coyote humor. Her comic, Acorn Soup, appears
regularly in News From Native California, and her most
recent book is First Families: A Photographic History
of California Indians. L. says, "My art is cultural
maintenance. I am the art janitor . . . koo koo ka
choo." She is a board member of the Advocates for
Indigenous California Language Survival.
Cherokee poet Kim Shuck is the recipient of the
Native Writers of the America's First Book Award for
her 2005 book Smuggling Cherokee. She has an MFA in
weaving from SFSU, and was a member of the board of
directors for Califorina Poets in the Schools.
********************************************************************************
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10, sliding scale,
free to current SPT members and CCA faculty, staff, and students.
There's no better time to join SPT!
Check out: http://www.sptraffic.org/html/supporters.htm
Unless otherwise noted, our events are presented in Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
(just off the intersection of 16th & Wisconsin).
Directions & map: http://www.sptraffic.org/html/directions.htm
Please note the special dates for these events.
We'll see you at SPT!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Changes at SPT
Dear Members of the Small Press Traffic Community:
It is with great regret that the Board of Small Press Traffic (SPT) announces that we have received the resignation of Elizabeth Treadwell as our Executive Director (see below). Dana Teen Lomax, who has been acting as interim Executive Director since July of 2007, has agreed to stay on through the end of 2008, in order to ensure a smooth transition to the next generation of SPT leadership.
While the board is extremely excited about SPT’s future, and looks forward to helping guide the organization through this time of transition, we also want to take a moment to acknowledge our deep gratitude to Elizabeth for leaving SPT in a position of stability and strength. SPT’s new leadership will inherit a strong organization, as well as the large and passionate audience Elizabeth was key to expanding over the last seven years. In terms of outreach, programming, and fiscal management, Elizabeth has been extremely effective and will be a true challenge to replace. At the same time, we are confident that her leadership has given SPT the basic tools to succeed and grow during the organization’s next phase.
Since its inception, Small Press Traffic has always relied on the vigorous input and participation of the local writing community to sustain our mission and independence. Given the upcoming leadership transitions and current funding climate, we will welcome continued community involvement and support more than ever. We are eager to include feedback on how best to move forward, so be on the lookout for announcements on SPT’s transitional process and opportunities to get involved.
Sincerely,
The Small Press Traffic Board of Directors
David Buuck, President
Stephanie Young, Vice President
Brent Cunningham, Treasurer
Scott Inguito, Secretary
Chris Chen
Cynthia Sailers
Jessica Wickens
Dear Friends,
I'm grateful for seven fabulous, illuminating years at Small Press Traffic. However, I have decided against returning as director when my year's leave is up in July, 2008. I will no doubt be going on to other literary and nonprofit projects. For now I'm happily engrossed in caring for my two young kids.
SPT has proven over the years to be limber, deep and strong in doing its part to maintain a relevant US literature by attending to culturally diverse innovation. I look forward to being a smaller part of its continuing adventure.
Vive la SPT.
Elizabeth Treadwell
It is with great regret that the Board of Small Press Traffic (SPT) announces that we have received the resignation of Elizabeth Treadwell as our Executive Director (see below). Dana Teen Lomax, who has been acting as interim Executive Director since July of 2007, has agreed to stay on through the end of 2008, in order to ensure a smooth transition to the next generation of SPT leadership.
While the board is extremely excited about SPT’s future, and looks forward to helping guide the organization through this time of transition, we also want to take a moment to acknowledge our deep gratitude to Elizabeth for leaving SPT in a position of stability and strength. SPT’s new leadership will inherit a strong organization, as well as the large and passionate audience Elizabeth was key to expanding over the last seven years. In terms of outreach, programming, and fiscal management, Elizabeth has been extremely effective and will be a true challenge to replace. At the same time, we are confident that her leadership has given SPT the basic tools to succeed and grow during the organization’s next phase.
Since its inception, Small Press Traffic has always relied on the vigorous input and participation of the local writing community to sustain our mission and independence. Given the upcoming leadership transitions and current funding climate, we will welcome continued community involvement and support more than ever. We are eager to include feedback on how best to move forward, so be on the lookout for announcements on SPT’s transitional process and opportunities to get involved.
