Spoken Word June 11 2012



Report by Alberto.
 
Round I
Patrick Cash, Pierre P-Air Purdy, Anass, Lucy Gelman, Kate Noakes, and our featured poet the Dada Jazz Surrealist Maestro Valery Oisteanu:


From the poem “Doctorine” by P-Air Purdy:

“they can't see Phd but
come to lick blood from
fresh idea

when the meats gone they nip
at fingers
the hand go in pulsing shards”

Peace, love and taco grease.

Round II
Magda, Patrick, Benjamin, Helen, Pablo about Bisexuality: “Pick a fuckin team!”
Andrea, Caroline and our featured dancer Lore. More Lore? Here.
Well, we didn’t have a tree at the Chat Noir.
 
Round III
Ewan translating Garcia Lorca. Tino. Hiroko Kouno. Kelly. Patrick. James and Dena. Rollin’ on.
Further reading:

Helen O’Keefe from The Angry Lutemaker:

Bartolommeo  -      My first night at Grimaldi, the DINA agents gave me the bienvenida.  You arrive, blindfolded, then ten, fifteen of them, they beat you in silence.  They broke both my arms, but I was one of the few whose family could afford to pay for them to be re-broken and reset.

He stretches out his arms wide, in the pose of the monolithic christ of Rio de Janeiro.

Bartolommeo  -    See look how straight my arms are!

Y  -    Like a hammering hero in an old Soviet monument.  No man with biceps like that could be a capitalist parasite.

Bartolommeo  -     I wish I could take out my brain, to show you how well it too has mended.  My parents sent me to a bourgeois Freud doctor, was interesting, but I told them I’d do better with my art.   In Grimaldi, I acted in my head, for example, in isolation, I improved all Tony Curtis’s roles.  I would be sitting in ripe shit but really I was laughing on a yacht with Marilyn Monroe. No, I cannot take out my brain, but I can tell you about the roses.   I was in a cell with a window for a while, outside was this old rose garden,  planted from before.  DINA agents took the women and raped them there, even they trained a dog to rape.  The screams of the women and the barks of the raping dog would mix with the smell of roses.  I could not stand to look out at them, their smell was sad to me.

Then Anne said I must try to enjoy roses again, and so now I have my roses made of silk. Look!


See you next Monday!




Paris Writers' Workshop Lecture Series from June 25 - 29th


PARIS WRITERS WORKSHOP – Afternoon Lecture Series
June 25 – 29, 2012

Open to the public [but not free! - SpokenWord editor] the lecture series covers many aspects of writing and publishing. Registration is required and space is limited.

Tools of the Trade (PWU256)
Monday, June 25
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Fee : 15€
Panelists: Samantha Chang, Kate McMullan, Kathleen Spivack, Christopher Tilghman

This panel is designed to share the talent and experience of our expert Writers-in-Residence with the entire PWW community. PWW attendees work intensively with just one of our accomplished faculty members, but these well-seasoned writers/teachers all have valuable information that should be available to all workshop attendees. Join us for what promises to be the ultimate lesson in “Tools of the Trade.”


How To Structure A Good Story: Beginnings, Middles, and Endings (PWU257)
Monday, June 25
3:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Fee : 15€
Panelist: Jami Bernard

This workshop, sometimes called SOS or secrets of structure, will review the basics of good story structure. Does your plot need help? Do you need to review the basic elements of structure. How will you craft a compelling beginning, middle, and end? In SOS, you’ll learn how to get a working structure for your fiction or memoir and how to create a blueprint for identifying the “beats” that shape and drive your story.



Secrets of Getting Published (PWU261)
Tuesday, June 26
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Fee : 50€
Special Workshop with Jami Bernard

We are pleased to add a special afternoon session on Tuesday, June 26, free for all workshop attendees. This three-hour presentation is a step-by-step guide to  getting published, including

How do you know when your book is ready?
The role of the agent/editor/publisher
The truth about the writing life
Why you need an agent and how to find one
Preparing your pitch
Publishing options
The ten biggest mistakes that keep writers from getting published
Tips for first-time authors


Literary Trends: Self-Publishing and E-Books (PWU271)
Wednesday, June 27
2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Fee : 15€
Panelists: Stephen Clarke, Mary Duncan,
Gretel Furner, Timothy Smith

What’s going on in the literary world today? With the technology of the 21st century transforming our lives and with brick-and-mortar bookstores disappearing in cyberdust, everything is changing. Join an expert panel as they discuss the pros and cons of self-publishing and the advantages and pitfalls of eBooks … which we know are here to stay.


