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Bruce Andrews

Bruce Andrew
Photo credit: ©2006 Charles Bernstein/PennSound

Bruce Andrews on LINEbreak, 1995

In this program Andrews discusses: "language writing," the pitfalls of having "poetry" as an institutional designation and co-editing L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine in the '70s. He also reads from his book I Don't Have Any Paper So Shut Up.


PoemTalk #188, Discussing Ted Pearson's "Catenary Odes," feat. Rachel Blau DuPlessis, and William Fuller

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

PoemTalk #92, Discussing Bob Perelman's "Confession", feat. Kristen Gallagher, Kathy Lou Schultz, and Bruce Andrews

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

PoemTalk #35, Discussing Bruce Andrews' "Center", feat. Tan Lin, Chris Funkhouser, and Sarah Dowling"

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


Reading Lifetime Placebo, Wexler Studio at the Kelly Writers House, March 15, 2018

  1. BB (3:53): MP3
  2. BAB (1:21): MP3
  3. BAA (1:11): MP3
  4. BAC (0:58): MP3
  5. BCB (1:19): MP3
  6. BCA (1:16): MP3
  7. BCC (1:27): MP3
  8. ABB (1:10): MP3
  9. ABA (1:10): MP3
  10. ABC (1:21): MP3
  11. AAB (1:21): MP3
  12. AAA (1:21): MP3
  13. AAC (1:16): MP3
  14. ACB (1:22): MP3
  15. ACA (1:38): MP3
  16. ACC (1:22): MP3
  17. CBB (1:24): MP3
  18. CBA (1:22): MP3
  19. CBC (1:36): MP3
  20. CAB (1:22): MP3
  21. CAA (1:20): MP3
  22. CAC (1:26): MP3
  23. CCB (1:29): MP3
  24. CCA (1:41): MP3
  25. CCC (1:37): MP3

Complete reading (37:30): MP3

Reading with Charles Bernstein at The Stone, New York City, April 12, 2014

  1. Introduction by Bernstein (1:58): MP3
  2. Andrews: Table of Contents to Andrews's I Don't Have Any Paper So Shut Up (read with Bernstein); second part of "I Guess Work the Time Up" from Give Em Enough Rope (30:52): MP3
  3. Bernstein: "The Lie of Music" for John Zorn at 60 (read with Andrews), "My Father Would be a Yarn Salesman," "Totally Unexceptional," "Morality," "S'i' fosse" "Elfking," "Drambuie," "Fare Thee Well" (36:00): MP3
  4. Andrews and Bernstein read simultaneously from passages they selected from William Burrough's Nova Express and The Ticket that Exploded (8:30): MP3

Recording for Dia's Readings in Contemporary Poetry, March 31, 2014

Full recording available here.

Reading at the Kelly Writers House, March 3, 2014

Watch on Media.sas

  1. Introduction (6:26): MP3
  2. Untitled part 1 (1:23): MP3
  3. Untitled part 2 (1:13): MP3
  4. Untitled part 3 (1:14): MP3
  5. Untitled part 4 (1:11): MP3
  6. Fresh - Sally Edit (4:07): MP3
  7. Title Forgotten Part 1 - A2 (0:59): MP3
  8. Title Forgotten Part 2 - C1 (1:25): MP3
  9. Title Forgotten Part 3 - B2 (1:51): MP3
  10. Title Forgotten Part 4 - B1 (1:18): MP3
  11. Title Forgotten Part 5 - C2 (2:02): MP3
  12. Almost Enough - Section CCC (7:52): MP3
  13. Rock 'n' Rule A (1:40): MP3
  14. Rock 'n' Rule B (2:27): MP3
  15. Rock 'n' Rule C (1:15): MP3
  16. New Years Lube: Another Bonobo Milkshake (4:58): MP3
  17. Imagently, from Success without Borders (5:31): MP3

Complete reading (52:31): mp3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Zinc Bar, April 13, 2013

  1. Andy Sterling’s introduction (03:50): MP3
  2. Merrily we roll along (04:29): MP3
  3. BBB (06:02): MP3
  4. BCC (06:07): MP3
  5. CCC (08:15): MP3
  6. Newspapers (06:36): MP3
  • Complete reading (40:33): MP3

Reading at Jerome Rothenberg's 80th Birthday Tribute, CUNY Graduate Center, New York City, December 9, 2011

Watch on Media.sas

Bruce Andrews Reading at San Francisco State Poetry Center, Small Press Traffic, March 20, 2010

Part of the Cloud House Series.

