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