SpokenWord Paris

Alberto writes…

Spoken Word starts early now, cause we are so many and so wild. As happened before, we open with Lady Marie Claire Calmus, an old school performer who sings french songs twice a month at Culture Rapide. Then Jennifer who’s French and performs for the first time in English:

“There ‘s no way to define death!

because when you reaaaaaally think about it

you might loose your own head”

Moe Seager, Emilie, sick of singing love songs, sang a song that called “this is a song about nothing at all”. Adèle for the first time on our stage:

“I have this memory

of the adult and the child

who have the same, wheat-field hair

He..

He..

He..

But I can’t find the verb

Or anything in between

There’s just the father and the child

with the same, wheat-field hair.”

Trelys Duprè, Claire about Belleville:

“Art boils and is thrown into the gutter, oil spills rainbows around the island of a dropped glove”

And Erica, attention please: her first album True Love and Water is out now!

http://ericabuettner.bandcamp.com/

Part II:

Sue, Condor, Tramaine, Roy,

Alberto reminded the night in which publishers came in Culture Rapide…

http://tightropebooks.com/strangers-in-paris-new-writing-inspired-by-the-city-of-light/

The Maxx, The Newens: Ashley, Al and Maxim,

Beth, then Tyler

closing with:

“the innocent privilege in seeing you as midnight does,

your tiptoed march along the hard wood lingering

like the suspension of breath upon glass.”

Part III

Zach, Fanny, Georgina: how sms become a spoken word masterpiece,

Amy, Helen, Bubu, Hamed, Suzanne, Brittany, Guillermo,

Natasha explaining why russians killed Poland’s President and other little things.

Rufo, Moe, The Maxx. Goodnight.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20110303-the-new-wave-of-parisian-literature

I’ve been working with Kathleen Spivack as my writing coach for 5 years. She’s great, and won the Allen Ginsberg Memorial Poetry Prize last year. Blurb below from Village Voice bookshop’s website.

KATHLEEN SPIVACK
A History of Yearning
Tuesday, March 15th at 7pm

by Alberto

Crowded Spoken Word, we are starting earlier but we always finish at Midnight!

Igor Limansky, first time on our stage, opens it:

“We are drunk and naked, dancing

by the light of non-decision

in shoes made perfect by the moon.”

Marie Claire Calmus, Trelys Duprè,

J.D. reading about the Saintsimonians for the last time before going back to the coldest Alaska we can imagine, Moe Seager, Arash, Troy, Clain, Alberto introducing the first fight of “Writers Get Violent”:

Chris The Vicious Newens VS the No Meat Eater Peter Cow Killer Brown,

who read a remix of the notorious Cassius Clay’s poem “I’m The Greatest”:

Yes, I’m the man this poem is about, I’ll be Champ of the world,

there isn’t a doubt.

Here I predict Mr. Newens dismemberment

I’ll hit him so hard, he’ll wonder where Mars and April went.

If you want to see some poetry in motion, three days later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXDzK2fAWvw

Britney closed part I with

“you were satisfying like peanutbutter

sweet like agave limbs unfurling into wafts of coriander

(manna my dear)”.

Part II

Started with Susie, followed by Kyle. If you want to taste his songwriting:

http://www.myspace.com/kyleavallone

Robert Cole, Chris Newen’s short play featuring Jess Sleazy Martinez Granatt and Kevin the Cow, Betty without the Box. Mimi kicked asses.

She’s her speciality indeed:

http://kickingitwithmimi.blogspot.com/2011/02/glico-man.html

If you want to laugh more and more info, go on her facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/mimiredlips

Amy, and then the Press Conference for thursday’s second fight: Kirsten Johnny Bastard Foster VS Beth Poisonous Peacock Jervis. Troy with his famous love poem: “Sweet Tender Buttfinger”, Moe , Julian craving for “Money”, Rufo Quintavalle, Arash. Final French Poetry Lessons by Bastien, by Bubu. It’s midnight. Poetry homeless go home. Come back next monday.

In Belleville, at Culture Rapide.