The Wide World of Nonfiction: From Memoir to Food to Travel (PWU272)
Wednesday, June 27
3:30pm to 4:45pm
Fee : 15€
Panelists: Alec Lobrano, Mimi Schwartz, Thirza Vallois

Nonfiction opportunities are endless. This lively and diverse panel will discuss the similarities and differences in writing for a range of nonfiction niches (from travel writing to restaurant reviews to essays to memoirs) and will include some helpful tricks and tips for discovering your voice, polishing your work, pitching yourself and your ideas, and finding publication channels.


Welcome to the 21st Century: How to Use Blogs and Social Media (PWU281)
Thursday, June 28
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Fee : 15€
Panelists: Sion Dayson, Terrance Gelenter, Adrian Leeds

These days you almost have to write a blog and have a passion for tweeting to make yourself heard, and, even then, it’s a fight to find room in cyberspace. To talk about these phenomena, we have assembled a true panel of experts. They’ll talk about their own steps to finding their audience and online voice, as well as steps writers might take to promote and publicize their work … and find a publisher. 


The Role of the Agent (PWU282)
Thursday, June 28
3:15 PM - 4:45 PM
Fee : 15€
Panelists: Paul Schmidtberger & our visiting Literary Agents (Lorella Belli, Kimberley Cameron, and Louise Greenberg)

Our panel of literary agents and a writer who has worked both with and without an agent will talk about the role of the agent, what the agent looks for in a writer and in a manuscript, and how the agent helps a client through all phases of development and promotion.


Report from 4th June...

By David
Photos by Marie De Lutz

Shane, last seen somewhere near the Bois de VIncennes.

Round 1:

Dareka spoke the language of asteroids. He co-hosts the poetry night at the Downtown, 46 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Mondays - check it out, it's like a parallel universe in which we're all French).Benjamin brought us the planet of the flakes. The comedy sketches show he's in is on this Wednesday at the Petit Theatre du Bonheure, (info here). Melanie: the glowing butter brilliance of the waxing moon. Pablo... drags your body into a bathful of ink. David (me!): heart is slow, heart is quick. Pat Cash was full of demons, dawn, gods... Celine: no bit can keep her tongue quiet. Apparently this was a response to me asking her previously ''What do you do with your tongue when you're not using it?'' Kate: archery and silicon; revealing the past is dangerous.

The moment when Helen has her big idea about castration 

Round 2:
Nicole plunged into the abyss of love; broke a tooth in the lost room of lost hearts. Murder (also from Downtown's poetry night) has it gravé dans son coeur. Helene has a plan to eliminate war by turning men into castrati. Michele brought news from his earthquake-riven home town in Italy in My Secret Earthquake. Alec dissected an accordionist in the metro. Andrea sang. Beatrice arrived on the stage, sang God Save the Queen then ripped off various clothes and wig to reveal herself as someone else entirely! Christian saw lives bound for a collision; a selfish dream of fleeing what is essential. Alberto discoursed on drugs in frog-lickin' poetry. ''Don't let them change you'' he intoned.

God Save the Queen!

Round 3:
I lost my pen so don't have notes for this. Which was great as I forgot about the report and enjoyed listening more. I do remember we had Shane's thoughts on Paris (now available in an extremely limited edition book made by Louisa), Billy, Pierre, Evan, Elena, Lucile... and 2 fantastic slam poets in town for the slam competition run by Cabaret Populaire/Culture Rapide: Harry Baker from England: news from a paper people world. Tobias Erehed from Sweden, with an account of how Swedish children become the flat, repressed Swedish adults we all know and love. They were definitely the big finish of the night.  

