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A.L. Nielsen


photo: Howard Rambsy

PoemTalk Podcast #126, Discussing Amiri Baraka’s “Something in the Way of Things (In Town),” feat. Tyrone Williams, William J. Harris, and Aldon Nielsen

For complete recording and program notes go to Jacket2.

PoemTalk #115, Discussing Lorenzo Thomas' "An Arc Still Open", feat. William J. Harris, Tyrone Williams, and Aldon Nielsen on August 9, 2017

For complete recording and program notes go to Jacket2.

PoemTalk #26, Discussing Vachel Lindsay's "The Congo," November 30, 2009

For complete recording and program notes go to Jacket2.

Appearing on Close Listening with Charles Bernstein

Program One: Reading

  1. Introduction (0:56): MP3
  2. Self-Organizing Networks (0:58): MP3
  3. This Is One Way to Begin (0:23): MP3
  4. Halcyon Road (0:32): MP3
  5. The News (0:11): MP3
  6. Unsub (027): MP3
  7. The Virginia Monologues (6:06): MP3
  8. Petirroja (1:15): MP3
  9. My Dinner with Andrea (1:34): MP3
  10. 1/2 a Poem for David Bromige (0:59): MP3
  11. Exemplary Sentences (2:49): MP3
  12. The Very Large Array (0:59): MP3
  13. Emily's List (0:23): MP3
  14. Stained Glass Widow (1:21): MP3
  15. Epistemological Hesitation (0:10): MP3
  16. For Michael Davidson (1:18): MP3
  17. Child of the Willows (0:47): MP3
  18. Legal Notice (0:27): MP3
  19. On the Disappearance of Species (0:31): MP3
  20. Glottophagia (1:02): MP3
  21. In the Land of a Thousand Dunces (0:19): MP3
  22. Untitled (0:17): MP3

Complete reading (25:38): MP3

Program Two: Conversation

Complete conversation (31:24): MP3

Video readings and performances, c. 2020

Performing "Caldonia Softens"

Reading "Musica Callada" for Wuhan, Chinese translation by Lianggong Luo and read by Chen Hongbo

Performing "Redevelopment"

Performing Langston Hughes' "Summer Night" with Anna Everett

Performing Langston Hughes' "Six-Bits Blues"

Reading Two Poems

Reading at Xavier University, April 25, 2019

Complete recording (42:41): MP3

Reading with Wesley Rothman and Sally Wenn Mao at In Your Ear Series, D.C. Arts Center, Washington, D.C., February 17, 2018

Reading with Will Alexander at Poetics Research Bureau, Los Angeles, California, October 7, 2017

Complete recording (54:38): MP3

Interview with E. Ethelbert Miller for WFPW's On The Margin, May 4, 2017

Complete recording (59:58): MP3

MLA Offsite Reading, Philadelphia, January 6, 2017

Complete reading (1:52): MP3

Reading for Heatstrings, at Alan Golding's Home, Louisville, KY, February 20, 2016

  • Nielsen's Segment (2:40): MP3

"Race, Ethnicity, and United States Poetry," MLA 2016, Austin, Texas, January 8, 2016

Listen to the complete roundtable discussion here

Reading for Heatstrings at Modernism Studies Association, Boston, MA, November 20, 2015

Complete reading (04:50): MP3

Reading for Heatstrings at Modernism Studies Association, Pittsburgh, PA, November 7, 2014

  • Complete reading (04:11): MP3

Appearing on New Day Jazz with Justin Desmangles, KDVS, August 18, 2013


Chinese American Association for Poetry and Poetics Conference, Central China Normal University - Wuhan, China. June 8, 2013.

  1. Cecil's Train Set (02:24): MP3
  2. Sunken Gardens (00:40):MP3
  3. and I followed her to the station (00:55): MP3
  4. Small Song (01:16): MP3

photograph by Stephane Robolin

Reading at the St. Mark's Poetry Project, New York, March 18, 2013

  1. Cecil's Train Set (1:08): MP3
  2. For Jayne Cortez (4:19): MP3
  3. Sunken Gardens (1:00): MP3
  4. Aldon D. (1:05): MP3
  5. Good Advice (1:02): MP3
  6. If It Isn't One Thing (2:32): MP3
  7. from GHANA (3:59): MP3
  8. Yellow VII (3:20): MP3
  9. The Virginia Monologues (6:20): MP3
  10. And I Followed Her To the Station" (0:43): MP3
  11. Pendant (0:48): MP3

Convergence on Poetics, University of Washington Bothell, North Creek Events Center, September 27-30, 2012

  • A.L. Nielsen (5:55): MP3
  • Complete recording (1:55:03): MP3

  • Listen to the entire event here

Poetry in Performance: National Poetry Foundation Conference on the 1980's

Recorded June 29, 2012; Featuring A.L. Nielsen, Catherine Wagner, Laura Hinton, Evie Shockley and Linda Russo.

