Sunday, March 15, 2009
The Epiphanies of Celebrating Four Saints in Three Acts
Having given herself nearly one month to reflect on the outcomes of celebrating the 75th anniversary of Gertrude Stein’s and Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts, the Steiny Road Poet is still basking in the energy of the over-capacity crowd that showed up at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Elebash Recital Hall to experience Encompass New Opera Theatre’s concert version of the experimental opera that still puzzles and delights. Who would have thought that in only a year’s time, a celebration of such magnitude could successfully come together? The celebration included:
• A film screening—Steven Watson’s Prepare for Saints based on his book Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism.
• Five talks done by a cubistic set of esteemed speakers—a cultural historian (Watson), a poet-librettist (Karren Alenier), a composer-orchestral arranger (Charles Fussell), an American art historian (Wanda Corn), and a theater director who was mentored by Virgil Thomson (Nancy Rhodes).
• A culminating panel that included all of the speakers and composer Scott Wheeler who was a student of Virgil Thomson.
• An exhibition of Stein memorabilia from the collection of Hans Gallas.
• A video film interview by Steven Watson of Virgil Thomson.
• Book selling of selected titles by Bluestockings Bookstore.
• Production of Four Saints that included a cast of 24 performers and an orchestra of 16 musicians.
• A post-production talk back that included the stage and music directors, two singers from the cast, the cultural historian who documented Four Saints, and two composer who had worked closely with Virgil Thomson.
• Special guest David Vaughan, the biographer of Frederick Ashton, the choreographer of the original Four Saints production.
• A modest wine reception.
• Financial support from two major organizations—City University New York (thanks to the sponsorship of Dr. Frank Hentschker, Director of Programs at the Martin E. Segal Center of The CUNY Graduate Center) and the Virgil Thomson Foundation (thanks to the sponshorship by the Foundation’s Board member Charles Fussell)—and many private individuals.
• Advance publicity from The New York Times by a senior music critic.
THE WORK OF THE ACCIDENTAL CATALYST
What was the role of the Steiny Road Poet? Besides serving as the accidental catalyst that started the celebration ball rolling, she was responsible for suggesting and enlisting the cooperation of most of the principal participants, including Nancy Rhodes who became a significant partner in developing the daylong festival. The Poet also coordinated:
the details of the afternoon program, such as
• The order of the speakers.
• How long they would speak.
• Who would introduce them.
• How the Q&A period would proceed.
• When the speakers needed to show up.
• What information they needed to be successful.
Additionally, she
• Kept in contact with the speakers.
• Collected their bios.
• Prepared their introductions.
• Made sure Hans Gallas stayed connected to the CUNY staff who would provide the locked display cabinets.
• Interfaced with the CUNY staff such as Jan Stenzel and Siobhan Glennon who prepared the publicity and the program brochure.
• Lobbied for a small reception after the event.
• Reassured the director when her job load seemed unappreciated and too heavy to bear.
Thank you, Frank Hentschker! The Poet considered the libations and the NY Times publicity divine intervention.
OF SLIPPERY SLIDES AND BOOKMARKS
If there could have been one element that could have turned out better, it was getting a little more support for the audio-visual presentation of two slide shows (the bottom lines of the Poet’s slides were not seen because of last minute change of software needed for the art slide show by Wanda Corn and Professor Corn’s slides were somewhat distorted.) Nonetheless, the auditorium was 60 to 70 percent filled for most of the speaking sessions and only one person (who was unable to get back into the auditorium for the opera performance) complained about some of the talks not meeting his expectations.
Someone—was that you, Roger Cunningham of Encompass New Opera Theatre?—decided on the fly to give departing audience members The Steiny Road to Operadom bookmark as an entrance ticket to the evening performance. While not many books were sold, surely among those audience members carrying the Poet’s bookmark were potential future buyers. This was another little glitch in the management of the event. Not everyone who attended the afternoon session was able to identify him- or herself and therefore didn’t get into the auditorium for the evening program. The Poet rescued a woman with a cane whom she encountered in the restroom. The woman lacked a bookmark, but had been in the afternoon sessions and so the Poet walked her around the crowd into the auditorium and felt darn good for doing that.