Tonight - June 11th, we have a Featured Reader, Valery Oisteanu, and hopefully a dancer. Be there! Sign up from 8pm, 3 rounds starting 9pm. Hopefully Alberto arriving back from Russia to host.

Bio of Valery Oisteanu:
Valery Oisteanu is a writer and artist with international flavor. Born in Russia (1943) and educated in Romania. Immigrating to New York City in 1972, he has been writing in English for the past 40 years. 
He is the author of 11 books of poetry, a book of short fiction and a book of essays: ”The AVANT-GODS”(in progress). A new collection of poetry with collage illustrations titled   “Perks in Purgatory” appeared in” Fly by Night Press” New York, 2009.
For the past 10 years he is a columnist at New York Arts Magazine and art critic for Brooklyn Rail 
As a performer his style is : Jazz + poetry = Jazzoetry

David
Murder




THE POET IN PARIS
Faculty Poetry Reading


Monday, June 4
7 p.m.


David Barnes
Margo Berdeshevsky
Jeffrey Greene
Marilyn Hacker
Heather Hartley
Ellen Hinsey
Cecilia Woloch


Please join us for an evening of poetry by the faculty of the University of Southern California’s “Poet in Paris” Program, hosted by The American University of Paris.
Book-signing and reception to follow.


The American University of Paris
Room C-12
6, rue du Colonel Combes, 75007
  Metro Invalides or RER Pont D l'Alma

Spoken Word Paris 28/05/2012

Report by Alberto
Photos by Marie De Lutz


 
Three Rounds, Two Breaks, One birthday, 24 performances, two glasses broken, six songs, one love, sisters, brothers, sweat, swearing, swowing wows. P-Air: we are like the wine we get better with age. David Barnes learned to dance this week, when Jazz is not a noun, it’s a verb. Gabriel & Friends staging Sarah Kane, Pansy Maurer-Alvarez says years can be used like conspirators, Magda’s ten seconds, Billy Youngblood about Danton and Pigeons shitting:

From "Breathe Deep!"

"faster now than we were before
 faster than the limit with elation

 towards home, towards a wedding
 somewhere out there someone is dying
 somewhere ahead there are movies to be seen
           that cannot be unseen"

 
                                                                         Round II. 



 
Michele Morselli about poets writing in Cafès, buying just one coffee and waiting one hour for the right line. Andrea at the piano. Joy Crane went political on her 20th Birthday (Happy Birthday!), Evan translating Borges, Sonny Sinatra Shula did it his way, Alberto Rigettini’s Paris Highlights: Dealing with the Evil Waiters. (Waiters don’t want to be waiters). Lewis National Geographic’s french flyes fucking on my arm.
                      
                                                                            Round III.

      
Lucy Gelman: “a clear and empty birdness of a thing.” Beatrice and the story of Persephone: A Myth of Devotion by Louise Gluck. Marius pleases the audience with a Norvegian Child song to get more applause. I noticed: it works. Helen’s from her laptop. Tino at the piano singing his song about La Gueule De Bois. Translation: The Hangover. La Resaca. I Postumi. Der Kater. Georgina introducing Unstrung Letter N: The Paradoxical Theory of Change by David Barnes. Lucy Hopkins is back: “Dear God, I know a group of people who say they know you but they seem a little bit unstable.” Camille’s last song in Paris. Margaux: “Dit moi Jacques Vous ve souvenez de la derniere fois vous etez heraux?  Hommage a Guy Debord.

                                                
Chelsea & Shirley’s everyday life in Paris like “Do you wanna meet Deandre?” And a collective song orchestrated by Betty. Spoken and unspoken words leave the room empty but will gather again
next Monday.
         





The Paradoxical Theory of Change UNSTRUNG LETTERS David Barnes SUNDAY 3rd June 20h


talk/discussion by David Barnes
They lied to you!
The self does not exist. The past and future do not exist. There is no causality.
And if you want to change the secret is to stop trying to.
This and more will be explained in my open talk on Gestalt Psychotherapy.
Touching on how body posture holds character, healing is through risking authentic meeting with another human being, the ways we avoid doing so, how we block our own natural growth process and much more!
Lose your head and come to your senses!
Or stagnate and die…
This Sunday 8pm I’m tallking on The Paradoxical Theory of Change and Gestalt Psychotherapy… open to debate with all comers at UNSTRUNG LETTERS in Au Chat Noir….76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011 Come! Listen! Question!
David Barnes
who is at the end of the 4th year of hugely expensive psychotherapy training at Metanoia, London

Lucy Hopkins show Le Foulard this Sunday - and free!



