Thanks to Greg Bem and Buffy Sedlachek, there is video of the SPLAB 25th anniversary party at the White River Valley Museum in Auburn, on December 14, 2018, the exact 25th anniversary of the founding of the organization now known as SPLAB. The video is a little rocky at first, but clears up.
The keynote by Jason Wirth, Zen Priest and Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University has been published here. An excerpt:
Reclaiming the Space of Thought and the Poetic Word
(Jason Wirth, Seattle University)
Paul Nelson is a master interviewer and this fact also belongs to his poetic life and legacy. His interviews are not about poetry and prophecy, but rather they are of poetry and prophecy. (READ MORE).
Thanks also to Greg Bem for the photos, to Hilary Pittenger of the Museum, Barbara McMichael of SoCo Culture, former Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis, Professor Jason Wirth for his wonderful keynote talk, to Matt Trease for his expert emceeing and to all the attendees and SPLAB supporters. Here’s to 25 more!
Barbara McMichael reads from A Time Before Slaughter
Matthew Trease and Paul Nelson
Paul E Nelson and Jim O’Halloran perform “Elegy for Tahlequah’s Calf.” Photo by Greg Bem
Poet & interviewer Paul E Nelson founded SPLAB (Seattle Poetics LAB) & the Cascadia Poetry Festival. Since 1993, SPLAB has produced hundreds of poetry events & 600 hours of interview programming with legendary poets & whole systems activists including Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Joanne Kyger, Robin Blaser, Diane di Prima, Daphne Marlatt, Nate Mackey, George Bowering, Barry McKinnon, José Kozer, Brenda Hillman & many others. Paul’s books include American Prophets (interviews 1994-2012) (2018) American Sentences (2015) A Time Before Slaughter (2009) and Organic in Cascadia: A Sequence of Energies (2013). Co-Editor of Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia (2015), 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards (2017) and Samthology: A Tribute to Sam Hamill (2019) Make it True meets Medusario (2019), he’s presented poetry/poetics in London, Brussels, Nanaimo, Qinghai & Beijing, China, has had work translated into Spanish, Chinese & Portuguese & writes an American Sentence every day. Awarded a residency at The Lake, from the Morris Graves Foundation in Loleta, CA, he’s published work in Golden Handcuffs Review, Zen Monster, Hambone, and elsewhere. Winner of the 2014 Robin Blaser Award from The Capilano Review, he is engaged in a 20 year bioregional cultural investigation of Cascadia and lives in Rainier Beach, in the Cascadia bioregion’s Cedar River watershed.
The keynote by Jason Wirth, Zen Priest and Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University has been published here. An excerpt:
