Bopping at the Stop this Sunday 9/25 with Étienne Massicotte

Étienne Massicotte at the Barking Spider during
BeatStreet Cleveland [photo by Chandra Alderman]

Twice in 2015 I had the distinct privilege and great pleasure of performing my poetry in collaboration with Étienne Massicotte, trumpet player (and composer) extraordinaire - first during BeatStreet Cleveland: The International Beat Poetry Festival and then at storied Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra.  Now I'm thrilled to announce that we're doing it again.

This Sunday, 25 September 2016, at 4 pm, Étienne Massicotte presents: New and Unusual Sounds of the Trumpet at the Bop Stop in Cleveland. A live performance and discussion of modern trumpet repertoire curated by Mr. Massicotte, this special event features four crazy-cool performance sets including works by Olivier Messiaen, Peter Hatch and Christopher Biggs, along with our aforementioned trumpet and spoken word collaboration.

From the official write-up:

"This collaboration between John Burroughs and Etienne Massicotte began as an informal experiment in interpretive improvisation. The goal was to explore various means of reflecting the imagery of spoken text through the voice of the trumpet. Spontaneously, a unique accompaniment to each of Mr. Burroughs’ pieces began to develop, as his words were ripe for translation into musical language. Influenced by artists such as Miles Davis, Giacinto Scelsi, and Luciano Berio, these instrumental musings include use of modern techniques such as multiphonics (singing one pitch while playing another) and circular breathing (a method of inhaling and exhaling simultaneously)."

Please don't miss this very special event.  Admission is free, although donations to support the performing artists will be gratefully accepted.

BOP STOP at The Music Settlement
2920 Detroit Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
www.themusicsettlement.org

Click here to read more about Étienne Massicotte. 

And here's the program:

Burroughs and Massicotte at Severance Hall

What a thrill it was to perform two of my poems ("Way Erred Scenes inside a Jazz Mine" and "Bloodshot") with trumpeter Étienne Massicotte in this building on Friday night (23 October 2015)! 

Thanks to The Circle - Cleveland Orchestra's Young Professionals for the opportunity.

Photos/video of our performance may be coming soon.

A Case for Ascension!

I'm happy to announce that my work appears in A Case for Ascension: A collaborative sample reader, published this month by Asinimali Publications in Kansas City, Missouri.  The chapbook also features fine work by Jameson Bayles (Kansas City), Dianne Borsenik (Cleveland, OH), Joan Koromante (Topeka, KS) and Michelle Roberts (Lincoln, NE).  It was launched in preparation for the 2016 Kansas City Poetry Throwdown, and in conjunction with 2015 National Beat Poetry Festival events in Kansas City and Fredonia, NY.  Cover art by Jameson Bayles.  Those who attended our recent BeatStreet Cleveland event may recall that trumpeter Étienne Massicotte and I opened our set with one of my A Case for Ascension poems, "Way Erred Scenes inside a Jazz Mine."

I have a limited number of copies. You can buy one for $5 (plus $2 for postage) by clicking this button.
 

You may also score a copy by contacting the publisher, Asinimali Publications, directly, or from local book shops like Prospero's Books in Kansas City, Guide to Kulchur in Cleveland and (soon) Mac's Backs in Cleveland Heights and Main Street Books in Mansfield, Ohio.

If by chance you've already read A Case for Ascension (and especially if you like it), please consider rating or reviewing it at Goodreads.

Video: Burroughs & Massicotte perform "Way Erred Scenes inside a Jazz Mine" at BeatStreet Cleveland, 19 September 2015, Barking Spider Tavern

Thank you, Dianne Borsenik, for putting last night's great event together and recording this clip of us performing! What a pleasure it was to collaborate with Étienne Massicotte and to share a stage and room with so many of my favorite poets, publishers and people.