Sincerely,
The Small Press Traffic Board of Directors
David Buuck, President
Stephanie Young, Vice President
Brent Cunningham, Treasurer
Scott Inguito, Secretary
Chris Chen
Cynthia Sailers
Jessica Wickens
Dear Friends,
I'm grateful for seven fabulous, illuminating years at Small Press Traffic. However, I have decided against returning as director when my year's leave is up in July, 2008. I will no doubt be going on to other literary and nonprofit projects. For now I'm happily engrossed in caring for my two young kids.
SPT has proven over the years to be limber, deep and strong in doing its part to maintain a relevant US literature by attending to culturally diverse innovation. I look forward to being a smaller part of its continuing adventure.
Vive la SPT.
Elizabeth Treadwell
Monday, March 31, 2008
This SATURDAY at SPT: Juliana Spahr & Kristin Palm
Saturday, April 5, 7:30 p.m.
Featuring an after-reading interview with the readers, conducted by David Buuck, on the topic of documentary poetics...
Kristin Palm joins us in celebration of her first book, The Straits (Palm Press, 2007). Her writing has appeared in LVNG, Bird Dog, Boog City, Chain, There, Dusie and the anthology Bay Poetics (Faux Press, 2006), as well as numerous magazines and newspapers, including Metropolis, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and the Detroit Metro Times. She has taught poetry to high school students in Detroit and is currently a writer-in-residence at John Muir Middle School in San Leandro, CA.
Current East Bay resident Juliana Spahr has lived in many other places, including Chillicothe, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; Honolulu, Hawai‘i; and Brooklyn, New York. She has absorbed, participated in, and been transformed by the politics and ecologies of each. Her most recent book, The Transformation (Atelos, 2007) is about that process. Among her previous works are This Connection of Everyone with Lungs (U of California, 2005), a collection of poems that she wrote from November 30, 2002 to March 30, 2003 that chronicled the buildup to the latest US invasion of Iraq. She has edited the journal Chain with Jena Osman for the last twelve years and with nineteen other poets she has been an editor of the collectively run and collectively funded Subpress.
Please note special day for above event!
Featuring an after-reading interview with the readers, conducted by David Buuck, on the topic of documentary poetics...
Kristin Palm joins us in celebration of her first book, The Straits (Palm Press, 2007). Her writing has appeared in LVNG, Bird Dog, Boog City, Chain, There, Dusie and the anthology Bay Poetics (Faux Press, 2006), as well as numerous magazines and newspapers, including Metropolis, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine and the Detroit Metro Times. She has taught poetry to high school students in Detroit and is currently a writer-in-residence at John Muir Middle School in San Leandro, CA.
Current East Bay resident Juliana Spahr has lived in many other places, including Chillicothe, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; Honolulu, Hawai‘i; and Brooklyn, New York. She has absorbed, participated in, and been transformed by the politics and ecologies of each. Her most recent book, The Transformation (Atelos, 2007) is about that process. Among her previous works are This Connection of Everyone with Lungs (U of California, 2005), a collection of poems that she wrote from November 30, 2002 to March 30, 2003 that chronicled the buildup to the latest US invasion of Iraq. She has edited the journal Chain with Jena Osman for the last twelve years and with nineteen other poets she has been an editor of the collectively run and collectively funded Subpress.
Please note special day for above event!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
This Friday at SPT: Bill Luoma & Laura Moriarty
Bill Luoma & Laura Moriarty
Friday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111--8th Street, San Francisco.
Bill Luoma is author of Works and Days, and the chapbooks Dear Dad, Swoonrocket, and Western Love. Recently work has appeared in Abraham Lincoln. He is a member of subpress, which gave him the opportunity to publish Jennifer Moxley’s autobiography, The Middle Room. He lives in Berkeley with Charles, Juliana, and Sasha Berkman Tupac Spahr.
Join us in celebrating Laura Moriarty’s A Semblance, Selected and New Poems 1975-2007 just out from Omnidawn. She has published eleven books of poetry, a short novel, Cunning (Sputyen Duyvil 2000), and a novel of science fiction, Ultravioleta (Atelos 2006). Moriarty has been a very active member of the Bay Area community for 25 years, has traveled extensively to do readings and workshops, has had her work translated into half a dozen languages, has taught at Mills College, Naropa University and Otis Art Institute, and has been a nonprofit literary organization director for 20 of those years. Moriarty currently works as Deputy Director of Small Press Distribution in Berkeley.
