Friday April 11 | Saturday April 12 | Sunday April 13

Reading:
The Poetry of Youssef & Darwish (Baruch College, Center for the Performing Arts, Engleman Recital Hall)
Hear the words of two of the leading poets of Arab literature: Carolyn Forché, translator of the poetry of Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish and Khaled Mattawa, translator of the poetry of Iraqi writer Saadi Youssef, present the work of the poets they have translated.

Saadi Youssef is an Iraqi poet in exile and the author of thirty volumes of poetry and seven books of prose. Mahmoud Darwish is "the premier poetic voice of the Palestinian people" [Naomi Shihab Nye] and a living legend whose poetry readings fill stadiums. Carolyn Forché is an acclaimed poet with four published collections of poetry, most recently The Blue Hour, and the editor of Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness. Khaled Mattawa is the author of the poetry collection Ismailia Eclipse and the translator of several volumes of contemporary Arabic poetry.
(FREE) 55 Lexington Ave. 25th Street entrance.

Folk Music in the American Century: An Alan Lomax Tribute
Promoting the Folk (CUNY Graduate Center)
Explore Alan Lomax's work in NYC during the 1940s as a radio and record producer, as promoter of folk musicians Woody Guthrie, Josh White, and Leadbelly, and as folk music advocate via the people's folk song movement. With Ed Cray, Kip Lornell, Irwin Silber, Elijah Wald, and Henrietta Yurchenco.

Reading/Performance:
The Tablets: A Tribute to Armand Schwerner (Bowery Poetry Club)
A reading from Schwerner's modern masterpiece, loosely inspired by the epic of Gilgamesh. The Tablets "translate" invented fragments of Sumero-Akkadian clay tablets that are thought to be over 4,000 years old. With Jane Augustine, Charles Bernstein, Norman Finkelstein, Willard Gingerich, Michael Heller, Jackson MacLow, Jerome Rothenberg, and Anne Tardos. (FREE)

Panel:
Epic Proportions: Documenting History and Culture with Long Poems (Poets House)
This panel examines the epic, a form traditionally used to describe historical events (often war, conquest, or a heroic quest), and explores its relevance in a contemporary context. With Benjamin Bagby, John Foley, Glyn Maxwell, Anne Waldman and C.K. Williams.

Folk Music in the American Century: An Alan Lomax Tribute
Documenting the Folk II—The European, Caribbean, and later Southern Field Trips (CUNY Graduate Center)
With Matthew Barton, Ken Bilby, Judith Cohen, Dominique Cyrille, and Goffredo Plastino.

Reading/Performance:
Lower East Side Epic (Bowery Poetry Club)
An epic tale of the Lower East Side as written and performed by members of the Lower East Side Girls' Club.

Folk Music in the American Century: An Alan Lomax Tribute
Reception/Book Launching Party for Alan Lomax: Selected Writings 1934-1997 edited by Ronald Cohen (CUNY Graduate Center)

Film Screening :
Something Wonderful May Happen: The New York School Poets And Beyond (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
Dir. by Lard Movin and Niels Plenge 57 min, 2001 An engaging look at the "New York School of Poets," a name that was meant to be satirical, but which stuck. Wonderful readings and off the cuff commentary by John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch, remarkable footage of Frank O'Hara, poems and analysis by David Lehman, Charles Bernstein and Jordan Davis, interviews with Larry Rivers, Jane Freilicher and others. Wonderful, witty, subtle techniques tease out a poetry image track and a lucky collision of people, poetry, buildings, pigeons, and New York itself. A treat for audiences who've never heard of the poets, a party for those who have. With winning films from the Zebra International Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, July, 2002.

