The NAROPA SWP (Summer Writing Program) begins today.
The theme this year is “Symbiosis” – “Symbiosis is our rallying anthem for the summer of 2013, as poets and writers and thinkers and printers and translators and performers make their art with an awareness of the interconnected sym-together-biosis-living of different biological species. By extending the metaphor, we look at the mutualistic relationship of our own imaginations”, their web-page boldly declares.
“The Summer Writing Program is a four-week-long convocation of students, poets, fiction writers, scholars, translators, performance artists, activists, Buddhist teachers, musicians, printers, editors, and others working in small press publishing. Programming includes workshops, lectures, panels, readings, special events, and more”.
For the first week, July 1-7, the focus is on (the) “History, Race and Polis, and “Karma” of the Modernists” – Among the highlights – Jerome Rothenberg on “the shamanic powers of poetry”, and Bill Berkson, presenting a lecture on “the family art legacy” of Gertrude Stein
Week two, July 8-14, has been sub-titled “Hellfire, Drought and Brimstone: A New Eco-Poetics” and features, amongst others, Rae Armantrout, Samuel R Delany, and Ron Silliman
Week three, July 15-21, “Kulchur Connections and Beyond” features Victor Hernandez Cruz,C.S.Giscombe, M.NourbeSe Philip, among others
Week four, July 22-28, “A Poetics of Performance, Cooperation and Affinity”, Anne Waldman, Thurston Moore, Cecilia Vicuna, Jack Collom, Anne Carson..