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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.
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