Friday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111--8th Street, San Francisco.
Bill Luoma is author of Works and Days, and the chapbooks Dear Dad, Swoonrocket, and Western Love. Recently work has appeared in Abraham Lincoln. He is a member of subpress, which gave him the opportunity to publish Jennifer Moxley’s autobiography, The Middle Room. He lives in Berkeley with Charles, Juliana, and Sasha Berkman Tupac Spahr.
Join us in celebrating Laura Moriarty’s A Semblance, Selected and New Poems 1975-2007 just out from Omnidawn. She has published eleven books of poetry, a short novel, Cunning (Sputyen Duyvil 2000), and a novel of science fiction, Ultravioleta (Atelos 2006). Moriarty has been a very active member of the Bay Area community for 25 years, has traveled extensively to do readings and workshops, has had her work translated into half a dozen languages, has taught at Mills College, Naropa University and Otis Art Institute, and has been a nonprofit literary organization director for 20 of those years. Moriarty currently works as Deputy Director of Small Press Distribution in Berkeley.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
TOMORROW: KENNY GOLDSMITH & ANDREW CHOATE!
Friday, March 7, 7:30 p.m.
Timken Lecture Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111--8th Street, San Francisco.
Andrew Choate was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina and educated at Northwestern University and CalArts. His latest book, Langquage Makes Plastic of the Body, was published by Palm Press in 2006. It includes a CD of his singing and reading. Pigs in Blankets, a radio play from 2004, and Spir-ahchoo!-ality, a sneeze-based recording from 2005, have been audially exhibited in London, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Rome and Yerevan. His writings on music and art have been published in d’Art International, Coda, Facsimile Magazine, Signal to Noise, Urb and the Wire since 1998. As “The Unwrinkled Ear,” he has hosted a weekly radio show since 1994; the current incarnation can be heard on www.killradio.org from 21:00-22:30 PST, Thursdays. He is a member of The Little Fakers, an urban marionette collective.
Kenneth Goldsmith’s writing has been called some of the most “exhaustive and beautiful collage work yet produced in poetry” by Publishers Weekly. Goldsmith is the author of nine books of poetry, founding editor of the online archive UbuWeb (http://ubu.com), and the editor of I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews, which is the basis for an opera, Trans-Warhol, premiered in Geneva in March of 2007. An hour-long documentary on his work, sucking on words: Kenneth Goldsmith premiered at the British Library in 2007. Kenneth Goldsmith is the host of a weekly radio show on New York City’s WFMU. He teaches writing at The University of Pennsylvania, where he is a senior editor of PennSound, a online poetry archive. More about Goldsmith can be found on his author’s page at the University of Buffalo’s Electronic Poetry Center: http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/goldsmith.
Timken Lecture Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111--8th Street, San Francisco.
Andrew Choate was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina and educated at Northwestern University and CalArts. His latest book, Langquage Makes Plastic of the Body, was published by Palm Press in 2006. It includes a CD of his singing and reading. Pigs in Blankets, a radio play from 2004, and Spir-ahchoo!-ality, a sneeze-based recording from 2005, have been audially exhibited in London, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Rome and Yerevan. His writings on music and art have been published in d’Art International, Coda, Facsimile Magazine, Signal to Noise, Urb and the Wire since 1998. As “The Unwrinkled Ear,” he has hosted a weekly radio show since 1994; the current incarnation can be heard on www.killradio.org from 21:00-22:30 PST, Thursdays. He is a member of The Little Fakers, an urban marionette collective.
Kenneth Goldsmith’s writing has been called some of the most “exhaustive and beautiful collage work yet produced in poetry” by Publishers Weekly. Goldsmith is the author of nine books of poetry, founding editor of the online archive UbuWeb (http://ubu.com), and the editor of I’ll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews, which is the basis for an opera, Trans-Warhol, premiered in Geneva in March of 2007. An hour-long documentary on his work, sucking on words: Kenneth Goldsmith premiered at the British Library in 2007. Kenneth Goldsmith is the host of a weekly radio show on New York City’s WFMU. He teaches writing at The University of Pennsylvania, where he is a senior editor of PennSound, a online poetry archive. More about Goldsmith can be found on his author’s page at the University of Buffalo’s Electronic Poetry Center: http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/goldsmith.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
This Friday at SPT: Erín Moure & Erica Kaufman
Friday, February 29, 7:30 p.m.