MISSING THE EYES
One regret was that the Poet was unable to get to New York for the dress rehearsal, which would have been the right time for photo ops. Oh, to capture the eyes of Eve Gigliotti as as the Commère, Laura Choi Stuart as Saint Teresa, and Roland Burks as Saint Ignatius. However, there were videographers enlisted by Steven Watson to shoot archival footage. The Poet hasn’t heard anything yet about this, but expects to see it at some point in the near future. The Poet said all along this celebration would go down in the history of American opera as a significant event and the archival footage should ensure that. And yes, the Poet asked for a closed circuit monitor for the exhibition hall in case there was an overwhelming crowd with a battering ram. As it was, dear beleaguered Dr. Hentshker had to schlep an old monitor from his home so that the singers could see the conducting directions from maestro Mara Waldman.
WHAT ARMIES AND PERFORMERS DO TO STAY ALIVE
What kept the Poet calm during this exciting day? She was lucky enough to have shelter from a friend in the neighborhood of the CUNY Graduate Center, a seven-minute walk so she could check on the last minute details in the morning. Ellen Rappaport, a new friend had organized a lunch at Ali Babba’s, the Poet’s favorite Turkish Restaurant, which kept her nourished until the short break between the afternoon and evening events. Then some more of her friends—composer Janet Peachey, poet-librettist Nathalie Anderson, dramaturg Maxine Kern—joined her at the CUNY Graduate Center’s café while she ate a little vegetarian fare (okra stew and rice, yum!). And after, this time for sure thanks to Roger Cunningham, the triumphant Nancy Rhodes, Mara Waldman (Encompass music director), singer Roland Burks (St. Ignatius), Frank Hentschker, Hans Gallas, Steven Watson, his videographers, several people associated with the new music orchestra Ionisation, Norman Carey (director of the CUNY Graduate Center Doctor of Musical Arts performance program and Nadine Carey (she was in the Four Saints chorus and both she and her husband Norman have worked with Nancy Rhodes in the past on Encompass productions) and the Poet all leaned in to toast the production and the events that led up to it at Brendan’s Bar and Grill. More good food eaten there. Armies and performers definitely travel by what goes into the stomach. Good food helps produce good results.
Then with the spirits of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson lighting the way, the Poet, thinking about how a February 2008 production of In Circles, a musical by the late Reverend Al Carmines based on Stein’s A Circular Play: A Play in Circles was the genesis of the Four Saints celebration, walked the few blocks home to her friend’s condo and fell deliriously into bed like a heavy log.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Raising Four Saints in the 21st Century
Before the moment flees, the Steiny Road Poet wants to clarify—she only raised one saint and his name is Ivan. The Saints under discussion here are the ones Gertrude Stein created for Virgil Thomson so they could have an opera together: Four Saints in Three Acts. That opera premiered on Broadway February 20, 1934, and that is what the Poet will be celebrating with her dear friends and colleagues Nancy Rhodes, artistic director of Encompass New Opera Theatre, and Frank Hentschker, director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre of the Graduate School of City University New York, on February 20, 2009, at CUNY’s Graduate Center.
THE COST OF FREE
The 2009 celebration of the 75th anniversary of Four Saints will be gloriously free to the public. The public, that means you, Dear Reader, must come early to claim a seat because after the 180 seats in Elebash Recital are filled, there will be no seeing the historic 50-minute oratorio version Nancy is producing with Roland Burks as St. Ignatius, Laura Choi Stuart as Theresa, Eve Gigliotti as Commère, and Nils Neubert as St. Chavez and St. Stephen.
