ORGANIZER: Paul E. Nelson
CONTACT: pen@splab.org
LINKS: SPLAB!
“We intend to have poets Skype in to our open mic, open mic with local poets, a lightning round (lots of haiku-length poems) and other events.”
We’ll celebrate this planet-wide event at SPLAB, an intergenerational spokenword Performance, Resource and Outreach Center in Seattle, with no less than ten hours of poetry featuring Suquamish native Cedar Sigo in his return to Seattle. Stalwarts of the Seattle literary community, Judith Roche, Carolyne Wright, Frances McCue, Jourdan Keith, Larry Matsuda, Carletta Carrington Wilson, Eugenia Toledo and others will be featured reading work that seeks to instill peace, sustainability, justice and mercy in a world desperately in need of all that at this critical time in history. The event starts at 11:30AM on 9.24.11.
SPLAB is an intergenerational spokenword Performance, Resource and Outreach center dedicated to Poetry, Story-telling, Conversation, Debate, Consciousness and Building community through shared experience of the spoken and written word.
Based in the most diverse zip code in the U.S., 98118, it is housed in the former Columbia School at 3651 S Edmunds. It’s close to light rail and there is parking on-site. Please get in touch with Paul is you are interested in hosting a portion of the event. ” write: pen@splab.org
The Seattle location is SPLAB: 36th & Edmunds in the former Columbia School. Cedar Sigo reads at 8P and facilitates a workshop from 3-6P on the San Francisco Renaissance (Joanne Kyger, John Weiners and Jack Spicer) and will feature Ted Berrigan’s blueprint for a poem to be written spontaneously.
Join Us! 11:30A – 11:30P
San Francisco poet Cedar Sigo was born February 2, 1978. Raised on the Suquamish reservation near Seattle, he was home schooled from the eighth grade onward. In 1995 he was awarded a scholarship to study writing and poetics at The Naropa Institute in Boulder Colorado and studied with Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Lisa Jarnot, Alice Notley, Joanne Kyger & other poets. A San Francisco resident since 1999, his 2nd collection Stranger In Town is just out from City Lights.
The Seattle page for 100 TPC is here: http://splab.org/upcoming-events/
Thanks for the great info dog I owe you bigtgiy.
Ready to participate. Look forward to it!!
Count me in for Seattle’s 100 Thousand Poets for Change, & please keep me posted!
Thanks Selene. We’ll keep folks posted on the SPLAB website: http://www.splab.org. There you can sign up for our weekly email the E-Fishwrapper. Paul
This event seems to call forth a new wavecrest of poetry righteousness!
I hope to be there for at least a swath of the wonder and power!
BB
Audio is now up from the Seattle edition of 100 Thousand Poets for Change:
http://splab.org/2011/09/audio-100tpc/ What a day it was!
Audio for the Seattle event is archived here.
The day featured many fine poets and the theme of U.S. atrocities throughout the years was covered by several poets. Larry Matsuda was born in a Japanese relocation camp and read work that delved into that dark chapter of American history. Eugenia Toledo had poems of witness for the first 9/11, the coup that deposed the democratically-elected Allende government in Chile by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Carletta Carrington Wilson had poems in the voice of a woman enslaved, rich with duende, wordmusic and passion. Frances McCue, the recent Washington Book Award Winner and the $25K Arts Innovator award from Artist Trust read poems from her incredibly moving book “The Bled” which was written in response to her husband’s accidental death in Morocco. The mixing of Arab and American culture was quite powerful in her work. Jourdan Keith, Nilki Benitex, Brian McGuigan, Carolyne Wright, Deborah Woodard and Judith Roche also read fine poems. One of Judith’s was an ode to Biosolids for the new Brightwater Purification Plant.
This note came from Aunt Mama, Mary Anne Moorman:
Paul,
Please forward this to Judith, Carolyn Wright and whomever else was responsible. I am sure that includes Meredith, the grand dame of hosts.
The 100K Poets for Change reading at SPLAB this past Saturday was a fabulous event. Each reader’s voice, culture, experience and craft were well worth the time and so much more than the donation. The readers represent this city and the great diversity we celebrate yet often, do not see. We saw, we heard and were well blessed by this active community of poets. SPLAB consistently raises politics to the level of art and creates art that transforms time. We obviously need change around the world and these voices help all of us understand why and feed our souls for the continuing struggle of justice for all. It was ironically fitting that a tribute to waste was among the readings and it made me proud of the City of Seattle, the Public Utilities and the artist. Everything recycles and in the end, we are waste again.
The sponsors of this event are to be commended and the curators lauded.
To all of you who brought such excellence to Seattle, thank you so very much.
In appreciation
Mary Anne Moorman
Auntmama.com
The event was supported by Poets & Writers.