Will Alexander

Photo credit: Harold Abramowitz

Appearing on Close Listening with Charles Bernstein, October 19, 2016

Complete recording (28:33): MP3

PoemTalk #75, Discussing Will Alexander's "Compound Hibernation", feat. Tracie Morris, Kristen Gallagher, and Michael Magee

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

Reading with Stephen Ratcliffe, POG Poetry, Wave Archive, Tuscon, AZ, October 17, 2025

Media.SAS mirror URL: MP4

Reading with Lucía Hinojosa Gaxiola for Solarities 4, Duke University, November 14, 2024

Introductions by Michael Cavuto and Tessa Bolsover

1. Introduction (5:23): MP3
2. The Bluish Mathematics of Darkness (6:56): MP3
3. Above The Human Nerd Domain (3:57): MP3
4. A Nexus of Phantoms (2:46): MP3
5. Across the Vapour Gulf (4:24): MP3
6. The Deluge in Formation (5:13): MP3
7. Water On New Mars (19:36): MP3
8. The Blood Penguin (8:48): MP3
9. Visitation As Centigrade (4:09): MP3

Complete recording (1:33:48): MP3

Reading at Hauser and Worth, NY, February 12, 2019

Reading with A.L. Nielsen at Poetics Research Bureau, Los Angeles, California, October 7, 2017

Complete recording (54:38): MP3

Aural Monsoon, Live in The Haight, August 13, 2017

• Bamboo and Fire (5:43): MP3
• Calm and Furious Waters (6:16): MP3
• Uranian Chartings (8:59): MP3
• Sahara BC (8:13): MP3
• Verdrigris Panorama (6:09): MP3
• Lyrical Jasmine Towers (6:59): MP3
• Aural Diamonds in Motion (10:36): MP3
• Etheric Mountain Dwelling (12:04): MP3
• Double Recognition (6:28): MP3

Featuring Will Alexander on piano and Mark Pino on drums.

Paradigm Shifting: Edwin Torres and Will Alexander in Conversation at the Kelly Writers House, October 25, 2016

Alternate angle filmed by Charles Bernstein:

Complete recording (1:22:44): MP3

• Introduction by Julia Bloch (2:20): MP3
• Edwin Torres Reading Part 1 (12:13): MP3
1. Introduction (3:00): MP3
2. Slipped Curve (2:00): MP3
3. Oblique Offering (1:41): MP3
4. Immigrant Earthling (5:30): MP3
• Will Alexander Reading Part 1 (14:34): MP3
1. The Blood Penguin (7:35): MP3
2. The Ghost Survivor (1:04): MP3
3. The Newborn as Combat (1:54): MP3
4. Compression and Purity (2:16): MP3
5. The Deluge in Formation (1:38): MP3
• Conversation Part 1 (17:05): MP3
1. On uncertainty and the blessing of mishearing (2:50): MP3
2. On going past the borders of disciplines and ideological templates (1:55): MP3
3. On the human condition of boundaries (4:24): MP3
4. On exploring the English language (4:27): MP3
5. On how a poet can get to a “living language” (3:26): MP3
• Edwin Torres Reading Part 2 (8:25): MP3
1. The Happy Skeptic (2:55): MP3
2. To the Rendered Excision (0:51): MP3
3. Of What Is (4:37): MP3
• Will Alexander Reading Part 2 (8:36): MP3
1. The Bedouin Ark (6:30): MP3
2. The Nexus of Phantoms (2:04): MP3
• Conversation Part 2 (18:59): MP3
1. On space/dimensions in writing and imagination (2:40): MP3
2. On familiar and unfamiliar audiences (2:41): MP3
3. On the relationship between poems and cities (3:12): MP3
4. On Sun Ra’s influence (4:24): MP3
5. On reconciliation between "sound" and "voice" (2:06): MP3
6. On how dealing with borders in writing can confront the legal/national (3:53): MP3

Performance with Julie Patton and various artists at the Roosevelt Room, Detroit, MI, August 26, 2016

• Getting ready (3:51): MP3
• Take One (14:42): MP3
• Take Two (13:44): MP3
• Take Three (8:22): MP3
• Take Four (16:35): MP3

WHAT I SAY Anthology Reading for the 2016 National Black Writers Conference at AWP, Brooklyn, NY, March 31, 2016

Reading by Will Alexander (13:06): MP3

1. Introduction (1:21): MP3
2. Apprenticeship (5:59): MP3
3. Heidecker Poem (5:51): MP3

Complete reading (1:54:16): MP3

At Next Now Festival, Berkeley, 2016

Solo Piano (20:10): MP3

MLA Offsite Reading at ArtShare, LA, January 8, 2011

Provision for the Higher Ozone Body (5:26): MP3

Reading for LA-Lit: Clouds, Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, November 22, 2008