At the 2009 Encompass New Opera Theatre party, I heard Roland Burks sing the joyful “Pigeons on the Grass, Alas” segment of the opera (there are no arias in Four Saints—it’s an equal opportunity opera) and my heart nearly broke open with excitement and spiritual lift. If you cannot come early, I recommend you contact Encompass and donate $100 so a seat can be reserved for you. The money is needed to pay the small orchestra that will enhance Virgil Thomson’s settings of Gertrude Stein’s poetry.
MORE STEIN IN 2011
All the photos from that fundraising party can be seen in the slideshow currently installed in the upper left-hand column of this blog. Seen at the opera party was American art historian
Wanda Corn who will be speaking at the 75th anniversary celebration in the afternoon on what Stein’s operas did for this early Modernist who now folks say is a Post-Modernist as well. Go, Gertrude! Professor Corn, who is currently teaching for one semester at CUNY’s Graduate Center, will be curating an art show that is a cultural study of Stein’s friendships and partnerships with other artists during the period between the two great wars (WWI & WWII). That show entitled “Seeing Gertrude Stein” will open in San Francisco at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and run from May to September 2011. The show will move to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC (Fall 2011). Wouldn’t it be swell if Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On could be featured along with this art exhibition?
PHILISTINE, SAINT OR STEINIAN—BUY BOOKS
OK, so come hear the Steiny Road Poet talk about why Four Saints in Three Acts remains the most important American opera at CUNY’s Graduate Center 3 pm on February 20. Be a saint and bring your checkbook so you can buy The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas and Steven Watson’s book Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism. Steven will be airing his film based on his book and original film footage from the 1934 production of Four Saints (2 pm). If you don’t get into the Elebash Hall at 6:30 pm, you will be able to see the Hans Gallas Gertrude Stein collection.
THE COST OF FREE
The 2009 celebration of the 75th anniversary of Four Saints will be gloriously free to the public. The public, that means you, Dear Reader, must come early to claim a seat because after the 180 seats in Elebash Recital are filled, there will be no seeing the historic 50-minute oratorio version Nancy is producing with Roland Burks as St. Ignatius, Laura Choi Stuart as Theresa, Eve Gigliotti as Commère, and Nils Neubert as St. Chavez and St. Stephen.
At the 2009 Encompass New Opera Theatre party, I heard Roland Burks sing the joyful “Pigeons on the Grass, Alas” segment of the opera (there are no arias in Four Saints—it’s an equal opportunity opera) and my heart nearly broke open with excitement and spiritual lift. If you cannot come early, I recommend you contact Encompass and donate $100 so a seat can be reserved for you. The money is needed to pay the small orchestra that will enhance Virgil Thomson’s settings of Gertrude Stein’s poetry.
MORE STEIN IN 2011
All the photos from that fundraising party can be seen in the slideshow currently installed in the upper left-hand column of this blog. Seen at the opera party was American art historian
Wanda Corn who will be speaking at the 75th anniversary celebration in the afternoon on what Stein’s operas did for this early Modernist who now folks say is a Post-Modernist as well. Go, Gertrude! Professor Corn, who is currently teaching for one semester at CUNY’s Graduate Center, will be curating an art show that is a cultural study of Stein’s friendships and partnerships with other artists during the period between the two great wars (WWI & WWII). That show entitled “Seeing Gertrude Stein” will open in San Francisco at the Contemporary Jewish Museum and run from May to September 2011. The show will move to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC (Fall 2011). Wouldn’t it be swell if Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On could be featured along with this art exhibition? PHILISTINE, SAINT OR STEINIAN—BUY BOOKS
OK, so come hear the Steiny Road Poet talk about why Four Saints in Three Acts remains the most important American opera at CUNY’s Graduate Center 3 pm on February 20. Be a saint and bring your checkbook so you can buy The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas and Steven Watson’s book Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism. Steven will be airing his film based on his book and original film footage from the 1934 production of Four Saints (2 pm). If you don’t get into the Elebash Hall at 6:30 pm, you will be able to see the Hans Gallas Gertrude Stein collection.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Of Kill Fees and Presidential Musicales
How many times is a poet paid to NOT sing for her supper? In fact, how often is it that a poet gets her dinner when she goes out to do a reading?