7:30 PM in Timken Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111 8th Street, San Francisco
Erica Kaufman is the author of several chapbooks, most recently civilization day (Open24Hours, Winter 2007) and censory impulse (an excerpt of her long poem of the same title — Big Game Books, Fall 2007). kaufman holds a MFA from the New School and was the winner of the 2003 New School University Chapbook Contest. her poems can be found in Puppyflowers, Painted Bride Quarterly, Bombay Gin, The Mississippi Review, Unpleasant Event Schedule, the tiny, Turntable + Blue Light, 26, Aufgabe, LIT, among other places. essays and reviews can be found in The Poetry Project Newsletter, CutBank, Rain Taxi, Verse, and elsewhere. kaufman is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center and the co-curator/co-editor of Belladonna* and Belladonna Books. She lives in Brooklyn.
Erín Moure is a Canadian poet who lives in Montreal in French, writes in English, and translates poetry from Galician, Portuguese, French, and Spanish into English. O Cadoiro, her most recent book (Anansi, 2007) plays with notions of lyric, fed by the medieval Galician-Portuguese repertoire of cantigas. Her Little Theatres, a book in English and Galician co-written by Elisa Sampedrín, was shortlisted for the Griffin Prize, Pat Lowther Memorial Award, Governor General’s Award, won the AJM Klein Prize, and was on the Globe 100 list for 2005. It appeared in late 2007 in Galician from Editorial Galaxia, as Teatriños. Other recent books: O Cidadán (2002), and Sheep’s Vigil by a Fervent Person (2001), a transelation from the Portuguese of Alberto Caeiro/Fernando Pessoa. Moure has also translated numerous other works, is currently translating Chus Pato’s Hordas de Escritura, has just completed a new book of poetry, O Resplandor, with Elisa Sampedrín, and is working on a long collaborative work with Oana Avasilichioaei, one segment of which is at Jacket.
7:30 PM in Timken Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111 8th Street, San Francisco
Erica Kaufman is the author of several chapbooks, most recently civilization day (Open24Hours, Winter 2007) and censory impulse (an excerpt of her long poem of the same title — Big Game Books, Fall 2007). kaufman holds a MFA from the New School and was the winner of the 2003 New School University Chapbook Contest. her poems can be found in Puppyflowers, Painted Bride Quarterly, Bombay Gin, The Mississippi Review, Unpleasant Event Schedule, the tiny, Turntable + Blue Light, 26, Aufgabe, LIT, among other places. essays and reviews can be found in The Poetry Project Newsletter, CutBank, Rain Taxi, Verse, and elsewhere. kaufman is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center and the co-curator/co-editor of Belladonna* and Belladonna Books. She lives in Brooklyn.
Erín Moure is a Canadian poet who lives in Montreal in French, writes in English, and translates poetry from Galician, Portuguese, French, and Spanish into English. O Cadoiro, her most recent book (Anansi, 2007) plays with notions of lyric, fed by the medieval Galician-Portuguese repertoire of cantigas. Her Little Theatres, a book in English and Galician co-written by Elisa Sampedrín, was shortlisted for the Griffin Prize, Pat Lowther Memorial Award, Governor General’s Award, won the AJM Klein Prize, and was on the Globe 100 list for 2005. It appeared in late 2007 in Galician from Editorial Galaxia, as Teatriños. Other recent books: O Cidadán (2002), and Sheep’s Vigil by a Fervent Person (2001), a transelation from the Portuguese of Alberto Caeiro/Fernando Pessoa. Moure has also translated numerous other works, is currently translating Chus Pato’s Hordas de Escritura, has just completed a new book of poetry, O Resplandor, with Elisa Sampedrín, and is working on a long collaborative work with Oana Avasilichioaei, one segment of which is at Jacket.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
This Friday at SPT: Dodie Bellamy & Bhanu Kapil
Bhanu Kapil & Dodie Bellamy
Friday, February 15, 7:30 p.m.
