Let the Ponies Have Plenty of Room



¡Copy Pasters! 
a.k.a. The Jam-masters 
 a.k.a. So Now Collectively 
a.k.a. The Lit Car Wash 
a.k.a. Patrick Dougherty, David Feil, Michael Henderson, Dawn Pendergast, John Pluecker, Harbeer Sandhu, Stalina Villarreal 

present 

Let the Ponies Have Plenty of Room 

a collaborative writing explosion and a new collectively-written and produced chapbook of the same title 

at Kaboom Books 3116 Houston Avenue 
Tuesday, May 8, 2012 
7:30 - 9pm 

 In the Fall of 2011, we, a group of seven intrepid writers/artists/poets/baristas united to play with contemporary generative practices of experimental writing. This workgroup was called ¡Copy Paste! and we met at Project Row Houses. The members of the workgroup were enthused by collaborative writing practices. We decided to keep meeting in 2012. We have met until now. We Google Doc’d. We cut and pasted. We Photoshopped and Photoshared. We debated the intricacies of meaning-making and aesthetic chaos. We lingered. We made a book, which happily became an ephemeral bit under the aegis of the Little Red Leaves Textile Series. We invite you to come and partake in the madness, the wine and the play.

If you're in Houston on Saturday...

You're invited to Public Poetry’s Spring Series 
2:00 PM, free 
Saturday, May 5, 2012 

Jungman Neighborhood Library 
5830 Westheimer, 77057 
with Special Guest: Artist Arielle Masson 

Featured Poets: Eric Ekstrand, Jasminne Mendez, John Pluecker, Robin Reagler

Meet the Poets & Book Signing Presented in partnership with Houston Public Library ~ 

The Front Row Interviews John Pluecker and Robin Reagler Broadcast on 91.7 FM at noon and on 88.7 FM at 11 PM.


The Incredible Attack on Grammar, a.k.a. ¡Go, Monterrey, Go!



It’s 6:30pm on the second day of a writers’ gathering in Monterrey in mid-March 2012. The crowd is slowly settling down for the show. I’ve already been blown away by the boundary-shattering, interdisciplinary work happening at the encuentro called La increíble degramaticalidad  (The Incredible Degrammaticality), but the performers up next are about to take things to another level.
- From an essay I wrote on Temporary Art Review called The Incredible Attack on Grammar, a.k.a. ¡Go, Monterrey, Go! 

Read the whole thing, see the pics and the videos here.

Twas yours to fall--but Mine to feel the wound.

- John Steadman

They, Who Sound & the Kick-Off of the Read/Write Club

If you are around in Houston on Monday:


They, Who Sound


a series in Houston for experimental sound-making, improvised music, free jazz, underground noise, noises, electro-acoustics, psychedelia, improvised dance, the performance of art, and "musique brut"

every Monday 
at Avant Garden
411 Westheimer
7 to 9pm

The Lineup for Monday, April 23 is:

Bob Hoffnar
and . . .
Ford Us Over

Bob Hoffnar (Austin) - pedal steel guitar
Ford Us Over (Houston) is:
John Pluecker - text, voice, projections
David Feil - guitar
Lucas Gorham - lap steel guitar$5 to $10 suggested donation


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If you are around in Houston on Wednesday:

The other way I think of the book is as a kind of land art or assemblage/performance/installation of memory, which attempts to map out and draw attention to experience or a place in a way that acknowledges my own intervention. The book isn’t about something that “happened” but something that is constructed out of things that are remembered, imagined, invented, found, present.

- Rosa Alcalá in an interview on Jacket2


Occupy Houston protestor Jordan Johnson types a letter on his typewriter as he prepares to tie it to a balloon and release it so people can see it in high offices at the Wells Fargo Plaza Friday, Nov. 4, 2011, in Houston. Protestors made a Divestment March where they protested outside four nearby banking institutions in downtown Houston - Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Amegy. (Cody Duty / Houston Chronicle) Photo: Cody Duty / © 2011 Houston Chronicle

More here.

I miss the Occupied spaces, the dialogues, the performances, the daring to do things different.

