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Stephen Ratcliffe


Photo courtesy of Michael Meyers

PoemTalk #110, Discussing Philip Whalen's "Life at Bolinas. The Last of California," feat. Stephen Ratcliffe, Joanne Kyger, and Julia Bloch

For complete recording and program notes go to Jacket2.

PoemTalk #79, Discussing Joanne Kyger's β€œIt's Been a Long Time: Notes from the Revolution,” feat. Julia Bloch, Stephen Ratcliffe, and Pattie McCarthy

For complete recording and program notes go to Jacket2.


Performing with Thingamajigs Performance Group, Shapeshifters Cinema, Oakland, CA, June 27, 2021

Sound of Wave in Channel 10/1/13-4/10/14 (2:05:00): MP3

Sound of Wave in Channel 4/10/14-9/30/14 (2:05:04): MP3

Sound of Wave in Channel 10/1/14-2/12/15 (1:33:42): MP3

Sound of Wave in Channel 2/13/15-7/31/15 (1:51:58): MP3

Sound of Wave in Channel 8/1/15-2/9/16 (2:05:04): MP3

Sound of Wave in Channel 2/9/16-6/26/16 (1:31:30): MP3

Original files on SoundCloud: link

"Rocks," Bolinas, CA, 2021

Rocks was written on a backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada between South Lake and Whitney Portal, 120 miles over six 12,000-foot passes, August 10 – 18, 1993. I wrote the poem in three-line stanzas (five syllables in the first line, three in the second, five in the third), as a kind of walking meditation.


Media.SAS Server link: MP4

Appearing on KWMR's Original Minds, West Marin Radio, March 7, 2020

Complete Recording (59:59): MP3

Reading at Moe's Books, Berkeley, CA, May 28, 2019

Complete Recording (28:22): MP3

Interview with Steve Helig and reading of _sound of wave in channel_, The New School at Commonweal, Bolinas, February 20, 2019

Full program notes here.

Reading from _sound of wave in channel_ and _w i n d o w_ at Vanne Bistro with Norman Fischer, Berkeley, CA, January 7, 2019

Complete Recording (26:53): MP3

Reading from _sound of wave in channel_ at Alley Cat Books, San Francisco, CA, October 28, 2018

Complete Recording (24:21): MP3

Interview with Marialidia Marcotulli, July 7, 2018

Complete Recording (1:16:40): MP3

Tribute Reading for Larry Eigner's 90th Birthday, The Green Arcade, San Francisco, CA, August 7, 2017

On occasion of the publication of the selected poems, with Jennifer Bartlett, Norma Cole, Steve Dickison, Richard Eigner, Norman Fischer, Jack Foley, Kathleen Frumkin, George Hart, Lyn Hejinian, and Kit Robinson.

Complete recording (1:52:07): MP3

Complete reading of c o n t i n u u m in Vallejo, California, October 9, 2016

For more information on c o n t i n u u m, part of Ratcliffe's ongoing series of 1,000-page books, each written in 1,000 consecutive days, click here and here.

This performance was in collaboration with the Thingamajigs Performance Group, Rae Diamond (The Long Tone Choir), dancers Shinichi Iova-Koga (Ink Boat) and Jubilith Moore, and special guests. The event took place from 6am-8pm on October 9, 2016, in a WWII bunker at the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve in Vallejo, CA.