Queens Library at LeFrak City
98-30 57th Ave, Corona

Join poet Paolo Javier (former Queens Poet Laureate, 2010-14) and musician David Mason (also known as Listening Center) for a participatory workshop presented as part of Fel Santos: I of Newtown, a multimedia installation for the LeFrak branch that explores the sound poetry and elusive identity of Woodside poet Fel Santos.

This workshop, geared towards adults and children age 10 and up, will demonstrate some of the sound and poetry techniques used in the collaborative project by Javier and Mason.

The sound component of this workshop led by David Mason will feature demonstrations of cassette tape composition techniques, including randomized loops, ping-ponging, and vari-speed (the gradual slowing down and pitch-shifting that occurs when a recording is transferred constantly between two magnetic tape recorders). Mason will also introduce modular synthesizer techniques, covering the basic elements of waves and harmonics, oscillators and filters, envelopes, voltage-controlled amps, low-frequency oscillators, and subtractive/additive synthesis.

The poetry component of the workshop led by Paolo Javier will include instruction on writing Nonsense Verse, looking to the influence of the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, works by Dr. Seuss and Edward Lear, as well as the private languages of participants and their communities. Participants will experiment with setting their poems to music.

More about Fel Santos: I of Newtown:
Javier and Mason’s installation focuses on the expansive sound poetry of Fel Santos, which draws from his immigrant Pilipinx history, encounters with the occult, and his mother’s own private language. Spanning film, video, sound poetry, and music, Fel Santos: I of Newtown shares the abundant intimacy and innovation of language and communication that is unique to multilingual speakers and postcolonial cultures. This project is on view from November 10, 2018 – February 24, 2019.

Photo: Hai Zhang