Complete reading of Drafts , 1988–2024
Visit the full collection on PennSound here .
Program One: Reading
From Drafts 1–38, Toll (Wesleyan University Press, 2001):
Draft 20 - Incipit (5:35): MP3
excerpt from Draft 19: Working Conditions (4:16): MP3 (from LIVE KWH/WXPN radio show)
Draft 25 - Segno (5:34): MP3 [ALSO, from KWH LIVE Draft Twenty-Five Segno (4:53): MP3 ]
From Poker 4 (Summer 2004):
Draft 63 - Dialogue of Self & Soul (6:49): MP3
From: Drafts. Drafts 39–57, Pledge with Draft, unnumbered (Salt, Cambridge, England, 2004) & Torques: Drafts 58-76 (Salt, 2007):
Draft 46 - Edge (9:18): MP3
Draft 64 - Forward Slash (5:05) (unpublished): MP3
4 Sections from Draft 51 - Clay Songs (12:34): MP3
Draft 61 - Pyx (5:21): MP3
Program Two: Conversation
Complete conversation (36:02): MP3
produced by Charles Bernstein
Recording engineer: Chris Mustazza
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #116, Discussing Anne Tardos' "Uxuda", feat. Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Ariel Resnikoff, and Stephen Ross on September 2, 2017
For complete recording and program notes go to Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #69, discussing Rachel Blau DuPlessis's "Draft 85: Hard Copy," July 28, 2013
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #67, discussing Catherine Wagner's "This Is A Fucking Poem," May 20, 2013
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #65, discussing Lisa Robertson's The Weather , April 16, 2013
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #54, discussing Ron Silliman's "You," June 20, 2012
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #41, discussing Ezra Pound's "Canto III," March 15, 2011
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #34, discussing Charles Olson's Maximus poems, July 26, 2010
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #28, discussing Jack Spicer's "Psychoanalysis: An Elegy," February 3, 2010
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #8, discussing Armantrout's "The Way," July 7, 2008
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #4, discussing Ginsberg's "The Garden of Love," March 4, 2008
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
PoemTalk #3, discussing Oppen's "Ballad," Kelly Writers House, February 2, 2008
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2 .
Reading from Late Work and Around the Day in 80 Worlds , October 2020
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David Bromige Memorial Reading, Kelly Writers House, September 25, 2018
Watch Video
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Complete Recording: MP3
Reading and Q&A at Books Actually, Singapore, February 23, 2018
Watch on Media.sas
Complete Audio Recording (1:03:44): MP3
Alternate Audio Recording (50:18): MP3
Recorded by Alvin Pang
Brodsky Gallery Opening for INTERFACES: Work by Rachel Blau DuPlessis , Kelly Writers House, November 15, 2017
Watch on Media.sas
Complete Audio (57:40): MP3
Reading for Heatstrings at Penn State, State College, PA, September 9, 2016
Complete reading (1:11:41): MP3
Ashraf Fayadh Teach-in at the Kelly Writers House on January 14, 2016
part of the "Life & Freedom for Ashraf Fayadh Worldwide Reading"
Introduction by Charles Bernstein (3:26): MP3
Untitled excerpts from Instructions Within (used as "evidence" by the Saudi courts in sentencing Fayadh to death for the crime of "apostacy".) read by Ron Silliman (5:28): MP3
"A Space in the Void" (Original Arabic) (4:14): MP3
"A Space in the Void" (trans. Johnathan Wright) read by Julia Bloch (2:08): MP3
"A Melancholy Made of Dough" (Original Arabic) (5:58): MP3
Brief Remarks on "A Melancholy Made of Dough" from Rachel Blau DuPlessis (2:21): MP3
"A Melancholy Made of Dough" (trans. Tariq al Haydar) read by Rachel Blau DuPlessis (3:00): MP3
"The Last of the Line of Refugee Descendants" (Original Arabic) (12:31): MP3
"The Last of the Line of Refugee Descendants" (trans. Johnathan Wright) read by Ariel Resnikoff (6:59): MP3
Reading with Nathaniel Mackey at the Edison–Newman Room,
Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University, October 29, 2015
