Poetry in a Time of Crisis ~ Is Poetry Enough

Saturday, April 17 / 2 PM - 9 PM / Porter Dining Hall

This day-long event explores the special role of poetry in times of crisis, including the crises evoked by the so-called "war on terror" and the "culture wars" focused on the LGBT community. Eileen Myles will read from her work and discuss queer writing as a form of resistance. Juliana Spahr will lead a panel entitled "Poetry in a Time of Crisis" investigating the relationship between poetry and crisis in an international context, with examples from Korean, Mexican, and Pacific poetries. Leslie Scalapino will lead a discussion of poets anthologized in two books: her co-edited volume enough, and her forthcoming anthology War and Peace, which features "writing as its matter and syntax not separate from oppressive conditions and war."

SCHEDULE
2–3:OO PM
Queer Writing as Resistance
Eileen Myles reads and discusses her work

3–4:15 PM
PANEL 1
Poetry in aTime of Crisis
MODERATOR: Juliana Spahr
PANELISTS: Rob Wilson, Heriberto Yepez, and Walter Lew

4:3O–5:45 PM
PANEL 2
Is Poetry Enough?
MODERATOR: Leslie Scalapino
PANELISTS: Taylor Brady, David Buuck, Judith Goldman, Joanne Kyger, and Jen Scappetone

6–7 PM
RECEPTION/STUDENT OPEN MIC READING

7–9 PM
READINGS & PERFORMANCES by poet-panelists and Nathaniel Mackey

PARTICIPANTS:
TAYLOR BRADY is the author of Microclimates (Krupskaya, 2001) and Occupational Treatment (Atelos, forthcoming). He serves on the board of directors of Small Press Traffic in San Francisco.

DAVID BUUCK edits Tripwire, a journal of poetics, and organizes BARGE, the Bay Area Research Group in Enviro-aesthetics. He is a student in the History of Consciousness program at UC Santa Cruz.

JUDITH GOLDMAN is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Columbia University. Her book Vocoder (Roof, 2001) received a "Book of the Year" award in 2002 from Small Press Traffic.

JOANNE KYGER is a California poet who teaches at the New College of San Francisco. Her most recent book is AS EVER: Selected Poems (Penguin).

WALTER K. LEW’s books include Treadwinds: Poems and Intermedia Texts (winner of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop award), and the anthology of Asian North American poetry Premonitions.

NATHANIEL MACKEY is the author of many books of poetry and fiction including Eroding Witness (National Poetry Series winner), School of Udhra, and Whatsaid Serif. He is Professor of Literature at UC Santa Cruz, where he edits the literary magazine Hambone.

EILEEN MYLES, author of Cool For You, Skies, Not Me, and Chelsea Girls, is working on a new novel called The Inferno and an opera called Hell. She was Artistic Director of St. Mark’s Poetry Project in the 1980s. She is Professor of Creative Writing at UC San Diego.

LESLIE SCALAPINO is the author of 23 books, including Dahlia’s Iris—Secret Autobiography and Fiction (on the recent war, published by FC2).

JENNIFER SCAPPETTONE is a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley. Her poems have appeared recently in The Poker, Volt, 580 Split, Aufgabe, and other journals.

JULIANA SPAHR’s books include This Connection of Everyone with Lungs (forthcoming from California) and Fuck You-Aloha-I Love You. She co-edits the journal Chain with Jena Osman. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Mills College.

ROB WILSON’s works of poetry and cultural criticism include Waking In Seoul, American Sublime, and Reimagining the American Pacific: From ‘South Pacific’ to Bamboo Ridge and Beyond. He was a founding editor of the Berkeley Poetry Review. He is Professor of Literature at UC Santa Cruz.

HERIBERTO YEPEZ (www.hyepez.com) has written several books of essays published in Mexico. His latest book is the experimental novel El matasellos (2004). He has published in several American magazines including Chain, Tripwire, Rattapallax, Cross Cultural Poetics, and Shark. He teaches Philosophy at UABC-Tijuana.

For more information contact: Roxi Hamilton, hamilton@ucsc.edu, 415-401-7039

Sponsored by the Poetry and Politics Research Cluster and the Porter College Hitchcock Poetry Fund

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