I am excited to be going west again this summer for weeks 3 & 4 of the SWP at Naropa. Here, printed below are the theme's of all four weeks and the class I will be part of this summer.  It is not to late to come..

This will be my Blog for 2012...hopefully U will make some comments and a conversation or two might happen!  compassion and peace, ko shin.

The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics

Week 1 Course Descriptions

June 11-June 17
Week One

Archival Poetics and The War on Memory

With current political discourse so far from truth and accountability, and the problem of master narrative in versions of history, how does the notion of Archive figure in our poetic sensibility? Archive is an inscription on our psyches, it struggles to preserve and nurture what might otherwise be lost and buried. It foregrounds imagination, candor, spontaneous discourse and the vibrational artifacts of our work as active writers – manuscripts, correspondence, research, intellectual exchange, small press and the oral record. Archivapoeia is a deeply engrained ethos of the Kerouac School, and co-founder Allen Ginsberg saw it as an antidote to memory loss perpetuated by the oligarchs and plutocrats. We will focus this week on our “memory banks” as writers. What are the sources and texts and ideas we cherish? How do we work with rescuing the work of others, and consider the technologies for future preservation?

Week 2 Course Descriptions

June 18-24
Week Two

Cultural Rhizomes and Intentional Communities

The rhizome is a tuber system, horizontal, a veritable Indra’s Net of association and growth and “high energy constructs”. It furthers a view of our mutual interdependence. How do our individual cultures, or unsung and diverse communities, interact and foster new creative projects in exchange and translation? How do we represent and cultivate the tangibles and particulars of our languages, mores, poetic forms and alternative communities or “temporary autonomous zones”? Our work this week will seek inspiration from intentional communities such as Black Mountain College, diasporas of the Middle East and South America, and Native American praxis. Some of our guests have been instrumental in political activism on behalf of LGBT communities. Other have founded projects that support multi-lingual libraries and schools. Our own writing can be
radical and powerful and reflect the diversity in our world.

 

Week 3 Course Descriptions

June 25 – July 1
Week Three

Science, Sanity & Evolution

“I is Another” – Arthur Rimbaud
“The mouse is old, but its image is light” – Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Homo sapiens? Or homo ignoramus? Poets and writers need to cull and rescue language from the pundits and politicians and shine a light on the inspiring and scintillating glories and minute particulars of the symbiotic biosphere. So much interesting ecological work is being done, investigative hybrid texts, delving into study of other life forms: slime molds, manatee, wolves and hummingbirds (“A Route of Evanescence/With a revolving Wheel–/A Resonance of Emerald/A rush of Cochineal” Emily Dickinson). Count Korzybski, author of Science & Sanity, made the celebrated statement “the map is not the territory” which was invoked by William S. Burroughs in his teaching at Naropa, suggesting that humans are limited by what they think they know. We posit here greater scrutiny and rigor, rather than an androcentric romantic gaze at Nature, to unlock new terms, vocabularies, and philosophical ways of thinking of human and “other” and beyond. Our writing will evolve and hopefully mirror the neurons and the complexities of our morphing world and multi-verse.

Anne Waldman & Ambrose Bye Symbiosis Poesis: Collaboration & Performance

What is it to be contemporary with one's time? How is our writing a "walking meditation"? How do we reflect on our bacterial Ur-ancestors of 3.5 billion years ago surrounding us? How have we morphed spiritually? We will collaborate and write in performance with others, investigate sentient lifeforms, stretch our larynx to activist vocal edges, deconstruct fracking, check out plans for colonization on Mars and the hybrid drone life, and Occupy our texts with science, song, philosophy & imagination. "The contemporary is one whose eyes are struck by the beam of darkness that comes from his own time" (Giorgio Agamben). Ambrose Bye will help us record and hone the work. What we do may lead to longer investigative texts and oral projects.

Anne Waldman, poet, professor, performer, and cultural activist is the author of over 40 books and small press editions of poetry and poetics, including most recently The Iovis Trilogy, Manatee/Humanity and the anthology Beats at Naropa. Other titles include Fast Speaking Woman, Vow to Poetry: Essays, Interviews and Manifestos, Marriage: A Sentence, In the Room of Never Grieve, Structure of the World Compared to a Bubble, Outrider, Red Noir and Martyrdom. She also edited The Beat Book, and is co-editor of Disembodied Poetics: Annals of the Jack Kerouac School, The Angel Hair Anthology, and Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action. CDs include The Eye of the Falcon and Matching Half (with Akilah Oliver), with music and production by Ambrose Bye. She works with writer/director Ed Bowes on a number of video/movie projects. Anne recently completed a collaboration "Soldatesque/Soldiering" with artist Noah Saterstrom who created a 45 foot long frieze, which was first exhibited at The Poetry Center in Tucson. She is a Chancellor at The Academy of American Poets.

Ambrose Bye, composer/musician/producer, grew up in the environment of The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, graduated from The University of California, Santa Cruz and was trained as an audio engineer at the music/production program at Pyramind in San Francisco. He has produced four albums with Anne Waldman, In the Room of Never Grieve, The Eye of the Falcon, Matching Half, and The Milk of Universal Kindness.

Week 4 Course Descriptions

July 2– 8
Week Four

Performance & Collaboration

In our traditional 4th week or 4th dimension, The Kerouac School invites recognized and unique performers and songsters in a tradition of vocalizing, to teach and expand the fascinating possibilities for play with language-orality. Poetry is not a closed system. The elements of old language patterns reconfigure, making new hybrid connections. Life eats entropy. What might also be the role of other voices, music, dance, gesture, and visuals with our texts? How do we construe our libretti or plays or texts for performance? What is our praxis with the Internet and other technologies? We suggest a spirit of moisopholon domos, or house of those who cultivated the Muses, much like the one Sappho was purported to found in the 7th century B.C.E. Greece. We also honor the collaborative work of the ever-expanding poetics sangha in the realms of letterpress and digital printing, recording studio and small press publication, all elements of our study and passion at The Kerouac School.

Tracie Morris From line to wave: creating sound poetry
In this course, we will make sound poetry. We will emphasize writing during the workshop, but will consider how the text can be transfer from page to projected live voice by using page-based elements . The workshop will conclude with a short public reading either collaboratively or individually, depending on the preference of the participants. Class text will be handed out in class

Tracie Morris is a poet, performer and scholar. She works extensively as a singer, sound artist, writer, bandleader and actor. Her installations have been presented at the Whitney Biennial, Ronald Feldman Gallery, the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning and the New Museum. She holds an MFA in poetry from Hunter College and an MA and PhD in Performance Studies from New York University. Dr. Morris is an Associate Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute. Her poetry book, TDJ: To Do w/ John (2011) is published by Zasterle Press. Rhyme Scheme, a longer poetic manuscript, will be published by Chax Press in 2012. She is also developing two audio projects: The Tracie Morris Band and sharpmorris, a collaboration with composer Elliott Sharp.