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Here goes:

Over the course of seven days, write a poem each day that uses the form (number of words in a line, number of lines in a stanza, number of stanzas in the poem, etc.) of the poem you wrote on day one.

On Rich’s recommendation, I recently found myself a nice used copy of The Spanish American Roots of William Carlos Williams by Julio Marzán.

I’ve always found it interesting that the Puerto Rican heritage of one of the premiere modernist seems to be terribly overlooked and I hope this book sheds more light on that subject.

With time being such a commodity right now, I have taken to listening to audio files of William Carlos Williams and can say that I am officially a fan of his live readings. Ok, for a second I was thrown for a loop by his 1940s newsreel announcer voice, but once I got over that I was floored by his reading style and his commentaries on process.

More to come later after I have listened to all the audio files, read the book and (oh yeah) read more of his poetry.

From Tea Party magazine Editor-in-Chief Esther Lee:

Dear Tea Party Friends,

We’re proud to announce that the TRANS ISSUE #17 will be available any minute now! To celebrate, we want to invite you to join us for a night of ART, FOOD, AND MUSIC at Berkeley’s LA PENA CULTURAL CENTER. Meet Tea Party friends, artists, and writers while enjoying food provided by Cafe Valparaiso and other local businesses [cash bar available]. Music will be provided by Lamya Amir el-Chidiac (aka DJ Chic Sheik).

Plus, Special Contributors from #17–artist MICHAEL ARCEGA, poet CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ, and choreographer SEAN DORSEY–will be there to present their work at 8pm!

Be there for our RAFFLE DRAWING when we’ll give away prizes, such as a 7-entry pass to Osento Bathhouse, tickets to the Fresh Meat Festival of Transgender and Queer Performance, pizza + tickets for four to the Parkway Theater, and a $50 gift certificate to the Global Exchange Fair Trade store!

BRING YOUR FRIENDS, MINGLE, AND EAT and, while you’re at it, help celebrate and support a great nonprofit arts magazine. And who said you couldn’t multi-task?

Cheers,
Esther
Editor-in-Chief
teapartymagazine.org

P.S. Suggested donation: $10 which includes a raffle ticket (though no Tea Party fan will be turned away for lack of funds). Your donation helps us meet printing costs and continue to offer payments to the magazine’s contributors.

For directions: www.lapena.org/index.php?s=16

BY BART: Exit at Ashby station and as you exit the turnstile, bear left and walk up the left side of the parking lot to the steps. From the top of the steps, turn right to the corner of Tremont and Prince streets. Head left on Prince for one block to Shattuck. La Peña is located on the opposite side of Shattuck Avenue (next to Starry Plough).

Many thanks to the Editors of Kulupi Press for awarding Anywhere Avenue with an Honorable Mention in their “Sense of Place” chapbook contest. Big-ups to Kate Chadbourne, the Finalists and other Honorable Mentions as well.

2007 Winner – “Sense of Place” Chapbook Contest

Congratulations to Kate Chadbourne of Lunenburg, Massachusetts, whose work, Fisherman, Fatherman, was selected as the winner of Kulupi Press’s 2007 “Sense of Place” chapbook contest.

We were very impressed by the overall quality of entries this year, which featured locales from inner-city America to the far reaches of the globe. Picking a winner from the 130 submissions was not an easy task. After much deliberation, we chose Fisherman, Fatherman for its high poetic quality, the unique way it developed a sense of place through the poet’s family experiences and relation-ships, and the strong sense of the person behind the words.

Finalists, in alphabetical order:
Dreamtime by Cliff Bernier
Penobscot Voices: Kikukus by Michael Campagnoli
My Homeland by Jennifer Greene
Nearing Chernobyl by Katherine Young

Honorable mention, in alphabetical order:
Anywhere Avenue by Oscar Bermeo
Drowning in the Desert by Mikki Mendelsohn
To the Opposite Shore: China Poems by Kenneth Parsons

Thank you to all the poets for participating and entrusting us with your worthy work. We found it well crafted, thoughtful, and inspiring to us as publishers, editors, writers, and readers. We look forward to seeing more of it in the coming years, as we remain committed to publishing words of place.

“A place is not a place until it has a poet.”
— Wallace Stegner

www.kulupi.com

Every once in a while, I really get that deep urge to write about poetry slam but the urge goes by the way side quickly when I keep in mind some key plus and minus points:

(+) I did slam for almost two years in NYC (one of the most competitive scenes in the country).
(-) I did moderately well in those slams.
(+) I qualified for the Semi-Finals at Bar13 louderARTS.
(-) I came in dead last at that Semi-Final bout
(+) but experienced duende on stage for the first time.
(+) Received two invitations to compete at the Friday night slam at the Nuyorican Poets Café.
(-) Came in second-to-last place both times.
(+) Slammaster for two years at louderARTS.
(-) I became slammaster because of my ability to compute numbers, remembering which poems were performed over the course of a year and getting in timely paperwork; it had very little to do with my mastery over slam. And Yes, I think the title is silly sounding.
(+) Coaching Team Acentos for the NYC Regional Slam in 2003, 04 and 05.
(+) Team Acentos consistently delivering great poems that worked on and off the slam stage.
(+) Connecting with poets from across the country at the National Poetry Slam (NPS).
(+) Road tripping to my first NPS in 2002.
(+) In my first year at NPS, sac-goating (Slam jargon for a non-competing poet who is judged first in order to give the judge and audience an idea of what the scoring process is like) for a San Francisco vs Chicago vs Boston vs Los Angeles bout.
(+) Hosting an NPS bout.
(+) Being included in the 2003 NPS Poetry Anthology.
(-) Enduring through a ton of bad slam poems in order to heard one good poem.
(Double -) Griping to the choir about said bad poems.
(+) Being invited to be a part of the Rules Committee for the 2005 NPS.
(-) As member of said committee, witnessing first hand the petty arguments concerning the competition.

Luckily, that last negative is not my last image of Nationals or slam. For the most part, my memories involve a lot of good camaraderie and some damn good poems. And of those good poems, only a very few are mine which is why I walked away from slam, it wasn’t helping me write better poems.

Uhhhm, looks like I did write that post about slam after all. ;-)

Well, if you want some more insights regarding the National Poetry Slam from some one who actually made a slam team, appeared on Def Poetry, is widely anthologized and an adjunct lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University, then you should check out Tara Bett’s guest post over at Tayari Jones’ spot.