Readings, Launches, Melted Media, Performances,

Last night at Margaret Christakos's awesome new series, Across. Some really stunning and surprising performances by Kaie Kellough, Beatrix Hausner, Tom Cho, and Hoa Nguyen. 

In this picture from my performance last night, I attempt to show those organ pipes who was boss with my massive desktop speaker system. They wept through their puny diapasons. But really, a great night of melted media, acrossnesses, possibility, and interplay. Plus Margaret gave a lovely shout-out and tribute to the memory of Richard Truhlar. Much thanks to her for initiating what promises to be a very inspiring new curatoreality.

I performed some pieces which used voice synthesis, spoken text with music, sound poetry with live digital processing (pterodactyls awking over priestly chanting), and a cappella poetry performance (though everything was 'a cappella' given that we were in the lovely St Stephens in the Fields church.)

A couple days before, I was on a little tour of Cobourg and Ottawa to launch my new Moon Baboon Canoe book, out with Mansfield Press. They were really lovely events -- great audiences -- warm enthusiastic and engaged, with lots of friends, families, and co-conspirators in the audience, particularly in Ottawa, and it is always a pleasure to read with David W. McFadden, one of my writing heroes. And Stuart Ross, our editor and MC, always makes it a warm and fun event. 

I love when people review readings. Readings are a form in themselves—I think about them as a performance, certainly, and try to shape my readings as a formal unit, a 'suite' of poems and consider what I say and how I read/perform as integral to the effect, just as if I were contributing to a dance or theatre performance.

Readings aren't discussed enough, but Brandon Crilly was kind enough to write about our  Ottawa performance on his blog. Thanks! Here's the link. No, here: