Syd Zolf

PoemTalk #131, discussing Syd Zolf's Human Resources, feat. Jeff T. Johnson, Amy Paeth, and Whitney Trettien

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

PoemTalk #111, discussing Naomi Replansky's "In Syrup, In Syrup," and "Ring Song," feat. Ron Silliman, Syd Zolf, and Charles Bernstein

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

PoemTalk #103, discussing Simone White's Poem "Of Being Dispersed"

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

Reading and interview with Airea D. Matthews for launch of No One's Witness: A Monstrous Poetics, Kelly Writers House, September 9, 2021

Complete recording (1:22:01): MP3

Recording at the Wexler Studio of the Kelly Writers House, May 9, 2018

1. Ingredients of a winning visual identity... (0:17): MP3
2. Spoilsport of sorts... (0:39): MP3
3. Trapped in this high performance culture... (0:22): MP3
4. Written with a luxurious... (0:37): MP3
5. Align this process... (0:20): MP3
6. Are you 'he'... (0:29): MP3
7. Of Jew producing... (0:36): MP3
8. You know the drill... (0:36): MP3
9. Just to make sure... (0:21): MP3
10. How to write for the internet... (0:16): MP3
11. Does the unreadable... (0:33): MP3
12. Reading and gleaning from the same German root... (0:29): MP3
13. Rather than kill the gift of art... (0:35): MP3
14. Albino Lucille... (0:53): MP3
15. What's the use of Jews writing limericks... (0:27): MP3
16. If shit is the work of art... (0:23): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Zinc Bar, NYC, December 16, 2017

1. Introducing Syd Zolf (2:16): MP3
2. Introductory Remarks by Zolf (6:54): MP3
3. Janey's Invocation (0:57): MP3
4. Comments on Red River Twang (0:35): MP3
5. Red River Twang (2:10): MP3
6. Janey Settler's Pastoral Oasis (1:57): MP3
7. Readings from The Holy Scriptures (3:43): MP3
8. Janey Settler Invader (2:57): MP3
9. Comments on Face to Face to Face (1:22): MP3
10. Face to Face to Face (3:47): MP3
11. Intro to "the" from A Language No One Speaks: The Dangerous Perhaps of Monstrous Witness (2:00): MP3
12. the (11:52): MP3

Complete Reading (40:44): MP3

Polyvocal Reading from Janey's Arcadia, hosted by the Contemporary Poetics Research Group at Videofag, Toronto, 2 May, 2015

Introduction by Eric Schmaltz, Performers: Margaret Christakos, Liz Howard, Syd Zolf

Complete Reading (27:22): MP3

PennSound Podcast #48: Syd Zolf in Conversation with Brian Teare, Wexler Studio at the Kelly Writers House, March 18, 2015

Complete Recording (1:00:12): MP3

Read the interview transcript on Jacket2.

A Video Translation of Three Poems from Janey's Arcadia, 2014

Complete Recording (10:54): MP3

Written and directed by Syd Zolf, edited by Aleesa Cohene, with sound design/composition by Reena Katz, Janey’s Arcadia is a video translation of three poems from Zolf’s fifth book, Janey’s Arcadia (Coach House, 2014) – a conversive, aversive reckoning with the ongoing errors of Canadian settler-colonialism. Constructed from preview-quality National Film Board of Canada (NFB) stock footage, Janey’s Arcadia draws to the surface the NFB’s governmental role in “civilizing” Indigenous peoples and settler immigrants, drawing viewers into a charged encounter with the images and ideologies that have formed them.

Janey Settler-Invader is the foul-mouthed cyborg progeny of first-wave feminist Emily Murphy’s pioneer heroine, Janey Canuck, and punk pirate Kathy Acker’s guerrilla icon, Janey Smith. Slouching towards the Red River Colony, “Britain’s One Utopia” (now known as Winnipeg), Janey encounters Christian missionaries, real estate agents, Zolf’s grandfather and other settlers, whose voices she absorbs into a carnivalesque cacophony of accented speech, weather, violence, foliage and carnality.

Pocked with digital glitches and glitched subjectivities, Janey’s Arcadia restages the ongoing appropriations and flawed disavowals of colonization in Canada. As the burnt-in NFB logo foregrounds who owns the gaze, the running timecodes continuously jump, enacting Walter Benjamin’s notion of “now-time” – unarchived, effaced remembrances flashing up, interrupting and reorienting the present. Unsettling the Arcadian promise of a new pure home via images deemed too impure for broadcast, Janey’s Arcadia squalls across time, flashing pornographic signs that the colonial catastrophe continues with each brutal scrubbing of Indigenous knowledges and settler responsibility.

