SPLAB

After 35 years in Port Townsend, Sam Hamill is closing a chapter in his life and beginning another. The home, studio and library, he created in the woods near Port Townsend, Washington in the late 1970’s is being made available for sale and our vision is to create a retreat for poets, scholars and painters to build on the remarkable legacy that has been created here in that time by the poet/ scholar/editor and his wife, painter, Gray Foster.

We envision purchasing the property from Hamill and Foster, with additional funding to ensure ten years of administration to facilitate retreats by individual artists and couples ranging from one week to three months. These would be made possible through a competitive application process and through partner organizations. The retreat would be made available for rental for writing retreats, but there would be time built into the yearly calendar allowing need-based writers to stay free as Kage-an Fellows. Sam Hamill, and his estate in the event of his death, would be involved in the process of deciding what artists use the facility, thereby continuing the focus of his legacy.

The current value of the property is $350,000 and we propose a budget of $500,000, with $400,000 going to Hamill and Foster, with the remaining $100,000 earmarked for ten years of administration.

We envision writers and painters with a focus similar to Hamill’s and Foster’s legacy, including, but not limited to Engaged Buddhism, Chinese and Japanese poetry, the work of Kenneth Rexroth and other west coast poets and contemporary painters in the Northwest tradition, including those inspired by Morris Graves, Mark Tobey and others. Although writers with the focus outlined here would have primary consideration, we would ensure it becomes a place welcoming to writers and painters of varied backgrounds and scholarship and would welcome partnerships with organizations interested in helping facilitate the experience of Kage-an for serious artists.

Paul Nelson
Seattle, WA
2.16.10
206.422.5002

Sam adds: “One of the major points about leaving Kage-an is my heart condition and my Drs being nearly 90 minutes away. In Anacortes they’ll be five or ten minutes away. And if we manage to pull this rabbit our of the hat, I will leave behind a very nearly complete library of my years as Editor of Copper Canyon Press, plus many others books, totaling several thousand, probably.”

If you have any love for the Southwest, or for Spanglish, or for the Black Mountain School of Poetry, or how a Native American perspective (or should I say Native Mexican) gets assimilated (or doesn’t) into the USAmerican way, you should attend Tuesday night’s Living Room, as the guest will be Amalio Madueño.

The event is at the Columbia City Cinema, 4816 Rainier AV S, in the 2nd floor lounge, starting at 7. Suggested donation, $3-$10. The circle will happen every Tuesday through the end of May.

Amalio will start the circle with a few poems and a little sense of how he makes poetry. & then we’ll open it up to anyone who wants to read, and have critiqued, their latest work. You can also read the work of someone else you’d like to discuss, or come just to listen.

More on Amalio here: http://jacketmagazine.com/31/nelson-madue.html

& you can enjoy a workshop he’s facilitating in Tacoma next weekend. Details here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5263525/WA/Tacoma/Poetry-Workshop-with-Amalio-Madueo/King39s-Books/

Poems of his are here: http://chamisopieces.blogspot.com/2006/06/from-part-one-of-lost-in-chamiso.html

& his intelligent response to an essay of WCW’s here: http://www.globalvoicesradio.org/Amalios_Response_To_Hell.htm

Ciao,

Your Wily Splabman

Contact: Paul Nelson                                                                                  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tel: 206-422-5002                                                                                               E-mail: pen@splab.org

BEAT GENERATION POET MICHAEL MCCLURE TO READ, LEAD WORKSHOP IN SEATTLE
Rare Seattle Appearance Includes Public Reading, Private Writing Workshop and Lecture

Seattle, WA, January 26, 2010—Michael McClure is a poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist who initially gained fame as one of the five poets who read at the infamous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955, where Allen Ginsberg first read Howl. On March 12 and 13, 2010, he’ll perform a public reading and offer both a private lecture and writing workshop at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center in the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle.

McClure is the author of 16 books of poetry, and has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Obie Award for Best Play, an NEA grant, the Alfred Jarry Award, and a Rockefeller grant for playwriting. His play The Beard provoked numerous censorship battles. In Los Angeles, the cast was arrested after each performance for fourteen nights in a row. Later, The Beard received two Obies in New York, and it has played a role in U.S. censorship and free speech battles since 1966 when it won its first lawsuit.

McClure has worked extensively Doors’ keyboardist Ray Manzarek, and they have collaborated on several CD’s. Third Mind, a film of Michael and Ray’s conversations and performances, premiered on the Sundance Channel. McClure’s songs include “Mercedes Benz,” popularized by Janis Joplin. His journalism has been featured in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, the L.A. Times and San Francisco Chronicle.

Michael McClure’s next two books are Of Indigo and Saffron from UC Press, and Mysteriosos and other poems from New Directions. McClure performed on December 8, 2009 with The Charles Lloyd Quartet in Los Angeles at Disney Hall.

On Friday, March 12, Michael McClure holds a private lecture at 7:30PM. Admission is $30, and space is limited. On Saturday, March 13, McClure will lead an afternoon writing workshop from 1:00 to 4:00PM, followed by a public reading at 7:30PM. The workshop cost is $100 per person, and space is limited.  Admission to the public reading is $10. All events will be held at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S. Alaska St, Seattle.

SPLAB is an intergenerational writing, performance, resource and outreach center. Founded in 1997 in Auburn, Washington, by poets Paul Nelson and Danika Dinsmore, SPLAB recently relocated to Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood. SPLAB hosts a weekly writer’s critique circle, Living Room, every Tuesday on the 2nd floor of Columbia City Cinema at 7pm. For more SPLAB event information, visit www.splab.org. This event is co-sponsored by Poets & Writers, www.pw.org, Dark Coast Press,  www.darkcoastpress.com the State Commission on Humanities, Augusto Romano, L.Ac, KBCS-FM, Wabi Sabi restaurant in Columbia City and Copper Canyon Press.

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For more information or to arrange an interview with Michael McClure, contact Paul Nelson at 206-422-5002. To pre-purchase tickets for McClure events, visit www.splab.org.