In advance of 2009 move, Poets House previews Battery Park City
By RUTH VINCENTWhen poet Stanley Kunitz founded Poets House, a 50,000-volume poetry library and literary center, with arts administrator Elizabeth Kray, he envisioned it as a “house of hospitality, as well as a house of books.†Since opening in 1986, Poets House has grown from makeshift locations in home economics classrooms to the sunny, quiet Spring Street loft it inhabited for over a decade. Now Poets House will have a permanent home: a brand new, eco-friendly, purpose-built poetry space at 10 River Terrace, in Battery Park City, guaranteed rent-free until 2069 by the Battery Park City Authority.
To celebrate the upcoming move, which will take place in 2009, Poets House will host “Poets House in Battery Park City†on October 11, a day of free preview festivities showcasing New York’s plentiful and diverse poetic tradition, including readings by Charles Simic, John Yau, Patricia Smith, Edward Field and Joan Larkin.
Complete article at The Villager.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
back, way back, back into time
Let us take a nice break from the craziness going on over the For Godot project with folks either ranting to the fullest or proclaiming it the greatest thing ever, and go back to January 2001. A time before 9/11, before Flarf, before indexed searches, and just before I ever wrote/read a poem of my own.
Goodreads Review: Spider-Man: One More Day TPB
Spider-Man: One More Day TPB by J. Michael Straczynski
Rating: 1 of 5 stars
* Spoiler alert * What a sad end to J. Michael Straczynski’s great tenure as lead writer on Spider-Man. His additions of Ezekiel, Morlun, the possibility that Peter is a manifestation of a grand Spider deity, Peter as a public school teacher, the fantastic Spider-Man: The Other storyline (Spidey loses as eye, what?!), and Aunt May discovers Peter’s alternate identity. All wonderful leaps of logic to an iconic character that a lesser writer would be happy with simple story rehashes.
Speaking of rehasin’: I was happy to see the black costume come back but sad to know that it really only happened because of the Spider-Man 3 movie tie-in which I’m sure was a call from the Marvel powers-that-be.
The same powers-that-be (cough, Joe Quesada, cough) who contributed lousy artwork to this series (I could barely recognize Spidey in most of the panels and most of the covers were just awful) and whose idea of ending Peter and MJ’s marriage will add nothing to the Spider-Lore.
A nice touch with the Stan Lee afterword and his justification of the ultimate retcon, but while I dig Stan’s point of view, I still can’t get back my time from what was a lazy, clumsy, and disrespectful send-off to one of the best writers Marvel has recently worked with.
And I say to myself, it’s wonderful, wonderful
From Wired.com:
Browse the Artifacts of Geek History in Jay Walker’s Library
Nothing quite prepares you for the culture shock of Jay Walker’s library. You exit the austere parlor of his New England home and pass through a hallway into the bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride. Stuffed with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects—on the walls, on tables, standing on the floor—the room occupies about 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels. Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) Hey, those books appear to be bound in rubies. (They are.) That edition of Chaucer … is it a Kelmscott? (Natch.) Gee, that chandelier looks like the one in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. (Because it is.) No matter where you turn in this ziggurat, another treasure beckons you—a 1665 Bills of Mortality chronicle of London (you can track plague fatalities by week), the instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket (which launched the Apollo 11 capsule to the moon), a framed napkin from 1943 on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II. In no time, your mind is stretched like hot taffy.
Rest of article (with ultra-cool geek pics of the dream library) here.
State of the Union: a Poetry Reading
Pegasus Books and Wave Books present
State of the Union: a Poetry Reading
in the spirit of this season of heightened political awareness and engagement
Tuesday, October 7th, 7:30 p.m.
Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA
featuring readings by Garrett Caples, Meg Hamill, Brenda Hillman, Joseph Lease, Michael Palmer, Barbara Jane Reyes and Joe Wenderoth.
The reading is free. Call Pegasus Books at 510-649-1320 for directions and information.