VIDEO
Rachel Blau Du Plessis and Nathaniel Mackey, The Poet’s Voice (October 29, 2015). PS3554.U566 P64 2015. Woodberry Poetry Room, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Reading for Heatstrings at Modernism Studies Association, Pittsburgh, PA, November 7, 2014
Readers, in order:
Lesley Wheeler (05:37): MP3
Tyrone Williams (05:48): MP3
Dan Tobin (04:40): MP3
Elizabeth Savage (04:20):MP3
Lisa Samuels (04:23): MP3
A.L. Nielsen (04:11): MP3
Julia Lisella (03:14): MP3
Meta DuEwa Jones (03:31): MP3
Cynthia Hogue (04:46): MP3
Jeanne Heuving (05:35): MP3
Elisabeth Frost (04:31): MP3
Jan Beatty (04:42): MP3
Rachel Blau DuPlessis (11:09): MP3
Complete recording (1:08:37): MP3
Segue Series Reading at the Zinc Bar , New York City, October 5, 2013
Daisy Atterbury's Introduction (03:06): MP3
Letter 8: Dear Y (02:29): MP3
Letter 7: Dear B (01:47): MP3
From Graphic Novella (06:28): MP3
Draft 102: One on One (07:00): MP3
Draft 104: The Book (06:55): MP3
Draft CX: Primer (05:02): MP3
Studio 111 Session, December 8, 2010
Draft 89: Interrogation (7:42): MP3
Draft XC: Excess (4:30): MP3
Draft 91: Proverbs (8:43): MP3
Draft 92: Translocation (5:21): MP3
Draft 93: Romantic Fragment Poem (2:27): MP3
Draft 96: Velocity (7:21): MP3
Draft 98: Canzone (12:36): : MP3
Draft 99: Intransitive (11:02): MP3
Draft 104: the Book (5:49): MP3
Studio 111 Session produced by Michael S. Hennessey & Jeffrey Boruszak
At The Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, 2010
Reading on June 3, 2010 Part 1 (37:17): MP3
Reading on June 3, 2010 Part 2 (32:55): MP3
Studio 111 Session, October 12, 2007
from Torques: Drafts 58-76 (Salt, 2007)
Draft 58: In Situ (8:03): MP3
Draft 60: Rebus (7:26): MP3
Draft 72: Nanifesto (5:59): MP3
Draft 75: Doggerel (14:07): MP3
Draft 85: Hard Copy (41:10): MP3
epigraph (0:26): MP3
Section 1: 17 May 1986 (0:26): MP3
Section 2: Things are very bright tonight (0:27): MP3
Section 3: Emotions wash up and across (1:44): MP3
Section 4: It's a question of "among" or some (0:53): MP3
Section 5: You and I had crossed that bridge (1:21): MP3
Section 6: Civitas uncanny (0:36): MP3
Section 7: Bewildering what happened (1:02): MP3
Section 8: It is astonishing (0:55): MP3
Section 9: And in this space a birth of enigma (1:22): MP3
Section 10: The watchers are struggling (1:36): MP3
Section 11: So—what is the normal? (1:04): MP3
Section 12: Any consolation that the only typo was in "the father"? (0:47): MP3
Section 13: A postwar lasts far longer than they think (1:27): MP3
Section 14: She had asked for photocopies (1:22): MP3
Section 15: I want polyphony (0:58): MP3
Section 16: I won't quote a word (1:32): MP3
Section 17: Who registers deep lakes of darkness (0:39): MP3
Section 18: Stet atrocity (0:17): MP3
Section 19: Or another answer (0:51): MP3
Section 20: If we destabilized (1:35): MP3
Section 21: If one began: it (0:49): MP3
Section 22: Some topographies and folds (0:48): MP3
Section 23: Snow blowing from the north plasters the route signs (0:49): MP3
Section 24: To resuscitate (0:26): MP3
Section 25: Walking up and down in it (0:59): MP3
Section 26: Feeling that pulsation as if in vigil (0:59): MP3
Section 27: It's hard for me to talk about poetry (2:29): MP3
Section 28: The antics of the waning moon at dawn (0:27): MP3
Section 29: So she stole her father's teraphim (1:24): MP3
Section 30: The distant water (1:01): MP3
Section 31: There is a space beyond (0:51): MP3
Section 32: What is important and what is not (1:11): MP3
Section 33: That dazzling blue teardrop (0:27): MP3
Section 34: To mothers who cannot (1:23): MP3
Section 35: The terrible political moment, after the demo (0:14): MP3
Section 36: Rain cloud caught in the valley (0:18): MP3
Section 37: A little breath, a bird (1:38): MP3
Section 38: The sofa holds a wrinkled nude (0:26): MP3
Section 39: Once again a sense of occurrence (0:30): MP3
Section 40: Can only write hungry (0:57): MP3
See Also: DuPlessis' readings of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats , recorded that same day
"Draft 85: Hard Copy" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 69 .