Polyvocal Action at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg, MB, November 19, 2014

Complete Recording (28:44): MP3

Group polyvocal performance/action at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg, November 19, 2014. Voices: Ko'ona Cochrane, Katherena Vermette, Colin Smith, Heather Milne, Syd Zolf. Texts from Janey's Arcadia (Coach House, 2014) – and Chrystos' Not Vanishing (Press Gang, 1988), adapted by Katherena Vermette. Footage by Erika Macpherson, sound by Leah Decter.

Syd Zolf reading from Janey's Arcadia, Toronto, Nomber 9, 2014

Complete Recording (21:37): MP3

Sound Performance Translation of Janey's Arcadia, November 9, 2014

Complete Recording (27:06): MP3

Sound performance translation of Janey's Arcadia (Coach House Books, 2014), with Syd Zolf (voice), Reena Katz (electro-acoustic), Anne Lederman (violin) and Shannon Maguire on the overhead. November 9, 2014, Beit Zatoun, Toronto. Footage by Caro Ibrahim.

Polyvocal Performance, Gastown, Vancouver, September 27, 2014

Complete Recording (32:41): MP3

Polyvocal performance/action by the Gassy Jack statue in Gastown, Vancouver. Voices: Muriel Marjorie, Cecily Nicholson, Natalie Knight, Danielle Lafrance, Syd Zolf. Texts from Zolf's book, Janey's Arcadia, Marie Annharte Baker's book, Indigena Awry, and the February 14th, 2014 list of missing and murdered Downtown Eastside Vancouver women. Footage by Arlene Bowman, with secondary audio by Aaron Vidaver.

Excerpt from Polyvocal Performance, San Francisco, CA, September 21, 2014

Complete Recording (3:46): MP3

Reading with Katie Fleishman at the Holloway Series in Poetry, UC Berkeley, October 19, 2010

Syd Zolf and Judith Butler read "Jews in Space" from Neighbour Procedure

1. General Introduction (4:15): MP3
2. Introduction for Katie Fleishman (4:57): MP3
3. Comments on Eastern Stocken (0:30): MP3
4. Eastern Stocken (0:57): MP3
5. Comments on Mousetrap (0:18): MP3
6. Mousetrap (1:29): MP3
7. Comments on Teeth (0:26): MP3
8. Teeth (1:11): MP3
9. Comments on Spring in London (0:19): MP3
10. Spring in London (1:28): MP3
11. Comments on Horse Farm (0:11): MP3
12. Horse Farm (1:40): MP3
13. Introduction for Syd Zolf (5:15): MP3
14. Comments by Zolf (1:38): MP3
15. Assaf Balak Barak... (1:27): MP3
16. ...feel compelled to learn how to say these names? (0:08): MP3
17. A priori (1:53): MP3
18. Did not participate in hostilities (1:04): MP3
19. The neighbor procedure (0:51): MP3
20. The barber (0:32): MP3
21. We have to make you do a little sports (0:57): MP3
22. Comments on The lone soldier (0:29): MP3
23. The lone soldier (1:03): MP3
24. Comments on The capacity to give names (0:28): MP3
25. The capacity to give names (1:23): MP3
26. A certain kind of madness (0:50): MP3
27. At the gate (0:53): MP3
28. Harming families has proven an effective policy (0:39): MP3
29. "car bomb..." (1:16): MP3
30. A failure of hospitality (1:00): MP3
31. Grievable (1:42): MP3
32. Nominal (0:52): MP3
33. Loss has made a tenuous we (0:48): MP3
34. "Waiting Interrogation..." (1:27): MP3
35. Comments on Book of Comparisons (2:05): MP3
36. Book of Comparisons (3:11): MP3
37. Comments on Innocent Abroad (0:37): MP3
38. How to shape sacred time (1:29): MP3
39. Comments on Messenger (0:10): MP3
40. Messenger (0:49): MP3
41. Comments on Jews in Space (0:15): MP3
42. Jews in Space (1:28): MP3
43. Comments on Jerusalem Syndrome (0:15): MP3
44. Jerusalem Syndrome (1:22): MP3
45. Comments on the IDF's Neighbor Procedure (0:54): MP3
46. In the beginning he broke on his own initiative (1:10): MP3
47. Comments on L’amiral cherche une maison à louer (0:38): MP3
48. L’amiral cherche une maison à louer (3:02): MP3
49. Comments on Talkback (0:50): MP3
50. Talkback (1:23): MP3
51. Grounds for Deletion (0:42): MP3
52. Comments on Acknowledgement (0:37): MP3
53. Acknowledgement (1:28): MP3
54. Mixed Crowd (0:49): MP3
55. Comments on Anticipate (peut-être) (1:09): MP3
56. Anticipate (peut-être) (2:18): MP3
57. Comments on L’éveil (0:44): MP3
58. L’éveil (2:30): MP3
59. Thank yous (0:33): MP3