15th of February (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
6.30 min., 1995 Tim Webb, filmmaker. Peter Reading, poet (Great Britain), animation & live action. Love didn't turn out too well. A symbolic rejection and its aggressive outcome. Winner of the 2002 Zebra International Poetry Film Festival (literaturWERKstaat, Berlin):

Poem by Ernst Jandl (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
2.31 min., 1989 Eku Wand, filmmaker. Ernst Jandel, poet (German, Austrian). A version of the Viennese group (dada) poet's "Beastiary" using an Atari and a 5x5 mouth matrix. Winner of the 2002 Zebra International Poetry Film Festival (literaturWERKstaat, Berlin):

Performance:
Drinking Ballads (Bowery Poetry Club)
Take a mug of drunken poems and drinking songs and join us as we make a boisterous toast to the raucous history of English drinking songs. With Tony Barrand, John Roberts, Heather Wood.

10:30-12:00

Performance:
The Songs, Rhymes, and Poems of Handclapping Games (Bowery Poetry Club)
Lee Ann Brown offers a poetic tribute to children's hand-clapping rhymes. (Free for children; Adults, $10)

Paired Reading:
Patricia Spears Jones and Anne Waldman(Cooper Union, Wollman)

Lecture:
Jorge Luis Borges and the milonga by Ana Cara (CB'S 313 Gallery, Upstairs)
A look at the milonga poems written by Borges which were influenced by the traditional, often improvised, verbal art of the Argentinean gauchos, and singers from the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Open Mic:
with Jackie Sheeler (Cooper Union, Engineering Building, Room 509)
Sign-up sheets will be located on a table outside the classroom.

Panel:
The Politics of Translation: A Roundtable Discussion (Poets House)
Translators discuss cultural issues inherent to translation. With Ammiel Alcalay, John Balaban, Carolyn Forché, Nathalie Handal, Abdellatif Laâbi, Khaled Mattawa, Jerome Rothenberg, and Dennis Tedlock.

Performance:
Arlo Guthrie: Storytelling and Poetry (Cooper Union, Great Hall)

Paired Reading:
Toni Blackman and Lee Ann Brown(Cooper Union, Wollman)

Reading:
Sweet Jesus: An Anthology of Poems about the Ultimate Icon (CB's 313 Gallery, Upstairs)
Hosted by Molly Peacock, contributors to Sweet Jesus (Denise Duhamel's anthology of poems about Catholic iconography) read their poems. With Nick Carbo, Thad Rutkowski, Hal Sirowitz, Diane Spodarek, and more.

Family Program:
Kazakhstan Epic Singer (Asia Society)
In Kazak culture, epic singers are keepers of a collective memory that connects oral traditions with shamanic spirituality and nomadic philosophy. Almasbek Almatov, the renowned singer and charismatic storyteller of Kazak epics, presents a rare performance of traditional epics from his homeland. He will be accompanied by folklorist Dr. Alma Kunanbaeva, who will provide context and translation during the performance. Call the Asia Society at 212/517-ASIA for more information.

Open Mic:
"Greek Poets and the Diaspora" with Greek-American Writer's Association (Cooper Union, Engineering Building, Room 509)
Hosted by Dean Kostos. Sign-up sheets will be located on a table outside the classroom.

Folk Music in the American Century: An Alan Lomax Tribute
The Lomax Legacy On the Air (Cooper Union, Great Hall)
Nick Spitzer of Pubic Radio International delivers a keynote address.

Paired Reading:
Charles Bernstein and Jerome Rothenberg (Cooper Union, Wollman)

Reading:
Amerisicula—Sicilian Poetry in New York (CB's 313 Gallery, Upstairs)

Open Mic:
Spanish Language Open Mic with Rosa Elena Egipciaco (Cooper Union, Engineering Building, Room 509)
Sign-up sheets will be located on a table outside the classroom.

Iraqi Poetry Reading (Poet's House)
Elias Khoury, Ammiel Alcalay and others introduce and read modern Iraqi poetry. Author of against the warring factions, Ammiel Alcalay is a poet and activist who has written on Bosnia and Israel. Elias Khoury, born Beiruit, Lebanon, is the author of numerous novels.

Urban Word 5-Borough Youth Slam (Cooper Union, Great Hall)
Organized by Urban Word.