Bhanu Kapil writes at the intersection of poetry, prose, non-fiction and a kind of irreversible yet mutable “document.” Her works include The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers (Kelsey Street Press, 2001), Incubation: a space for monsters (Leon Works, 2006), and Humanimal, a project for future children (forthcoming from Kelsey Street Press). Nationally, she has given readings of her work and presented lectures/panel talks on monsters, cyborgs, architecture, and hybridity; most recently as part of a CalArts conference on experimental writing at the LAMoca. She teaches at Naropa University.
Dodie Bellamy's collection, Academonia, was published by Krupskaya in 2006. Other books include Pink Steam and The Letters of Mina Harker. Her book Cunt-Ups won the 2002 Firecracker Alternative Book Award for poetry. In January, 2006, she curated an installation of Kathy Acker's clothing for White Columns, New York's oldest alternative art space.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10 sliding scale
and begin at 7:30 PM in Timken Lecture Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111--8th Street, San Francisco.
Friday, February 15, 7:30 p.m.
Bhanu Kapil writes at the intersection of poetry, prose, non-fiction and a kind of irreversible yet mutable “document.” Her works include The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers (Kelsey Street Press, 2001), Incubation: a space for monsters (Leon Works, 2006), and Humanimal, a project for future children (forthcoming from Kelsey Street Press). Nationally, she has given readings of her work and presented lectures/panel talks on monsters, cyborgs, architecture, and hybridity; most recently as part of a CalArts conference on experimental writing at the LAMoca. She teaches at Naropa University.
Dodie Bellamy's collection, Academonia, was published by Krupskaya in 2006. Other books include Pink Steam and The Letters of Mina Harker. Her book Cunt-Ups won the 2002 Firecracker Alternative Book Award for poetry. In January, 2006, she curated an installation of Kathy Acker's clothing for White Columns, New York's oldest alternative art space.
Unless otherwise noted, events are $5-10 sliding scale
and begin at 7:30 PM in Timken Lecture Hall,
at the California College of the Arts,
1111--8th Street, San Francisco.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
More Poets Theater pix
Thanks again to all the writers, directors, performers, volunteers, techs, et al who helped out this year --
stay tuned for information on our Cabaret (june 22 at 21 grand), an upcoming film & video program, and our spring readings. Next up: Dodie Bellamy & Bhanu Kapil on Feb 15...
PT08 on Flickr
M. Mara-Ann, Konrad Steiner, Melissa Riley, Neil Alger & Erika Staiti in "Creative Floors" by Kit Robinson, dir. Alan Bernheimer & Stephanie Young, 1.25.08
Q&A with Mac McGinnes, Nick Robinson, Alan Bernheimer, Carla Harryman & Kit Robinson
stay tuned for information on our Cabaret (june 22 at 21 grand), an upcoming film & video program, and our spring readings. Next up: Dodie Bellamy & Bhanu Kapil on Feb 15...
PT08 on Flickr
M. Mara-Ann, Konrad Steiner, Melissa Riley, Neil Alger & Erika Staiti in "Creative Floors" by Kit Robinson, dir. Alan Bernheimer & Stephanie Young, 1.25.08
Q&A with Mac McGinnes, Nick Robinson, Alan Bernheimer, Carla Harryman & Kit Robinson
Monday, January 21, 2008
Poets Theater 08 continues this Friday 1/25
FRIDAY JANUARY 25, 7:30pm:
1980s POETS THEATER REVIVIFIED:
THREE PLAYS RE-EXAMINED, RE-ANIMATED, & RE-STAGED
“Particle Arms” by Alan Bernheimer
“Third Man” by Carla Harryman
“Creative Floors” by Kit Robinson
Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts
1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
here are some photos from last Friday:
1. Mitche Manitou & Jen Smith in CA Conrad's "The Obituary Show"
2. Mary Diaz & Lula Chapman in Mary Diaz's "Up in Arms"
3. Tammy Fortin & Wendy Taylor in Hannah Weiner's "RJ ROMEO AND JULIET"
4. David Brazil, sara larsen, Chana Morgenstern & Andrea Brooks in sara larsen's "A Fierce Vexation of a Dream"
5. yr co-hosts, Una Lomax & some guy
1980s POETS THEATER REVIVIFIED:
THREE PLAYS RE-EXAMINED, RE-ANIMATED, & RE-STAGED
“Particle Arms” by Alan Bernheimer
“Third Man” by Carla Harryman
“Creative Floors” by Kit Robinson
Timken Lecture Hall
California College of the Arts
1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco
here are some photos from last Friday:
1. Mitche Manitou & Jen Smith in CA Conrad's "The Obituary Show"
2. Mary Diaz & Lula Chapman in Mary Diaz's "Up in Arms"
3. Tammy Fortin & Wendy Taylor in Hannah Weiner's "RJ ROMEO AND JULIET"
4. David Brazil, sara larsen, Chana Morgenstern & Andrea Brooks in sara larsen's "A Fierce Vexation of a Dream"
5. yr co-hosts, Una Lomax & some guy
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Poets Theater 08 begins this Friday the 18th!