Studio 111 Session produced by Michael S. Hennessey
Rachel Blau DuPlessis (7:56): MP3
Reading at Arizona State University, October 23, 2013
introductory remarks (1:24): MP3
Letter 19: Dear C (2:18): MP3
Ledger 11 (1:53): MP3
Letter 8: Dear Y (2:46): MP3
Letter 6: Dear J (3:13): MP3
Draft 102: One-on-One (7:14): MP3
Draft 104: The Book (6:38): MP3
Draft 109: Wall Newspaper (10:07): MP3
Complete reading (35:36): MP3
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Q&A Discussion (15:57): MP3
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Reading at Notre Dame, October 10, 2013
Introduction by Joyelle McSweeney
Watch on Media.sas
Reading "Letter 8" from Interstices , In Celebration of '
Surge: Drafts: 96-114 , KWH, September 25, 2013
introduction by Ron Silliman
Reading for ex.it , Materiali fuori contesto, Albinea, Italy, April 12-14, 2013
Watch on Media.sas
Draft 107: Meant to Say (7:16): MP3
Reading of Rachel Blau DuPlessis' work by translator Renata Morresi, ex.it , Materiali fuori contesto, Albinea, Italy, April 12-14, 2013
Watch on Media.sas
complete recording (9:30): MP3
American Philosophical Society Celebration of Marjorie Perloff, KWH, UPenn, November 10, 2012
Complete Recording (5:30): MP3
from Draft 98: Canzone (3:34): MP3
from Collective Memory by Norma Cole (3:51): MP3
Complete Reading (7:26): MP3
Convergence on Poetics , University of Washington Bothell, North Creek Events Center, September 27-30, 2012
Rachel Blau DuPlessis (8:28): MP3
complete recording (2:02:52): MP3
Listen to entire event here
Readings at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, March 2012
All recordings made in the Audio Studio, Faculty of Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand, and
engineered by Jeanette McKerchar. Distributed by PennSound and New Zealand EPC .