Reading at "Diaspora Dialogues," Toronto, April 30, 2010

Keynote Performance, "Turning on Rights Conference," SUNY-Albany, April 16, 2010

Reading at Zinc Bar, New York City, April 11, 2010

• Jews In Space (a lunacy) (with Rob Fitterman) (2:39): MP3
• L'amiral cherche une maison à louer (3:42): MP3

Appearing at Advancing Feminist Poetics and Activism, sponsored by the Belladonna* Reading Series, New York, September 24, 2009

complete recording (1:06:55): MP3

Reading at the Kelly Writers House, April 16, 2009

1. Introduction by Michelle Taransky (0:47): MP3
2. Introduction by Syd Levitsky (3:23): MP3
3. Introductory Remarks by Syd Zolf (1:02): MP3
4. "If you spend six months..." (0:46): MP3
5. "New Performance Weightings..." (0:20): MP3
6. "Early in the new millennium..." (0:53): MP3
7. "Lesbian Writeing [sic]..." (0:14): MP3
8. "How to warm up your mental motor..." (0:14): MP3
9. "Retention Investments..." (0:38): MP3
10. "of green diaspora..." (0:26): MP3
11. "Jabès the atheist..." (0:36): MP3
12. "Anne Carson on Celan..." (0:31): MP3
13. "Adrienne Rich..." (0:38): MP3
14. Brief aside/remarks (0:14): MP3
15. "If'all poets are Jews' veiled in Cyrillic letters..." (0:27): MP3
16. "The Mystical White Crow..." (0:42): MP3
17. "the w1 fuck q1 (0:41): MP3
18. "Poesis consumes..." (0:26): MP3
19. "How to make a name..." (0:24): MP3
20. "A true copy of a copy..." (0:29): MP3
21. "It sounded too much like motherhood..." (0:18): MP3
22. "Spoilsports of sorts..." (0:34): MP3
23. "Trapped in this high performance culture..." (0:24): MP3
24. "Written with a luxurious..." (0:33): MP3
25. "But noisy..." (0:28): MP3
26. "How to write for the internet..." (0:17): MP3
27. "Does the unreadable..." (0:28): MP3
28. "Suckle a dangerous..." (0:33): MP3
29. "You had trouble accepting gifts..." (0:44): MP3
30. "If shit is the work of art..." (0:22): MP3
31. "You looked for subjectivity..." (0:30): MP3
32. "79 759 44465..." (0:30): MP3

Full reading from Human Resources (15:36): MP3

• a priori, from Neighbour Procedure (2:10): MP3
• Complete Reading (1:07:04): MP3

Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, March 7, 2009

1. a priori (2:55): MP3
2. The Neighbor Procedure (1:52): MP3
3. Grievable (2:01): MP3
4. Jews in Space (2:00): MP3
5. How to Shape Sacred Time (2:05): MP3
6. In the Beginning, He Broke on His Own Initiative (2:01): MP3
7. Cast As Lead (1:29): MP3
8. Go This Way (1:04): MP3
9. Leaping Poetry (1:31): MP3

Complete Reading (17:12): MP3

note: due to technical difficulties, this recording begins in medias res

Appearing on Cross-Cultural Poetics, hosted by Leonard Schwartz

Complete Reading (14:56): MP3

Reading with M. NourbeSe Philip at the Friends Meeting House, Toronto, ON, April 23, 2008

1. Assaf Balak Barak... (1:43): MP3
2. ...feel compelled to learn how to say these names? (0:10): MP3
3. A priori (2:05): MP3
4. Did not participate in hostilities (1:09): MP3
5. The neighbor procedure (0:46): MP3
6. The barber (0:50): MP3
7. Ridden (2:03): MP3
8. The lone soldier (1:12): MP3
9. A certain kind of madness (1:16): MP3
10. At the gate (1:28): MP3
11. Harming families has proven an effective policy (1:02): MP3
12. "car bomb..." (1:18): MP3
13. A failure of hospitality (1:47): MP3
14. Grievable (3:04): MP3
15. Loss has made a tenuous we (1:22): MP3
16. "Waiting Interrogation..." (1:21): MP3

