December 17, 2011: Colleen Lookingbill

Last weekend Colleen Lookingbill joined us live in the studio and read from her recent book a forgetting of (lyric& Press). Among a flow of topics focusing on Colleen’s poetry and art, we discussed her writing and collage/assemblage processes, writing from the dream world, “silence as an idea of composition,” illness and the body and how it “teaches about itself,” language poetry, writing towards the “unknown,” and working with a palette of “found" objects.

In the second half, Colleen read two discursive pieces that she wrote during the Bay Area language poetry heyday, “Dream Body” and “Writing the Written”
that were published in Peter Gizzi’s Writing from the New Coast (O-blek) in 1993.

Colleen left us not only thinking about the various possibilities that arise when we play with both image and word, but she left us with several actual “vispo” (visual poem) pieces that include a variety of objects like GG Park leaves, puzzle pieces, poem fragments, antique figurines, sea pods, and wasp nests. Thank you Colleen! Click here to listen.

December 3, 2011- Poetry for the People!

This past Saturday we played Poetry for the People, an open reading taking place at Oscar Grant Plaza on Sundays at noon. This amazing series is being organized by Sara Larsen and David Brazil, who also publish TRY! Magazine. Listen to both poets and passersby read their own work, or the work of others. We want to give a shout out to Andrew Kenower for generously sharing his amazing recording of the event. Poetry for the People is still taking place at Oscar Grant Plaza, just off the 12st BART in Oakland. Please go check them out.

Click here to listen

November 19, 2011- Occupy Oakland and TRY Magazine

On November 19th, we aired an interview with Sara Larsen and David Brazil about their amazing TRY! Magazine. They talk about the efforts to disseminate poetry to the people through their free, monthly zine. Listen to them talk about how they began the zine, their intention in making writing and art immediately accessible and how the work has reflected the political climate. We also aired the beginning of POETRY TO THE PEOPLE, the weekly, open reading series Sara and David organized at Occupy Oakland's Oscar Grant Plaza, prior to it's clearing on November 14th.
We will air the rest of this reading on December 3rd.
Click here to listen

November 12, 2011- Camille Dungy Live in the Studio

This Saturday we had the great pleasure of interviewing Camille Dungy live in the studio. She discussed her latest books Suck on the Marrow and Smith Blue. She shared with us the extensive research that went into each book. We found out how her books straddle love and nature as well as speak about histories that are sometimes painful to recount. Click here to listen

November 5th- James Maughn!!!

This past Saturday we had James Maughn live in the studio to talk about his books, Kata and The Arakaki Permutations, which are based on the intersection between karate and poetry. James discussed how he engaged with both of these practices, creating a work that is based on kata movements. He generously shared his process with us, as well as his experience of embodied writing. James's new chapbook, Playing the Form, is forthcoming from Dusie Press. Click here to listen

October 22, 2011: Samantha Giles

Last Saturday Samantha Giles--Oakland native and current director of Small Press Traffic--dropped by the studio for a visit. She shared some thoughts on “community building,” her background in social work, and her experience as program director at Central City Hospitality House, where she provided artistic access for homeless people.

Samantha also gave us a brief history of SPT and announced a few upcoming events, one of which is the much-anticipated Grand Piano reading--featuring Lyn Hejinian, Kit Robinson, Barrett Watten, Rae Armantrout, and more--on November 20!

We were also delighted to hear Samantha read poems from her recent book hurdis addo(Displaced Press) and from her unpublished deadfalls and snares. Busily navigating that “nebulous space” between work, volunteering/community service, parenthood, & writing, we were grateful that Samantha took time out to join us for a visit!

Click here to listen

October Poets Etc!

In lieu of an interview this past Saturday, we tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to have a show exclusively of October poets. Well we got a few in there. We listened to a JohnTaggart reading, and read work by Eugenio Montale, Akilah Oliver and Jack Spicer. We also heard some work by Nicholas and Delia!