Media.SAS mirror link: MP4

Complete Audio (54:24): MP3

  1. Introduction by Samantha Giles (1:24): MP3
  2. "Monkeytown" (15:11): MP3
  3. "Darling" (4:04): MP3
  4. "Blood: Full Tank" (6:29): MP3
  5. "Dang Me 8" (2:21): MP3
  6. "Dang Me 10" (2:44): MP3
  7. "Gossip Bruce" (11:20): MP3
  8. Introduction to white dialect poetry (1:18): MP3
  9. Reading from "Success Without Goals" (5:23): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Bowery Poetry Club, New York, April 2, 2011

  1. Introduction by Rob Fitterman (05:36): MP3
  2. KMDOWTY (00:57): MP3
  3. Bonobo Milkshake (04:52): MP3
  4. Where was I becoming from: 4-4 (03:29): MP3
  5. RICO: C3-3 (06:23): MP3
  6. RICO: C4-2 (07:18): MP3
  7. We don’t know better: Ink Flunk (03:27): MP3
  8. We don’t know better: Coding Weeps (03:33): MP3
  9. Else LUV (00:54): MP3
  10. Else 3 (00:51): MP3
  11. Else 4 (00:35): MP3
  12. Else 5 (01:01): MP3
  13. Else 6 (00:54): MP3
  14. Else 7 (01:09): MP3
  15. Else 8 (00:40): MP3
  16. Else 12 (00:49): MP3
  17. Else 13 (00:24): MP3
  18. Else 14 (00:09): MP3
  • Complete reading (46:56): MP3

From Charles Bernstein's Portraits Series: Bruce's War, April 12, 2009

Watch on Media.sas

Bruce Andrews
We'd just come to the party after Anne and Tonya's reading. Bruce'd just turned 60 on April 1. ... The Iraq war was five years old.
(mp4, 43 sec., 13.4 mb)

Reading and Interview on "Destination Out," hosted by Tom Orange, WRVU-FM, Nashville, TN, April 26, 2008

  1. Introduction (1:45): MP3
  2. Black (1:01): MP3
  3. Improvisation (4:46): MP3
  4. Discussing John Cage (1:47): MP3
  5. Discussing Langpo (3:17): MP3
  6. Discussing his poetic methods (1:55): MP3
  7. Mistaken Identity 1 from The East Village, Volume 11 (3:56): MP3
  8. Stalin's Genius from I Don't Have Any Paper So Shut Up (or, Social Romanticism) (Sun & Moon Press 1992) (6:39): MP3
  9. Discussing "Stalin's Genius" (0:45): MP3
  10. Blood: Full Tank (7:19): MP3
  11. Discussing his books (0:45): MP3
  12. October Surprise from 580 Split, Issue 10 (2008) (3:47): MP3
  13. From The Millennium Project (1) (2:24): MP3   (text)
  14. From The Millennium Project (2) (2:30): MP3   (text)
  15. From Cone Melt (1) (1:39): MP3
  16. From Cone Melt (2) (1:43): MP3
  17. Discussing water (056): MP3
  18. Uncle Abe (7:20): MP3
  19. Outro (1:26): MP3

Complete program (55:48): MP3

Reading and Interview on Ceptuetics Radio, hosted by Kareem Estefan, March 12, 2008

Complete program (30:02): MP3

Andrews reads from Give Em Enough Rope, Lip Service and War and Peace (ed. Judith Goldman and Leslie Scalapino). He describes his modular writing process, his collaborations with musicians, dancers & other poets, and Lip Service's interrogation of gender socialization.

Reading for the Segue Series at the Bowery Poetry Club, March 1, 2008

  1. Introduction (2:51): MP3
  2. Darling (4:44): MP3
  3. Blood: Full Tank (5:56): MP3
  4. Volume 11 Number 4b, from Impatient (3:51): MP3
  5. Untitled 1 (originally from a preformance with Michael Schumacher) (4:13): MP3
  6. Untitled 2 (originally from a preformance with Michael Schumacher) (4:07): MP3
  7. Untitled 3 (from a duet with Sally Silvers) (5:00): MP3
  8. Volume 11 Number 3b, from Impatient (3:17): MP3
  9. Uncle Abe, from Success Without Goals (5:50): MP3

Complete reading (40:34): MP3

Reading at the O Books War & Peace Vol. 3 Launch, New York City, November 27, 2007

Complete reading (9:13): MP3

Reading at the Chax Press NYC Book Launch at the Bowery Poetry Club, NYC, January 14, 2007