Video permalink: https://youtu.be/1GfqH5H1NHY

Way Erred Scenes inside a Jazz Mine

Aswirl in creative flux

feel a faux need to squeeze
to get any err out
on screen or page
feeling sage in this smoke
of jasmine incense
hearing a catalyzing muse
sick I can't name and
I can't blame
you or blame me
not sure why we need to lay
it on anyone
as it is what it is
and just is
and what's wrong with that
why do we
always have to find something
wrong with everything
I can sing
without notes or tune
and so
I suspect
can you
whether or not some see it
as cruel or kind
aren't we blind to believe
every song needs sound waves
every lyric needs words
every world needs saved
every who needs heard
every herd needs a who
ain't it just what it is
whatever it is
and I know Dylan
said he not busy being born
is busy dying
but he failed to say
he busy being born is busy dying too
and why can't we say that
unafraid
it is what it is
and so what
the best jasmine incense burns out
eventually and the worst often lives
in memory just as long and wise
any writer wrong
what's worst or best
anyway
scents won't last forever
I think nonsense
won't either
but in some sense might
like night
wonder
if one day everything
we think is wrong
passes on
and everything right is left
could anything be right again
without us rewriting it
and when
you or I wonder
why I do or don't talk
may be hear's what you're missing
I'm always listening
and never shut up
sure it's easy to think
at least one of us is
in this walled room
in this sided house
in this incorporated city in this state
of apparent confusion
but Daishonin said

ichinen sanzen
each moment possesses three
thousand realms
and I'm never outside a moment
even when I'm conscious
and your movement pervades
the realms I monitor
even when you don't feel
odd when you don't hear
sometimes we use the wrong ears
wrong might be the wrong word
because in certain uncertain worlds
sound waves are inefficient
often ineffectual
and even oddly misleading
despite their repeated best intent
shuns to be otherwise
so I use them or don't
you too
as inclination dictates or allows
but it's all
now
becoming
evident to me
that we're all ultimately
aswirl in creative flux
insight
outside
out of sight
inside
becoming
okay
either way
with or without
hour
foe need
two squeeze
smoke key
jazz mine

[This poem appears in my 2013 chapbook It Takes More Than Chance to Make Change, published by The Poet’s Haven.  It first appeared in print in What I Knew Before I Knew: Poems from the Pudding House Salon-Cleveland and online in The City. I've edited it slightly since then.  It also appears in the newly released collaborative chapbook A Case for Ascension published by Asinimali Publications.]

BeatStreet Cleveland Saturday!

Copied from the BeatStreet website:

On Saturday September 19, 2015, Cleveland, OH will celebrate The National Beat Poetry Festival with the event BeatStreet Cleveland at the Barking Spider Tavern, 11310 Juniper Rd, from 3pm to 7pm, featuring poets and live music, with free admission.

YOU are invited to join us for this historic Happening! 

Confirmed guests:

D.R. Wagner (California)

 D.R. Wagner is an author, visual artist, and musician. He founded press : today : niagara in 1965 and Runcible Spoon in the late 60s, producing over fifty magazines and chapbooks. He co-wrote The Egyptian Stroboscope with d.a. levy and read with Jim Morrison of the Doors in a legendary reading with Morrison and Michael McClure. He also has read with Ferlinghetti, Al Winans, Anne Waldman, and many other poets over the past forty years. Wagner's work is much published. He continues to design interior carpeting and tapestry, as well as write, perform, and publish poetry regularly.










Alex Gildzen (New Mexico)

Alex Gildzen is a poet and artist who uses film as the basis of his work.  He entered Kent State University in 1961, and while still an undergraduate had poems published in American Weave and Snowy Egret.  He met d.a. levy in 1965; levy published him in the Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle.  Hugh Fox included Gildzen in his 1973 anthology The Living Underground.  Crisis Chronicles Press published his book Ohio Triangle earlier this year to celebrate his 72nd birthday.  Find Gildzen at Arroyo Chamisa.

Theresa Göttl Brightman (Ohio)

Theresa Göttl Brightman won first place the first time she competed in a poetry slam.  She has won numerous awards, and has been heard throughout Ohio and points beyond, including Chicago's Vegan Mania, and 89.7 WOSU radio.  Her work has appeared in print and online publications including Pudding Magazine and Rubbertop Review.  Her full length collection of poetry is Stretching the Window (Buffalo ZEF 2007); a new collection is due out in 2016 from Coda Crab Press.  You haven't experienced her poetry until you've seen and heard her perform it!


