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
VIDEO
Complete recording (1:22:01): MP3
Recording at the Wexler Studio of the Kelly Writers House, May 9, 2018
Ingredients of a winning visual identity... (0:17): MP3
Spoilsport of sorts... (0:39): MP3
Trapped in this high performance culture... (0:22): MP3
Written with a luxurious... (0:37): MP3
Align this process... (0:20): MP3
Are you 'he'... (0:29): MP3
Of Jew producing... (0:36): MP3
You know the drill... (0:36): MP3
Just to make sure... (0:21): MP3
How to write for the internet... (0:16): MP3
Does the unreadable... (0:33): MP3
Reading and gleaning from the same German root... (0:29): MP3
Rather than kill the gift of art... (0:35): MP3
Albino Lucille... (0:53): MP3
What's the use of Jews writing limericks... (0:27): MP3
If shit is the work of art... (0:23): MP3
Segue Series Reading at the Zinc Bar , NYC, December 16, 2017
Introducing Syd Zolf (2:16): MP3
Introductory Remarks by Zolf (6:54): MP3
Janey's Invocation (0:57): MP3
Comments on Red River Twang (0:35): MP3
Red River Twang (2:10): MP3
Janey Settler's Pastoral Oasis (1:57): MP3
Readings from The Holy Scriptures (3:43): MP3
Janey Settler Invader (2:57): MP3
Comments on Face to Face to Face (1:22): MP3
Face to Face to Face (3:47): MP3
Intro to "the" from A Language No One Speaks: The Dangerous Perhaps of Monstrous Witness (2:00): MP3
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
Watch on Media.sas
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
Watch on Media.sas
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
Watch on Media.sas
Complete Recording (21:37): MP3
Sound Performance Translation of Janey's Arcadia , November 9, 2014
Watch on Media.sas
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
Watch on Media.sas
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
Watch on Media.sas
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
Watch on Media.sas
General Introduction (4:15): MP3
Introduction for Katie Fleishman (4:57): MP3
Comments on Eastern Stocken (0:30): MP3
Eastern Stocken (0:57): MP3
Comments on Mousetrap (0:18): MP3
Mousetrap (1:29): MP3
Comments on Teeth (0:26): MP3
Teeth (1:11): MP3
Comments on Spring in London (0:19): MP3
Spring in London (1:28): MP3
Comments on Horse Farm (0:11): MP3
Horse Farm (1:40): MP3
Introduction for Syd Zolf (5:15): MP3
Comments by Zolf (1:38): MP3
Assaf Balak Barak... (1:27): MP3
...feel compelled to learn how to say these names? (0:08): MP3
A priori (1:53): MP3
Did not participate in hostilities (1:04): MP3
The neighbor procedure (0:51): MP3
The barber (0:32): MP3
We have to make you do a little sports (0:57): MP3
Comments on The lone soldier (0:29): MP3
The lone soldier (1:03): MP3
Comments on The capacity to give names (0:28): MP3
The capacity to give names (1:23): MP3
A certain kind of madness (0:50): MP3
At the gate (0:53): MP3
Harming families has proven an effective policy (0:39): MP3
"car bomb..." (1:16): MP3
A failure of hospitality (1:00): MP3
Grievable (1:42): MP3
Nominal (0:52): MP3
Loss has made a tenuous we (0:48): MP3
"Waiting Interrogation..." (1:27): MP3
Comments on Book of Comparisons (2:05): MP3
Book of Comparisons (3:11): MP3
Comments on Innocent Abroad (0:37): MP3
How to shape sacred time (1:29): MP3
Comments on Messenger (0:10): MP3
Messenger (0:49): MP3
Comments on Jews in Space (0:15): MP3
Jews in Space (1:28): MP3
Comments on Jerusalem Syndrome (0:15): MP3
Jerusalem Syndrome (1:22): MP3
Comments on the IDF's Neighbor Procedure (0:54): MP3
In the beginning he broke on his own initiative (1:10): MP3
Comments on L’amiral cherche une maison à louer (0:38): MP3
L’amiral cherche une maison à louer (3:02): MP3
Comments on Talkback (0:50): MP3
Talkback (1:23): MP3
Grounds for Deletion (0:42): MP3
Comments on Acknowledgement (0:37): MP3
Acknowledgement (1:28): MP3
Mixed Crowd (0:49): MP3
Comments on Anticipate (peut-être) (1:09): MP3
Anticipate (peut-être) (2:18): MP3
Comments on L’éveil (0:44): MP3
L’éveil (2:30): MP3
Thank yous (0:33): MP3
Reading at "Diaspora Dialogues," Toronto, April 30, 2010
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Keynote Performance, "Turning on Rights Conference," SUNY-Albany, April 16, 2010
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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
complete recording (1:06:55): MP3
Reading at the Kelly Writers House, April 16, 2009
Install the Flash plugin to watch this video.
