Event - ETERNiDAY: QUEENS POET LORE FESTIVAL OF THE LANGUAGE ARTS
ETERNiDAY: QUEENS POET LORE FESTIVAL OF THE LANGUAGE ARTS
03.15.14, 12:00 pm
ETERNiDAY: QUEENS POET LORE FESTIVAL OF THE LANGUAGE ARTS at the Queens Museum (QM) is a day-long festival showcasing a diverse selection of poets, artists, musicians, performers, educators, and publishers from the borough and beyond. Curated by the current poet laureate of Queens, Paolo Javier, this festival, named after a term coined by the great Flushing artist Joseph Cornell, will feature readings, panel discussions, musical performances, live film and video narrations, bookmaking and professional development workshops, and a book fair with some of today’s leading independent publishers of innovative literature. There will also be Poets-in-the-Gallery events throughout the day to commemorate the recent exhibits at the QM, as well as performances by the festival participants in select locations of the museum, to underscore the QM’s importance as a longtime supporter of poetry and the arts in the borough.
Please note that shuttle bus will be provided from under the train at CitiField/Willets Point stop of the 7 train.
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
BOOK FAIR: WERWAISS GALLERY, 2nd Floor
12 to 6 pm Featuring some of the city’s leading small press publishers, including New Directions, Futurepoem, Nightboat Books, Ugly Duckling Press, Belladonna, CUNY Grad Center’s Lost & Found Chapbook Series, Lunar Chandelier Press, a library at my ear, and Queens’ own 2Leaf Press, Ellipses Press, Newtown Journal, New York Book Press, Litmus Press, Tender Buttons Press, and more!
1 pm “My Force is in Mobility: A Printmaking Demo by Patrick Rowe and Mobile Print Power.“ A printmaking workshop based out of Immigrant Movement International in Corona, Queens. Members of all ages learn silkscreen printmaking using a mobile printmaking cart. Having learned the printmaking process members plan and implement public print projects in their community and around NYC, utilizing the cart and their knowledge of printmaking.
READING SERIES 1: CAFE
12:30-4:10pm “Meanwhile Back in Queens”¦”, a marathon showcase of local lit split into two parts, spotlighting various Queens reading series, literary organizations, and writers/poets currently active across the borough. Hosted by writer/poet/curator, Audrey Dimola, born & raised in Queens.
12:30-2:05pm block features Boundless Tales Reading Series, KC Trommer, Enigma Bookstore/Queens Writers Series, Norman Stock, Oh, Bernice! Reading Series, Gabrielle David, REZ Reading Series/Richmond Hill Library Series, Franklin Bruno, Reformed Talent, and Nature of the Muse.
2:30 to 4:10pm block features Heightening Stories, Thomas Fink, First Tuesdays: A Neighborhood Reading Series, Maria Terrone, Canvas of Words, Catherine Fletcher, Poetry Teachers NYC, Emily Ruth Hazel, and Five Boro Story Project.
READING SERIES 2: PANORAMA OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
1-3 pm “Panorama Poetry”, feat. Charles Bernstein (curator), Shelly Hirsch, Tan Lin, Cecilia Vicuna, Tracie Morris, Julie Patton, and Kenny Goldsmith, performing work on the observation deck overlooking the legendary New York City Panorama, exploring the possibilities for a geographic poetics, a sound and light show of the mind in action.
READING SERIES 3: THEATER
12:15-12:55 pm “Chinatown Now”, feat. Dr. Hsing-Lih Chou (Flushing-based actor/performer), Rojo Robles (screenwriter, Your Day Is My Nightdir. by Lynne Sachs), and Herb Tam (curator, Museum of Chinese in the America). An eclectic program, including recitation and singing, to underscore the artistic vitality of NYC’s Chinatowns “holding the power to dream” (Frances Chung).
1:15-2 pm “Realness & Foundation”, feat. Robyn Hillman-Harrigan (poet and executive director of Shore Soup / Rockaway Rescue Alliance Project) and Gina Apostol (author and fundraiser for Kusog Tacloban Mobile Soup Kitchen). Moderated by Prerana Reddy.
