Book Lung: Poetry’s Spin on Art
September 6 - October 18, 2008
In celebration of STIR: A Festival of Words (www.harwoodartcenter.org), 516 ARTS presents a poetry project organized by Lisa Gill in conjunction with the concurrent exhibitions Cautionary Tales: A Visual Dystopia and Finding a Pulse. Lisa Gill says, “Arachnid anatomy has everything to do with my interpretation of how art and poetry inform each other. Situated inside the abdomen of many common spiders are miniature books that breathe—or, lungs that look like miniature books…Writers, like artists, dabble in both the exhibition (and excitation) of blood and breath…Visceral poetic responses to the visual art will be displayed in less-than-conventional books created by artists Becky Holtzman and Valerie Roybal. The end result will be the exploration of both the inhale and the exhale of creative process – a kind of “respiration” showing a flow of energy that moves back and forth between art and poem, between sight and sound, between visual and verbal.”
Muriel Rukeyser writes, “Breath-in experience, breath-out poetry.” In both of the visual art exhibitions, the poets are linked to the artworks exhibited in the gallery: for Cautionary Tales: A Visual Dystopia, writers are responding to images in the exhibition; for Finding a Pulse, both writers and artists are responding to the same themes. Featured poets are Jennifer Bartlett, Jill Battson, Amy Beeder, Hakim Bellamy, Debbi Brody, Jennifer Frank, Teresa E. Gallion, Gabriel Gomez, Renee Gregorio, Lisa Hase, Michelle Holland, Gary Jackson, Zach Kluckman, Jennifer Krohn, Michelle Laflamme-Childs, Maria Leyba, Joan Logghe, Mary Oishi, Richard Oyama, Shin Yu Pai, Greta Pullen, Margaret Randall, Mitch Rayes, Miriam Sagan, Maureen Seaton, Thandiwe Shiphrah, Marilyn Stablein, Diane Thiel, John Tritica, Richard Vargas, Mark Weber and Chris Wrenn. Download catalog
There have been many nights when I have ventured down corridors and polished staircases without encountering a single librarian. — from The Library of Babel, Jorge Luis Borges
Babel
I was startled by the books that flopped at my feet
like lifeless school marms or little spineless soldiers.
I was used to the way language fails us,
or at least I was used to people saying: Huh?
Some miles to the right the language is dialectical.
Ninety stories up it's incomprehensible.
I've often succumbed to the search for the perfect word.
I've sat beside Webster and flipped his thinning pages
optimistically. Looking up dialectical (tense, investigative),
I could hear those twin trees laughing at me.
Look now and see how the sky is a shocking blue—
which seems endearing, doesn't it, at a time when
the human species has obviously disappeared?
I hesitate to say there are still those who believe libraries
are eternal. The Library exists ab aeterno, says Borges,
their wry spokesman. Everything, he says,
is there: the minute history of the future,
the autobiographies of the archangels,
thousands and thousands of false catalogues,
a version of each book in all languages,
the veridical account of your death.
There are two places in Nix's photo that are very blue.
Can you find them? (This is not a test.)
El azul, Borges might have said, existe ab aeterno.
Once I'm dead, there will be no lack of pious hands
to hurl me over the banister; my sepulcher
shall be the unfathomable air.
The trees win, of course, in this hallowed chaos,
which is interminable and prophetic and apologetic,
a sphere whose circumference is inaccessible.
I forgot how good it feels to embrace destruction.
Don't worry. There are lifeboats coming for the lucky,
some of whom are well-read, some of whom are not.
I'd like to figure out if trees reminisce as they bifurcate,
if, while they fractal, they record their own histories,
like the archangels, who brood over every written word.
— Maureen Seaton
Programs at 516 ARTS for STIR: A Festival of Words
Metaphor as Map: A poetry writing workshop with Miriam Sagan
Saturday, September 13, 2–3:30pm
Using the poem to map actual and visionary space. In words, we'll create a cartography that includes hidden and lost urban pockets, childhood space, and the collision of the suburban and the wild. Bring a notebook and favorite pen and be prepared to do some writing together in class. No experience writing poetry is necessary. Working together, we'll let inspiration strike! For teens & adults. Pre-registration required. Workshop fee: $20. To register: call 505-242-1445 or email rhiannon@516arts.org.
Miriam Sagan runs the Creative Writing program at Santa Fe Community College, and she is the author of twenty books. She holds a B.A. with honors from Harvard University and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University. She is the author of Unbroken Line: Writing in the Lineage of Poetry which Robert Creeley called “A work of quiet compassion and great heart.” Her work has appeared internationally in 200 magazines, and she has taught around the country.
516 WORDS Reading: Book Lung
Saturday, September 13, 4pm
This poetry reading for STIR: A Festival of Words showcases individual poems written to the art and themes of Cautionary Tales and Finding a Pulse. Participating poets include Jill Battson, Amy Beeder, Hakim Bellamy, Debbi Brody, Jennifer Frank, Teresa E. Gallion, Gabriel Gomez, Renee Gregorio, Lisa Hase, Michelle Holland, Zach Kluckman, Jennifer Krohn, Michelle Laflamme-Childs, Maria Leyba, Joan Logghe, Mary Oishi, Richard Oyama, Greta Pullen, Margaret Randall, Mitch Rayes, Miriam Sagan, Maureen Seaton, John Tritica, Richard Vargas, Mark Weber and Chris Wrenn.
STIR: A Festival of Words
The Harwood Art Center and the International Poetry Institute present an eclectic mix of people, poetry, music, visual arts, film, organizations and events celebrating the profound connections between words and the world. Join us for readings, workshops, performances, collaborations and conversations with special guests and partners including ABQ Slams, Basement Films, Hakim Bellamy, Blue Mesa Review, Church of Beethoven, Renee Gregorio, Joy Harjo, La Alameda Press, Joane Logghe, Jessica Lopez, Demetria Martinez, Adam Rubinstein, Danny Solis, UNM Lobo Slam, and many others. The Festival’s Artistic Director is Albuquerque poet Lisa Gill. Events take place at the Harwood Art Center, South Broadway Cultural Center, 516 ARTS, UNM and more. For information, please visit www.harwoodartcenter.org or call 505-242-6367.