She’ll get a street named for her in New Jersey, where she was from. The last time I saw Janine was on the Lower East Side at the Bowery Ball Room in Manhattan, for a reading to celebrate a book of poems by migrant farmworkers, “Estamos Aquí,” which she had translated. One of her last messages to me, dated 6/19/2007, arrived not long after. It could have been written yesterday.
William Wyler, an Old Favorite, Speaks About Film
Well, of course he’s a favorite. See “A Talent for Trouble.”
Channeling Rimbaud’s Last Words
The last words of Arthur Rimbaud as imagined by Carl Weissner was published in a limited handmade edition. It is a small masterpiece — small only because it isn’t longer.
‘Burning Bridges’
The poet says he’s “in the business of burning bridges.” That’s not all the business he’s in.
Visions at Midnight: Pages from a Notebook
“At first glance these collages look like they are digitally produced images owing their provenance to artificial intelligence or photoshop manipulation. But they are actual paper collages, cut-and-paste handwork in the truest sense. What sets them apart is that they are two images, one message, all at once.” Mark Terrill
‘After Words’ at The Grolier Club Tells of a Revolution
If anybody had said to me that the shaggy “mimeo revolution” of little magazines begun in the 1960s would be the subject of an exhibition as elegant as this one, and in as venerable a setting, I wouldn’t have believed it. During that period I played a small part in what was happening as the editor of a little mag myself. I thought we were participants in a rebellion more than a revolution.
Hanging In, She’d Rather Not
Cursed by Alzheimer’s.
Louise Landes Levi
A Voyager’s Magnum Opus: ‘The Goddess’
There are many kinds of poets. Among them are the voyaging / visionary poets, like Allen Ginsberg and Ira Cohen, both of whom were mentors to as well as models for Louise Landes Levi, who has not only traveled widely, as they did, but has turned her voyaging — that is what her kind of travels must be called — into a life of poetry and music and, not least, who has created a literary chronicle of her experience.
In St. Gallen, Switzerland
They Love Books . . . Even American Poetry
One pleasure of walking the streets of St. Gallen, a town near the foothills of the Swiss Alps, was climbing its steep alleys and staircases through winding passages, and then, surprisingly, coming upon a kiosk that advertised the Wortlaut literary festival, where I would be reading alongside the American poet Jan Heller Levi.
Poetry and Music at the Palace in St. Gallen
They like poetry in Switzerland. Our readings went really well, and we had an enthusiastic crowd.
Seeking to Sue the NYPD
Noted Author Richard Kostelanetz Writes . . .
“On 9 May 2024, five days before my 84th birthday, twelve NYPD raided my studio/home in Queens, NY, looking initially for printed child pornography, following the receipt of a few mostly innocuous images from a book written by someone else that I tried to publish through Amazon KDP. Finding nothing in my collection of 25,000 books, they then filched all my MAC computers and backups — my lifework as a writer & artist — that I neglected to store externally. … [He has since learned that he’s not “a person of interest,” meaning he’s not suspected of a crime.] The NYPD still has invaluable material ten months later destroying my professional career. … I’d like to sue them for the return of my work and professional damages incurred.”
Kostelanetz is seeking an attorney to press his case.
Jim Jarmusch Talks About Kenneth Koch
The indie filmmaker was one of many notable speakers at “Kenneth Koch at 100: A Celebration,” held last month at The New School’s Auditorium in Greenwich Village. Kenneth Koch was Jarmusch’s teacher at Columbia, “a kind of godfather to me, aesthetically,” he said, noting further that the “so-called New York School of poets in general remain as my godparents in almost anything I create.” Among the more interesting tributes were Maxine Groffsky’s and, via video, Alex Katz’s. I found Jarmusch’s the most amusing.
Reading at the Palace [Updated]
It’s getting closer to our poetry reading at the Palace, where Florian Vetsch will host the poet Jan Heller Levi, winner of the Walt Whitman Award given by the Academy of American Poets, and yours truly, along with Clemens Umbricht. DJ Soulsonic will do his thing with the music we selected.
Awards Mean Little Beyond Publicity
Are awards the staff of life? Of course not. But they certainly seem like food for the hungry.
My Books
Several books of poems are published by Moloko Print and Stadtlichter Presse in bilingual (American-German) editions, and by Cold Turkey Press in handmade chapbooks. “The Z Collection” appeared in three editions, by AC Books, Blue Wind Press, and Moloko Print.”
More Resonant Than Ever
Heathcote Williams’s ‘The United States of Porn’
Heathcote was always prescient. But it is still astonishing to realize how relevant — and resonant — his dissident voice remains more than a dozen years after he recorded “The United States of Porn.”
Poetry & Prose
‘Wortlaut’ Saint Gallen Festival Salutes the Word
UPDATED: Jan Heller Levi & Jan Herman will appear on March 30, 2025 at the festival, where they will read and discuss their latest poems with Giovanna Caggiano and Julia Mülli from the Kantonsschule am Burggraben. Florian Vetsch will also read with Jan & Jan at the Palace on April 1.