2:30-3:20 pm “Astoria’s Don1″, feat. Louie Gasparro (artist/author). Official Queens book launch of Astoria-born/raised Gasparro’s vital new biography, Don1, the King from Queens: The Life and Photos of a NYC Transit Graffiti Master, about the compelling life story and riveting photos of the influential NYC style master writer, Astoria’s Don “DON 1 MAFIA” Palatella, and the undocumented BMT subway lines of NYC in 1970″²s. Gasparro will read & present photos from his new book, to be followed by a brief Q&A with Sukhdev Sandhu, director of the Colloquium for Unpopular Culture at New York University. Book Signing immediately afterwards at the Museum Gift Shop.
3:30-4:20 pm “Khonsay: A Poem of Many Tongues” feat. Bob Holman (Bowery Arts+Science) and Steve Zeitlin (City Lore). “Khonsay” (a Boro (N. Indian) word meaning “to pick up something with care as it is scarce and valuable”) is a cento: each line is from a different endangered or minority language. It is a work-in-progress, both as text and film. We will screen the most current version and discuss the poetry as well as the language crisis: half the languages on the planet may be lost in the next 60 years.
4:30-5:30 pm, “The Queens New York School: Celebrating the Poetry of Joseph Ceravolo & Frank Lima“ feat. Kostas Anagnapoulos, Suyeun Juliette Lee, Stephanie Gray, Urayoan Noel, Lee Ann Brown, Bob Holman, and Helen Lima. Two unsung heroes of the New York School, both of whom have roots in Queens, are honored with a reading of their poems by a diverse set of poets based in Queens, the Bronx, and Philly. Joining the poets onstage will be several members of Jo Ceravolo and Frank Lima’s family.
READING SERIES 4: ATRIUM
2:30-4 pm “QMA Poet Sculpture”, feat. Samuel Jablon (curator/sculptor), Amy King, Yuko Otomo, Bushra Rehma, Marissa Perel, Emanuel Xavier, Steve Dalachinsky, Nikhil Melnechuk, and Michael Taylor. The sculpture will be in flux with poets physically interacting with the structure, creating and manipulating a visual poem/structure while performing their work. Poets will stand on Julia de Burgos, Jayne Cortez, ee cummings, Allen Ginsberg, Barbara Guest, Langston Hughes, Tuli Kupferberg, Taylor Mead, Frank O’Hara, and Pedro Pietri.
5-5:45 pm “Nickelodeon”, feat. Ian Spencer Bell, Bear 54/Entering Binocular Mode (Ernie Brooks, Peter Zummo, Billy Ficca, Walter Baker, Bill Ruyle), Listening Center (David Mason). A solo piece by an exciting young choreographer, a five-piece band of avant-punk/disco trailblazers (Arthur Russell, Modern Lovers, Television) from LIC, and an Irish electronic artist of moody synths will summon the spirits to conclude ETERNiDAY.
READING SERIES 5: LOS ANGELES POVERTY DEPARTMENT EXHIBIT
3-4 pm, “Poets-in-the-Galleries”, feat Joel Kuszai, Justin Petropoulos, Celina Su, and Latasha Diggs. Two poets from Queens, one from Brooklyn, and another from Harlem will be reading and responding to Do you want the cosmetic version or do you want the real deal? Los Angeles Poverty Department, 1985-2014 . The setting is a gallery filled with 50 prison bunk beds which are the set Los Angeles Poverty Department’s peformance of State of Incarceration, about the situation of California’s overcrowded prison system.
READING SERIES 6: PETER SCHUMANN’S THE SHATTERER EXHIBIT
2-3:30 pm “Poets-in-the-Galleries”, feat. Poets in Unexpected Places (PUP): Syreeta MacFadden, Jon Sands, Samantha Thornhill, Adam Falkner, and Elana Bell. PUP is a New York area organization, moves poetry into unconventional public spaces with free live literature performances, featuring accomplished poets, artists, and musicians from varied backgrounds and aesthetics. For ETERNiDAY, PUP will perform a two-set program with Saheli (Elana bell, Abena Koomson and Dara Lazar) in dialogue with Bread & Puppet Theater founder Peter Schumann’s astonishing first solo museum exhibition, Peter Schumann: The Shatterer.
3:30-4 pm Supruli – Traditional polyphonic a cappella folk singing from Caucasus Georgia. Director: Carl Linich
4-4:30pm Peter Schumann Fiddle Sermon
4:30-5 pm Bread Distribution, accompanied by Ukrainian Village Voices – Traditional harmony from the mountains to the steppes of Ukraine. Ritual songs to bless the rivers, haunting love ballads, and celebratory seasonal songs. Co-directors: Brian Dolphin and Andriy Milavsky
READING SERIES 7: UNISPHERE GALLERY, 2nd Floor
12:15-1 pm Small Press Spotlight (Queens): 2Leaf Press (Jesus Papoleto Melendez, Abiodun Oyewole), New York Book (Miguel Falquez-Certain, Pedro Arturo Estrada, Jacqueline Donado)
1:15-2 pm Small Press Spotlight: Nightboat Books (John Keene, Gracie Leavitt), creature press (Cassandra Gillig), futurepoem (Shanxing Wang and Suyeun Juliette Lee)
2:10-2:55 pm “Auto-Geographies”, feat. Poet/filmmaker Aiko Roudette, poet Jan Heller Levi (Orphan, Alice James Books), and poet Reggie Harris (Autogeography, Northwestern).
3 pm
3 pm, “Quail rise”: R’s Queens”
My name & time: a Queens of the mind.
There’s an occult meaning in initials.
To “read in splendour” between these two lines from Robert Seydel“s BOOK OF RUTH (Siglio, 2011), in which the eponymous Ruth Greisman “writes”: JC, MD, will never understand our distance from life “ they’re pretenders in that. “Writes” in quotes because RG, like the Queens she shared with Joseph Cornell (through whom she “met” Marcel Duchamp), is of the mind (tho Ruth was Real: Robert’s aunt and, in his words “the artist in the Book.” For Quails rise, read R’s Queens. For Marcel Duchamp, Mina Pam Dick will read. For Joseph Cornell, Jane Carver will sound. For Robert Seydel, Ross Simonini will sing. Featuring a sub-sub library and other special guests. Organized by Emmy Catedral and Nathaniel Otting.
3:15-4:15 pm “New Poetics of Magick”, feat Alan Clinton (curator), Toni Simon, Kristin Prevallet, Charles Borkhuis, Douglas Martin. Through various narrative and performative techniques, authors will address the question, What roles does do spiritualism and/or magick play in relation to your practice as a writer/artist?
4:25- 5:10 pm, “Gorgeous Nothings”, feat. translator Susan Bernofsky, poet/publisher/curator Stephen Motika, and poet/artist Jen Bervin. Collaborative reading/presentation, including on the writings and marginalia of Robert Walser and Emily Dickinson.
READING SERIES 8: STUDIO ARTIST RESIDENCY
4:30 pm , in the studio of Bunny Rogers, feat. Andrew Durbin. Poet and publisher Andrew Durbin, author of Mature Themes (Nightboat Books, fall 2014), engages (with) the art (&) praxis of QM studio resident artist Bunny Rogers.
6-7:30 pm in the studio of Caroline Woolard and Lika Volkova feat. Mark McGurl (author of The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing) and Leigh Claire La Berge (author of Scandals and Abstraction: Financial Fictions of the Long 1980s), will join BFAMFAPHD.com for a dialogue about how the nexus between the university and the market has transformed American fiction, given rise to forms of institutional creativity, and produced new sites for creative collectivities.
OPEN AIR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS: TRIANGLE ROOM IN ARTIST STUDIO WING
12:30-1:30 pm & 2-3pm Center for Book Arts bookmaking workshops (FREE). Join artists from the Center for Book Arts in a hands-on demonstration of book arts techniques. Learn basic binding techniques that you can use for your own publications, and walk away with a finished object. Basic materials and tools provided. Get your feet wet in bookbinding.
330-430 pm, “Alternative Publishing and Literary Curating”: John Harkey (creature press), Stephen Motika (Nightboat Books), Sol Aramendi (Project Luz), Christopher Stackhouse (This Red Door Series). This panel will explore independent publishing and literary events. Presenting a variety of perspectives, the panel hopes to inspire poets, writers and artists to search for alternative forms of distribution for their work.
CLOSING CEREMONIES: ATRIUM
6 to 8 pm “Microphone Check One Two What Is This?”, cocktails with live set feat DJ Despo
7 pm Closing Ceremonies with the Office of the Borough President Melinda Katz and Council Person Jimmy Van Bramer, featuring ETERNiDAY honorees Gabrielle David (2Leaf Press, Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars), Andrew Jackson (Queens Library), Stephen Motika (Poets House), Bob Holman (Bowery Arts + Sciences, City Lore), & Prerana Reddy (Queens Museum).
For more details please visit the ETERNiDAY website: http://eterniday2014.wordpress.com/
Public Events at the Queens Museum are supported in part by The Kresge Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and The David Rockefeller Fund. Additional support provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.