On January 18, 2009, this poet was invited to do a seven-minute reading at 3:30 pm in celebration of Gival Press’s new anthology Poetic Voices without Borders 2 in A Sunday Kind of Love poetry program at the 14th & V Street Busboys & Poets restaurant. 
What this meant to this poet was writing a new poem to present, selecting the poems that would be read, deciding the introductory remarks, practicing the reading several times, inviting friends and family to the reading, and getting myself to Busboys on time. All this cost me time and money and I had no expectation of getting anything except a copy or two of the new anthology as total payment.
My husband Jim Rich decided to go with me because he likes Busboys and so by some miracle we got there just before 3 pm (Jim wanted to have lunch ahead of the poetry reading). By miracle, I mean the roads leading downtown were packed with cars headed into the city for a pre-inaugural event. At Busboys, we headed straight back to the Langston Room and found one unoccupied table that we claimed. What we realized straight away was that president-elect Obama’s musicale was being broadcast live from HBO on the big screen in this room set aside for poetry in honor of Langston Hughes. The people assembled were vocally reacting to the performers and Barack Obama and his family. 
About 15 minutes later, Melissa Tuckey, the current host of A Sunday Kind of Love, and her husband Dave appeared and we all started conferring about what a tough transition it was going to be when the HBO broadcast got turned off at 3:30 pm. Being first on a list of six poets, I said I would dedicate my first poem to Michele Obama.
Then the other poets started showing up Yvette Neisser, Patricia Gray, Joe Ross, and Sydney March. Only Christopher Conlon didn’t make the event since he had alerted me he might not, due to succumbing to a cold.
Last came Robert Giron and his partner Ken Schellenberg with a box of books.
When the assistant manager announced to the crowd that there would be a poetry reading starting a little late at 4 pm, the crowd voiced their disapproval. So he called the Busboy’s owner Andy Shallal and Andy said, “Go with the most popular program and offer the poets dinner on the house and a kill fee of $25.” So there you have it, in a room bearing a poet’s name, poets were paid off not to sing their lyrics.
Nonetheless, I went around to each table of folks and gave them literature from The Word Works and everyone apologized and took my poetry propaganda. Two tables of people were disappointed and said so. Pat Gray and I gave one table a private reading of one poem each. Seeing Obama did remind me that when Martin Luther King delivered his “I had a dream” speech at that very same memorial, my mother refused to let me attend. It also reminded me that having grown up in a family of six children, I don’t like crowds and what could be better than to see the musicale from the comfort of Busboys?
Next time I do a reading, I’m inviting Barack and Michelle.
On January 18, 2009, this poet was invited to do a seven-minute reading at 3:30 pm in celebration of Gival Press’s new anthology Poetic Voices without Borders 2 in A Sunday Kind of Love poetry program at the 14th & V Street Busboys & Poets restaurant. 
What this meant to this poet was writing a new poem to present, selecting the poems that would be read, deciding the introductory remarks, practicing the reading several times, inviting friends and family to the reading, and getting myself to Busboys on time. All this cost me time and money and I had no expectation of getting anything except a copy or two of the new anthology as total payment.
My husband Jim Rich decided to go with me because he likes Busboys and so by some miracle we got there just before 3 pm (Jim wanted to have lunch ahead of the poetry reading). By miracle, I mean the roads leading downtown were packed with cars headed into the city for a pre-inaugural event. At Busboys, we headed straight back to the Langston Room and found one unoccupied table that we claimed. What we realized straight away was that president-elect Obama’s musicale was being broadcast live from HBO on the big screen in this room set aside for poetry in honor of Langston Hughes. The people assembled were vocally reacting to the performers and Barack Obama and his family. 