Complete reading (9:27): MP3

Reading for Mills College Contemporary Writers Series January 31, 2006

  1. Introduction by Jeffrey Schrader (2:40): MP3
  2. Concordance (1:52): MP3
  3. Snow Ponies (4:47): MP3
  4. Crease (6:04): MP3
  5. Mistaken Identity (4:04): MP3
  6. Feature (3:29): MP3
  7. Crease Live B (5:05): MP3
  8. Time Expansion (4:13): MP3
  9. The Millenium Project (17:32): MP3
  10. October Surprise (3:09): MP3
  11. Lip Service (5:56): MP3

Complete reading (1:00:42): MP3

From Kenning, Vol. 4 No. 3 Autumn/Winter 2002-2003, Issue #12

TABLOID (4:12): MP3

Reading as part of the Line Reading Series, October 1, 2002

  1. Introduction (2:12): MP3
  2. From Primum Mobile 10 (the conclusion to Lip Service; Coach House Books, 2001) (2:38): MP3
  3. Dizzyistics 2 (1:53): MP3
  4. Dizzyistics 11 (1:49): MP3
  5. Dizzyistics 3 (2:43): MP3
  6. Dizzyistics 4 (1:32): MP3
  7. Dizzyistics 8 1:48(): MP3
  8. Dizzyistics 7 (2:06): MP3
  9. Pink Hints (from The Whisper Text) (2:47): MP3
  10. Dang Me 1 (3:08): MP3
  11. Dang Me 2 (2:46): MP3
  12. Dang Me 3 (3:28): MP3
  13. Dang Me 4 (3:40): MP3
  14. Dang Me 5 (4;41): MP3

Complete reading (37:08): MP3

Reading for the Wednesdays @ 4 Plus Series, SUNY-Buffalo, November 28, 2001

  1. Baby - Parts A & B of a 3-part poem (7:14): MP3
  2. Live Choreography - composed/edited live at Sally Silvers concert, Spring 2001, Construction Company, NYC (7:59): MP3
  3. Dang Me (dedicated to Kevin Davies) (16:47): MP3
  4. Snow Pony - performance text for a duo with Sally Silvers' improvised movement; published in Sulfur 45/46 (4:58): MP3
  5. Feature (3:32): MP3
  6. Dear Easy To Be With (from the Millenium Project) (3:58): MP3
    Project published online on Craig Dworkin's Eclipse site; these 2 (of a thousand parts) published in the Bruce Andrews issue of Aerial
  7. "Primum Mobile 10" - 100th section of Lip Service, from 'And real time is dead' to the end (4:17): MP3

Complete reading (51:21): MP3

Note: Roberta Tejada's introduction was not recorded.

Reading for the Segue Series at Double Happiness, April 7, 2001

  1. Introduction (3:35): MP3
  2. Earth (0:42): MP3
  3. Moon (2:21): MP3
  4. Mercury (1:23): MP3
  5. Venus (3:28): MP3
  6. Sun (5:29): MP3
  7. Mars (5:00): MP3
  8. Jupiter (0:30): MP3
  9. Saturn (6:02): MP3
  10. Fixed Stars (5:39): MP3
  11. Primum Mobile (4:50): MP3

Complete recording (37:34): MP3, RealAudio

Reading for the Steel Bar Series, February 24, 2001

  • Complete reading (53:03): MP3

An Evening with Poets with Edwin Torres and Charles Bernstein, Impulsive Behavior at the Whitney Museum of American Art, April 8, 1999

Crease (26:51): MP3

Watch on Media.sas

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, New York City, March 1, 1997

  • Complete recording (low quality) (34:18): MP3

Reading at Prospects Conference, Stevens Institute, Hoboken, NJ, May 23, 1996

Complete recording (15:11): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, New York City, January 20, 1996

  1. Introduction by Nick Piombino (02:03): MP3
  2. Choose your weapons (05:42): MP3
  3. Untitled (11:01): MP3
  4. Ouch of here (04:59): MP3
  5. Untitled (11:33): MP3
  • Complete recording (38:09): MP3

Reading for the Segues Series at Ear Inn, New York, April 1, 1995

  • Complete recording (39:44): MP3 [low quality]

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, March 26, 1994

  1. Introduction (1:55): MP3
  2. 50 T (1:13): MP3
  3. "This is the 20th Century..." (2:00): MP3
    [Note: This piece was written as a jacket blurb for the publication of Johanna Drucker's Dark Decade but did not appear with the book and remains unpublished.]
  4. In the House of (1:33): MP3
  5. Moon 8 from Dante's Paradise (2:36): MP3
  • Complete reading (9:17): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, March 27, 1993