March 27, 2012
Draft 49: Turns
Turns 1 (21:13): MP3
Turns 2 (14:10): MP3
Draft 51: Clay Songs
Clay Songs 1 (2:04): MP3
Clay Songs 2 (1:02): MP3
Clay Songs 3 (0:34): MP3
Clay Songs 4 (0:50): MP3
Clay Songs 5 (0:52): MP3
Clay Songs 6 (0:44): MP3
Clay Songs 7 (0:39): MP3
Clay Songs 8 (1:02): MP3
Clay Songs 9 (1:20): MP3
Clay Songs 10 (1:40): MP3
Clay Songs 11 (1:26): MP3
Clay Songs 12 (2:04): MP3
Clay Songs, complete recording (14:17): MP3
Draft 53: Eclogue
Eclogue 1 (1:13): MP3
Eclogue 2 (0:24): MP3
Eclogue 3 (0:55): MP3
Eclogue 4 (0:41): MP3
Eclogue 5 (1:07): MP3
Eclogue 6 (1:04): MP3
Eclogue 7 (1:08): MP3
Eclogue 8 (0:24): MP3
Eclogue 9 (0:40): MP3
Eclogue 10 (0:46): MP3
Eclogue 11 (0:39): MP3
Eclogue 12 (0:28): MP3
Eclogue 13 (0:46): MP3
Eclogue 14 (0:45): MP3
Eclogue 15 (0:51): MP3
Eclogue 16 (0:47): MP3
Eclogue 17 (1:02): MP3
Eclogue 18 (1:30): MP3
Eclogue 19 (2:28): MP3
Eclogue 20 (0:56): MP3
Eclogue 21 (1:52): MP3
Eclogue, complete recording (20:25): MP3
March 16, 2012
Draft 74: Wanderer
Wanderer 1 (2:08): MP3
Wanderer 2 (2:22): MP3
Wanderer 3 (2:04): MP3
Wanderer 4 (1:45): MP3
Wanderer 5 (2:32): MP3
Wanderer 6 (2:50): MP3
Wanderer 7 (1:19): MP3
Wanderer 8 (1:05): MP3
Wanderer 9 (1:30): MP3
Wanderer 10 (1:40): MP3
Wanderer 11 (1:49): MP3
Wanderer 12 (1:07): MP3
Wanderer 13 (1:38): MP3
Wanderer 14 (1:27): MP3
Wanderer, complete recording (25:11): MP3
Draft 87: Trace Elements
Trace Elements 1 (7:57): MP3
Trace Elements 2 (9:22): MP3
Trace Elements 3 (11:17): MP3
Trace Elements 4 (8:38): MP3
Trace Elements 5 (8:24): MP3
Trace Elements, complete recording (45:38): MP3
March 15, 2012
Draft 102: One-on-One
Draft 103: Punctum
Punctum 1 (2:50): MP3
Punctum 2 (1:41): MP3
Punctum 3 (1:29): MP3
Punctum 4 (1:13): MP3
Punctum 5 (0:21): MP3
Punctum 6 (2:13): MP3
Punctum 7 (0:55): MP3
Punctum 8 (1:14): MP3
Punctum 9 (1:21): MP3
Punctum 10 (0:55): MP3
Punctum 11 (1:58): MP3
Punctum, complete recording (16:09): MP3
Draft 109: Wall Newspaper
Wall Newspaper 1 (10:22): MP3
Wall Newspaper 2 (9:12): MP3
Wall Newspaper 3 (9:18): MP3
Wall Newspaper 4 (1:29): MP3
Wall Newspaper 5 (9:50): MP3
Wall Newspaper, complete recording (40:10): MP3
MLA Offsite Reading , Town Hall Downstairs, Seattle, January 7, 2012
Complete reading (2:09): MP3
Complete video (1:02:23): MOV
Complete reading (43:49): MP3
Complete video (43:39): MOV
Reading at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, March 7, 2011
Introduction by Joseph Harrington (2:41): MP3
Draft 95: Erg (9:30): MP3
Draft 96: Velocity (7:44): MP3
Draft 98: Canzone (11:33): MP3
Draft 104: The Book (6:30): MP3
Draft 105: Pilgrimage (read with Joseph Harrington) (7:28): MP3
Complete reading (52:01): MP3
Special thanks to Benjamin Cartwright for making this recording available.