Brian reached for fresher air. “We are the monkeys that sharpened our sticks and played with fire.” Troy was his lusty, cop-feeling self. Claine spoke of vanished objects, like your hand holding my hip. Bernard conjured up a ginkgo biloba and snow in St Ouen. Guillermo was howling at hipsters. Ryan van Winkle is a bitter cranberry, turning like a lawyer against you. OCA manifested themselves. For Alberto, the Audience Isn’t Right. Don’t let them change you! Ben, Bjorn, Brian and company demonstrated subtextual healing. Julianne brought all the words she never wrote, with small and careless hands. Suzanne: So many Mondays stacked together and torn in half.

Get there early tonight if you want a seat! Poetry is getting popular, again.

Cheers,

David

A message from Alberto…

Welcome to Writers Get Violent! Welcome to the first fight club for bohemians. Struggling writers of Paris, sick of mutual readings, snobby criticism, sappy feedbacks in writing workshops, decide to fight. A literary event our good old granpa Hemingway would have liked. Come down and hear some REAL beat poetry.

Here is the program:

First of all the weight. As tradition wants, every boxer will be weighted (almost naked). A Press Conference. A brief reading, a violent critic by the opponent, and when the words doesn’t matter anymore, the fight. First time ever on a ring:

Chris Newens (ENG) vs Peter Brown (AUS)

Jess Granatt (ENG) vs Georgina Emerson (USA)

Kirsten Forster (ENG) vs Beth Peacock Jervis (CAN)

Host: Alberto Rigettini Referee: Troy Yorke

The jury will be composed by literary authorities of the underground Parisian Scene.

Three Rounds. Violence. National Anthems. Illegal bettings.

Thursday March 3rd 9pm

At: Chat Noir, 76 Rue Jean Pierre Timbaud 75011 Paris. Metro: Parmentier, Couronnes Suggested betting 5 Euro.

Monday February 28 Press Conference at Spoken Word.

To be taken seriously as a writer, it’s important to have sleeping problems: follow the steps of Franz Kafka, Sylvia Plath, William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman in this all-night poetry lock-in. If you’re stuck for inspiration, need to write an emergency Valentine’s Day poem, or just fancy an excuse to stay up all night writing some poetry, then this event is for you.

Come and join us as we attempt to write through the night, starting just before midnight and ending as the sun rises. There will be coffee and tea a-plenty, plus some suitably witty beverages. There will be prompts and challenges to pace us through the night; we will inspire ourselves from some choice examples of poetry. Before the sun rises, we will take to the streets with our notebooks and pens.

Places are limited and to cover the cost of food, drinks, and material we ask for a small contribution. Tickets can be purchased here: http://poetrylockin.eventbrite.com

Please bring: a notepad and pen, your favourite poetry collection, and the energy to last the night.

Spoken Word 31 January 2011

January’s gone but the cold remains, wolves and foxes gathered at Culture Rapide where “il faut (pas) se méfier des mots….” From the list tonight: Dylan, Benjamin, Ariel: “I want to be an artist forever without thinking about the consequences….” Romantic Troy Yorke, Moe, Claire, Corneliu states that for him stand up comedy is very similar to sex (why do you stay there staring at me without doing anything?)

Part II: Leander, Claire, Miss Peacock:

“When the time of the wenting come to an end the earth taken out,

the green sown back in, the prince lays there in rest,

and forget-me-nots sprouted unforgivingly over him.”

Bastien Loriou:

“Et je crois qu‘éternellement, je courrai ce pâturage.

Il ne suffit pas d’en être amant pour qu’une femme vous offre son visage.

Il demeure cette distance, qu’aimer en retour seul peut enjamber

Cette infime distance entre soi et l’autre, d’un doigt librement déplié.

Et de cette distance elle me demeure, précisément, la moitié.”

Bubu, Hard-Core Troy Yorke, Alberto.

Chris (from the) Newens who set up an old school tragedy with a proper four blokes g(r)eek chorus:

Chorus:

Sing, oh muse

Of Mighty Odysseus, wanderer of many Oceans

To Ittica, returning to Penelope besieged

Of Heroic Theseus, Prince of Athens

Vanquisher of the Minotaur, who claimed Ariane as his own.

Sing, oh muse,

of Arthur Sneddon, a touch socially awkward but basically alright bloke

whose attempt to win Jane Kemp with a two for one dinner at Pizza Express,

was never likely to go to plan.”

Roy, Dalea, editor of Core, reading her first poem and presenting Volume X Issue I,

Tyler and Ariel, who’s going back in the USA after a few months of great poetry performances

on our stage. Our stage is still open to everyone, every monday night. See you there.

Alberto