  1. Introduction (0:58): MP3
  2. Improvisation (5:17): MP3
  3. Tizzy Boost (1:25): MP3
  4. Selection from Divestature (1:37): MP3
  5. Tizzy Boost 43 (1:04): MP3
  6. Selection from a collaboration with Maggie O'Sullivan (3:38): MP3
  7. Selection from Divestature (3:00): MP3
  8. Lasting Kiss Removal (7:00): MP3
  9. Taought (2:12): MP3
  10. Daisy (3:50): MP3
  11. Danger Risk Hazard Jeopardy Peril (7:26): MP3

Complete reading (37:26): MP3

Logo Daedalus: Issue #6, Autumn 1993

  • Bruce Andrews reading "Mars I" from Lip Service (7:13): MP3
  • Complete recording (1:32:52): MP3

Reading for the Wednesdays @ 4 Plus, SUNY-Buffalo, April 15, 1992

  1. First pages of "I Guess Work The Time Up" from Give Em Enough Rope (7:09): MP3
  2. "You Made This World, We Didn't" from I Don't Have Any Paper So Shut Up (or, Social Romanticism)(5:10): MP3
  3. "Index" from I Don't Have Any Paper So Shut Up (or, Social Romanticism) (4:37): MP3
  4. "Did You Really?" from Big Allis Issue #2 (10:43): MP3
  5. "Time Expansion" - text to musical score for Sally Silvers and Dancers choreographic concert, 1992; reprinted in Designated Heartbeat (3:12): MP3
  6. "Devo Habit", reprinted in Designated Heartbeat (2:42): MP3
  7. "Valentines" from Designated Heartbeat (3:14): MP3
  8. "Primum Mobile 9" from Lip Service (10:38): MP3
  9. "Primum Mobile 10" from Lip Service (9:41): MP3

Complete reading (58:45): MP3 [slight drop-out at 46:38 when cassette was flipped]

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, February 29, 1992

  1. Introduction by Nick Piombino (02:07): MP3
  2. Time Expansion (02:55): MP3
  3. 98 from Lip Service (09:59): MP3
  4. 99 from Lip Service (10:53): MP3
  5. 100 from Lip Service (10:18): MP3
  • Complete reading (41:30): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, New York, May 25, 1991

  1. Fixed Stars 6 (09:44): MP3
  2. Fixed Stars 7 (10:40): MP3
  3. Fixed Stars 8 (10:40): MP3
  4. Fixed Stars 9 (06:47): MP3
  • Complete recording (38:37): MP3 [beginning cut off]

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, January 13, 1990

  1. introduction (1:08): MP3
  2. Lives in Bed in Hallway (2:39): MP3
  3. Somewhere Here (2:00): MP3
  4. Secret Refracted (2:36): MP3
  5. Did You Really? (11:00): MP3
  6. Sun 5 from Lip Service (9:00): MP3
  7. Sun 8 from Lip Service (6:49): MP3

Complete reading (35:25): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, April 22, 1989

Reading from Lip Service.
  1. Moon 4 (7:13): MP3
  2. Moon 5 (7:47): MP3
  3. Moon 6 (12:10): MP3
  4. Moon 7 (8:36): MP3
Complete reading (35:52): MP3

Stephen Ratcliffe and Bruce Andrews for the Poetry Project, St. Mark's Church, New York, February 1, 1989

Recorded on audiocassette. Recording hosted by the Library of Congress.

  1. Side A (46:54): link
  2. Side B (27:04): link

Politics of Poetic Form reading, The New School, October 8, 1988

  • Complete recording (2:05:48): MP3

From the Live at the Ear CD, 1994

"I Knew the Signs by Their Tents", recorded March 12, 1988 (5:43): MP3 [text]

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, March 12, 1988

  1. Untitled (9:51): MP3
  2. Untitled-2 (6:10): MP3
  3. Ball+Problem+Tactic+Clock (4:52): MP3
  4. Opening comments for interview response piece (1:56): MP3
  5. Response to an interview question by Ben Friedlander (6:10): MP3
  6. From "Divestiture" (11:47): MP3

Complete reading (41:30): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series with Charles Bernstein at the Ear Inn, January 9, 1988

Bernstein and Andrews read the duet from LEGEND (10:59): MP3

New Poetics Colloquium at Kootenay School of Writing in Vancouver, 1985

Reading from "I Guess Work The Time Up," August 21, 1985 (25:13): MP3

Reading from "Shut Up" & "Total Equals What" & "Discussion," August 22, 1985 (1:05:29): MP3