Click here to listen

Carrie Hunter Interview Part 2

On Saturday, October 1st, we played the second half of our interview with poet Carrie Hunter. She read from her new book The Incompossible and her chapbook The Unicorns. She discussed more about her writing practice and how meditation informs her poetics. We read some of her work from a new chapbook called Angel Unincorporated, written entirely on the BART! Later, we got to hear an audio submission from Bruce McRae, who generously shared his poetry set to his original music.
We had some technical difficulties, but we like to think our flaws are what make us lovable.
Click here to listen

September 24, 2011 Carrie Hunter Part One

On Saturday, September 24th we played the first of a two-part interview with poet Carrie Hunter. She discusses her writing process, her poetry and her new book 'The 'Incompossible.' Next week we will play the second part of this inspiring interview which will include more of her poetry and info on Dusie Press!  Click here to listen

Brian Teare Part 4!

This past Saturday we listened to Brian Teare talk about teaching and his press Albion Books.
He also discussed Robert Duncan. In keeping on topic, we listened to a lecture by Duncan found at Penn Sounds: http://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Duncan/Duncan-Robert_Opening-of-the-Field_part1.mp3. You can find more of Duncan's readings at http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Duncan.php.
Next week we play our first installment of our three part interview with Carrie Hunter.
Click here to listen

9/10/11: Brian Teare Part 3

Last Saturday we aired Part 3 of our interview with Brian Teare.

This time we discuss the pastoral, the “natural world and the poet’s interior,” Emerson and Transcendentalism’s complicity with environmental destruction, Religion and the queer psyche, coming out, birch trees, Gerard Manley Hopkins, craft, and writing from a subjective position that’s “stained” with Theology.

(In the background we are graced with Albion St. traffic and one very loud cherry bomb!)

In the second half of the interview, Brian reads “Long After Hopkins” from Sight Map (UC Press) and talks about how Hopkins was his “gateway drug” into poetry. Jay also reads Hopkins’ Terrible Sonnet #41 live in the studio!

One thing we didn’t know but weren’t too surprised to learn: Brian was originally trained as a musician and composer!

Click here to listen Part 4 will conclude our interview with Brian Teare and airs this weekend!

8/27/11: Brian Teare Part 2

In Part 2 of our interview with Brian Teare, we discuss his poem “Of Paradise and the Structure of Gardens” from Pleasure (Ahsahta), the “queer body politic,” creating “mythic spaces,” snake cults, the difference between sin and heresy, cartography, and Jean Delumeau!

Brian also reads “Eden Tiresias” and shares how Gnosticism (especially via the snake-loving Ophites!) has given him permission to recall and reengage Eden—where “it came alive outside the mind, intellect/ its own elegy, and Adam did not/ love it.”

In the second half, Brian reads “As If from Letters of Surveyor Samuel Maclay” from his previous collection Sight Map (UC Press) and talks about how many of the poems in the collection were written while he was “walking the Susquehanna.”

Candy Shue joins us live in the studio, and we conclude with her review of Brenda Hillman’s Practical Water (Wesleyan). Click here to listen

8/20/11 Interview with Brian Teare part 1

This past Saturday, it was our great pleassure to air the first part of our interview with the beautiful poet Brian Teare. In early July, we had the opportunity to sit down with Brian before he left for his new teaching gig in Philly. He read his work, and answered our endless questions about his process as well as how the lyric, homoeroticism and religion inform his work. He even educated us on nasturtiums!  Please give a listen to this inspiring interview. Part 2 of his interview will be airing August 27th. Click here to listen

August 13, 2011: Interview with Erin Morrill

On August 13th we sat down with Erin Morrill, poet and editor of Trafficker Press. She talked about how she uses music in performance, the creation of her poetry and Alphonso Lingis. We got to hear how she came to run a chapbook press. She also blessed us with oodles of her wonderful poetry! Click here to listen

8/6/11 Laura Goode Interview

Without further delay.....
On August 6th we interviewed poet and novelist Laura Goode, whose novel Sister Mischief, has just been published by Candlewick Press. Goode described her book as "an interracial gay hip-hop love story for teens" and it is just that! Listen in as she talks about hip-hop, publishing, poetry and the evolution of this great work of fiction. Click here to listen

July 9th and 30th: Chris Stroffolino discusses the KUSF Sale - part 3 and 4

On 7/30/11 we aired the final part of Chris Stroffolino's interview. Here, he discusses the sale of KUSF and his open letter to the University of San Francisco president, Father Stephen A. Privett.