Le Foulard - Paris Preview!

Dear Spokenword folk!

I made a show!

I'll show it here and there a little over the summer and before I do I would mad love to show it to you guys here chez nous à Paris and get your comments!

No ticket price, just bring your pocket money for your refreshments and your fine selves.

I will be completely delighted and most grateful to see you Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean Pierre Timbaud, 75011, on Sunday May 27th at 330pm, for the World Premiere of this brand new malarky.

Yours,
Lucy

Le Foulard will play at the Prague Fringe festival June 1st-9th:
http://www.praguefringe.com/en/programme/le-foulard/
then at the Bike Shed Theatre as part of the Exeter Ignite Festival the 5th, 6th and 7th of July,
then at the Bedford Fringe Festival the 14th and 15th of July:
http://www.bedfringe.com/2012_shows/lefoulard.php
Here is a bit of text about the show:

A tale, of sorts. Starring a woman and a scarf.
Comic and a touch surreal, featuring a motley collection of characters and a love of a show-stopping song, Le Foulard is a joyfully ridiculous one-woman extravaganza, made with love by an idiot.

And here's a bit about me:

Lucy Hopkins won an Inspiration Award for her first solo show in 2011. She trained at the excellent and prestigious Ecoles Jacques Lecoq and Philippe Gaulier, and she lives in Paris. 
Note: show is in English.

Spoken Word in Paris May 14 2012!

Report by Alberto.
Photos by Marie De Lutz.
Song to listen to while reading this blog: Sous Le Ciel DeParis

 
Spoken Word Paris. Attention please the stage order may change randomly: Jason translating Samarago and organizing the troops for a collective premiere of On the Road. Come with us on Wednesday! Christelle and the words of Sous Le Ciel De Paris. Patrick Cash vs Patrick Kilm. David fishing goldfish at La Defense. Kate’s tattoos, Pablo’s Baudelaire, Sonny Shula’s rolling river, Murder,(comma) Ian, Ashley B. pretending to be the only child.

 
                                              Najee Omar Lost and Found

 
                                                  Magda’s flowers

 
                                                   David F.’s subway adventures


              Moe’s on tour, if you can’t read the flyer in this photo, check our facebook.


                                                          Lewis F. first time

Helen, Patrick and Lizzie and The Salmonella’s connection. Beatrice reading from On The Road, Brian, Georgina’s Daniel and the lions, P-Aik howling Ginsberg, Julie dope and pre-raphaelites: “I forget to ask your name mysterious beauty on the bicycle”. Sophie’s “C’est Le Flirt Infinitesimal”, Andrea playing the piano. Midnight closing with a Broadway classic.  


                                                           Camille singing it.
 
Good night. See you next monday. Same hour. (even b4). Search for David under the top hat. 
Bisoux.



Other Writers Group Sat 19th May


The writers' group will still run - led by Jason, as I'll be in London and Bruce has a gig.

At Shakespeare & Co, 5pm -7pm
5 euro

More details here: http://spokenwordparis.blogspot.fr/p/other-writers-group.html

Cheers,
David

Report from 7th May

There were gasps and groans from the audience as Shane recounted cocoons being laid in his pubic hair. Helen read from her tale of an attempted poisoning. David Fishel ate near 50 pancakes to win a bet for his grandad. At first Lucy Hopkins was afraid, she was petrified. Jessamyn started smoking again; everythign looks like carnage in this country. I can't sleep without your warmth.
Emily's eyes roared with light. Alberto was investigated for child porn and won his case when accused of horse fucking. (Wtf! Where does this stuff come from? Sometimes I read over these notes and it's like seeing icebergs loom out of the mist of my beery amnesia and settle back into reality.) Jason translated violence from Naples.