  1. Introduction (1:41): MP3
  2. Blab mind, blab body (4:23): MP3
  3. Who proud drugs be (4:55): MP3
  4. If pods could talk (5:22): MP3
  5. Oh glaze me big (5:24): MP3
  6. Reading from the "Total equals what: poetics and praxis" manuscript (20:19): MP3
  7. Q&A (23:04): MP3

New York Talk, New York City, January 31, 1984

  • "Rewriting Society: Poetics, the Self, Ideology" (2:42:55): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, October 15, 1983

Reading from I Don't Have Any Paper So Shut Up (or, Social Romanticism)
  1. Introduction (0:51): MP3
  2. If a Peppermint Pattie Could Sing (5:40): MP3
  3. Gestalt Me Out (4:22): MP3
  4. Am I Alive? (5:40): MP3
  5. Those Nasty Emotions Take Over (5:00): MP3
  6. Tuck in Your Chains (5:30): MP3
  7. Paternalism Causes Cancer (5:20): MP3
  8. Is There a Hyphen in Hard On? (4:36): MP3
  9. My Roots, No Thanks (5:04): MP3
Complete reading (41:17): MP3

Reading at the Language Noise Festival, January 11, 1982

Sections 5-7 of "Confidence Trick", from Give Em Enough Rope (10:47): MP3

Reading of LEGEND, feat. Andrews, Charles Bernstein, Ray DiPalma and Ron Silliman, New York City, March 10, 1981

For audio recordings and full text, click here.

Bruce Andrews in conversation with Charles Bernstein and Ron Silliman, March 6, 1981

  1. Oppositional writing (9:09): MP3
  2. Our relationship to a community and "highbrow" hegemonic culture (6:24): MP3
  3. Considering the possibility of and what could be defined as ruling class poetry (9:02): MP3
  4. Writers, class, and downward social mobility (12:01): MP3
  5. Leisure time, the new flaneur, and the work experience (7:58): MP3
  6. The project of writing and dealing with an experience (4:06): MP3
  7. Group definitions and social formations (7:30): MP3
  8. Ron Silliman reading "Poem" by Ron Padgett (0:18): MP3
  9. On Ron Padgett's "Poem" (7:26): MP3
  10. The break between Black Mountain & St. Mark's and reformulating positions between social groups (6:33): MP3
  11. Correspondence and conversation (4:05): MP3
  12. Interpersonal relationships and social formations (14:33): MP3
  13. A self assessment of the conversation and tape (8:10): MP3
  14. 17th century prose and the "clear style" (4:09): MP3
  15. Contextualizing and highlighting the political dimensions of the poetry one writes (8:09): MP3
  16. On the term "language poetry" and making generalizations (4:50): MP3
  17. Composition as explanation (4:13): MP3
  18. The influence of class background (13:58): MP3
Part 1 (44:37): MP3
Part 2 (44:43): MP3
Part 3 (43:32): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, November 7, 1981

Complete reading (35:31): MP3

Reading with Charles Bernstein and conversation with Susan Howe, March 14, 1979

Complete recording (57:49): MP3

  • Andrews reads from R+B (2:30): MP3
  • Andrews reads "How" (5:36): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, October 28, 1978

Complete reading (with Charles North) (1:20:19): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, November 10, 1977

With Ray DiPalma and Michael Lally.

  1. Are the First (published in Wobbling) (4:04): MP3
  2. N E (Northeast) (from Moebius) (1:19): MP3 [for text, see below]
  3. j j j from (Moebius) (1:42): MP3
  4. m m m (from Moebius) (1:57): MP3
  5. Untitled (on John Wieners) (from L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, published as "Proof: John Wieners, Behind the State Capitol") (5:36): MP3
  6. Letters (published in Wobbling) (3:39): MP3
  7. n n n (from Moebius) (1:10): MP3
  8. q q q (from Moebius) (2:09): MP3
  9. r r r (from Moebius) (1:22): MP3
  10. S E (Southeast) (from Moebius) (1:10): MP3 [for text, see below]
  11. S W (Southwest) (from Moebius) (1:03): MP3 [for text, see below]
  12. N W (Northeast) (from Moebius) (1:06): MP3 [for text, see below]
  13. Center (from Moebius) (1:14): MP3 [for text, see below]
Several pages from Andrews' Moebius: [PDF]

"Center" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 36.

Also of Interest:

Bruce Andrews on PennSound Daily

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2018 Bruce Andrews. Used with permission of Bruce Andrews. Distributed by PennSound.