Chris Stroffolino is an American poet, musician, critic, performer, and author of 12 books of poetry and prose. His first solo album, Single-Sided Doubles, was released in December 2010 on Popsnob Records.

Speaking of Chris's album, you'll also get to hear a piece from Single-Sided Doubles.

And we played our very first audio poetry submission by poet (and awesome book reviewer) Candy Shue.

We want to play your words too so keep those submissions coming! Contact us at poetasradio@gmail.com

July 9, 2011: Click here to listen

July 30, 2011: Click here to listen

Chris Stroffolino on the sale of KUSF

Tomorrow (7/30), we'll feature the final segment of our interview with musician, essayist, and poet Chris Stroffolino. In this installment Chris discusses the sale of KUSF and his open letter to the University of San Francisco president, Father Stephen A. Privett. I urge you to read the letter in full - it's a powerful and eloquent essay that delves deeply into the history of the Catholic Church, the Jesuits, and the University of San Francisco. To hear the interview, tune in to savekusf.org tomorrow at 9am.

July 16 & 23: David Meltzer parts one and two

I've been quite remiss on keeping up with blog postings so, without further ado, Poet as Radio presents a two-part interview with beat legend David Meltzer, by Marina Lazzara!

David Meltzer (born February 17, 1937) is an American poet and musician of the Beat Generation and San Francisco Renaissance. Lawrence Ferlinghetti has described him as "one of the greats of post-World-War-Two San Francisco poets and musicians."

David Meltzer's most recent collections of poetry include David's Copy: Selected Poetry (Penguin Poets) and When I Was a Poet (Pocket Poets series #60; City Lights Books. Among the anthologies and interview collections Meltzer has edited are San Francisco Beat: Talking With The Poets (City Lights Books); Reading Jazz and Writing Jazz (Mercury House); The Secret Garden: The Classical Kabbalah (Station Hill Press). As a musician/songwriter, these recordings are available with diligent searching: The Serpent Power (Vanguard), Poet Song (Vanguard). His late '60s agit-smut trilogy, The Agency, is available on remainder tables on-line.

Marina Lazzara is a local poet, musician & gardener. She received a MA in Poetics from the New College of California, where she studied with David Meltzer. She has published here and there, including Processed World, Big Bridge, Fence and Amerarcana: the Bird & Beckett Review. She is currently the editor of the eco-poetics journal, Plastic Ocean and a guitarist & vocalist for San Francisco's psychedelic-rock band, The Rabbles, who practice & conspire at Lightrail Studios.

In part 1, David talks about growing up in New York, listening to the Bebop greats, writing for the page, and writing for the ear. Also, our in-studio guest, Candy Shue, fills us in on what "remainder tables" means.

July 16, 2011- Part 1: Click here to listen

In part 2, David talks about the relationship between poetry and music, and the nature of the self as manifested in different media. Please forgive some sound/volume difficulties in the first part of this one -- it was our first time operating the controls on our own. We'll get better, we promise! But perhaps most importantly -- we get to hear David read from his works!

July 23, 2011 Part 2: Click here to listen

july 23: liveblogging from kusf studios!

I neglected to post a note about today's show, the second part of Marina Lazzara's interview with David Meltzer, so I'm doing it right now from the studio as the interview is playing! This has been our first show without an engineer, and we're staying afloat so far! This is such a dazzling and charming and in-depth interview - more details and a link on the audio archive coming soon.

July 16: David Meltzer

Please join Poet as Radio tomorrow morning at 9am on savekusf.org for Marina Lazzara & friends' interview with poet and musician David Meltzer! David Meltzer (born February 17, 1937) is an American poet and musician of the Beat Generation and San Francisco Renaissance. Lawrence Ferlinghetti has described him as "one of the greats of post-World-War-Two San Francisco poets and musicians."

In this interview (the first of two parts) he traces his own biography back to his childhood in New York where he was exposed to and enthralled by the giants of early bebop.

