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From "Down To Write You This Poem Sat" at the Oakville Gallery

Contemporary
  1. Charles Bernstein, "Phone Poem" (2011) (1:30): MP3
  2. Caroline Bergvall, "Love song: 'The Not Tale (funeral)' from Shorter Caucer Tales (2006): MP3
  3. Christian Bôk, excerpt from Eunoia, from Chapter "I" for Dick Higgins (2009) (1:38):  MP3
  4. Tonya Foster, Nocturne II (0:40) (2010) MP3
  5. Ted Greenwald, "The Pears are the Pears" (2005) (0:29): MP3
  6. Susan Howe, Thorow, III (3:13) (1998):  MP3
  7. Tan Lin, "¼ : 1 foot" (2005) (1:16): MP3
  8. Steve McCaffery, "Cappuccino" (1995) (2:35): MP3
  9. Tracie Morris, From "Slave Sho to Video aka Black but Beautiful" (2002) (3:40): MP3
  10. Julie Patton, "Scribbling thru the Times" (2016) (5:12): MP3
  11. Tom Raworth, "Errory" (c. 1975) (2:08): MP3
  12. Jerome Rothenberg, from "The First Horse Song of Frank Mitchell: 4-Voice Version" (c. 1975) (3:30): MP3
  13. Cecilia Vicuna, "When This Language Disappeared" (2009) (1:30): MP3
Historical
  1. Guillaume Apollinaire, "Le Pont Mirabeau" (1913) (1:14): MP3
  2. Amiri Baraka, "Black Dada Nihilismus" (1964) (4:02):  MP3
  3. Louise Bennett, "Colonization in Reverse" (1983) (1:09): MP3
  4. Sterling Brown, "Old Lem " (c. 1950s) (2:06):  MP3
  5. John Clare, "Vowelless Letter" (1849) performed by Charles Bernstein (2:54): MP3
  6. Velimir Khlebnikov, "Incantation by Laughter" (1910), tr. and performed by Bernstein (:28)  MP3
  7. Harry Partch, from Barstow (part 1), performed by Bernstein (1968) (1:11): MP3
  8. Leslie Scalapino, "Can’t’ is ‘Night’" (2007) (3:19): MP3
  9. Kurt Schwitters, "Ur Sonata: Largo" performed by Ernst Scwhitter (1922-1932) ( (3:12): MP3
  10. Gertrude Stein, If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso (1934-35) (3:42): MP3
  11. William Carlos Willliams, "The Defective Record" (1942) (0:28): MP3
  12. Hannah Weiner, from Clairvoyant Journal, performed by Weiner, Sharon Mattlin & Rochelle Kraut (2001) (6:12): MP3

Selected by Charles Bernstein (read more about his choices here)

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Soleida Ríos Reads "Pies de Palma," 2021

Posted 5/10/2021

Here's a new recording from Cuban poet Soleida Ríos reading her well-known poem "Pies de Palma" to start the new week off in fine fashion. Recorded in Havana this past February, the track comes to us courtesy of Kristin Dykstra, who also sent along this recent photo of the poet (taken by Omar Sanz). A tribute to Cuba's national tree, the Silken Palm (roystonea lenis), "Pies de Palma" makes music of its myriad uses and unique features:

Boards ceilings canes baskets wrappings
for tobacco plants
bundled fan palm: nourishing sprout and heart
oleaginous fruit. I am:
a Cuban Royal Palm, tall, coronated, barefoot, unarmed
sessile flowers, pinnatisect leaves
This recording of "Pies de Palma" joins a modest set of recordings on PennSound's Soleida Ríos author page — a very old page, created in 2004 before our official launch — including a 15 minute interview with Rosa Alcalá from 2001 and a half-dozen poems. Click here to start listening.


Hanif Abdurraqib: New Author Page

Posted 5/7/2021

We're bringing this week to a close with a new author page for poet and critic Hanif Abdurraqib, which is anchored by his virtual reading at our own Kelly Writers House on April 19th. Video footage from that event is available, along with segmented MP3 audio that you can stream or download. In the first half, Abdurraqib reads the ten-part poem "All the TV Shows Are About Cops," which is split into individual tracks. The Q&A session that followed has also been split into thematic segments, such as "on the writing process," "on making an office space," "tips for aspiring cultural critics," "on being influenced by his favorite books," and "on sneakers."

These new tracks join an old favorite, a January 2019 reading of "USAvsCuba," taken from his debut collection The Crown Ain't Worth Much (Button Poetry, 2016). Listeners can read along with that poem in Western Beefs here. To listen to all of the aforementioned recordings, click here.



Grzegorz Wroblewski reads at Woodland Pattern's 27th Annual Marathon, 2021

Posted 5/5/2021

Here's a brief recording taken from the 27th annual marathon reading at Woodland Pattern, which took place between January 30–31st this year. Grzegorz Wroblewski's contribution was a four-minute recording of him reading two of his poems — "Android and an Anecdote" and "The King of Flight" — in Polish, while Peter Burzynski handled the English-language translations.

Last summer we announced a new video of five poems by Wroblewski, translated by Piotr Gwiazda and read by Marcus Slease, which had originally appeared as part of Marit MacArthur and Kacper Bartczak's 2015 Jacket2 feature "(Polish) Poetry after Różewicz." On PennSound's Grzegorz Wroklewski author page you'll also find a number of additional one-off collaborative tracks and readings recorded in Denmark, Sweden, and the UK between 2012 and 2016. Click here to start listening.



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