1. Panel Discussion (17:14): MP3
2. Introduction by Mathew Timmons (2:20): MP3
3. Reading (17:50): MP3

Benefit Reading at Skylight Books, Los Angeles, January 13, 2008

1. Mind Tornado (6:29): MP3
2. Concerning Forms Which Hold Heidegger in Judgment (7:18): MP3
3. Within the Opaque Termites' Morass (4:54): MP3
4. On the Forming Substance of Orishas (4:19): MP3
5. Concerning the Henbane Bird (9:39): MP3
6. Exobiology as Goddess (6:29): MP3

Complete reading by Will Alexander (39:12): MP3

Complete program (1:46:28): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, March 17, 2007

1. Introduction (4:59): MP3
2. Exercise In Particle Neutrino (1:40): MP3
3. Coping Prana (2:01): MP3
4. Compound Hibernation (2:22): MP3
5. Above The Human Nerve Domain (6:14): MP3
• Complete reading (17:59): MP3

"Compound Hibernation" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 75.

Lunch Poems Reading, UC Berkeley, November 2, 2006

Complete video recording:

Watch on Media.sas

Reading for LA-Lit, October 15, 2006

Poetic Service Announcement with Diane Ward (1:11): MP3

Reading for LA-Lit 14, June 25, 2006

• Part A (42:39): MP3
• Part B (43:51): MP3

Segue Series reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, New York City, April 3, 2004

1. Introduction (2:05): MP3
2. From "Concerning the Henbane Bird" (34:33): MP3

Complete reading (36:42): MP3

Reading at the Incognito Lounge, Hosted by A.L. Nielsen

1. Impulse and Nothingness (3:23): MP3
2. Recently published and upcoming works (2:41): MP3
3. Clairvoyant Hummingbird's Braille (1:54): MP3
4. His connection to Surrealism (8:00): MP3
5. The poetry and art scene in L.A. (3:05): MP3
6. Discussing "A National Day in Bangladesh" (2:06): MP3
7. Notions of nation and history in "Asia & Haiti" (2:59): MP3
8. The medium of poetry and leftist ideology (5:33): MP3
9. Diversity within Surrealist poetry (3:09): MP3
10. Discussing "Apocalyptic Sundown Shadows" (2:08): MP3
11. Apocalyptic Sundown Shadows (4:18): MP3
12. Discussing "Rothko" (1:02): MP3
13. Rothko (5:26): MP3
14. Using the form of the prose poem (1:34): MP3
15. The Water Dog (4:57): MP3

Complete reading (61:23): MP3

From Kenning, Issue #12, Autumn/Winter 2002-2003

• "A National Day in Bangladesh" (4:27): MP3


• Will Alexander recorded by Chris Funkhouser, August 1993, at The Grassy Knoll, Los Angeles, California. Text originally published in Caliban #10, 1991, Lawrence R. Smith, ed.

Benefit Readings for Will Alexander

Skylight Books, Los Angeles - January 13, 2008
Complete reading (1:46:28): MP3

California College of the Arts - December 1, 2007
Complete recording (3:06): MP3

The Bowery Poetry Club - November 1, 2007
Complete reading (1:16:44): MP3


For more information on Will's condition (as well as information on how you can help), and to hear individual MP3s for the participants in this reading -- including Anne Waldman, Bob Perelman, Jerome Rothenberg, Joel Kuszai and Rodrigo Toscano -- visit our event page for the benefit reading.

Reading in Los Angeles, CA, 1995

Complete recording (46:34): MP3

From the archives of Chris Funkhouser.

Incognito Lounge: Symposium on Surrealism, Santa Monica, CA, August 19, 1994

Organized by Douglas Messerli, with Will Alexander, David Antin, and Jerome Rothenberg

• Part 1 (51:37): MP3
• Part 2 (36:30): MP3

New Coast Festival Reading at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, March 31, 1993

Will Alexander reading (30:16): MP3

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Also of Interest:

Benefit Readings for Will Alexander

Skylight Books, Los Angeles - January 13, 2008
Complete reading (1:46:28): MP3

California College of the Arts - December 1, 2007
Complete recording (3:06): MP3

The Bowery Poetry Club - November 1, 2007
Complete reading (1:16:44): MP3


For more information on Will's condition (as well as information on how you can help), and to hear individual MP3s for the participants in this reading -- including Anne Waldman, Bob Perelman, Jerome Rothenberg, Joel Kuszai and Rodrigo Toscano -- visit our event page for the benefit reading.

Will Alexander on PennSound Daily

• February 13, 2011: "New PennSound Featured Resources Selected by Marcella Durand"
• July 21, 2010: "LA Lit: New Programs, PSAs and Clouds Conference"
• February 29, 2008: "Will Alexander Benefit Reading In Los Angeles"
• January 3, 2008: "Will Alexander San Francisco Benefit"
• November 8, 2007: "Benefit Readings for Will Alexander"



© 2024 Will Alexnader. Recordings available for non-commercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. Distributed with permission by PennSound.