Complete reading (56:32): MP3
Complete video (56:32): MOV
(with Al Filreis , Danny Snelson , erica kaufman , Bob
Perelman , Mel Nichols , Ron Silliman , Judith Goldman , Chris Funkhouser ,
Kristen Gallagher , Michael S. Hennessey and Charles Bernstein )
on Second Avenue by Frank O'Hara (6:00): MP3
Complete program (2:20:13): MP3
Complete recording (31:47): MP3
MLA Off-Site Reading at the Rotunda, Philadelphia, December 29, 2009
Complete reading (2:28): MP3
Complete Reading (12:04): MP3
Talking and reading to students at the University of Auckland in New Zealand from the National Humanites Center in Durham, NC, April 2009
Complete recording (20:51): MP3
Reading for the Arcade Taberna Reading Series , David Need and Jehanne Gheith's House, Durham N.C., April 24, 2009
Complete reading (41:50): MP3
Reading for the So and So Series, co-curated by Chris Tonelli and Christopher Salerno, Raleigh, N.C., February 21, 2009
Complete recording (7:20): MP3
Complete video (7:20): MOV
Statement made for the celebration of Ron Silliman's The Alphabet, February 2009
Complete Recording (10:43): MP3
"Section 9: Of Being Numerous" (7:54): MP3
Introduction (4:52): MP3
Draft 64: Forward Slash (8:06): MP3
from Draft 74: Wanderer (10:55): MP3
Draft 88: X-Posting (a variation on Ingeborg Bachmann's "Keine Delikatessen") (16:25): MP3
from Draft 85: Hard Copy (12:47): MP3
Complete Reading (54:17): MP3
"Draft 85: Hard Copy" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 69 .
Selected portions of this event were recorded:
Complete video (19:00): MP4
Complete reading (29:55): MP3
Reading from Draft 75: Doggerel (3:08): MP3
Reading Friday, October 17, 2003: from Draft 51: Clay Songs, from Precis (6:27): MP3
Reading Saturday, October 18, 2003 (4:28): MP3
DuPlessis and class in discussion with Alice Notley , Temple University, February 20, 2001
Complete discussion (2:08:11): MP3
Draft 38: Georgics and Shadow (10:28): MP3
Draft 48: Being Astonished (11:54): MP3
from Draft 48: Being Astonished (6:47): MP3
Draft 41: Of This (18:56): MP3
Draft 25: Segno (4:52): MP3
Excerpt from Draft 19: Working Conditions(4:16): MP3
Summer Writing Program, Naropa, June 17, 1998
(with Carl Rakosi , Jenny Penberthy, and Mike Heller )
Part 1: Panel on the Objectivist poets (1:42:15): MP3
Part 2: Complete discussion (1:32:50): MP3 (note: recording is of extremely poor quality)
Special thanks to Rachel Blau DuPlessis for making these recordings available.
Reading for the Segue Series at HERE , New York, February 7, 1998
introduction (3:48): MP3
Draft 25: Segno (5:16): MP3
Draft 26: M-m-ry (6:08): MP3
Draft 27: Athwart (6:31): MP3
Draft 28: Facing Pages (6:53): MP3
Draft 36: Cento (8:23): MP3
Complete recording (37:00): MP3
MLA Offsite Series Reading at the Four Seasons Hotel, Washington D.C., December 27, 1996
Reading from Draft 29: Intellectual Autobiography (4:22): MP3
Reading from Draft 23: Findings (3:43): MP3
Lecture for The Recovery of the Public World: A Conference and Poetry Festival in Honour of Robin Blaser, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 1-4, 1995
"The Blazes of Poetry: Remarks on Segmentivity and Seriality with Special Reference to Blaser and Oppen"
complete recording (28:40): MP3
Segue Series reading at The Ear Inn , New York, April 24, 1993
Complete recording (11:39): MP3
Reading at The Ear Inn , New York, November 21, 1992
Complete Reading (26:08):MP3
Reading for Wednesday @ Four Plus , University of Buffalo, April 17, 1991
from "Acknowledgments" (3:50): MP3
The Pink Guitar (48:12): MP3
Complete reading (52:04): MP3
Reading at Robin's Books, Philadelphia, May 11, 1988
Introductory comments (2:54): MP3
Attar (from Tabula Rosa) (1:40): MP3
Introduction to Drafts (1:48): MP3
Draft 2: She (11:54): MP3
Draft 3: Of (9:40): MP3
Draft 6: Midrush (12:46): MP3
Draft 7: Me (6:31): MP3
(this track cuts off prematurely)