Small Press Traffic Poets Theater Festival
January 18, 2008
Timken Lecture Hall, California College of the Arts (directions)
Poetry — the practice of making things happen with language — has always had an affinity with the stage, whether it is in the performance of the “reading” or in the attention paid to the clash and clamor of words, feelings, and ideas as they “act” themselves out in the music of language-play. In San Francisco, the tradition of Poets Theater has long pushed that affinity further, as the Bay Area’s avant-garde literary communities continue to test the limits of both poetry and conventional drama. Challenging expectations of theater, of plot and character, of “proper” dramatic performances, Poets Theater also forges new spaces for writers and performers to collaborate on new terms, to take poetry off the page and onto the stage, where bodies and props can flop and body-pop, tangling themselves in the tumble of play-language and language-play. Indeed, what we will see tonight and next week are not so much the polished “results” of some mad experiments as much as the experiments themselves, in process, as the players articulate these new terms in the readings and enactments of scripts often designed to be “blendered” more than rendered. Working with no budgets, limited materials and rehearsal times, non-professional performers and so-called “curators,” Poets Theater demonstrates what alternative forms of aesthetic engagement can produce within the broader context of a mainstream culture conditioned to convention and predictability.
This year, we at Small Press Traffic are excited to present world premieres of several new works, along with new stagings of important Poets Theater works from the 70s and 80s (which we hope you’ll come to next Friday night, the 25th.) As with any artistic “tradition,” the links from past through the present need to be continually revisited and tested, so as to avoid any easy nostalgia or museumification of always-evolving forms and innovations. The play’s the thing, to be sure, but we hope instead to continue to present events in which directors, performers, artists and archivists work with (and against) the writers to keep these traditions alive in the most activated, of-the-moment, and playful way: the thing’s the play.
David Buuck, Cynthia Sailers & Stephanie Young
Small Press Traffic Poets Theater 08 Curators
-------------------------------------
THE OBITUARY SHOW
written by CA Conrad, directed by Christian Nagler
Sometimes the world is so stressful, just watching the way people destroy one another for a little bit of money, or land, or power. Some days I feel hopeful that it will come to an end, this greed. I think IT’S GOT TO END! IT HAS TO! But what if it doesn’t? What if it just continues? What if there is a way this murderous world can manage to keep itself a functional killer?” Yes, Clifford Conrad is stressed out and he goes back to Mother, literally goes back to Mother for some rest. See THE OBITUARY SHOW, you’ll see what we mean!
Jen Smith: Freya
Mitche Manitou: Mother
Video
Chris Gullo: Clifford Conrad
CAConrad: Cameraman’s voice
Jen Hess: original music
Ish Klein & Scott Johnston: film crew
Video recorded at WOODSHOP FILMS in Philadelphia, with generous assistance from the studio owners Marc Brodzick and Andrew Gellers.
UP IN ARMS: a scene at tense borders
written and directed by Mary Diaz
A translator tells the story of two warmongers who ceaselessly battle each other with words and weapons at the border of their suffering countries. When a weary cartographer happens upon their plight and attempts to help them resolve their conflict, his poignant message gets lost in translation.