(Ahora o nunca: Dueños de nuestra casa / Now or Never: Masters of Our Home)
Today I made a presentation in my French group about Québec. I got excited. I talked fast about La Loi 101, La charte de la langue francaise. and the Quiet Revolution.  On my bike ride home, I wondered: when will we have a Loi 101 for Texas? For the Southwest? For Aztlán?  A law that guarantees the linguistic rights of Spanish speakers. Chapter II of the Loi 101 defines five rights for French speakers in Québec. I've replaced the word French with Spanish. Imagine what the Southwest would be like if we had these rights:

1. The right of every person to have all branches of government, professional associations, employee associations and companies communicate with her in Spanish;
2. The right of everyone to speak Spanish in deliberative assemblies;
3. The right of workers to exercise their activities in Spanish;
4. The right of consumers to be informed and served in Spanish;
5. The right of persons eligible for instruction to receive their instruction in Spanish.

It's hard to imagine. But I think, in time, it will be a reality. Or at least I hope so. Or I will it to be so.

Can you imagine a politician in Texas making an ad like this in both languages? Maybe there are some?

Anglophones in Quebec used to tell French speakers to "Speak White" when they were trying to get them to stop speaking French. Michèle Lalonde read this poem in response in 1970. Here is some analysis of her poem. I've posted it before on this blog.

Oh, we can dream of an officially bilingual Southwest.

On my bike, a phrase kept echoing in my head: We CAN (un)write the past.

Cut-Up Racist Laws!

My friend and famed Librotraficante put out a call on Facebook for people to cut up two laws: Florida's Stand Your Ground law and Arizona's anti-education, anti-book law that prohibited Mexican-American Studies in Tucson (Text of that law here). 

Here's what he said on Facebook:


And yesterday, I came up with this (click to enlarge):


Thanks, Harbeer, for the prompt. Let's make more!

Take their words! Reconstruct them! Resignify these awful texts!


La segunda mitad de poema sonoro que hice en Monterrey la semana pasada en La Degramaticalidad Increíble. /

 The second half of a sound poem I performed in Monterrey this past week at the encuentro The Incredible Degramaticality. 

Monterrey 2012



Being in Mexico, suddenly makes "the situation" immeasurably more complicated.

Everyone agrees the situation is awful; everyone agrees things have gotten worse.

I'm shocked (but shouldn't be) to here things like: "It's a fight between them, nothing to do with us."

And then I turn on the television and I remember what the news feeds people every day; this analysis of the good President fighting against the bad Criminals, this supposed war against (Fill in the blank).

"Los protagonistas de la historia, somos todos." The television reminds us everything is fine, everything is fine. In the words of Abigael Bohórquez in the poem "Duelo:"

Pero está bien;               
en este mundo todo está bien:
el hambre, la sequía, las moscas,
el apartheid, la guerra santa, el SIDA


My translation:


But it’s fine;
everything in this world is fine:
hunger, drought, flies,
apartheid, holy war, AIDS

It's amazing how much works, despite the utter collapse.

On the Frontera-List (an email list that disseminates links to articles about "the violence" in Mexico), a report from MSNBC says that, "Earlier on Monday, six men were shot dead in Monterrey, in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon."

On the television here in Monterrey, we only hear about the arrival of the Pope to Guanajuato and the construction of new highway bridges. The images cut between the grounds where the pope will speak and diagrams showing the layout of the new bridges over the Río Santa Catarina.

There are no bodies. It is as Cristina Rivera Garza writes in her new book Dolerse: Textos desde un país herido: the neoliberal state has always had a relationship with its citizens that lacked entrañas, that lacked bodies, guts, the dirty mess of intestines and blood and flesh. As she describes, this isn't a war against the narcos, it's a war on the entire citizenry, fed by capital and rapacious greed.

Invisible bodies everywhere.

Antena Books @ Project Row Houses in Houston!


(La versión en español sigue abajo.)

I am happy to announce the soon-to-open Antena temporary bookstore, reading room and lit experimentation lab, to be located at Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas. As part of Round 36 of installations, the space will open on Saturday, March 31 from 4-7pm. After that it will be open Wednesday through Sunday from 12pm-5pm. The books in the space will be from small presses across the Americas, particularly the U.S. and Mexico: evidence of textual innovation and a vibrant multilingual dialogue in experimental writing and literary community-making. Many will be for sale; others will be available for reading and browsing in the space. John Pluecker will be present in the space over the course of the exhibition: a durational performance, an investigation into building multilingual literary spaces, promoting and selling innovative books and a detonating public projects. Within the space, chairs will be available for sitting, books and chapbooks and small magazines will be available for reading, and typewriters available for writing. All visitors are welcome, and are invited to write through and beyond the various texts available in the space, writing with and toward the authors and through the location of this row house in Third Ward, Houston. In addition, Antena has organized a series of bilingual activities open to the public, including a Read/Write Club and bilingual spaces for conversation among Third Ward residents, Houston-area folks, and visitors from elsewhere.



