Art Expo New York City @ Pier 92

The first week in March brought another annual New York Armory Show, and this year's exhibition marked the 100th anniversary of the groundbreaking 1913 show, officially the International Exhibition of Modern Art, I did not make it to this year's Armory Show. It came, it went, I missed it. Several friends did attend and then told me afterwards. about it. Instead, C and I headed over to the Art Expo 2013, on Manhattan's westside Midtown...

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The Next Big Thing

THE NEXT BIG THINGThank you to poet and lovely person Sheila Maldonado, for tagging me for this. I usually eschew posts of this sort, since as Samuel R. Delany has said it is better not to talk too much publicly about things that you have not completed, but since I agreed to do it, I'm going follow through.What is the working title of the book?There are several, but I'll mention two. One is a book I just finished translating, entitled Letters from a Seducer, by the Brazilian author Hilda Hilst (1930-2004). Another, which still has a bit...

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Random Photos

Last week was spring break week, though I was mostly under the weather, so to speak, so it was more recuperation than anything else. The term is nearly halfway through, though, and despite the lingering chill and today's snowfall, I can feel spring waiting to spring. More posts soon, including one in tribute the late, extraordinary Chinua Achebe, on their way! *** Man in a spotted outfit, Jersey CityCafé Mogador, East Village42nd St. Station, mid-afternoonBryant...

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Poem: Jay Wright

"The Liatris has become Athenian,a sacred grain, mark of a girl who dreamsperfection, the immutable extremes,almost a strategy without a text.What must the ascetic self, Marianin its depths, understand by such a vexeddisposition of minor stars, canonbound, all too discursive, all too common?The infinite must endure unfolding,or, as some might say, a blessed descent.Think augury in premises, whirlingbodies ontologically content.Qué muerte tan larga...you...

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8th Blogiversary + Iraq War's 10th Anniversary

Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)I didn't start blogging until 2005; last month marked my 8th J's Theater blogiversary (I usually am deep in the vortex of teaching when the date rolls around, so I always end up missing it, but I will post a poem by Jay Wright, the subject of my first post, this week.)  In the run-up to the horrendous Iraq War, however, I expended screens...

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Book Launches @ Poets House

Though still recovering from AWP I headed over to Poets House last Sunday to catch Nightboat Books's book launch party to celebrate the publication of Coming Events (Collected Writings) by Susan Gevirtz; Music for Porn by Rob Halpern; and Sisyphus, Outdone. Theatres of the Catastrophal by Nathanaël. Poet and Nightboat Books publisher Stephen Motika introduced all three writers, who read snippets of their work, and then...

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Quote (Translation): Hilda Hilst

"He was telluric and unique. He was dreaming. He dreamed of goodbyes and shadows. He dreamed of gods. He was cruel because he had always been desperate. He encountered a human-angel. So that they might live together, on Earth, forever, he cut off his wings. The other killed himself, plunging into the waters. I am still alive today. I am old. At night I drink a lot and look at the stars. Often, I write. Then I reconsider that one, the snowy breath,...

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Reading @ St. Mark's Poetry Project

It has been many years since I last read at St. Mark Poetry Church as part of the Poetry Project's reading series, so it was a delight to present new work there, with poet Andy Mister, at the invitation of series coordinator and fellow poet, critic and Cave Canem fellow Simone White. In fact, it was decidedly new poetry because although I'd originally planned to bring a copy of Seismosis with me when I left Newark yesterday...

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AWP 2013 in Boston

As I was returning on a late-evening, slow train from Boston after attending the annual Associated Writing Programs (AWP), I tried, before briefly falling into a deep sleep--and nearly missing my stop at New York's Penn Station-- whose spell only my iPhone alarm and the conductor's loud yell broke, I tried to remember the first AWP I attended, and I couldn't. The conferences and years and cities blur, though some, like the gathering Baltimore...

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