Round 2:
Lucy Gellman was there "...and someone to bake it with." Moe was stealing back his life. Ben thought of others, a candle in the darkness. Lucile was left standing godless. Edward saw the rain full of ghosts. Constanza    read e.e.cummings'
THERE ARE SO MANY TICTOC
By e. e. cummings

there are so many tictoc
clocks everywhere telling people 
what toctic time it is for 
tictic instance five toc minutes toc 
past six tic 

Spring is not regulated and does 
not get out of order nor do 
its hands a little jerking move 
over numbers slowly 

we do not 
wind it up it has no weights 
springs wheels inside of 
its slender self no indeed dear 
nothing of the kind. 

(So,when kiss Spring comes 
we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss 
lips because tic clocks toc don't make 
a toctic difference 
to kisskiss you and to 
kiss me)

And then it was almost over. Caroline filled the empty space with flowers. And Evan brought us news from the internet wars - Porn vs Cats - which you can listen to here 

Next SpokenWord tonight, and every Monday, au Chat Noir.
Cheers,
David

Spoken Word Paris 30 / 04 / 2012

 
Report by Alberto
Photos by Marie De Lutz. Click here for the whole album.
 
Back then Sarko was the President of France.
Patrick Cash masturbation and patriotism, Melanie’s sticky afternoons, Sophie’s infinitesimal part I and II. Jason “I give her a slap on the face, not hard but humiliating.” Marie’s instructions to be more photogenic. Let’s see if it worked:



                                         Pansy: we splayed kiss marks all over the room.

Jessanyn: perhaps you thought no harm in letting her pretend. Louisa’s Christmas: Cats fucking interrupt our morning. Emily’s sex positions. Alberto’s May 2: Obama vs Osama. Griffin: “I am every gay-child who’s been told you better off dead.”

                                         Melissa playing the piano during the break.

 
Shane the nature poem of Saint Hook (or another Saint?), Fatima’s tick tock 52 weeks in a year
is my life measured by a laughter from ear to ear? Gina Bonati’s song: Don’t be so merciful, Don’t be too kind, I’m so used to this. Gabriel: What do you have to say now Prometheus? Tino’s singing it’s not about my monkey it’s about me and my pussy. Bruce’s exact change on the bus driver’s mind. Lucille introducing Scarecrow Collective number 3. Buy it at Spoken Word for Euro 1.50. Alex’s Baudelaire: Les gents se figurent l’ivresse comment un pays prodigieux. Ferdia and Shane and the new superhero: Man-man, half man, half man. Finally Beatrice brought flowers for David Barnes.

                                                 
                                          David Barnum looking into the future.


                                                       Margaux’s human Sculpture. 

Georgina introducing the Unstrung Letter by Kate Noakes about Philip Larkin. French slam poetry by Murder and Afroriginal: lumieres sur mes freres. And Hamlet came out of the blue: To be or not to be, this is the question: whether tis nobler for the mind to suffer the slings and arrows, etcetera, etcetera. To die, to sleep, perchance to dream. See you next Monday, etcetera, etcetera.
 

Kathleen Spivack will be teaching Poetry Writing at the Paris Writers Workshop June 24-29 2012 in France.

 Shaping the Poem. From Completion to Publication. “How do we shape a poem so that it shimmers with meaning?.” We’ll discuss how to make our work the best it can be, with attention to communication and publication. Kathleen’s clients write their heads off, publish widely in all genres and win major prizes and top awards. You will too!   http://pariswritersworkshop.org

*******************************

bio, Kathleen Spivack

Kathleen Spivack’s memoir With Robert Lowell and His Circle: Plath, Sexton, Bishop, Rich, Kunitz will be published in 2012 by University Press of New England. A student and friend of poet Robert Lowell, Kathleen Spivack has written about the poets of his time, notably Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz and others who took her under their wing, with a focus on how they approached their work.

She is the author of seven previous books of prose and poetry (Doubleday, Graywolf, etc), has published in over 300 magazines and anthologies,  and received numerous awards. Named “Best Writing Coach” by the NWU, Kathleen teaches in Paris and Boston.