Schedule for Read/Write Club: Weekly on Wednesdays from 6-9pm

(It's encouraged to try to read the book prior to the Club meeting; however, if you can't, still come! We will read together in the space and listen to the author read—either recorded, in person or through Skype. Then we will write together.)

April 25 - A Toast in the House of Friends by Akilah Oliver, Coffee House Press

May 2 - American Copia by Javier Huerta, Arte Público Press

May 9 - I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women by Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, Teresa Carmody, and Vanessa Place, Eds., Les Figues Press

May 16 - The Black Automaton by Douglas Kearney, Fence Books

May 23 - Poems of the Black Object by Ronaldo V. Wilson, Futurepoem

May 30 - SABORAMI by Cecilia Vicuña, Chainlinks

June 6 - The Event Factory de Renee Gladman, dorothy, a publishing project

June 13 - one by Jen Hofer, Palm Press

June 20 - sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre: A Bilingual Edition of Books 2 and 3 of Dolores Dorantes by Dolores Dorantes, translated by Jen Hofer, Kenning Editions / Counterpath Press

 Hope to see you there!

+++


Estoy feliz de anunciar la librería temporal, sala de lectura y laboratorio de experimentación literaria de Antena que estará ubicado en Project Row Houses en Houston, Texas. Como parte de la Ronda 36 de instalaciones en este conocida organización de artes comunitarios, el espacio se inaugurará el sábado, 31 de marzo de 4-7pm. Después de esa fecha, el espacio estará abierto de miércoles a domingo de 12 a 5pm. Los libros en este espacio son de pequeñas editoriales de las Américas, particularmente de Estados Unidos y México: prueba de la inovación textual y de un diálogo multilingüe vivo dentro de la escritura experimental y en el campo de la construcción de comunidades literarias. Unos libros estarán a la venta, otras disponibles para leer y hojear en el espacio. John Pluecker estará presente en el espacio durante la exhibición: un performance duracional, una investigación sobre la construcción de espacios literarios multilingües y un detonador de proyectos públicos. Dentro del espacio, hay sillas, libros y plaquetas y revistas para leer y maquinas de escribir. Toda persona es bienvenida; se les invita a escribir a través de y más allá de los varios textos disponibles en el espacio, escribiendo con y hacía los autores y a través de este lugar, esta pequeña casa en el Tercer Barrio de Houston. Además, Antena organizará una serie de actividades abiertas al público, incluyendo un Club para Leer y Escribir, lecturas, performances y espacios bilingües para conversación entre residentes del Tercer Barrio, gente de Houston y visitantes de otras partes del mundo.
Horario para el Club para Leer y Escribir: Semanalmente los miércoles de 6-9pm
(Se le invita a leer el libro antes de la reunión del Club; sin embargo, si no puedes, aún así puede venir. Leeremos en el espacio juntos y escucharemos leer al autor, sea grabado o por Skype o en persona. Después escribiremos juntos.)
25 abril – A Toast in the House of Friends de Akilah Oliver, Coffee House Press
2 mayo –  American Copia de Javier Huerta, Arte Público Press
9 mayo – I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women de Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, Teresa Carmody, y Vanessa Place, Eds., Les Figues Press
16 mayo – The Black Automaton de Douglas Kearney, Fence Books
23 mayo – Poems of the Black Object de Ronaldo V. Wilson, Futurepoem
30 mayo – SABORAMI de Cecilia Vicuña, Chainlinks
6 junio – The Event Factory de Renee Gladman, dorothy, a publishing project
13 junio – one de Jen Hofer, Palm Press
20 junio – sexoPUROsexoVELOZ y Septiembree: Una edición bilingue de los libros 2 y 3 de Dolores Dorantes de Dolores Dorantes, traducción de Jen Hofer, Kenning Editions/Counterpath Press
¡Esperamos verl@s allí!

The world is full. It teems with particularities that push and pull on us unexpectedly, at any distance. We need a cultural imaginary adequate to the challenges of this world, a sensibility less of iconoclasm than of wonder and care.

-  Craig Epplin in a review of the Reanimation Library at the Coffin Factory

Wow, the Kony mayhem is beyond belief. All of it. Kony himself. And the U.S. campaign to stop him.

Good analyses of the effort at Foreign Policy and from a Ugandan journalist, Angelo Opi-aiya Izama.

I'm not linking to the video. You can find it easily.