Performance:
New York Ramayana Epic (Bowery Poetry Club)
The ancient Hindu epic of good versus evil, treachery, and the complications of love. Told through sumptuous Indian and Burmese music and dance by U Win Maung, and Bani Ray, with narration by poet Daniel Abd al-Hayy Moore and modern dance by Jaan R. Freeman. Co-sponsored by Lotus Music and Dance. For over a decade, Lotus has been a gathering place for master performers and teachers of traditional world music and dance. Lotus works with artists from India, China Burma, Korea, Tahiti, Africa, Spain, and the Mohawk nation.

Paired Reading: Khaled Mattawa and D.H. Melhem (Cooper Union, Wollman)

Performance:
Stephanie Strickland and Cynthia Lawson give an electronic reading (Tisch School of the Arts-ITP, 721 Broadway @ Waverly Place, 4th Floor)
Web works include Strickland's The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot, V: Vniverse and scenes from the Smylie/Katz/Douglas version of Homer's Iliad. This electronic reading is co-presented by the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. (Please note that a photo ID is required to enter the building for this event. (FREE)

Open Mic:
with Shawn Randall of West Side Rhymes (Cooper Union, Engineering Building, Room 509)
Sign-up sheets will be located on a table outside the classroom.

Paired Reading:
Martín Espada and Jackie Sheeler (Cooper Union, Wollman)

Performance:
Kalevala Epic of Finland (Bowery Poetry Club)
By Aili Flint and Tuomas Hiltunen accompanied by Ulla Suokko.

Film Screening :
Something Wonderful May Happen: The New York School Poets And Beyond (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
Dir. by Lard Movin and Niels Plenge 57 min, 2001 An engaging look at the "New York School of Poets," a name that was meant to be satirical, but which stuck. Wonderful readings and off the cuff commentary by John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch, remarkable footage of Frank O'Hara, poems and analysis by David Lehman, Charles Bernstein and Jordan Davis, interviews with Larry Rivers, Jane Freilicher and others. Wonderful, witty, subtle techniques tease out a poetry image track and a lucky collision of people, poetry, buildings, pigeons, and New York itself. A treat for audiences who've never heard of the poets, a party for those who have. With winning films from the Zebra International Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, July, 2002.

15th of February (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
6.30 min., 1995 Tim Webb, filmmaker. Peter Reading, poet (Great Britain), animation & live action. Love didn't turn out too well. A symbolic rejection and its aggressive outcome. Winner of the 2002 Zebra International Poetry Film Festival (literaturWERKstaat, Berlin):

Poem by Ernst Jandl (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
2.31 min., 1989 Eku Wand, filmmaker. Ernst Jandel, poet (German, Austrian). A version of the Viennese group (dada) poet's "Beastiary" using an Atari and a 5x5 mouth matrix.Winner of the 2002 Zebra International Poetry Film Festival (literaturWERKstaat, Berlin):

Competition:
New York City Borough Slam (Bowery Poetry Club)
With Robert Hershon, Donna Masini, Hal Sirowitz, Hector Rivera, Tariq Zaid and winners of the Urban Word Teen Slam.

Performance:
Joy Harjo in Concert (American Indian Community House)
Accompanied by musician Michael Sena. ($10, no festival passes accepted)

Reading:
Poetry and Prayer (Cooper Union Great Hall)
Celebrate the spirituality of the word and meditate on the relationship of poetry to prayer and words to silence. Bring a poem to share. Led by Jackie Johnson. (FREE)

Memory Circle (Cooper Union, Great Hall)
Committed to Memory? Revive the lost tradition of memorizing verse by other poets. Spend an hour with Carol Conroy exploring the joys and consolations of learning poems by heart. (FREE)

Paired Reading:
Mark Doty and Lawrence Joseph (Cooper Union, Wollman)

Lecture:
Glyn Maxwell on Dante's Inferno (Poets House)
Glyn Maxwell, author of the book-length, Dante-inspired poem Time's Fool, discusses The Inferno, the first section of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)'s Divine Comedy, an epic journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise.

