Events
Programme 2008/2009
Thursday 2 October 2008
Veer Books launch at 'Crossing the Line'
Sean Bonney (Baudelaire in English), Johan de Wit (Up To You Munro), Piers Hugill ('Ways Through a Field': 13 Lyrics), Stephen Mooney (DCLP) and Jow Lindsey (OCTOPUS PUKE & other songs & tales, by Francis Crot et. al) will be reading from their recently published books, as well as from the new Bill Griffiths book (The Lion Man and others).
7.30 THE LEATHER EXCHANGE 15 Leathermarket Street, London Bridge, SE1 3HN. £5 / £3
See the Veer Books page for publication details.
Friday 10 October 2008
Publication: A Constellation on Alice Notley, an online collection of responses to her poetry and linked footage of her reading, emerging from our symposium last June, in collaboration with intercapillary space and Openned.
Curated by Edmund Hardy and Carol Watts, film by Steve Willey.
Voiceworks, the Wigmore Hall Song Project, is an annual collaboration between Birkbeck and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Wigmore Hall. Postgraduate poets (both MA and PhD) working through the CPRC and postgraduate composers from the Guildhall School collaborate to produce songs that are performed at the Wigmore Hall by professional singers and musicians as part of the main repertoire.
This year's programme begins on Tuesday 14 October 2008.
Friday 24 & Saturday 25 October 2008
Veer Books will be manning a stall at the upcoming Small Publishers Fair 2008 at the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1We will also be presenting a reading of recent work at that event on Oct 25th, from 5:30 pm
Veer Books will launch Bill Griffiths' new book (The Lion Man and others), with readings from the book by Alan Halsey, Geraldine Monk, Ulli Freer, William Rowe, Sean Bonney, Stephen Mooney, and others.
See the Veer Books page for publication details.
Wednesday 29 October 2008
The TALKSTALKSTALKS series runs periodically on Wednesdays at Birkbeck, and is curated by Professor Robert Hampson at RHUL.
The series resumes on Wednesday 29 October, welcoming Charles Alexander, poet, bookmaker and publisher, to talk on Poetry & The Book: Chax Press 1984-2008
7.30-9.00 pm, The Council Room, Birkbeck Main Building, Torrington Square, WC1
Charles Alexander is the Executive Director of Chax Press. His books of poetry include Hopeful Buildings (Chax Press), Arc of Light / Dark Matter (Segue Books), Near or Random Acts (Singing Horse Press), Certain Slants (Junction Press), and several chapbooks. He attended Stanford University as an undergraduate, and later obtained a graduate degree in Literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he also studied hand bookmaking with the renowned book artist Walter Hamady. Alexander has been designing and printing handmade book arts works for almost 30 years. He was formerly the director of Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and he edited the book Talking the Boundless Book: Language and the Book Arts (MCBA). In summer 2007 he was a participant in the TAMAAS poetry translation atelier in Paris. He teaches periodically at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, and at Naropa University's Summer Writing Program. He is the most recent recipient of the distinguished Arizona Artist Award, given to one artist annually.
Wednesday 12 November 2008
TALKSTALKSTALKS welcomes Steve Willey.
7.30-9.00 pm, The Council Room, Birkbeck Main Building, Torrington Square, WC1
Steve Willey - Documents of Collaboration: The poem in Song and Opera
This talk will also be the launch of a new work: Portmanteaux///Document by Edward Nesbit///Steve Willey
A fragment of the work as it exists in performance is available on the Openned website. [ http://openned.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/03-track-03-2.mp3]
An additional document of the work will also be added to the Openned website in due course [ http://openned.com/].
Thursday 20 November 2008
Reading: the Centre welcomes Michael Heller
The Council Room, Birkbeck College Main Building, Torrington Square, WC1, @ 7.30pm.
Michael Heller has published seven volumes of poetry, the most recent being Exigent Futures: New and Selected Poems. His collection of essays on George Oppen, Speaking the Estranged, has just appeared. Uncertain Poetries, a book of essays appeared in 2006. His memoir, Living Root, was published by the State University of New York Press in the Fall of 2000. Eschaton, a new volume of poems and Two Novellas: Marble Snows & The Study are to be published in 2008. His libretto for the opera Benjamin, based on the life of the German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin, has been set to music by the composer Ellen Fishman Johnson and performed at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. His poetry and criticism have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.
"There is a classic largeness to these poems, whether of means or of reference--a consummately civilized response to our time that makes the intimate and the physical still primary despite the generalizing chaos Heller confronts so movingly."--Robert Creeley "...tone perfect poems-the tone, the scale, note by note, interval by interval--attack on the 'gods of ennui and loneliness.'" --George Oppen
January 2009
Publication: Magdalena Chocano – otro desenlace published by Veer Books (Veer 016) - available now - see the Veer Books page for publication details.
