Over the 2008-2009 academic year, I got to work with Rachel Blau DuPlessis. Rachel is a feminist poet, literary critic, and editor of some great collections of modern poetry. A prolific writer and deeply interested in the avant garde movement and the influence of (early 20th century) modernism on poetry at an international level, Rachel was fun work with. At different times throughout the year, she brought me projects that could be tackled with digital tools, including producing high-quality scans of a collection of poems titled Draft 94: Mail Art for the Australian journal of poetry Jacket*, so we developed a great working relationship. And when she was asked to participate in two events out of reach for mid-year travel, we produced a couple of videos so that she might attend virtually.
In this first video, Rachel reads from from her invited contribution to the Tapa notebook collection, housed in the University of Auckland’s (New Zealand) special collections library. She also reads a poem, Draft 95: Erg.
In the second, Rachel reads her remarks prepared for a conference celebrating the poetry of Ron Silliman. She was not able to attend the conference in person, so I worked with her to film her reading, which the conference organizers used to let a handful of commenters participate virtually. Her reading focuses on Silliman’s The Alphabet.
And finally, Rachel was invited by David Need to participate in a local (Durham, NC) reading series called “Arcade Taberna”. Since the other two video projects had gone so well, she asked if I would like to film this one as well. A bit longer than the other readings, I enjoy this video best as it gets into some of her more playful poetry.
You can hear more of Rachel’s readings, going back to 1982, at her PennSound page.
* John Trantner’s journal Jacket has been given the institutional resources it deserves and is now a project of the Kelly Writers House, affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania. See jacket2.org for more.
, 
, and 
. I would always have a book in hand and would steal reading time from the briefest of waits at the bus stop and on the bus. I used to cut the finger tips out of my gloves so that I could turn pages without letting the rest of my hand get cold.
, by William Faulkner. From the heart-racing escape scenes of Sanctuary I moved to the frenetic pace of Richard Wright’s 
, and then discovered some lingering homesickness for the southern Appalachians through Ron Rash’s 
. In a few years, I kindled a nearly-burnt out passion for literature. By the time I was in graduate school, I offered to teach a course in Philosophy and Literature. And my thirst for good reads has kept me thumbing through paperbacks ever since.
Danielle Riley is showing her photography for the first time EVER at The Broad Street Cafe. Her work will be up for the month of May. The kickoff for the show is Tuesday, May 5th at 7 pm. There will be a wine tasting as well.
Poets are social critics by default. That is, since not very many of us take the same care to craft our daily language that poets do, poets often are (or see themselves as) outsiders. And as outsiders, many poets are well-positioned to see things that not everyone is able to see. Hence the buzz of excitement Obama generated just by carrying (and thus being photographed with) a collection of Derek Walcott’s poems three days after the election. Imagine… a politician with a daily habit of thinking about something in a meditative way.