David Meltzer's most recent collections of poetry includeDavid's Copy: Selected Poetry (Penguin Poets) and When I Was a Poet (Pocket Poets series #60; City Lights Books. Among the anthologies and interview collections Meltzer has edited are San Francisco Beat: Talking With The Poets (City Lights Books); Reading Jazz and Writing Jazz (Mercury House); The Secret Garden: The Classical Kabbalah (Station Hill Press). As a musician/songwriter, these recordings are available with diligent searching: The Serpent Power (Vanguard), Poet Song (Vanguard). His late '60s agit-smut trilogy, The Agency, is available on remainder tables on-line.

July 2, 2011: Ariel Goldberg

This post is long overdue -- sorry Ariel and everyone for the long delay!

On July 2nd, we featured our first completely live show, with artist and writer Ariel Goldberg. In person! Yay!

It's probably safe to say that Ariel is obsessed with photography as a phenomenon, and that her artistic project, centered on that phenomenon, has taken on a life of its own, branching out into multiple mediums including performance art, poetry, lectures, and philosophy. On our show, Ariel read from recent works, including Not Nostalgia, letters to photographers, and dialogues between photographers. You can find out more about her work at www.arielgoldberg.com.

Ariel Goldberg is an artist and writer who splits her time between San Francisco and New York. Recent publications include the chapbooks Picture Cameras from NoNo Press and The Photographer without a Camera from Trafficker Press. The Estrangement Principal, an essay on the states of queer art is forthcoming from Ragtag’s poets writing criticism series in January 2012. More work is online at www.arielgoldberg.com.

Click here to listen

This Saturday: Ariel Goldberg

Tomorrow, artist and writer Ariel Goldberg will join us in the studio for our first 100% live show! Ariel works in many disciplines, including writing and poetry, and her work frequently engages with photographs and photography as a phenomenon. You can find more of her work at arielgoldberg.com. Please join us tomorrow at 9am on savekusf.org!

June 25, 2011 Chris Stroffolino, part 2; readings for Pride Day; Mamadora inspires

For Sunday, June 25, Chris Stroffolino continues to blow our minds, we read poems in honor of SF Pride Day, and a very special lady delivers a very special message.

Also -- please forgive the technical difficulties at the beginning. I was unexpectedly running the board for the first few minutes of the show and wasn't at all sure what I was doing (not to mention that the theme music CD skipped)! The show finally starts 3:29 in.

Click here to listen

Chris Stroffolino, part 1: A History of Radio and Content; Interview

For our June 18, 2011 show, we aired two recordings we made with musician, essayist, and poet Chris Stroffolino: a performative and musical reading of an excerpt from his multi-part essay A History of Radio and Content (yes, that's his music paired with his reading), and the first part of an extended conversation.

Chris Stroffolino is an American poet, musician, critic, performer, and author of 12 books of poetry and prose. His first solo album, Single-Sided Doubles, was released in December 2010 on Popsnob Records.

Finally, we'd like to remind readers and listeners that Chris will be offering a creating writing workshop in Oakland this summer; to register, you can contact him at chris.stroffolino at gmail.com.

Click here to listen

Stroffolino, part 1; Radio Survivor

Of course we know you'll be listening tomorrow at 9am to Poet as Radio on saveusf.org, but some useful bits of information go by quickly during the conversation with Chris Stroffolino. One that absolutely shouldn't get lost is his multi-part essay A History of Radio and Content, on Radio Survivor. The first piece you'll hear from him is excerpted from this essay.

Sara Larsen, part 2; Candy Shue reviews Jennifer Moxley's The Line

For our show on Saturday, June 11, we featured the conclusion of Sara Larsen's interview (1st part here), in which she discusses and reads from her chapbook, The Hallucinated. As we discuss between interview segments, this was a difficult interview to edit because of a certain word-you-aren't-supposed-to-say-on-the-radio. We all felt that the need to silence certain arbitrary but culturally-charged phonemes did an injustice to the poem and especially to the reading of it. In this particular show, however, poetry gets the last subversive laugh due to an editing oversight (or maybe an editing Freudian slip).