Complete Reading from Shoot & Weep (22:44): MP3

Q&A Session with Philip and host Kate Eichhorn (13:53): MP3

Reading at the Atwater Library, Montreal, November 9, 2007

• excerpts from Human Resources:


• part one (12:24): MP3
1. Introduction (0:27): MP3
2. "If you spend six months writing policies for corporations..." (0:42): MP3
3. Aside (0:20): MP3
4. "On our side of the family..." (0:16): MP3
5. "Retention investments..." (0:40): MP3
6. "of green diaspora..." (0:24): MP3
7. "Jabès the Atheist..." (0:33): MP3
8. "Anne Carson on Célan..." (0:30): MP3
9. How to write persuasive body copy (0:13): MP3
10. "Adrienne Rich..." (0:33): MP3
11. "If'all poets are Jews' veiled in Cyrillic letters..." (0:23): MP3
12. "The mystical white crow..." (0:42): MP3
13. "The w1 fuck q1..." (0:43): MP3
14. Aside (0:22): MP3
15. "Poesis consumes..." (0:28): MP3
16. "Orwell says..." (0:26): MP3
17. "It sounded too much like 'motherhood'..." (0:17): MP3
18. "But noisy..." (0:25): MP3
19. How to make a name (0:23): MP3
20. "Spoilsport of sorts..." (0:32): MP3
21. "Trapped in this high performance culture..." (0:18): MP3
22. "Written with a luxurious..." (0:36): MP3
23. "Suckle a dangerous..." (0:33): MP3
24. "Are you 'he..." (0:23): MP3
25. "Of Jew producing..." (0:35): MP3
26. "You know the drill..." (0:30): MP3
27. How to write for the Internet (0:15): MP3


• part two(11:17): MP3
1. "Does the unreadable..." (0:27): MP3
2. "Reading and gleaning..." (0:24): MP3
3. "Rather than kill the gift..." (0:32): MP3
4. "If shit is a work of art..." (0:20): MP3
5. "You had trouble accepting gifts..." (0:40): MP3
6. "Ambiguities of the human condition..." (0:16): MP3
7. "If differance..." (0:29): MP3
8. "This is a marathon..." (0:19): MP3
9. "You looked for subjectivity..." (0:28): MP3
10. "1 403 9..." (0:23): MP3
11. Aside (0:20): MP3
• excerpts from Neighbour Procedure:


12. Introduction to Neighbour Procedure (0:22): MP3
13. Ridden (2:03): MP3
14. A failure of hospitality (1:24): MP3
15. Operation (0:48): MP3
16. A priori (1:55): MP3

Reading at the Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, May 11 (Possibly November 5), 2007

Full reading from Human Resources (21:49): MP3

1. Thanks (0:30): MP3
2. Epigraph from Human Resources (0:32): MP3
3. "The job is to write in 'plain language'..." (0:17): MP3
4. "New performance weightings..." (0:17): MP3
5. "Given enough input elements..." (0:33): MP3
6. "We're in a bit of a holding pattern..." (0:17): MP3
7. How to warm up your mental motor and find your Big Idea (0:13): MP3
8. "If you spend six months writing policies for corporations..." (0:35): MP3
9. "On our side of the family..." (0:17): MP3
10. "The armpit hole..." (0:29): MP3
11. "I don't want to make an 'event'..." (0:18): MP3
12. "Jabès the atheist..." (0:34): MP3
13. "I kill my sentance..." (0:18): MP3
14. Aside (0:12): MP3
15. "Retention Investments..." (0:36): MP3
16. "of green diaspora..." (0:23): MP3
17. "Anne Carson on Celan..." (0:27): MP3
18. Where to look for inspiration (0:15): MP3
19. "Adrienne Rich..." (0:38): MP3
20. "If'all poets are Jews' veiled in Cyrillic letters..." (0:22): MP3
21. "The mystical white crow..." (0:38): MP3
22. "the w1 fuck q1..." (0:49): MP3
23. "Poesis consumes..." (0:26): MP3
24. "Orwell says..." (0:23): MP3
25. How to make a name (0:21): MP3
26. "The work of the sword..." (0:40): MP3
27. "name and non-event..." (0:26): MP3
28. "suckle a dangerous..." (0:30): MP3
29. "It sounded too much like motherhood..." (0:23): MP3
30. "Spoilsports of sorts..." (0:30): MP3
31. "Trapped in this high performance culture..." (0:19): MP3
32. "Written with a luxurious..." (0:29): MP3
33. "Align this process..." (0:19): MP3
34. "Are you 'he..." (0:30): MP3
35. "of Jew producing..." (0:31): MP3
36. "You know the drill..." (0:29): MP3
37. How to write for the internet (0:18): MP3
38. "Just to make sure..." (0:17): MP3
39. "Does the unreadable..." (0:25): MP3
40. "Reading and gleaning..." (0:24): MP3
41. "If shit is a work of art..." (0:22): MP3
42. "Albino Lucille..." (0:43): MP3
43. "You had trouble accepting gifts..." (0:41): MP3
44. "This is a marathon..." (0:18): MP3
45. "If différance..." (0:30): MP3
46. "Perilously rough waters..." (0:24): MP3
47. "You looked for subjectivity..." (0:29): MP3
48. "1 403 9..." (0:20): MP3
49. "I see the blood, sweat, and tears..." (0:29): MP3