About 15 minutes later, Melissa Tuckey, the current host of A Sunday Kind of Love, and her husband Dave appeared and we all started conferring about what a tough transition it was going to be when the HBO broadcast got turned off at 3:30 pm. Being first on a list of six poets, I said I would dedicate my first poem to Michele Obama. Then the other poets started showing up Yvette Neisser, Patricia Gray, Joe Ross, and Sydney March. Only Christopher Conlon didn’t make the event since he had alerted me he might not, due to succumbing to a cold.
Last came Robert Giron and his partner Ken Schellenberg with a box of books.
When the assistant manager announced to the crowd that there would be a poetry reading starting a little late at 4 pm, the crowd voiced their disapproval. So he called the Busboy’s owner Andy Shallal and Andy said, “Go with the most popular program and offer the poets dinner on the house and a kill fee of $25.” So there you have it, in a room bearing a poet’s name, poets were paid off not to sing their lyrics.
Nonetheless, I went around to each table of folks and gave them literature from The Word Works and everyone apologized and took my poetry propaganda. Two tables of people were disappointed and said so. Pat Gray and I gave one table a private reading of one poem each. Seeing Obama did remind me that when Martin Luther King delivered his “I had a dream” speech at that very same memorial, my mother refused to let me attend. It also reminded me that having grown up in a family of six children, I don’t like crowds and what could be better than to see the musicale from the comfort of Busboys?Next time I do a reading, I’m inviting Barack and Michelle.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Mathematics & Love
Just in case you, Dear Reader, do not do numbers, I'm warning you now that this post is about participating in a poetry reading on the theme “Mathematics and Love” in conjunction with the national Joint Mathematics Meetings that were held in Washington, DC, on January 7, 2009. The reading featured poets who were recently published in Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics edited by Sarah Glaz
and JoAnne Growney.
The reading drew a large crowd, perhaps 100 people or more. The publishers—A. K. Peters Ltd set up a table to sell their books and others brought by the poets, including The Steiny Road to Operadom, but I think this was a hard crowd to sell to despite them turning out in record numbers for a poetry event.
Because both Sarah Glaz and JoAnne Growney are mathematicians, the reading ran like clockwork. So I'm picking up the program list and supplying photos to give the flavor of what happened. The numbers after the poem titles indicate the anthology page number where the poem can be found. All of the poets were asked to read a poem by a poet who was not at this reading. As you can see from the what follows the poets' names (those in attendance), many are affiliated with a university or college and quite a few are mathematicians as well as poets. What is also obvious is that many of these participating poets traveled from a significant distance to be at this reading and/or conference.
SARAH GLAZ, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
Love Story (91)
Mathematics (Hanns Cibulka, 136)
KARREN LALONDE ALENIER, CHEVY CHASE, MD
Dialectic of the Census Takers (75)
from Five Poems about Zero (Eryk Salvaggio, 55)
JUDITH BAUMEL, ADELPHI UNIVERSITY
Fibonacci (7)
Why Does Disorder Increase in the Same Direction of Time as That in Which the Universe Expands? (Roald Hoffman, 31)
