Hannah Weiner's Open House November 28, 2007

A reading to celebrate the vision of poet Hannah Weiner (Clairvoyant Journal, Little Books/Indians, Spoke) and the publication of Hannah Weiner’s Open House by Kenning Editions, featuring readings, performances and recollections by Charles Bernstein, Lee Ann Brown, Abigail Child, Thom Donovan, Patrick Durgin, Laura Elrick, Kaplan Page Harris, Andrew Levy, John Perreault, Rodrigo Toscano, Carolee Schneemann, James Sherry, Anne Tardos & Lewis Warsh. Charles Bernstein's most recent book is Girly Man. He is co-director of PennSound and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. Lee Ann Brown published Hannah Weiner's book, silent teachers remembered sequel through her press Tender Buttons, and collaborated with Hannah as well on the poem, "Immoblete" in Brown's first book Polyverse (Sun & Moon), in the section entitled "CoLabs." Hannah also provided Lee Ann with the word, "Comfit" which she saw on her arm and which became the title of the section of short poems since it means "a sweet or nut." Lee Ann Brown now teaches poetry at St. John's University and other places, like Naropa University. Lee Ann is reading at the Poetry Project Decmebr 12th with Abigail Child. Abigail Child’s moving images always contain elements of humor, liveliness and complex sound/image montage. In the words of LA Weekly, she makes “brilliant exciting work…a vibrant political filmmaking that’s attentive to form.” Her writing is similarly structured: A Motive for Mayhem (1989) focuses on radical strategies to rewrite narrative, paralleling her films Mayhem (1987) and Covert Action (1984). Her book MOB (1993) speaks to the city streets as does her film of that time B/SIDE (1996). Her most recent book THIS IS CALLED MOVING: A Critical Poetics of Film (2005) brings her two interests together in an original dialogue. This fall, Child will be having a retrospective at Harvard Cinematheque and will be a keynote speaker at USC on “Experimental Film and the Vernacular.” She is senior faculty in film at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and calls NYC her home. Thom Donovan is a devotee of Hannah Weiner. His paper on her work and person, Every Name in History is *Hannah*, can be literally hallucinated online at whof.blogspot.com. He also coordinates Peace On A events series in Manhattan's East Village. Patrick Durgin edited Hannah Weiner's Open House for Kenning Editions, as well as her Early and Clairvoyant Journals for UCSD's Archive for New Poetry. His chapbook Imitation Poems is just out from Atticus/Finch, and a collaboration with Jen Hofer entitled The Route is very shortly forthcoming from Atelos. Laura Elrick is currently writing an extended prose work about medicalized and imagined internal spaces, traffic jams, urban mountains, and war. Her first two books are sKincerity (2003) and Fantasies in Permeable Structures (2005). Kaplan Harris is currently editing, with Rod Smith and Peter Baker, The Selected Letters of Robert Creeley for the University of California Press. He and Mel Nichols curate the Ruthless Grip Poetry Series at Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center. For the Weiner event he plans to talk about her early career as a lingerie designer. Andrew Levy is a contributing writer on President of the United States’ The Big Melt (Factory School, Aug. 07), and he is the author of Ashoka (Zasterle Books), Paper Head Last Lyrics (Roof Books), Curve 2 (Potes & Poets Press), Values Chauffeur You (O Books), Democracy Assemblages (Innerer Klang), and other titles. His newest manuscript is Don’t Forget to Breathe. He is editor, with Roberto Harrison, of the poetry journal Crayon. John Perreault is a poet, art critic, and artist. His books of poems are Camouflage (1966), Luck (1969), and Harry (1974). Hotel Death and Other Tales was published by Sun & Moon in 1989. He is now working on a novel called THE. Carolee Schneemann is a multidisciplinary artist. Her video, film, painting, photography, performance art and installation works have been widely shown in the United States and Europe. Her most recent exhibit catalog Split Decision was published by MOCCA Toronto and CEPA Gallery – Buffalo, NY in March. James Sherry is the author of ten books of poetry and criticism. He is the editor of Roof Books and runs the Segue Foundation in NYC. Anne Tardos is a poet and visual artist. She has published several books of poetry and the multimedia performance work and radio play Among Men. She is the editor of Thing of Beauty, by Jackson Mac Low, from the University of California Press this fall. Her new book Letting Go is also coming out this fall. Rodrigo Toscano’s latest book is Collapsible Poetics Theater, which was a National Poetry Series 2007 winner. Toscano's experimental poetics plays, body movement poems and polyvocalic pieces have recently been performed at the Disney Redcat Theater in Los Angeles, Ontological-Hysteric Poet’s Theater Festival and Yockadot Poetics Theater Festival (Alexandria, Virginia). Lewis Warsh is the author of numerous books of poetry, fiction and autobiography, including The Origin of the World, Touch of the Whip, Ted's Favorite Skirt and Debtor's Prison (in collaboration with Julie Harrison). He is coeditor of The Angel Hair Anthology and editor and publisher of United Artists Books. A new book of poems, Inseparable: Poems 1995-2005 is forthcoming in 2008. He is director of the MFA program in creative writing at Long Island University in Brooklyn.

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