  • A.L. Nielsen-Redevelopment (02:16): MP3
  • A.L. Nielsen-Translations From the Rubic I (09:03): MP3
  • A.L. Nielsen-Nannie Burroughs Avenue (03:27): MP3
  • A.L. Nielsen-Evacuation Routes E and D (03:44): MP3

Reading at Alan Golding's Home for the 40th University of Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture After 1900, Heatstrings, February 25, 2012

  • Complete reading (3:23): MP3

MLA Offsite Reading, Town Hall Downstairs, Seattle, January 7, 2012

Complete reading (2:38): MP3

Group Reading at Modernist Studies Association, Hallwall's Contemporary Art Center, Heatstrings, Buffalo, October 7, 2011

  • A.L. Nielsen (3:28): MP3

Reading at Alan Golding's House, University of Louisvulle Conference, February 26, 2011

  • Complete reading (4:49): MP3

Reading at Alan Golding's House, Louisville, KY, February 20, 2010

  • Complete reading (4:21): MP3

MLA Off-Site Reading at the Rotunda, Philadelphia, December 29, 2009

  • Complete reading (2:20): MP3

Reading at the first Pan African Writers Forum, Ghana, 17 July 2008

Of this recording, Nielsen says: I'd been invited there to deliver a lecture and hadn't brought any of my poetry with me. When the organizers asked me to do a poetry reading, I hurriedly gathered a few poems from web sites, and one in progress from my notebook -- The reading took place late one night under the stars and just a few yards from the ocean.

  1. Accidental Baby Blues (1:21): MP3
  2. Second Person (1:21): MP3
  3. Manufacture's Warning (0:21): MP3
  4. Something Crashing (0:18): MP3
  5. Mary Kaye's Book (0:42): MP3
  6. from GHANA (1:56): MP3
  7. Self-Help Test (1:41): MP3
  8. from Sixties Flashbacs (1:34): MP3
  9. Commuter's Dream (0:19): MP3
  10. Mixophobia (0:56): MP3

The Future of an Allusion, Georgetown University, April 13, 2005

Complete recording (53:44): MP3

Appearing on Cross-Cultural Poetics, hosted by Leonard Schwartz, September 1, 2004

  • Episode #44: Capacity/Incapacity/Opacity (59:27): MP3
  • Episode #121: Integral Music (31:19): MP3

How We Place African American Poetry, University of Wisconsin, April 2003

A.L. Nielsen writes of this reading: In April of 2003, Lorenzo Thomas and I appeared at a symposium at the University of Wisconsin organized by Lynn Keller, titled WHAT'S NEW IN AMERICAN POETRY. Lorenzo and I had by then been on many panels together, acting as a sort of roving tag team of poetry criticism. This time out, Lorenzo delivered a talk he called "How We Place African American Poetry" and I delivered a prepared response to his talk.

"Self-Organizing Networks," music and performance by Christopher Reiner, LA, August 15 and 15, 2002

Complete Recording (5:05): MP3

Presenting with Rae Armantrout and Charles Altieri at the American Literature Association, San Diego, May 1992

  1. Rae Armantrout (23:06): MP3
  2. A.L. Nielsen (22:45): MP3
  3. Charles Altieri (28:13): MP3
  4. Q&A (16:57): MP3

Complete reading (1:32:13): MP3

Heatstrings: recordings from A.L. Nielsen's blog.

The Incognito Lounge, biweekly radio show hosted by A.L. Nielsen and aired on KSJS FM in San José from 1989 to 1995.

AWP Offsite Readings

MLA Offsite Readings

MLA Offsite 2004-6

MLA Offsite Reading at the Four Seasons Hotel, Washington D.C., December 28, 2005

  1. Inauguration by Lorenzo Thomas (1:10): MP3
  2. Song by Lorenzo Thomas (0:49): MP3
  3. "the ear of the behearer..." (1:16): MP3

MLA Offsite 2007

MLA Offsite 2008

MLA OffSite Reading at the Rotunda, Philadelphia, December 29, 2009

  • Complete reading (2:36:46): MP3

Sterling Brown Panel at AWP, Baltimore, March 1, 2003

A. L. Nielsen and Lorenzo Thomas

  • Complete panel (1:07:09): MP3

MLA Offsite Series Reading at the Four Seasons Hotel, Washington D.C., December 27, 1996

  1. Manufacturer's Warning (0:19): MP3
  2. "when things decay" (0:38): MP3
  3. After Autumn (0:19): MP3
  4. Unwieldy Aphorism (0:27): MP3
  5. Supple Mint (0:32): MP3
  6. Lafayette Square (0:30): MP3
  7. American Songbag (1:03): MP3

Memorial Reading for Robert Duncan, San Jose State University, Incognito Lounge, November 1990

  • Complete reading (13:05): MP3

MLA OffSite Reading, Bick's Books, Washington D.C., December 28, 1989

Complete recording (30:59): MP3

  1. Introduction (0:47): MP3
  2. Self-Organizing Networks (0:59): MP3
  3. Letter Home (1:18): MP3
  4. Half a Poem for David Bromige (0:51): MP3
  5. Silent Partners (4:11): MP3
  6. The Day Lady Died (0:12): MP3
  7. 30 Things About Zebras (2:27): MP3
  8. Progasm (0:53): MP3
  9. Doc Watter's Residency (3:51): MP3
  10. Caldonia Softens (1:15): MP3
  11. Snow Over Johannesburg (1:53): MP3
  12. from Part Two of "Essays" (6:04): MP3
  13. Brown Coeds Nabbed (1:04): MP3
  14. Photo Opportunity (1:26): MP3
  15. My Dinner With Andrea (2:04): MP3

A.L. Nielsen 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. (c) 2018 A.L. Nielsen. Used with permission of A.L. Nielsen. Distributed by PennSound.