Nine contemporary poets read themselves through modernism

For three evenings, October 12 through 14, 2000, The Kelly Writers House, collaborating with the Modernist Studies Association conference, "Modernisms II," presented nine contemporary poets read themselves through modernism.

Three nights of readings at the Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk on Penn's campus: each night featured three contemporary poets reading their own and a modernist's writings, thirty-minute selections chosen to express a relationship to the work of modernism. These programs were recorded in digital audio, and are now available as a permanent archive of the project.

Click on the name of the poet below to hear the poet's 30-minute reading/discussion following a brief introduction by Al Filreis. The format is RealAudio; if you need a RealPlayer, just click here. For downloadable MP3 recordings of some of the readings, please scroll down this page.

"[S]omehow modernism as I...want to understand it...is really an ongoing project in the contemporary writing scene."
--Bob Perelman

The "nine poets" program was been conceived by Bob Perelman and Al Filreis, organized and convened by Al Filreis, Class of 1942 Professor of English & Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House, and was introduced by Al Filreis and Kerry Sherin, Director of the Kelly Writers House. Funded by the Kelly Writers House, MSA, and the Creative Writing Program of the Department of English. For more information about the Modernist Studies Association, visit the MSA web site.

Complete recordings

Thursday, October 12, 9:30 PM

Friday, October 13, 9:30 PM

Saturday, October 14, 9:30 PM

Recordings of individual poems

Note: Click on the title for downloadable MP3 recordings. For instant streaming audio, click on the sideways triangle.

Lyn Hejinian

  1. Introduction by Kerry Sherin (3:31)
  2. Introduction by Al Filreis (4:33)
  3. Introduction by Lyn Hejinian (4:28)
  4. from My Life (19:27)

Ron Silliman

  1. Introduction by Al Filreis (1:17)
  2. Introduction by Ron Silliman (1:39)
  3. The Desert Music (4:08)
  4. The Poet (3:30)
  5. To A Dog Injured In The Street (2:12)
  6. from Paterson (4:16)
  7. from Spring And All (2:53)
  8. Untitled work from Crow (3:11)
  9. Berkeley (5:31)
  10. from Ketjak (2:55)
  11. William Carlos Williams reading (2:37)

Joan Retellack

  1. Introduction (2:16)
  2. from Tractacus Logico Philosophicus (3:21)
  3. Woman in a Chinese Room (2:09)
  4. Various pieces by Gertrude Stein (4:19)
  5. from Edification (1:17)
  6. SteinZas in Meditation (6:10)
  7. Art is Either a Complaint or Something Else (2:53)
  8. Mem-noir (3:58)

Charles Bernstein

  1. Introduction
  2. Rimes for Stefan (from Scene One)
  3. Dialog between Holderlin and Benjamin (from Scene One)
  4. Doctrine of Similartity (Scene Three) (excerpts published by the Forward, with commentary by Roger Kamenetz)
  5. Dew & Die (from "The Doctrine of Similarity," Scene Three)
  6. Anagramatica (from "The Doctrine of Similarity," Scene Three)
  7. Pools of Darkness: 11 Interrogations (Scene Five)
  8. Seven Tableaux Vivant (Scene Six)
  9. Stelae for Lost Time (Scene Seven) (text published in Boston Review)

Rachel Blau DuPlessis

  1. On Virginia Woolf (4:20)
  2. from "Draft 48: Being Astonished" (11:54)
  3. On Virginia Woolf (2) (0:55)
  4. "Draft 38: Georgics and Shadow" (10:28)

Erica Hunt

  1. Introduction (8:43)
  2. "Cold War Breaks" (6:15)
  3. "Arcade" (3:03)
  4. Every once in a while (quote from Baldwin) (2:54)
  5. What is certain is this (quote from Beckett) (0:49)
  6. "The New Time Squared" (2:20)
  7. "Nature disappeared with the first human" (1:04)
  8. Turning now to where (quote from Beckett) (2:44)
  9. "Proof" (0:56)

Bob Perelman

  1. Introduction by Al Filreis (2:44)
  2. Introductory remarks (1:59)
  3. About Louis Zukofsky (14:05)
  4. "Not Me" and reading from Zukofsky (6:55)
  5. "Catalyst" and "Virgil's Fourth Eclogue" (20:03)

Jena Osman

  1. Introduction by Al Filreis (2:29)
  2. Introductory remarks (13:21)
  3. "Authorities: A Lecture (15:50)

Rae Armantrout

  1. Introduction by Al Filreis (2:17)
  2. Introduction by Rae Armantrout (2:50)
  3. My Life Has Stood A Loaded Gun (2:28)
  4. 1712 (1:07)
  5. Rae speaking about her own work (1:21)
  6. Writing (0:57)
  7. Carriage (0:37)
  8. Sighs (0:33)
  9. The Plan (0:43)
  10. from Up To Speed (1:06)
  11. Form (1:00)
  12. Currency (0:29)
  13. Exceptional (0:34)
  14. Solid (0:57)
  15. Coexistence (0:34)
  16. Seconds (1:22)
  17. Visualisations (0:38)
  18. Intact (0:42)
  19. Yet (0:45)
  20. Box (0:48)
  21. Now This (0:25)