Complete reading (48:23): MP3
(recording courtesy of the Herschel Baron Collection)
Reading at Woodland Pattern Book Center, Milwaukee, WI March 27, 1988
Introduction (2:44): MP3
From H.D.: The Career of That Struggle (1:06): MP3
From Other-how (4:29): MP3
Praxilla's Silliness (7:38): MP3
Rupturing the History of Poetry by the History of Poetry (4:12): MP3
Introduction to Crowbar (3:35): MP3
Crowbar (17:52): MP3
Complete Reading (42:23): MP3
Discussing Drafts (3:50): MP3
Draft 2: She (13:07): MP3
Introduction to Draft 6 (5:30): MP3
Draft 6 (10:08): MP3
Complete Reading (42:56): MP3
"The Tradition of Marginality"
Kathleen Fraser (31:42): MP3
Rachel Blau DuPlessis (26:47): MP3
discussion (1:20:30): MP3
Reading at Robin's Bookstore, April 24, 1985
Complete reading (30:55): MP3
Reading at the Tyler School of Art, April 10, 1985
From Wells (2:29): MP3
Writing (7:18): MP3
Crowbar (17:14): MP3
Complete Reading (27:33): MP3
Panel Discussion on Image/ Imaging at the Tyler School of Art, April 10, 1985. With Clark Coolidge , Michael Palmer , John Yau , and Geoffrey Young
Part One (32:50): MP3
Part Two (32:35): MP3
tenets of Imagism (2:40): MP3
Clark Coolidge on logopeia and the movement of language (4:01): MP3
Rachel Blau DuPlessis on the rejection of "poetic material" and imaging as a site of struggle (3:28): MP3
Michael Palmer on the economy of the poem, the diffusing of Imagism, vorticism and objectification in the body of the poem (11:51): MP3
John Yau on stereotypes of the writer and the structure of images one is allowed to produce (3:45): MP3
on T.S. Eliot and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (4:23): MP3
Rachel Blau DuPlessis on the politics of prosody, the hierarchy of the text and destroying language while using language (3:09): MP3
on the totality of the image (2:55): MP3
on the visual aspect of words on a page (6:05): MP3
Michael Palmer on the apparition of visual images in his work (1:40): MP3
John Yau on field verse, the source of images, and cues in language (4:03): MP3
on the source of dreams and the harmony of the work (3:32): MP3
Rachel Blau DuPlessis on being a woman writer, rupturing the images of a culture, and stealing other people's images (5:20): MP3
Rachel Blau DuPlessis on deconstructing socially mandated discourses (3:08): MP3
Michael Palmer on the analytic-lyric (1:02): MP3
Rachel Blau DuPlessis on the place of woman as constructed site and the difference between a feminine and a female poetry (3:46): MP3
Reading at Intersection in San Francisco May 4, 1982
Introduction to Selections from Wells (2:04): MP3
From Wells: Eurydice (5:24): MP3
From Wells: Medusa (6:57): MP3
From: A History of Poetry (9:30): MP3
Excerpt from Wells: (2:13): MP3
Ode in Six Parts (15:20): MP3
Complete Reading (43:41): MP3
Writers Talk with Mary Oppen, Anita Barrows and Frances Jaffer, Produced by Norma Smith at KPFA Berkeley, 1985 or 1986
Part One (28:00): MP3
Part Two (26:30): MP3
DuPlessis and class in Discussion with Susan Howe , 1986
Part One (49:20): MP3
Part Two (45:45): MP3
See also: The Louis Zukofsky Centennial Conference at Columbia University and Barnard College,
September 17-19, 2004 for video footage of DuPlessis' presentation.
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
July 25, 2008: "Coolidge, DuPlessis, Palmer, Yau, Young: Readings and Roundtable at Tyler School of Art, 1985"
March 17, 2008: "Vintage Rachel Blau DuPlessis: Robin's Books, 1988"
February 22, 2008: "Rachel Blau Duplessis at the Kelly Writers House"
October 19, 2007: "Rachel Blau Duplessis' Studio 111"
These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only.
All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2005-2018 Rachel Blau DuPlessis.
Studio 111 conversation © 2005 Rachel Blau DuPlessis/Charles Bernstein. Used with permission of Rachel Blau DuPlessis.
Distributed by PennSound .