March 8 Living Room w/ Greg Bem

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Splabman

Bemyo

Bemyo

What is the meaning of dialogue for artists? How do artists communicate with each other on an organic, procedural level? How do we learn from each other and forward our own work through the technique of response? What can we learn on the meta level about the progression of humans through adaptation and staged development? Can writing be taught and learned from one another at the same time and on an equal level?

For this SPLAB workshop everyone will be a contributor, so come to the Living Room and expect to write during the first portion of the evening! This will be a wonderful experiment in group collaboration, where we will each write short pieces for ourselves and for the group, and then recite and record them. This will not be your average workshop exercise! Expect to be surprised! Expect to learn something new! Expect the unexpected! Don’t be afraid of cliches! Don’t be afraid of being edgy! Don’t be afraid of stepping beyond your boundaries! Our anyone else’s!

A note: because this opening exercise may potentially take longer than normal, please bring relatively shorter works for the critique circle. While we typically cover the majority of peers during the workshop, that is not always the case! So please bring your sparsest creative pieces this week!

Your donation of $5 helps SPLAB put on special events and continue programming AND gets you an entry in our monthly raffle. Please bring 8 copies of the work you plan to read. If you do not bring copies, they are available for 10c.

Living Room happens at SPLAB in the Cultural Corner of the old Columbia School, between Rainier AV S and 36th AV S, on Edmunds. We’re 2 blocks from the Columbia City Link Light Rail Station. Free parking is available on the school grounds.

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3.1.11 – Living Room FILM in poems

Posted on February 13, 2011 by Splabman

FILM IN POEMS

Have you added movie quotes, scenes or film stars to a poem?  If not in your own work, can you find and bring to the Living Room a poem that mixes the two and shares the magic of cinema & poetry? Maryna Ajaja of SIFF is your facilitator. Tuesday, 3.1.11 at 7P.

Brad Pitt   by Aaron Smith

With cotton candy armpits and sugary
Crevices, sweat glazing your donut skin.
Have you ever been fat, Brad?
Have you ever wanted a Snickers
More than love and lain on your bed
While the phone rang and rolled one
On your tongue, afraid to eat it, afraid
It would make your jeans too tight? Have you
Barfed, Brad, because you ate it,
Ate all the take-out, licked
Brown sauce off the box while you sobbed?
Brad Pitt down in the pits chaining menthol
Ciggys in your thick-wallet life,
It’s not so bad Brad, sad Brad, is it?

Your donation of $5 helps SPLAB put on special events and continue programming AND gets you an entry in our monthly raffle. Please bring 8 copies of the work you plan to read. If you do not bring copies, they are available for 10c.

Living Room happens at SPLAB in the Cultural Corner of the old Columbia School, between Rainier AV S and 36th AV S, on Edmunds. We’re 2 blocks from the Columbia City Link Light Rail Station. Free parking is available on the school grounds.

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Nate Mackey Tonight @ SPLAB

Posted on February 12, 2011 by Splabman

SPLAB welcomes legendary poet, essayist, novelist and editor Nathaniel Mackey to Columbia City for a reading tonight at 7:30 at SPLAB, 3651 S. Edmunds in the Cultural Corner of the former Columbia School.

Admission to the public reading is $5.

Poet and novelist Nathaniel Mackey was born in 1947 in Miami, Florida. He received a B.A. degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

His books of poetry include Splay Anthem (New Directions, 2006), which won the 2006 National Book Award in Poetry; Whatsaid Serif (1998); Song of the Andoumboulou: 18-20 (1994); School of Udhra (1993); Outlantish (1992); Eroding Witness (1985), which was selected for the National Poetry Series; Septet for the End of Time (1983); and Four for Trane (1978).

He is also the author of an ongoing prose work, From A Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate, of which three volumes have been published: Atet A. D. (2001), Djbot Baghostus’s Run (1993), and Bedouin Hornbook (1986).

The poet Robin Blaser has called Mackey’s work “a brilliant renewal of and experiment with the language of our spiritual condition and a measure of what poetry gives in trust—’heart’s/meat’ and the rush of language to bear it.

Nate in conversation with Charles Bernstein.

Recordings of Nate reading his poetry.

Sponsored by 4Culture, Poets and Writers, CD Forum, The Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, Island Soul Caribbean Restaurant, The Shirley Marvin Hotel, Richard Hugo House and WESTAF.

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Living Room 2.22.11: Poetry as Protest

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Splabman

Writers of all ages and skill levels gather every Tuesday at 7P at SPLAB to read new work, the work of someone else or to just be in the engaging company of other writers.  This week, Meredith A. Nelson hosts  a discussion of Poetry as Protest, in light of the recent demonstrations in Wisconsin and the revolution in Egypt. Bring a protest poem that speaks to you!  PLUS, it’s February raffle time!! You must be present to win.

Your donation of $5 helps SPLAB put on special events and continue programming AND gets you an entry in our monthly raffle. Please bring 8 copies of the work you plan to read. If you do not bring copies, they are available for 10c.

Living Room happens at SPLAB in the Cultural Corner of the old Columbia School, between Rainier AV S and 36th AV S, on Edmunds. We’re 2 blocks from the Columbia City Link Light Rail Station. Free parking is available on the school grounds.


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