Mary Diaz: Warmonger 1
Lula Chapman: Warmonger 2
Kevin Killian: The Translator/Hunch, the lost cartographer
YODA IN HIS YOUTH
written by Dana Ward, directed by Brandon Brown
Aging poet/radical Yoda is forced to confront his pomposity after a whimsical encounter with a creative young man.
Mary Diaz: Yoda
Cedar Sigo: Poet
RJ ROMEO AND JULIET (from The Code Poems)
written by Hannah Weiner, directed by Suzanne Stein
The poems and performance pieces from The Code Poems are from the INTERNATIONAL CODE OF SIGNALS, to be used by merchant and naval vessels to communicate important messages about the state of a vessel and the intent of its master or commander when there are language barriers. Signals can be sent by signal flag, blinker light, flag semaphore, Morse code, or by radio. Sample messages:
AC: I am abandoning my vessel.
AN: I need a doctor.
IT: I am on fire.
Wendy Taylor: Romeo
Tammy Fortin: Juliet
Alli Warren: Mike
INARMS
written and directed by Arnold J. Kemp
“Dreaming would not free them from this endless reconstruction of self. The machine would not stop reconstructing their image.” Adapted for this staged reading from “Olive Oil from the Notebooks — a radio film”, INARMS uses readymade material, overheard speech, and observed gesture. Three voices speak out of impossible living and loving situations in an attempt to shift the perception of everyday reality from ignorance and unease to one of presence. INARMS is part of an ongoing production of works from the studio of artist Arnold J. Kemp, principal of Invisible Inc. and Black Arts Index.
Staged reading by:
Antonio Iannarone
Arnold J. Kemp
Kristin Lucas
Montage and mise-en-scene by Arnold J. Kemp and Antonio Iannarone
A FIERCE VEXATION OF A DREAM
written and directed by sara m. larsen
Interspersed with collaged text from Shakespeare, Mallarme, and Dylan Thomas, in addition to the imagination of the author, A FIERCE VEXATION OF A DREAM is very loosely based on A Midsummer Nights Dream.
David Brazil: the duchess
David Larsen: pyramus the moon / the poet
sara m. larsen: hermia
Erika Staiti: larkspur
Chana Morgenstern: double cherry
Andrea Brooks: double cherry
January 18, 2008
Timken Lecture Hall, California College of the Arts (directions)
Poetry — the practice of making things happen with language — has always had an affinity with the stage, whether it is in the performance of the “reading” or in the attention paid to the clash and clamor of words, feelings, and ideas as they “act” themselves out in the music of language-play. In San Francisco, the tradition of Poets Theater has long pushed that affinity further, as the Bay Area’s avant-garde literary communities continue to test the limits of both poetry and conventional drama. Challenging expectations of theater, of plot and character, of “proper” dramatic performances, Poets Theater also forges new spaces for writers and performers to collaborate on new terms, to take poetry off the page and onto the stage, where bodies and props can flop and body-pop, tangling themselves in the tumble of play-language and language-play. Indeed, what we will see tonight and next week are not so much the polished “results” of some mad experiments as much as the experiments themselves, in process, as the players articulate these new terms in the readings and enactments of scripts often designed to be “blendered” more than rendered. Working with no budgets, limited materials and rehearsal times, non-professional performers and so-called “curators,” Poets Theater demonstrates what alternative forms of aesthetic engagement can produce within the broader context of a mainstream culture conditioned to convention and predictability.
This year, we at Small Press Traffic are excited to present world premieres of several new works, along with new stagings of important Poets Theater works from the 70s and 80s (which we hope you’ll come to next Friday night, the 25th.) As with any artistic “tradition,” the links from past through the present need to be continually revisited and tested, so as to avoid any easy nostalgia or museumification of always-evolving forms and innovations. The play’s the thing, to be sure, but we hope instead to continue to present events in which directors, performers, artists and archivists work with (and against) the writers to keep these traditions alive in the most activated, of-the-moment, and playful way: the thing’s the play.
David Buuck, Cynthia Sailers & Stephanie Young
Small Press Traffic Poets Theater 08 Curators
-------------------------------------
THE OBITUARY SHOW
written by CA Conrad, directed by Christian Nagler
Sometimes the world is so stressful, just watching the way people destroy one another for a little bit of money, or land, or power. Some days I feel hopeful that it will come to an end, this greed. I think IT’S GOT TO END! IT HAS TO! But what if it doesn’t? What if it just continues? What if there is a way this murderous world can manage to keep itself a functional killer?” Yes, Clifford Conrad is stressed out and he goes back to Mother, literally goes back to Mother for some rest. See THE OBITUARY SHOW, you’ll see what we mean!
Jen Smith: Freya
Mitche Manitou: Mother
Video
Chris Gullo: Clifford Conrad
CAConrad: Cameraman’s voice
Jen Hess: original music
Ish Klein & Scott Johnston: film crew
Video recorded at WOODSHOP FILMS in Philadelphia, with generous assistance from the studio owners Marc Brodzick and Andrew Gellers.
UP IN ARMS: a scene at tense borders
written and directed by Mary Diaz
A translator tells the story of two warmongers who ceaselessly battle each other with words and weapons at the border of their suffering countries. When a weary cartographer happens upon their plight and attempts to help them resolve their conflict, his poignant message gets lost in translation.
Mary Diaz: Warmonger 1
Lula Chapman: Warmonger 2
Kevin Killian: The Translator/Hunch, the lost cartographer
YODA IN HIS YOUTH
written by Dana Ward, directed by Brandon Brown
Aging poet/radical Yoda is forced to confront his pomposity after a whimsical encounter with a creative young man.
Mary Diaz: Yoda
Cedar Sigo: Poet
RJ ROMEO AND JULIET (from The Code Poems)
written by Hannah Weiner, directed by Suzanne Stein
The poems and performance pieces from The Code Poems are from the INTERNATIONAL CODE OF SIGNALS, to be used by merchant and naval vessels to communicate important messages about the state of a vessel and the intent of its master or commander when there are language barriers. Signals can be sent by signal flag, blinker light, flag semaphore, Morse code, or by radio. Sample messages:
AC: I am abandoning my vessel.
AN: I need a doctor.
IT: I am on fire.
Wendy Taylor: Romeo
Tammy Fortin: Juliet
Alli Warren: Mike
INARMS
written and directed by Arnold J. Kemp
“Dreaming would not free them from this endless reconstruction of self. The machine would not stop reconstructing their image.” Adapted for this staged reading from “Olive Oil from the Notebooks — a radio film”, INARMS uses readymade material, overheard speech, and observed gesture. Three voices speak out of impossible living and loving situations in an attempt to shift the perception of everyday reality from ignorance and unease to one of presence. INARMS is part of an ongoing production of works from the studio of artist Arnold J. Kemp, principal of Invisible Inc. and Black Arts Index.
Staged reading by:
Antonio Iannarone
Arnold J. Kemp
Kristin Lucas
Montage and mise-en-scene by Arnold J. Kemp and Antonio Iannarone
A FIERCE VEXATION OF A DREAM
written and directed by sara m. larsen
Interspersed with collaged text from Shakespeare, Mallarme, and Dylan Thomas, in addition to the imagination of the author, A FIERCE VEXATION OF A DREAM is very loosely based on A Midsummer Nights Dream.
David Brazil: the duchess
David Larsen: pyramus the moon / the poet
sara m. larsen: hermia
Erika Staiti: larkspur
Chana Morgenstern: double cherry
Andrea Brooks: double cherry
SPT Poets Theater Cabaret: Postponed
As many of you in the Bay Area have no doubt heard, our sister institution 21Grand, home to the important New Yipes reading series as well as wonderful music, art, film & performance programming, has recently been dealing with some "code compliance issues" as defined (& "enforced") by the City of Oakland. As a result, 21Grand has had to jump through numerous bureaucratic hoops in order to retain its licenses for the kinds of programming that tends to challenge the kinds of code categories that city authorities wish to impose. Sadly, although 21G is on the way to getting things squared away with the city, SPT has had to postpone our scheduled Feb.3 Poets Theater Cabaret until this summer. Keep an eye on this space and our website for further updates, and please visit the following sites to find out how you can help 21Grand in this crucial time for local nonprofit alternative arts spaces:
21Grand updates
Bay Guardian article
21Grand updates
Bay Guardian article
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