MARION DEUTSCHE COHEN, ARCADIA UNIVERSITY
Scared and the Intermediate Value Theorem (1 37)
What Drove Me into Math (138)
My Number (Sandra Alcosser, 128)
JENNIFER CROW, WEST FALLS, NY
Mathematics (83)
from The Cyberiad (Stanislaw Lem, 38)
KATHRYN DEZUR, SUNY TECHNICAL COLLEGE AT DELHI
Fibonacci Numbers (85)
We Sat, So Patient (Len Roberts, 183)
BOB GRUMMAN, PORT CHARLOTTE, FL
Mathemaku No 10, (95)
ISRAEL LEWIS, SILVER SPRING, MD
I Find my Faith in the Flatness of Space (104)
KAZ MASLANKA, D3 TECHNOLOGIES
Sacrifice and Bliss (168)
Addition (Langston Hughes,99)
Useless (Randall Munroe, 171)
WILMER MILLS, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA;
Equation for My Children (105)
Sine Qua Non (A E Stallings, 116)
Statistics (J V Cunningham, 15)
Proportions of the Heart (Emily Grosholz, 92)
WENDY MNOOKIN, EMERSON COLLEGE
Math (110)
Flash Cards (Rita Dove, 86)
KYOKO MORI, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY;
Barbie Says Math is Hard (111)
Self-Improvement (Tony Hoagland,29)
DEANNA NIKAIDO, BALTIMORE, MD
July 18, 2005 (50)
from Chaos Theory (Ronald Wallace, 66)
BECKY DENNISON SAKELLARIOU, KIFISSIA, GR;
Math is Beautiful and So Are You (54)
“Number Man” (Carl Sandburg, 185)
JOHN VIEIRA, POTOMAC, MD
The Lake Swan, the Tom (124)
Let’s Live and Love: To Lesbia (by Gaius Valerius Catullus, 12)
from Lilavati (by Bhaskaracharya, 131)
Part 2
Poems for this part of the reading primarily came in response to a call for submissions in the preliminary program for the 2009 Joint Mathematics Meetings.
PATRICK BAHLS, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, ASHVILLE
Inverse
Symmetry
RAD DIMITRIC, PITTSBURGH, PA
If They Try
CHARLOTTE HENDERSON, A K PETERS, LTD
Couple Theory
ROSANNA IEMBO, UNIVERSITY OF CALABRIA, ITALY
All the World's a Complex System --- Of the Imaginary and the Real CHONG M. LIN and R. IEMBO ( violin by IRENE IACCARINO).
RON MOSIER (1938 -2008)
Finishing the Math, read by RUTH FAVRO, Lawrence Technological University.
JUDITH BAUMEL, ADELPHI UNIVERSITY
Thirty-six Poets
BOB GRUMMAN, PORT CHARLOTTE, FL
Mathemaku for Beethoven
ISRAEL LEWIS, SILVER SPRING, MD
Cantor—a poem with two voices read by Lewis and DEANNA NIKAIDO
KAZ MASLANKA, D3 TECHNOLOGIES
Prometheus's Epistle to Job
JOANNE GROWNEY, SILVER SPRING, MD
My Dance is Mathematics (158)
San Antonio, January, 1993 (160)
After the reading a bunch of my friends and I went to the hotel bar (it was a fiercely rainy night) and hung out with the organizers and some of the poets.
if you want a review of the reading, check out the blog called Conversations with a Stone (great title, huh?).
and JoAnne Growney.
The reading drew a large crowd, perhaps 100 people or more. The publishers—A. K. Peters Ltd set up a table to sell their books and others brought by the poets, including The Steiny Road to Operadom, but I think this was a hard crowd to sell to despite them turning out in record numbers for a poetry event.
Because both Sarah Glaz and JoAnne Growney are mathematicians, the reading ran like clockwork. So I'm picking up the program list and supplying photos to give the flavor of what happened. The numbers after the poem titles indicate the anthology page number where the poem can be found. All of the poets were asked to read a poem by a poet who was not at this reading. As you can see from the what follows the poets' names (those in attendance), many are affiliated with a university or college and quite a few are mathematicians as well as poets. What is also obvious is that many of these participating poets traveled from a significant distance to be at this reading and/or conference.
