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Tonya Foster


photograph courtesy of erica kaufman

Close Listening: Performance of Freedom: Tonya Foster, June 18, 2013

  • Reading from Swarms of Bees in High Court (24:50): MP3
  • Conversation with Charles Bernstein (45:20): MP3

PoemTalk #155, Discussing Lorenzo Thomas' "Souvenir of the Manassah Ball," feat. Erica Hunt, Bob Perelman, and Tonya Foster

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

PoemTalk #145, Discussing Tonya Foster's "A Swarm of Bees in High Court," feat. Stephanie Burt, Bonnie Costello, and Anna Strong Safford

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

PoemTalk #130, Discussing Gwendolyn Brooks's "Riot", feat. Amber Rose Johnson, Davy Knittle, and Tonya Foster

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

Reading "After" from Rain Taxi video launch for Topsy-Turvy with Charles Bernstein, June 15, 2021

"Rain" (2:28): MP4

Full Recording (1:00:13): External Link

Media.SAS URL link: MP4

In Celebration of Erica Hunt's Jump the Clock:

poetry and survival; Hunt's "The Order of the Story" from Local History & Foster's "New Orleans Bibliography" (10:24): MP3
Foster, "New Orleans Bibliography" (4:07): MP3

Reading at the Kelly Writers House, March 22, 2018

Watch on Media.sas
  • Complete Reading (48:32): MP3
  1. Introduction (7:23): MP3
  2. The grammar of walking (10:45): MP3
  3. Techno aisles (3:27): MP3
  4. In tongues (3:27): MP3
  5. All conduct should be so straight that you can measure it with a plumline (6:42): MP3
  6. From insomniloquies (5:29): MP3
  7. Bullet in (6:31): MP3
  8. New Orleans bibliography (4:29): MP3

Reading at the Lévy Gorvy Gallery, New York, March 21, 2017

Complete Reading (1:03:07): MP3

Tonya Foster (34:21): MP3

  1. Introduction (4:10): MP3
  2. In tongues (2:34): MP3
  3. A mathematics of chaos (15:07): MP3
  4. In somniloquies (6:22): MP3
  5. Etiquette (6:07): MP3

Anne Boyer (27:12): MP3

Erica Hunt & Tonya Foster: conversation and reading, March 11, 2017

Adam Fitzgerald salon, New York (1:27): MP3

"Techno Isles," Feb. 20, 2016 in New York: video by Ch. Bernstein

Erica Hunt on Tonya Foster and Swarm of Bees in Hight Court, April 23, 2016: video

Reading at the Word for Word Bryant Park Belladonna* Reading Series, September, 8, 2015

Complete Reading (1:18:41): MP3

Reading at Oh! Sandy: A Remembrance, Industry City, Brooklyn, New York, November 10, 2013, hosted by Phong Bui

  • Complete Reading (3:48): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Zinc Bar, February 23, 2013

  • Complete Recording (31:45): MP3
  1. Introduction by Arielle Goldberg (4:05): MP3
  2. Tongues (2:53): MP3
  3. Knit and Pearl (5:54): MP3
  4. Harlem Nocturnes (1:09): MP3
  5. Insomnia (2:22): MP3
  6. In/Somniloquies (10:59): MP3
  7. B-ball (0:55): MP3
  8. Incognizance (3:20): MP3

Reading from New Orlean Bibliography, filmed by Ted Roeder, circa 2013

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Emergency Series Reading at the Kelly Writers House, January 21, 2010

  1. on the work of M. NourbeSe Philip and Saidiya Hartman (6:08): MP3
  2. on Swarms of Bees in High Court (14:26): MP3
  3. Nocturne (2:52): MP3
  4. Nocturne II (0:40): MP3
  5. (In)Somniloquies (3:09): MP3
  6. "Bullets can pepper a body like salt falling" (0:54): MP3
  7. "If I was a bird, I'd shit on you" (0:16): MP3
  8. Tennis Shoe Pigeons (1:07): MP3
  9. on A Mathematics of Chaos, Monkey Talk, and A History of the Bitch (11:12): MP3

Appearing at the Chapterhouse Cafe, December 12, 2009

  1. Introduction (0:56): MP3
  2. Nocturne One (10:30): MP3
  3. Nocturne Two (1:28): MP3
  4. Domesticity (2:16): MP3
  • Complete Reading (15:25): MP3

Talk at "History, Tradition, Relation" panel at "Rethinking Poetics," Columbia University (NYC) 6/11/2010

With Elizabeth Willis (chair): Ben Friedlander, Tonya Foster, K. Silem Mohommad, and Willis; session introduced by Michael Golston. (1:34): MP3

Appearing at Advancing Feminist Poetics and Activism, sponsored by the Belladonna* Reading Series, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, September 25, 2009

Complete recording (16:31): MP3

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

Part one (55:50): MP3



Part two (25:12) MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, April 12, 2008

complete reading (29:58): MP3

  1. Introduction (2:52): MP3
  2. A mathematics of chaos (20:14): MPS
  3. A swarm of bees in high court: nocturne (6:59): MPS

From Charles Bernstein's Portraits Series: Tonya's Lost New Orleans, January 8, 2008

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Tonya Foster
Tonya grew up in New Orleans and was heading down for the Spring. Now she is a graduate student at CUNY, about to write a dissertation of poetry and place. We had just eaten in the new sushi joint across the street. I asked her what she missed most about what is gone in New Orleans.
(mp4, 37 seconds, 27.6 mb)


Benefit Reading for Will Alexander at the Bowery Poetry Club, November 1, 2007

Complete reading (7:57): MP3

Segue Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, New York City - November 9, 2002

  1. Introduction (3:18): MP3
  2. Summer (0:20): MP3
  3. Spring (0:16): MP3
  4. Daylight Savings or, The Cannibal Cooks (1:13): MP3
  5. Courtship in the Time of MaBell (1:53): MP3
  6. And the Dish Ran Away with a Spoon (0:59): MP3
  7. A Grammar of Waking (2:08): MP3
  8. A Swarm of Bees in the High Court (4:31): MP3
  9. A Folk Tale (2:02): MP3
  10. Yellow American Cheese (0:59): MP3
  11. New Orleans Bibliography (3:23): MP3

Complete reading (25:48): MP3

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author © 2017 Tonya Foster. Used with permission of Tonya Foster. Distributed by PennSound.