February 2009
Publication: Readings 4 to go online.
Wednesday 11th February 2009.
Launch & Reading: the Centre welcomes Alan Halsey, launching Lives of The Poets
7.00-9.00 pm, The Council Room, Birkbeck Main Building, Torrington Square, WC1.
There will be a reading from 7.30 - 8.00. Wine will be served. All Welcome.
Wednesday 18th February 2009
TALKSTALKSTALKS - first session of the Spring term.
7.30-9.00 pm, Birkbeck College, room tbc (all welcome)
Stephen Mooney - Discontinuous Visuality - Brakhage's 'just seeing', and Background Temporality in contemporary poetics
The TALKSTALKSTALKS series runs periodically on Wednesdays at Birkbeck, and is curated by Professor Robert Hampson at RHUL.
Wednesday 4th March 2009
TALKSTALKSTALKS - second session of the Spring term - More details to follow.
7.30-9.00 pm, Birkbeck College, room tbc (all welcome)
The TALKSTALKSTALKS series runs periodically on Wednesdays at Birkbeck, and is curated by Professor Robert Hampson at RHUL.
Wednesday 18th March 2009
TALKSTALKSTALKS - third session of the Spring term - More details to follow.
7.30-9.00 pm, Birkbeck College, room tbc (all welcome)
The TALKSTALKSTALKS series runs periodically on Wednesdays at Birkbeck, and is curated by Professor Robert Hampson at RHUL.
Saturday18th April 2009
Launch & Reading: the Centre welcomes Gilbert Adair and Tom White.
6.00 pm, The Council Room, Birkbeck Main Building, Torrington Square, WC1.
plus the launch of Tom White's 'Old Sense' from Veer Books [Burner Veer 002]
All welcome - free entry - refreshments will be provided
Tuesday April 28th 2009
Reading: the Centre welcomes Dimosthenis Agrafiotis.
19.30-21.00 in Room 629, Malet Street building, Birkbeck College, London WC1E 7HX
•Reading •Performance •Video Presentations: '“24” Pideo–Voetry', 'Α/Ω', & 'Calligraphein' •Lecture - 'Poetics of the letter and the letter of poetics'
With the participation of Michail Palaiologou (composer from the University of Guildhall, and musicians.
All welcome - free entry - refreshments will be provided
Tuesday 5th May 2009
The Centre for Poetics welcomes Ron Silliman for A Reading and Conversation
7.00-8.00pm, Room 101, 30 Russell Square, London WC1.
American poet Ron Silliman has emerged as a major figure in international post-avant poetry. Since 1974, Silliman has been working on a single poem, entitled Ketjak. Silliman's Ketjak project is composed of four works: The Age of Huts, Tjanting, The Alphabet, and Universe. His work includes ongoing participation in the experiment in collaborative autobiography, the Grand Piano project. His 1986 anthology In the American Tree remains a primary resource for the discussion of Language Poetry, and the Silliman blog is internationally regarded as the must-read source of world-wide developments in poetry.
Ron will also be talking with postgraduates at the Centre in the afternoon.
Ron will be fresh from his first UK readings at the Bury Text Festival which kicks off on 1 May for twelve weeks of readings, performances and exhibitions. http://www.textfestival.com/
All welcome
Thursday 7th May 2009
Voiceworks 2009 collaborations between the CPRC Birkbeck and Guildhall School of Music and Drama
There will be a performance of the Voiceworks 2009 compositions in the Wigmore Hall on Thursday May 7th, at 18:00 (for 45 minutes) - this is free to attend, but will require that tickets are booked in advance (this is very simple to do, and again, costs nothing).
See: http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/productions/voiceworks-23314 for more information.
This is the third year of this collaboration between CPRC Birkbeck poets and Guildhall composers, singers and musicians. Voiceworks 2009 participants are: William Rowe & Francisco Coll Garcia, Sean Bonney & Jane Hebberd, Steve Willey & Edward Nesbit, Holly Pester & Joshua Kaye, Nancy Jones & Marcus Barcham-Stevens, Marianne Burton & Alastair Putt, Charlotte Newman & Aaron Holloway-Nahum.
all welcome
Saturday 23rd May 2009
TEXTMUSICTEXTMUSIC SYMPOSIUM
The Birkbeck Poetics Centre will be holding a Symposium on Text and Music in their multiple relationships, both in theory and in poetic and musical practice, with special emphasis on collaboration as a process. Apart from offering a forum for papers, videos and performances, the event will give an opportunity for people working with text and music to meet.
10.00 am – 6.15 pm - Symposium: £20 and £10 concessions
7.00 pm – 11.00 pm - Performances: £10 and £5 concessions
All Welcome.
Full programme details here
Publication: Pores 5
Part 1 - Poetry and Public Language is online now
Part 2 - Text and Music will be uploaded later in the year.