a priori (2:55): MP3
The Neighbor Procedure (1:52): MP3
Grievable (2:01): MP3
Jews in Space (2:00): MP3
How to Shape Sacred Time (2:05): MP3
In the Beginning, He Broke on His Own Initiative (2:01): MP3
Cast As Lead (1:29): MP3
Go This Way (1:04): MP3
Leaping Poetry (1:31): MP3
Complete Reading (17:12): MP3
note: due to technical difficulties, this recording begins in medias res
Complete Reading (14:56): MP3
Reading with M. NourbeSe Philip at the Friends Meeting House, Toronto, ON, April 23, 2008
Assaf Balak Barak... (1:43): MP3
...feel compelled to learn how to say these names? (0:10): MP3
A priori (2:05): MP3
Did not participate in hostilities (1:09): MP3
The neighbor procedure (0:46): MP3
The barber (0:50): MP3
Ridden (2:03): MP3
The lone soldier (1:12): MP3
A certain kind of madness (1:16): MP3
At the gate (1:28): MP3
Harming families has proven an effective policy (1:02): MP3
"car bomb..." (1:18): MP3
A failure of hospitality (1:47): MP3
Grievable (3:04): MP3
Loss has made a tenuous we (1:22): MP3
"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
Introduction (0:27): MP3
"If you spend six months writing policies for corporations..." (0:42): MP3
Aside (0:20): MP3
"On our side of the family..." (0:16): MP3
"Retention investments..." (0:40): MP3
"of green diaspora..." (0:24): MP3
"Jabès the Atheist..." (0:33): MP3
"Anne Carson on Célan..." (0:30): MP3
How to write persuasive body copy (0:13): MP3
"Adrienne Rich..." (0:33): MP3
"If'all poets are Jews' veiled in Cyrillic letters..." (0:23): MP3
"The mystical white crow..." (0:42): MP3
"The w1 fuck q1..." (0:43): MP3
Aside (0:22): MP3
"Poesis consumes..." (0:28): MP3
"Orwell says..." (0:26): MP3
"It sounded too much like 'motherhood'..." (0:17): MP3
"But noisy..." (0:25): MP3
How to make a name (0:23): MP3
"Spoilsport of sorts..." (0:32): MP3
"Trapped in this high performance culture..." (0:18): MP3
"Written with a luxurious..." (0:36): MP3
"Suckle a dangerous..." (0:33): MP3
"Are you 'he..." (0:23): MP3
"Of Jew producing..." (0:35): MP3
"You know the drill..." (0:30): MP3
How to write for the Internet (0:15): MP3
part two(11:17): MP3
"Does the unreadable..." (0:27): MP3
"Reading and gleaning..." (0:24): MP3
"Rather than kill the gift..." (0:32): MP3
"If shit is a work of art..." (0:20): MP3
"You had trouble accepting gifts..." (0:40): MP3
"Ambiguities of the human condition..." (0:16): MP3
"If differance..." (0:29): MP3
"This is a marathon..." (0:19): MP3
"You looked for subjectivity..." (0:28): MP3
"1 403 9..." (0:23): MP3
Aside (0:20): MP3
excerpts from Neighbour Procedure :
Introduction to Neighbour Procedure (0:22): MP3
Ridden (2:03): MP3
A failure of hospitality (1:24): MP3
Operation (0:48): MP3
A priori (1:55): MP3
Full reading from Human Resources (21:49): MP3
Thanks (0:30): MP3
Epigraph from Human Resources (0:32): MP3
"The job is to write in 'plain language'..." (0:17): MP3
"New performance weightings..." (0:17): MP3
"Given enough input elements..." (0:33): MP3
"We're in a bit of a holding pattern..." (0:17): MP3
How to warm up your mental motor and find your Big Idea (0:13): MP3
"If you spend six months writing policies for corporations..." (0:35): MP3
"On our side of the family..." (0:17): MP3
"The armpit hole..." (0:29): MP3
"I don't want to make an 'event'..." (0:18): MP3
"Jabès the atheist..." (0:34): MP3
"I kill my sentance..." (0:18): MP3
Aside (0:12): MP3