SARAH GLAZ, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
Love Story (91)
Mathematics (Hanns Cibulka, 136)
KARREN LALONDE ALENIER, CHEVY CHASE, MDDialectic of the Census Takers (75)
from Five Poems about Zero (Eryk Salvaggio, 55)
JUDITH BAUMEL, ADELPHI UNIVERSITY
Fibonacci (7)
Why Does Disorder Increase in the Same Direction of Time as That in Which the Universe Expands? (Roald Hoffman, 31)
MARION DEUTSCHE COHEN, ARCADIA UNIVERSITY
Scared and the Intermediate Value Theorem (1 37)
What Drove Me into Math (138)
My Number (Sandra Alcosser, 128)
JENNIFER CROW, WEST FALLS, NY
Mathematics (83)
from The Cyberiad (Stanislaw Lem, 38)
KATHRYN DEZUR, SUNY TECHNICAL COLLEGE AT DELHI
Fibonacci Numbers (85)
We Sat, So Patient (Len Roberts, 183)
BOB GRUMMAN, PORT CHARLOTTE, FLMathemaku No 10, (95)
ISRAEL LEWIS, SILVER SPRING, MD
I Find my Faith in the Flatness of Space (104)
KAZ MASLANKA, D3 TECHNOLOGIES
Sacrifice and Bliss (168)
Addition (Langston Hughes,99)
Useless (Randall Munroe, 171)
WILMER MILLS, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA;
Equation for My Children (105)
Sine Qua Non (A E Stallings, 116)
Statistics (J V Cunningham, 15)
Proportions of the Heart (Emily Grosholz, 92)
WENDY MNOOKIN, EMERSON COLLEGE
Math (110)
Flash Cards (Rita Dove, 86)
KYOKO MORI, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY;
Barbie Says Math is Hard (111)
Self-Improvement (Tony Hoagland,29)
DEANNA NIKAIDO, BALTIMORE, MDJuly 18, 2005 (50)
from Chaos Theory (Ronald Wallace, 66)
BECKY DENNISON SAKELLARIOU, KIFISSIA, GR;
Math is Beautiful and So Are You (54)
“Number Man” (Carl Sandburg, 185)
JOHN VIEIRA, POTOMAC, MD
The Lake Swan, the Tom (124)
Let’s Live and Love: To Lesbia (by Gaius Valerius Catullus, 12)
from Lilavati (by Bhaskaracharya, 131)
Part 2
Poems for this part of the reading primarily came in response to a call for submissions in the preliminary program for the 2009 Joint Mathematics Meetings.
PATRICK BAHLS, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, ASHVILLE
Inverse
Symmetry
RAD DIMITRIC, PITTSBURGH, PA
If They Try
CHARLOTTE HENDERSON, A K PETERS, LTD
Couple Theory
ROSANNA IEMBO, UNIVERSITY OF CALABRIA, ITALY
All the World's a Complex System --- Of the Imaginary and the Real CHONG M. LIN and R. IEMBO ( violin by IRENE IACCARINO).
RON MOSIER (1938 -2008)
Finishing the Math, read by RUTH FAVRO, Lawrence Technological University.
JUDITH BAUMEL, ADELPHI UNIVERSITY
Thirty-six Poets
BOB GRUMMAN, PORT CHARLOTTE, FL
Mathemaku for Beethoven
ISRAEL LEWIS, SILVER SPRING, MD
Cantor—a poem with two voices read by Lewis and DEANNA NIKAIDO
KAZ MASLANKA, D3 TECHNOLOGIES
Prometheus's Epistle to Job
JOANNE GROWNEY, SILVER SPRING, MD
My Dance is Mathematics (158)
San Antonio, January, 1993 (160)
After the reading a bunch of my friends and I went to the hotel bar (it was a fiercely rainy night) and hung out with the organizers and some of the poets.
if you want a review of the reading, check out the blog called Conversations with a Stone (great title, huh?).
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Behind and Ahead: Year in Review, Year Coming
Opportunities to meet and hear the Steiny Road Poet are looming on the horizon and can be seen in detail on her events calendar at http://members.tripod.com/alenier/events.htm. The rundown of events include several readings, a book fair in Chicago, a talk in NYC, and a workshop. Variety often produces new audiences and opportunities. So far, 2009 looks very fertile.
