Brenda Hillman Audio, Links to Occupy Beatdown

Brenda Hillman City

Brenda Hillman finished off the SPLAB 2011 Visiting Poets Series in fine fashion November 11 and 12 with a brilliant talk on Innovation and Activism in Poetry Friday the 11th (Veterans Day), a workshop that left at least one participant “buzzing all day” and a reading featuring her brilliant new work. One long-time stalwart of the local poetry scene said it was “the best reading I have ever seen her give.”

So, the audio of the reading is here.

Paul Nelson’s intro here. Post-reading Q & A here.

The interview she did with Paul Nelson is here.

Brenda Hillman & Bob Haas

Read about the confrontation she & her husband had with the SWAT team called out to the UC-Berkeley Occupy Rally here.

See video of that confrontation here, with Brenda and husband Robert Hass visible at about the 4:00 mark.

For a woman whose work pushes the art ahead, she surely finds herself in the thick of confronting the injustice of the “American Way.” How many people have so much going on two critical fronts?

Thanks Brenda.

 

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PAUL GOODMAN CHANGED MY LIFE (film)

I got this from SIFF today:

“*Any page by Paul Goodman will give you not only originality and
brilliance but wisdom, that is, something to think about. He is our
peculiar, urban, twentieth-century Thoreau, the quintessential American
mind of our time.” —**Hayden Carruth, poet.*

Paul Goodman was once so ubiquitous in the American zeitgeist that he
merited a cameo in Woody Allen’s *Annie Hall*. Author of legendary
bestseller *Growing Up Absurd* (1960), Goodman was also a poet, 1940s out
queer (and family man), pacifist, visionary, co-founder of Gestalt
therapy—and a moral compass for many in the burgeoning counterculture of
the ’60s.

*Paul Goodman Changed My Life* immerses you in an era of high intellect
(that heady, cocktail-glass juncture that *Mad Men* has so effectively
exploited) when New York was peaking culturally and artistically; when
ideas, and the people who propounded them, seemed to punch in at a higher
weight class than they do now. Using a treasure trove of archival
multimedia—selections from Goodman’s poetry (read by Garrison Keillor and
Edmund White); quotes from Susan Sontag, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Noam
Chomsky; plentiful footage of Goodman himself; plus interviews with his
family, peers and activists—director/producer Jonathan Lee and
producer/editor Kimberly Reed (*Prodigal Sons*) have woven together a rich
portrait of an intellectual heavyweight whose ideas are long overdue for
rediscovery.

*“Paul Goodman was not ahead of his time but IN his time.”*
–Grace Paley

*“There has not been such a convincing, genuine, singular voice in our
language since D. H. Lawrence.
Paul Goodman’s voice touched everything he wrote about with intensity,
interest, and his own terribly appealing sureness and awkwardness.”*
–Susan Sontag

*“His impact is all around us.”*
–Noam Chomsky

*DECEMBER 2 – 8*
*SIFF FILM CENTER*
*321 Mercer Street, Seattle WA*
www.siff.net
http://www.paulgoodmanfilm.com

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Living Room, Tuesday Nov 22 7P Thanks or Genocide?

Happy Thanksgiving?

As Thanksgiving approaches school children learn the story of pilgrims, Plymouth rock, helpful natives and thanks. As those children grow older they realize that the way the pilgrims gave thanks was genocide. That kind of ruins the story. Using examples such as Sexton’s collection of re-purposed fairy tales Transfromations we will discuss how poets can reclaim stories and tell them in a way that is appropriate for modern readers. Jeremy Springsteed is your facilitator.

Writers of all ages and skill levels gather Tuesdays at 7P to read new work, the work of someone else or to just be in the engaging company of other writers. Your donation of $5 helps SPLAB continue our programming. 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 in the new 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. (Parking is available on the school grounds.)

For the 2011-2012 SPLAB Schedule, click here.

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Occupy Poetry call

from Phoebe Bosche’s I-Phone:

Begin forwarded message:

Occupy Seattle Central

From: Calls for Poets Submissions <cfp.literature.univ.edu@gmail.com>
Date: November 15, 2011 7:44:32 AM PST
To: Call for Poets Submissions <cfp.english.univ.edu@gmail.com>
Subject: Invitation to publish poems in the “Occupy Poetry” project

Hello,
The ‘Occupy Poetry’ page and site on Facebbok is actually the poets front taking action for change and poetry readers and fans of all kinds who support this quiet revolution. Please publish your poems and like it https://www.facebook.com/Poets.poems .
Your support can change Something to the poetry publishing life.
Your poems and comments are welcome
Best Regards

Margie Bensson

https://www.facebook.com/Poets.poems

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