BlazeVOX an.online.journal.of.voice
Presenting fine works of poetry, fiction, text art, visual poetry and arresting works of creative non-fiction written by authors from around world
BlazeVOX @ Burchfield Penney Art Center 2011
Featuring a brilliant Poetry Reading: Michael Basinski, Wade Stevenson, Robin Brox, Michael Kelleher, and Geoffrey Gatza
Hello and thank you for stopping by this online version of our BlazeVOX @ Burchfield Penney! We had an extravagant BlazeVOX [books] event at a new large art gallery in Buffalo, The Burchfield Penny on November 10th 2011 from 6 to 8 PM. The night was catered with food and drinks from Oliver’s Restaurant and it was all quite delicious. The entire evening was a dream come true and such fun, we wanted to share!
There are several parts to this work:
A Brilliant Poetry Reading: We were unable to record the reading, so we decided to put together a small packet that captured the fun of the whole event. Featuring the work of Michael Basinski, Wade Stevenson, Robin Brox, Geoffrey Gatza and Michael Kelleher.
Portrait Drawings by artist Peter Fowler: Artwork featured in Wade Stevenson’s book, A Testament to Love and Loss by Peter Fowler. These images were on display at the reading, as well as Peter drawing self-portraits for guests. His work to me is intertwined with poetry as his studios are above Rust Belt Books, a local used book shop in Buffalo. His paintings are in the poetry reading room and it just felt natural to have him there. So hurray on Peter for being such a great supporter of poetry!
Self Portraits of Poets and Book People: As a fund raising idea, we asked local and international poets and book people to send us a self-portrait. We set up a packet of paper, pens, markers and other art utensils along with return mailing. We received work from all around North America, including National Book Award winner Keith Waldrop and the first Canadian Poet Laureate, George Bowering. This was so much fun to watch as everything came together. In total we received 30 pieces of artwork, and we sold a great deal of it at the show. We also have an online shop where we will have for sale, the remaining pieces. So if you were not able to come to the event, but wanted to help out the press while taking home a self portrait of a favorite poet, here is your chance!
Self Portraits of Poets Fundraiser – online shop!
Again, thank you for all of your kind support and allowing BlazeVOX [books] to continue on! Do keep an eye out for the Late-Fall issue of BlazeVOX11. It will be out around thanksgiving time and will be a wonderful issue. Also, this years Thanksgiving Menu-Poem, a book length poetry dinner, now in it's tenth year, celebrates Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop. Do stop on by the site on Thanksgiving Day to have a moment of poetry.
Hurray!
--
Rockets, Geoffrey
Saturday November 19, 2011
Self Portraits of Poets Fundraiser – online shop!
Self Portrait artists!
Tom Clark
George Bowering
Hank Lazer
Lewis Warsh
Eileen Myles
Kazim Ali
David Meltzer
Bill Berkson
Michael Basinski
Aaron Lowinger
Keith Waldrop
Rosmarie Waldrop
Peter Money
Robin F. Brox
Ed Adamczyk
Geoffrey Gatza
Barbara Cole
IntroductionIntroduction
In this issue we seek to avoid answers but rather to ask questions. With a subtle minimalistic approach, this issue of BlazeVOX focuses on the idea of ‘public space’ and more specifically on spaces where anyone can do anything at any given moment: the non-private space, the non-privately owned space, space that is economically uninteresting. The works collected feature coincidental, accidental and unexpected connections, which make it possible to revise literary history and, even, better, to complement it.
Combining unrelated aspects lead to surprising analogies these piece appear as dreamlike images in which fiction and reality meet, well-known tropes merge, meanings shift, past and present fuse. Time and memory always play a key role. In a search for new methods to ‘read the city’, the texts reference post-colonial theory as well as the avant-garde or the post-modern and the left-wing democratic movement as a form of resistance against the logic of the capitalist market system.
Many of the works are about contact with architecture and basic living elements. Energy (heat, light, water), space and landscape are examined in less obvious ways and sometimes develop in absurd ways. By creating situations and breaking the passivity of the spectator, he tries to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations. These pieces demonstrate how life extends beyond its own subjective limits and often tells a story about the effects of global cultural interaction over the latter half of the twentieth century. It challenges the binaries we continually reconstruct between Self and Other, between our own ‘cannibal’ and ‘civilized’ selves. Enjoy!
Rockets! Geoffrey Gatza, editor