January 7, 2009 7-9 pm Reading from Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics at The Joint Mathematics Meeting in DC
January 18, 2009 4-6 pm Reading from Poetic Voices Without Borders 2 at DC’s hippest restaurant Busboys and Poets.
February 11, 2009 6:30-9 pm WNBA-DC Workshop on Blogging.
February 12-14, 2009 AWP Convention & Book Fair in Chicago.
February 20, 2009 2-5 pm 75th anniversary of the Broadway premiere of Gertrude Stein's and Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts at City University New York.
Thursday, April 16 at 7:30 pm Nora School reading.
Reflecting on 2008, The Steiny Road to Operadom had book launches in DC (January at Bridge Street Books) and in New York (October at the Drama Book Shop).
The Poet had opportunities to promote her book at
--a New York City opera party (January for Encompass New Opera Theatre),
--a NYC production of a musical play based on a Gertrude Stein Text (February – Al Carmine’s In Circles),
--a conference on Thornton Wilder (February at Catholic University),
--a conference for Executive Women in Business and Government (March--DC),
--a town hall meeting for dramatists (July at the Kennedy Center), and
--a literary conference where the Poet presented a paper on Gertrude Stein (September at Duquesne University).
Travel to New York (January, February, May, October), Virginia Wolfe’s Time of the Mighty Dogwood (April), Paris (June), Las Vegas (July), New Hampshire (August), Pittsburgh (September), Minneapolis (December) widened the Poet’s audience in various ways.
Just for a some exotic variety, the SR Poet participated in an Exquisite Corpse collaboration (July in Silver Spring, MD), crossed paths with a much admired critic author Alex Ross (February), and got great tips on publicizing new books from some pros (January).
And a confession, the Poet had a reading November 17 at The Word Works Cafe Muse Literary Salon with poet Kevin Prufer and failed to report that! However, books were sold and the reading was well attended.
January 7, 2009 7-9 pm Reading from Strange Attractors: Poems of Love and Mathematics at The Joint Mathematics Meeting in DCJanuary 18, 2009 4-6 pm Reading from Poetic Voices Without Borders 2 at DC’s hippest restaurant Busboys and Poets.
February 11, 2009 6:30-9 pm WNBA-DC Workshop on Blogging.
February 12-14, 2009 AWP Convention & Book Fair in Chicago.
February 20, 2009 2-5 pm 75th anniversary of the Broadway premiere of Gertrude Stein's and Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts at City University New York.
Thursday, April 16 at 7:30 pm Nora School reading.
Reflecting on 2008, The Steiny Road to Operadom had book launches in DC (January at Bridge Street Books) and in New York (October at the Drama Book Shop).
The Poet had opportunities to promote her book at
--a New York City opera party (January for Encompass New Opera Theatre),
--a NYC production of a musical play based on a Gertrude Stein Text (February – Al Carmine’s In Circles),
--a conference on Thornton Wilder (February at Catholic University),
--a conference for Executive Women in Business and Government (March--DC),
--a town hall meeting for dramatists (July at the Kennedy Center), and
--a literary conference where the Poet presented a paper on Gertrude Stein (September at Duquesne University).
Travel to New York (January, February, May, October), Virginia Wolfe’s Time of the Mighty Dogwood (April), Paris (June), Las Vegas (July), New Hampshire (August), Pittsburgh (September), Minneapolis (December) widened the Poet’s audience in various ways.
Just for a some exotic variety, the SR Poet participated in an Exquisite Corpse collaboration (July in Silver Spring, MD), crossed paths with a much admired critic author Alex Ross (February), and got great tips on publicizing new books from some pros (January).
And a confession, the Poet had a reading November 17 at The Word Works Cafe Muse Literary Salon with poet Kevin Prufer and failed to report that! However, books were sold and the reading was well attended.
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