We finished the show with a gorgeous review of Jennifer Moxley's The Line, by Candy Shue. We'll be featuring more of Candy's reviews in the future.

click here to listen

Conversation with Chris Stroffolino

Today, Poet as Radio talked for nearly three hours with musician, essayist, award-winning poet, and intellectual and cultural tour-de-force, Chris Stroffolino. We can't wait to present excerpts from the discussion on upcoming shows -- personally, I found the discussion a dazzling and electrifying whirlwind of words, music, politics, and ideas, and I'm sure you will too. I can honestly say I think it would be impossible to spend five minutes with Chris without learning something profound and feeling empowered and energized to create.

Which is why I'm especially excited to let listeners and readers know about an opportunity to take a workshop from Chris this summer. Here are some details:

Creative Writing Workshop with poet, musician, essayist Chris Stroffolino in a fun, nuturing, non-accredited setting, at The Oakbook Gallery Jack London Square.

Taking each student's writing and/or performance pieces as the starting point, this workshop encourages students writing in different genres. Students may work within one genre throughout the entire course, but will be encouraged to explore a way of stylistic options including poems, manifestos, creative non-fiction, dialogue pieces, song lyrics, poem-paintings, videos, texts that redefine or de-define genre, "hybrid texts," or "non-poetry." Students will offer critiques of each other's work to create a dialogue within a "unity in diversity" approach. By the end of the class, students can expect a deeper understanding into the creative process as well as the business of publishing or other ways of making their work public. Note: this class is intended for all levels.

8 Three Hour Sessions; 1st Summer session begins late June (or July). Dates & times to be determined depending on the needs of the class.

Class size: minimum of 6, maximum of 10.

Cost: $300; check, money-order, or cash are all acceptable.

To register: contact Chris Stroffolino at chris.stroffolino at gmail.com or 415-260-753. Spaces are limited. No more than 10 students will be accepted per class. Interested students should submit a short 3-5 page sample (or 2 MP3s if working in primarily an audio format).

June 4, 2011 Sara Larsen part 1: A,a,a,a,a; Gertrude Stein recordings

For our June 6, 2011 show, we sat down with poet Sara Larsen to talk about her latest chapbook, A,a,a,a,a. It was a spirited, wide-ranging discussion that touched frequently on California assemblage artist Wallace Berman. Later in the show, we introduced and played some recordings of Gertrude Stein reading from her work, in anticipation of SFMOMA's marathon reading of The Making of Americans.

Tune in to KUSF in Exile at 9am this Saturday for the second part of Sara's interview!

Sara Larsen is a poet living in Oakland. For the past 3 years, she has edited the monthly poetry and arts zine, TRY magazine, along with David Brazil. She is a member of the Poetic Labor Project, and also co-curates the A Muse Meant reading series in Berkeley. Chapbooks include "doubly circulatory" (Artifact press), "2000 decembers" (Ampersand press), "23 Chromosomes for David Wojnarowitz" (Earthworm press & projects), "NOVUS" (Earthworm press & projects), "The Hallucinated” (Cannot Exist), and most recently, “A, a, a, a, a” (Berkeley Neo-Baroque).

click here to listen

Sarah Rosenthal, Part 2: Manhatten and Lizard

For our May 28, 2011 show, we continue our conversation with Sarah Rosenthal. Last time, we talked about her book of interviews, A Community Writing Itself. This week we talk about her novel/poem hybrid Manhatten and her latest project, Lizard.

On a related note, this show's own Delia Tramontina reviewed Manhatten for Galetea Resurrection #14.

Click here to listen

Sarah Rosenthal, Part 1: A Community Writing Itself

For our inaugural show, we were honored and delighted to speak with a poet who has been a teacher and muse to all three of us: Sarah Rosenthal. This show consists of the first half of this interview, in which Sarah talks about her book of deeply-engaging interviews, A Community Writing Itself: Conversations with Vanguard Writers of the Bay Area.

Sarah Rosenthal is the author of the cross-genre book Manhatten and several chapbooks, the most recent of which is called The Animal. Her interview collection A Community Writing Itself: Conversations with Vanguard Writers of the Bay Area was published by Dalkey Archive in 2010. An affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts, she has received the Leo Litwak Fiction Award and grant-supported residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Soul Mountain, and Ragdale. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of San Francisco and writes curricula for the Developmental Studies Center in Oakland. For more info, please visit acommunitywritingitself.com.
Click here to Listen