Inside PennSound



Cecilia Vicuña


Photo © 2008 Charles Bernstein/PennSound.

Reading at Wednesdays @ 4 Plus, SUNY-Buffalo, March 17, 1993

complete reading (35:43): MP3

LINEbreak Reading at the Charles Morrow and Associates Studio, New York City, September 1995

Cecilia improvises a song in Quechua (0:30): RealAudio
Cecilia performs a multilingual quazar (1:40): RealAudio
Water (3:00): MP3

Complete Recording (28:59): MP3

The Radio Reading Project, New York University, April 24, 1999

Complete Recording (51:27): MP3

Reading at Wednesdays @ 4 Plus, SUNY-Buffalo, March 22, 2002

Complete Reading (47:52): MP3

Appearing on Cross-Cultural Poetics, "Word in Words" Reading, March 8, 2004

  1. Introduction (0:46): MP3
  2. Reading from Water Poems (4:20): MP3
  3. Water and fluidity of language and culture in poetry (2:37): MP3
  4. Influence of Quechua language (2:31): MP3
  5. Jose Maria Argueda's influence on Vicuna's work (1:49): MP3
  6. Performance of poetry (1:12): MP3
  7. Reading a poem performed for St. Mark's Poetry Project in 2002 (5:56): MP3
  8. Form and content of performance poetry (1:25): MP3
  9. Discussing current work (0:52): MP3
  10. Overlaps of Quechua and Chinese artistic production (5:07): MP3
  11. Comments on upcoming work; conclusion of first half (2:52): MP3
Complete Reading (29:28) MP3

Writers Without Borders Reading, Kelly Writers House, UPenn, April 15, 2008

Introduction by Al Filreis (2:54): MP3
Introduction by Charles Bernstein (6:58): MP3
Poems and songs by Cecilia Vicuña (40:08): MP3

Complete Reading (50:23): MP3

A 40th Anniversary Celebration of Technicians of the Sacred, at the Bowery Poetry Club, September 14, 2008

Complete reading (17:15): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, March 28, 2009

Complete Recording (29:53): MP3

Reading from Poems for the Millenium III, Bowery Poetry Club, NY, March 29, 2009

Complete Reading (16:09):MP3

Reading for Threads Talk Series, November 3, 2010

"Knotations on a Quipu"
  1. Introduction by Steve Clay (3:07): MP3
  2. Talk (40:25): MP3
  3. Discussion (15:39): MP3
Complete Recording (1:00:32): MP3

A screening and discussion of Kon Kon, a documentary poem, Kelly Writers House, February 3, 2011

complete recording (1:24:40): MP3

excerpt, discussing ritual in relation to poetry (6:45): YouTube

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Flux Poetics; Writing in Cultural Duality, Belladonna* Reading Series, New York, April 19, 2011

complete reading (19:08): MP3

Appearing on Cross Cultural Poetics #239: Two Masters, 2011

  • complete segment (31:45): MP3

Chanting fragments of her poem Instan (Kelsey Street Press 2002), improvising on a Tibetan dramyin, Berkeley, February 17, 2012

Recorded by Ross Craig

  1. alba del habla/mother of time (4:38): MP3
  2. luz y del qué/cúal es nuestra verdad? (8:20): MP3
  3. Instan, a journey inside words, an oral improvisation (5:27): MP3

kunter ko (water condor), 2012

Alba de Habla, Dawn of Speech
poems for the spirit of water, composed in response to the destruction of glaciers in Chile

1. Apu miski yawar (Powerful Sweet blood) (2:31): MP3
2. Kunter Niño (Condor child) (4:42): MP3
3. El Hueco, el sonido, el hueso (The hollow, the sound, the bone) (1:32): MP3
4. Ballena azul, Oro de oir (Blue whale click, Hearing is the gold (3:36): MP3
5. Oro es tu hilar (Gold is your spinning) (2:29): MP3
6. El Augau es el oro (Water is the gold) (2:27): MP3
7. Tu ira es el oro (Your rage is the gold) (1:45): MP3
8. Quipu menstrual (Menstrual Quipu) (1:32): MP3
9. Cóndor conrdón (Condor cord) (1:15): MP3
10. Kuntur Ko (Water condor) (3:05): MP3
11. Apaéme con el cristal (Pair me with crystal) (1:26): MP3
12. Agüita (Little Water) (2:28): MP3
13. Melinko Lauen (Medicine mist of the waterfall (2:13): MP3
14. Alba del halba (Dawn of Speech) (9:41): MP3
15. Na ni ná Compartir (No sharing, 2nd part of Alba del Halba) (5:04): MP3

recorded at NYU's Department of Recorded Music, Tisch, 2006
produced and engineered by Balan Villanueva
mastered by Randy Merrill at Masterdisk, NYC
special thanks to: Paul Geluso, Jim Anderson, Noah Simon, Alex de Turk, Balan Villanueva, Randy Merrill, and James O'Hern
cover photo: César Paternosto
graphic design: Diane Bertolo
Torn Sound Records

Also of interest:

  • I'll Drown My Book, a celebration of the I'll Drown My Book anthology held at the Kelly Writers House, October 17, 2012

Cecilia Vicuña on PennSound Daily

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to Cecilia Vicuña. Used with the permission of Cecilia Vicuña. © 2008 Cecilia Vicuña. Distributed by PennSound.