"Retention Investments..." (0:36): MP3
"of green diaspora..." (0:23): MP3
"Anne Carson on Celan..." (0:27): MP3
Where to look for inspiration (0:15): MP3
"Adrienne Rich..." (0:38): MP3
"If'all poets are Jews' veiled in Cyrillic letters..." (0:22): MP3
"The mystical white crow..." (0:38): MP3
"the w1 fuck q1..." (0:49): MP3
"Poesis consumes..." (0:26): MP3
"Orwell says..." (0:23): MP3
How to make a name (0:21): MP3
"The work of the sword..." (0:40): MP3
"name and non-event..." (0:26): MP3
"suckle a dangerous..." (0:30): MP3
"It sounded too much like motherhood..." (0:23): MP3
"Spoilsports of sorts..." (0:30): MP3
"Trapped in this high performance culture..." (0:19): MP3
"Written with a luxurious..." (0:29): MP3
"Align this process..." (0:19): MP3
"Are you 'he..." (0:30): MP3
"of Jew producing..." (0:31): MP3
"You know the drill..." (0:29): MP3
How to write for the internet (0:18): MP3
"Just to make sure..." (0:17): MP3
"Does the unreadable..." (0:25): MP3
"Reading and gleaning..." (0:24): MP3
"If shit is a work of art..." (0:22): MP3
"Albino Lucille..." (0:43): MP3
"You had trouble accepting gifts..." (0:41): MP3
"This is a marathon..." (0:18): MP3
"If différance..." (0:30): MP3
"Perilously rough waters..." (0:24): MP3
"You looked for subjectivity..." (0:29): MP3
"1 403 9..." (0:20): MP3
"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
Introduction by Zolf (2:10): MP3
Epigraph from Human Resources (0:49): MP3
"The job is to write in plain language..." (0:20): MP3
"New performance weightings..." (0:19): MP3
"Given enough input elements..." (0:41): MP3
"We're in a bit of a holding pattern..." (0:20): MP3
How to warm up your mental motor and find your Big Idea (0:14): MP3
"If you spend six months writing policies for corporations..." (0:42): MP3
"I don't want to make an event..." (0:18): MP3
"Jabès, the Atheist..." (0:33): MP3
"of green diaspora..." (0:29): MP3
"Retention Investments..." (0:37): MP3
"Can you give me a drop-dead deadline..."(0:21): MP3
"Anne Carson on Celan..." (0:36): MP3
Where to look for inpiration (0:18): MP3
"Adrienne Rich..." (0:47): MP3
"If'all poets are Jews' veiled in Cyrillic letters..." (0:28): MP3
"The mystical white crow..." (0:43): MP3
"the w1 fuck q1..." (0:58): MP3
"Poesis consumes..." (0:29): MP3
"Orwell says..." (0:29): MP3
How to make a name (0:24): MP3
"The work of the sword..." (0:44): MP3
"name and non-event..." (0:36): MP3
"suckle a dangerous..." (0:38): MP3
"It sounded too much like motherhood..." (0:27): MP3
"Spoilsports of sorts..." (0:35): MP3
"Trapped in this high performance culture..." (0:25): MP3
"Written with a luxurious..." (0:36): MP3
"Align this process..." (0:19): MP3
"Are you 'he..." (0:25): MP3
"of Jew producing..." (0:33): MP3
"You know the drill..." (0:30): MP3
"Just to make sure..." (0:27): MP3
How to write for the Internet (0:19): MP3
"Does the unreadable..." (0:28): MP3
"Reading and gleaning..." (0:27): MP3
"If shit is the work of art..." (0:24): MP3
"Albino Lucille..." (0:52): MP3
"You had trouble accepting gifts..." (0:44): MP3
"Ambiguities of the human condition..." (0:22): MP3
"You looked for subjectivity..." (0:33): MP3
"1 403 9..." (0:29): MP3
"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: link
Watch on Media.sas
Reading as part of the Test Reading Series, Toronto, Ontario, March 29, 2006
from Human Resources (36:58): MP3
Additional resources: