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Joan Retallack

28th Annual Subterranean Poetry Festival, September 8th, 2018

    Joan Retallack (10:37): MP3

PoemTalk #53, discussing Joan Retallack's "Not a Cage," May 20, 2012

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

PoemTalk #46, discussing Jackson Mac Low's "Words nd Ends from Ez," October 13, 2011

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

Appearing on Close Listening hosted by Charles Bernstein, Bard College, February 26, 2011

Program One: Reading

  1. Preface to "The Woman in the Chinese Room" (4:30): MP3
  2. "The Woman in the Chinese Room" from How To Do Things With Words (Sun & Moon Classics, 1998) (9:26): MP3
  3. from The Bosch Bookshelf, 1-6, (published in Qui Parle [At the Intersections of Ecocriticism], Vol.19, No.2, Spring 2011) (7:50): MP3
  4. from "Coimbra Poem of Poetry & Violence: Grief's Rubies," from Procedural Elegies / Western Civ Cont'd / (Roof Books, 2010) (5:15): MP3
  • Complete program (27:04): MP3

Program Two: Conversation with Charles Bernstein & Al Filreis

  • Complete program (32:19): MP3

EPC@20 Celebration, September 11-12, 2014

  • Reading/Performance (26:54): MP3
  • "Gertrude Stein & Modernist Visual Art: What is the Question?" Talk (Intro by Jack Krick)

    Watch on Media.sas

    Audio Recording (60:07): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Zinc Bar, New York City, October 26, 2013

  1. Genji Amino's introduction (02:50): MP3
  2. Procedural Elegies/Western Civ Cont'd., Preface (2:06): MP3
  3. 28 (01:29): MP3, PDF
  4. 29 (01:43): MP3
  5. 30 (01:36): MP3
  6. 31 (02:13): MP3
  7. 33: Breakdance Lecture Continued (01:16): MP3
  8. Breakdance Lecture Continued (01:01): MP3
  9. Bosch studies (02:31): MP3
  10. Logical Universe Of Five Minutes (02:19): MP3
  11. None Too Soon (00:50): MP3
  12. The Women (02:21): MP3
  13. The Patriarchs (02:39): MP3
  14. A Confession (02:31): MP3
  15. Untitled (01:17): MP3

University of Louisville, Feb. 22, 2013

Intro: Alan Golding; Recorded by A.L. Nielsen for Heatstrings
(1:02:59): MP3

Leslie Scalapino Lecture in Innovative Poetics Series, Boulder, Colorado, April 5, 2012

Small Press Traffic Presents: The Leslie Scalapino Memorial Lecture in Innovative Poetics, Recorded by Cloud House Poetry Archives, San Francisco, May 27, 2011

Complete video (1:00:08): MOV

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, October 9, 2010

  1. Kareen Estefan's introduction (01:42): MP3
  2. On Procedural Elegies/Western Civ Cont'd (01:54): MP3
  3. Epigraph to Procedural Elegies/Western Civ Cont'd (01:08): MP3
  4. Western Civ Cont'd (04:27): MP3
  5. Breakdance Lecture (00:19): MP3
  6. The Dining Philosopher's Problem (01:13): MP3
  7. Breakdance Lecture Continued (03:13): MP3
  8. Three Ring Circa Continued (01:43): MP3
  9. By Now (07:26): MP3
  10. Happiness (01:21): MP3
  11. Profound Realization (01:21): MP3
  12. As Luck Would Have It (01:01): MP3
  • Complete reading (29:54): MP3

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

Complete recording (44:16): MP3

Complete video (44:16): MOV

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, May 9, 2009

  1. Introduction (2:37): MP3
  2. The Bosch Bookshelf (23:14): MP3

Complete Reading (28:14): MP3

Reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, April 23, 2009

  1. Introduction by Prof. Lynn Keller (7:19): MP3
  2. Joan's Introductory Remarks (4:47): MP3
  3. Present Tensed (3:11): MP3
  4. The Woman in the Chinese Room (8:49): MP3
  5. Introduction to The Reinvention of Truth (1:32): MP3
  6. The Reinvention of Truth (8:57): MP3
  7. A Boy and Her Dog (5:24): MP3
  8. Introduction to "The Bosch Bookshelf" (1:16): MP3
  9. The Bosch Bookshelf (10:40): MP3
  10. Post-reading Q&A (12:00): MP3

Full Reading (68:40): MP3

This project was made possible with generous funding provided by the Brittingham Foundation, the University Lectures Committee, and the Department of English.

Lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, April 22, 2009

"John Cage's Anarchic Harmony: A Poethical Wager" (55:16): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, December 9, 2006

  1. Introduction (3:40): MP3
  2. Ex Post Animo (3:18): MP3
  3. Here's Looking at You, Francis Bacon (4:57): MP3, PDF
  4. The Reinvention of Truth (8:20): MP3
  5. A to Z (17:05): MP3

Complete reading (39:07): MP3

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

  • Sections from The Reinvention of Truth (4:14): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, February 5, 2005

  1. Introduction (4:20): MP3
  2. To Find the Light (12:25): MP3
  3. A Box, from Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons (1:08): MP3
  4. A to Z (8:18): MP3
  5. #25, from Jackson Mac Low's The Twenties (2:40): MP3
  6. Poem composed from the phonemes in "Jackson Mac Low" (3:27): MP3

Reading for the Belladonna* Reading Series, NYC, September 3, 2004

  1. Introduction (03:05): MP3
  2. Lost Briefcase Conjecture (02:46): MP3
  3. The Reinvention of Truth (09:29): MP3
  4. From Memnoir (12:25): MP3

    Complete reading (29:15): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at Double Happiness, New York, January 5, 2002

  1. Introduction (01:40): MP3
  2. Prologue to Mongrelisme (02:40): MP3
  3. First section of Mongrelism (03:21): MP3
  4. Memnoir (27:12): MP3
  • Complete recording (35:38): MP3

Alternative Poetries and Alternative Pedagogies Reading and Discussion at the Kelly Writers House, February 28, 2001

Complete video (02:07:07): MP4

  1. Introduction by Al Filreis (4:36): MP3
  2. reading "What is This?" from Gertrude Stein's "Useful Knowledge" (1:50): MP3
  3. reading "Memnoir" (12:43): MP3
  4. reading errata 5uite (10:41): MP3, PDF
  5. reading "Here's Looking at You, Francis Bacon" (5:55): MP3, PDF
  6. Kerry Sherin discusses the Bard conference on poetry and pedagogy (4:34): MP3
  7. On the importance of contextualizing experimental writing texts (4:54): MP3
  8. On what makes reading experimental writing difficult (5:09): MP3
  9. On techniques to teach experimental poetry (12:06): MP3
  10. On writing into texts (13:50): MP3
  11. The student's perspective on dialogues with text (1:45): MP3
  12. On interesting non-humanities students in humanities (2:25): MP3
  13. Bob Perelman on experimental poetics as a pedagogy (3:27): MP3
  14. On the necessity of "reconfiguring the geography of our attention" (7:59): MP3
  15. On the aftermath of the Bard conference on poetry and pedagogy (4:40): MP3
  16. On teaching criticism (4:41): MP3
  17. On taking cues from the text (5:08): MP3
  18. On the interaction of the contemporary poet with the contemporary world (7:02): MP3
  19. On experiential learning (9:52): MP3
  20. On experiencing Tender Buttons, and closing remarks (2:58): MP3

Complete reading and discussion (2:05:00): MP3 RealVideo (streaming file) rm

Reading as part of the Kelly Writers House program "9 Poets Read Themselves through Modernism," October 12, 2000

  1. Introduction (2:16): MP3
  2. from Tractacus Logico Philosophicus (3:21): MP3
  3. Woman in a Chinese Room (2:09): MP3
  4. Various pieces by Gertrude Stein (4:19): MP3
  5. from Gertrude Stein's "Stanzas in Meditation," first stanza (*see text below) (1:17): MP3
  6. SteinZas in Meditation (6:10): MP3
  7. Art is Either a Complaint or Something Else (2:53): MP3
  8. Mem-noir (3:58): MP3

Complete reading MP3

C. S. Giscombe and Joan Retallack reading, St. Mark's Church, NY, May 13, 1998

Recorded on audiocassette. Recording hosted by the Library of Congress.

  1. Side A (47:46): link
  2. Side B (48:05): link

Segue Series reading at The Ear Inn, May 6, 1995

  1. Introduction (incomplete) (00:28): MP3
  2. From Afterrimages, epigraphs (01:05): MP3
  3. Afterrimages part 1 (05:30): MP3
  4. Afterrimages part 2 (00:57): MP3
  5. Journal Of A Lunar Eclipse (05:03): MP3
  6. Amerrata: (02:05): MP3
  7. Autobiographialitterarias I (03:27): MP3
  8. Autobiographialitterarias II (06:19): MP3
  • Complete recording (27:01): MP3

At SUNY-Buffalo, September 22, 1993

  1. Existence is an Attribute (5:28): MP3
  2. Not a Cage (3:33): MP3 [text-audio alignment]
  3. Strange Attractors (7:55): MP3
  4. Here's Looking At You, Francis Bacon (3:22): MP3, PDF
  5. Autobiographia Literaria II (11:55): MP3
  6. from errata 5uite (7:29): MP3, PDF

Complete Reading (40:20): MP3

"Not a Cage" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 53.

Reading recorded by A.L. Nielsen for the Incognito Lounge, July 1991

  1. Not a Cage, for John Cage (2:47): MP3
  2. ditto Marcel Duchamp? ditto ditto Gertrude Stein? (8:42): MP3
  3. How to Do Things With Words: Homage to the Austens, Jane and JL (5:33): MP3, PDF
  4. A Brief Experiment in Linguistics (10:20): MP3
  5. Here's Looking at You, Francis Bacon (2:41): MP3, PDF

Complete reading (45:15): MP3

"Not a Cage" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 53.

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, New York, Feburary 15, 1987

Complete Recording note: incomplete (32:23): MP3

also of interest:

  • "Theorizing" presentation at the Kelly Writers House (October 6, 2004)

  • A Celebration of Jackson Mac Low's Thing of Beauty: New and Selected Works, CUE Arts Foundation, January 18, 2008 featuring Anne Tardos, Charles Bernstein, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Joan Retallack, Drew Gardner, and others.
    • I caught a bird which made a ball
    • And they thought better of it.
    • But it is all of which they taught
    • That they were in a hurry yet
    • In a kind of a way they meant it best
    • That they should change in and on account
    • But they must not stare when they manage
    • Whatever they are occasionally liable to do
    • It is often easy to pursue them once in a while
    • And in a way there is no repose
    • They like it as well as they ever did
    • But it is very often just by the time
    • That they are able to separate
    • In which case in effect they could
    • Not only be very often present perfectly
    • In each way whichever they chose.

    These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to Joan Retallack. © 2014 Joan Retallack. Used with permission of Joan Retallack. Distributed by PennSound.