From the Buffalo Small Press Reading Series, Spring 2007

Full reading from Human Resources (24:46): MP3

1. Introduction by Zolf (2:10): MP3
2. Epigraph from Human Resources (0:49): MP3
3. "The job is to write in plain language..." (0:20): MP3
4. "New performance weightings..." (0:19): MP3
5. "Given enough input elements..." (0:41): MP3
6. "We're in a bit of a holding pattern..." (0:20): MP3
7. How to warm up your mental motor and find your Big Idea (0:14): MP3
8. "If you spend six months writing policies for corporations..." (0:42): MP3
9. "I don't want to make an event..." (0:18): MP3
10. "Jabès, the Atheist..." (0:33): MP3
11. "of green diaspora..." (0:29): MP3
12. "Retention Investments..." (0:37): MP3
13. "Can you give me a drop-dead deadline..."(0:21): MP3
14. "Anne Carson on Celan..." (0:36): MP3
15. Where to look for inpiration (0:18): MP3
16. "Adrienne Rich..." (0:47): MP3
17. "If'all poets are Jews' veiled in Cyrillic letters..." (0:28): MP3
18. "The mystical white crow..." (0:43): MP3
19. "the w1 fuck q1..." (0:58): MP3
20. "Poesis consumes..." (0:29): MP3
21. "Orwell says..." (0:29): MP3
22. How to make a name (0:24): MP3
23. "The work of the sword..." (0:44): MP3
24. "name and non-event..." (0:36): MP3
25. "suckle a dangerous..." (0:38): MP3
26. "It sounded too much like motherhood..." (0:27): MP3
27. "Spoilsports of sorts..." (0:35): MP3
28. "Trapped in this high performance culture..." (0:25): MP3
29. "Written with a luxurious..." (0:36): MP3
30. "Align this process..." (0:19): MP3
31. "Are you 'he..." (0:25): MP3
32. "of Jew producing..." (0:33): MP3
33. "You know the drill..." (0:30): MP3
34. "Just to make sure..." (0:27): MP3
35. How to write for the Internet (0:19): MP3
36. "Does the unreadable..." (0:28): MP3
37. "Reading and gleaning..." (0:27): MP3
38. "If shit is the work of art..." (0:24): MP3
39. "Albino Lucille..." (0:52): MP3
40. "You had trouble accepting gifts..." (0:44): MP3
41. "Ambiguities of the human condition..." (0:22): MP3
42. "You looked for subjectivity..." (0:33): MP3
43. "1 403 9..." (0:29): MP3
44. "I see the blood, sweat, and tears..." (0:27): MP3

Appearing on Cross-Cultural Poetics, hosted by Leonard Schwartz, May 19, 2007

Complete program (30:12): MP3

Scream Literary Festival, Toronto, 2007:

Reading as part of the Test Reading Series, Toronto, Ontario, March 29, 2006

from Human Resources (36:58): MP3

Additional resources:

• podcast interview for New Books Network on No One's Witness: A Monstrous Poetics, September 7, 2021
• Appearing on Jupiter88 #244
• from Neighbour Procedure, “L’amiral cherche une maison à louer” (video by Laura Mullen)
• from Neighbour Procedure, “The Neighbour Procedure” (video by Laura Mullen)
• from Shoot and Weep [Neighbour Procedure] at Segue series
  
  

  Syd Zolf on PennSound Daily

  • September 20, 2010: "Syd Zolf: Zinc Bar Poems, 2010"
  • June 30, 2010: "Syd Zolf: Two New Videos, 2010"
  • September 24, 2008: "Cross Cultural Poetics: 5 New Episodes"
  • May 29, 2008: "New Author Page for Syd Zolf"
  
  

  These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2021 Syd Zolf. Used with permission of Syd Zolf. Distributed by PennSound.