Performance/Lecture:
"Singing the News": Broadside Ballads (Bowery Poetry Club)
Presentation of broadside ballads or "sung newspapers" from Puerto Rico, Mexico, the West Indies, and the Anglo-American tradition featuring Juan Barco, Wrickford Dal Getty, Dianne Dugaw, Indalescio Gonzalez, and Segunda Quimbamba, and others.

Reading:
Exiled in the Word—3,000 Years of Jewish Poetry (CB's 313 Gallery, downstairs)
With Ammiel Alcalay, Charles Bernstein, Barbara Einzig, Pierre Joris, Robert Kelly, Jackson MacLow, Jerome Rothenberg, Charles Stein, Anne Tardos, Anne Waldman.

Lecture:
Donald Hall on Thomas Hardy and the Ballad Tradition (Poet's House)
Poetry and critic Donald Hall explores the influence of ballads on the poetry of Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), whose verse in turn influenced such poets as Robert Frost, W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, and Philip Larkin.

Marathon Reading of the Poetry of June Jordan (Teachers & Writers Collaborative)
With Samiya Bashir, Wesley Brown, Xochiquetzal Candelaria, Cheryl Clarke, Carol Conroy, Morgan Cousins, Alexis DeVeaux, Cornelius Eady, Kathy Engel, Laura Flanders, Bea Gates, Marilyn Hacker, Suheir Hammad, Joelle Hann, Bob Holman, Patricia Spears Jones, Jan Heller Levi, Donna Masini, Walter Mosley, Honor Moore, Grace Paley, Junichi Semitsu, Adrienne Torf, Urban Word NYC, and more! FREE

Lecture:
Mark Doty on Hart Crane's epic, The Bridge (Poets House)
Poet Mark Doty discusses Hart Crane's (1899-1932) epic masterpiece, The Bridge, which is a tribute to New York and America.

Hip Hop Seder (CB's 313 Gallery, downstairs)
The Socalled Seder is a passover service set to the toe-tapping rhythms of the modern teenager. It's a hop-hop Haggaddah with beats, raps, niggunim, and readings that rock the story of the Exodus from Egypt in a contemporary setting. Set to the whimsical, funky productions of Montreal's Socalled (Josh Dolgin), this performance of the Seder will feature Brooklyn singer/performer Aron Waxman and Philadelphia's klezmer trumpetess extraordinaire, Susan Hoffman Watts.

Performance:
Spring Essence by John Balaban (American Museum of Natural History, Linder Theater—FREE with museum admission)
Spring Essence, poems of an 18th century concubine from Vietnam, are presented by translator John Balaban with Ho Xuan Huong and Ngo Thanh Nhan.

Film Screening :
Something Wonderful May Happen: The New York School Poets And Beyond (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
Dir. by Lard Movin and Niels Plenge 57 min, 2001 An engaging look at the "New York School of Poets," a name that was meant to be satirical, but which stuck. Wonderful readings and off the cuff commentary by John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch, remarkable footage of Frank O'Hara, poems and analysis by David Lehman, Charles Bernstein and Jordan Davis, interviews with Larry Rivers, Jane Freilicher and others. Wonderful, witty, subtle techniques tease out a poetry image track and a lucky collision of people, poetry, buildings, pigeons, and New York itself. A treat for audiences who've never heard of the poets, a party for those who have. With winning films from the Zebra International Poetry Film Festival, Berlin, July, 2002.

15th of February (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
6.30 min., 1995 Tim Webb, filmmaker. Peter Reading, poet (Great Britain), animation & live action. Love didn't turn out too well. A symbolic rejection and its aggressive outcome.

Poem by Ernst Jandel (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
2.31 min., 1989 Eku Wand, filmmaker. Ernst Jandel, poet (German, Austrian). A version of the Viennese group (dada) poet's "Beastiary" using an Atari and a 5x5 mouth matrix.