 














John Burroughs (Ohio)
 
John Burroughs, writer, editor, musician, and composer, is the author of The Eater of the Absurd and numerous poetry chapbooks; his poem "Lens" was nominated for the Pushcart Prize.  His poems include "Cannot Believe William S. Burroughs Is Dead and "Allen Ginsberg Wants You".  Since 2008 he has been editor/publisher for Crisis Chronicles Press.  Burroughs performs his dynamic poetry across the rust and coal belts.  His new book Beat Attitude (from NightBallet Press) will debut at BeatStreet Cleveland.

 







Joining John Burroughs: musician Étienne Massicotte:

Étienne Massicotte (Montreal)

Étienne Massicotte is a musician newly located to Cleveland, working as a trumpeter, composer, and teacher. He is currently engaged with the Tesla Orchestra of Case Western Reserve University, composing and arranging music for a performance this fall to feature three musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra and a spectacular array of lightning-emitting beacons known as Tesla Coils. Previous engagements include appearances with the Ashland Symphony and four seasons with the Ohio Light Opera Festival Orchestra.



Ingrid Swanberg (Wisconsin)
   
Ingrid Swanberg is the founder/publisher of Ghost Pony Press, and editor-in-chief of Abraxas Magazine.  She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Garrison Keillor has read her poetry on The Writer's Almanac.  She co-authored  D.A. Levy & the Mimeograph Revolution, and  published a definitive collection of the work of d.a. levy, Zen Concrete & Etc.  Her two new poetry collections are Ariadne & Other Poems (Bottom Dog Press, 2013) and Awake (Green Panda Press, 2014). 

Larry Smith (Ohio)

Larry Smith is the biographer of Kenneth Patchen and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He also has done biographical work with Ingrid Swanberg in d.a. levy & the mimeograph revolution (Bottom Dog Press). He has published numerous books of poetry, and wrote and produced two films on Ohio authors James Wright and Kenneth Patchen. Smith lives on the fringe of Cleveland in Huron, Ohio, where he directs Bottom Dog Press publications.


 Jim Lang (Ohio)

Jim Lang, poet, photographer, artist, in his own words:

born in th 40's died in th 50's thrived in th 60's loved in th 70's coasted in th 80's predicted in th 90's reprised in th 2K's ~ a poet/photographer he published in newspapers magazines and small press books for 40 years ~ he taught at universities high & grades schools free & controlled ~ he hung at galleries from columbus to toronto ~ & he read & showed off & slept on walls & floors & lawns from sea to shining sea ~ "a @ 5 made fotos @ 16 & pots @ 50 a phopopotographer a little of each shows up" 


Steven Smith (Ohio)

Steven Smith--poet, memoirist, photographer, blogger, and collage/assemblage artist--has been writing poetry for nearly five decades. For more than 20 years he published the famed ArtCrimes journal. He created a massive online art/poetry archive at www.agentofchaos.com, and a wide array of his poetry and collages have been published in the critically acclaimed Zen Over Zero: Selected Poems 1964-2008 (The City Poetry Press). Smith makes his home in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.


aaaaand the Peace, Love, & Music of Zach!

Zach Freidhof (Ohio)

Zach, recently named "Humanitarian of the Year" by Akron Magazine, is a yogi, Kingian Nonviolence Trainer, and World Peace Diet Facilitator. He is also a fantastic musician who believes “We should manifest ourselves in exquisiteness every chance we get.” Zach professes this mantra, his life’s philosophy, on his latest release, The Antidote, his 15th release is as many years. With a friend, he created the Akron Peace Project to spread nonviolence in the self, the home, and the community. Coupled with his Love Initiative movement, his music--naturally very hopeful and optimistic--has been able to lend its voice to the power we all have to change ourselves and the world. Learn more at www.zachmusic.net.

[Thanks to Dianne Borsenik for organizing this fab event!]