Enemies in Berlin - February 19th collaborative performance with Alessandra Eramo in Wedding

http://wortwedding.blogspot.de/search/label/02%20Februar%202013

 The culmination of one of the most engrossing collaborations of the Enemies series will come to a head this February when I'll be working with Alessandra Eramo on a brand new performance. She has been an extraordinary correspondent and is an artist I really admire, so it's very exciting prospect.


RESIDENCY
Alessandra Eramo (IT/Berlin) & poet Steven J. Fowler (UK/London)
“Poetry, Sound, Voice, Object: A journey through our daily rituals”

Presentation of the Residency:
19.02.2013 20:00  ||   Live Performance and Installation
22.02.2013 19:00 - 23:00  & 24.02.2012 14:00 - 18:00 ||  Exhibition
CONCEPT
The ongoing research of sound artist, vocalist and performer Alessandra Eramo explores the interferences between Sign and Voice: writing and sign in their multiple forms, and the human voice as a multi-faceted instrument. Cultural and language interactions have strongly influenced her art, which focuses also on relational aesthetics, action and site specific interventions rather than object-making.

After meeting at the Liverpool Biennial 2012, hosted by Mercy's one day Electronic Voice Phenomena symposium, Alessandra Eramo and London based poet SJ Fowler began a collaborative correspondence of unusual intensity and design. Brought together from across Europe to discuss the new creative possibilities in those art's which approach performance/voice/text/sound/video as one holistic art practise, their collaboration has engaged the full energy of their collective practises, exploring notions of performative ritual, martial physicality, personal historicity and collaborative conceptuality. For Wortwedding, their work will utilise collaborative performance and interactive sculpture alongside a video installation that presents a sixteen day journey through their daily rituals, simultaneously recorded, presented as the heart of a wholly unique and intensive enjambment between two artists whose work together attempts to find shared localities in the compassion of the physical and the gentility of force.

BIOGRAPHIES
Alessandra Eramo is a sound artist, vocalist and performer based in Berlin. She creates text-sound compositions, live performances, videos and installation that have been exhibited and performed in Europe, Canada and USA, among others, at: Italian Pavillion in the World - Venice Biennale, Sonic Circuits Festival Washington DC, Lyd & Litterature Festival Aarhus 2012, Roulette New York,  Festival Bandit' Mages Bourges, Harvestworks New York, Galerie Haus am Lützowplatz Berlin. Since 2010 she is co-founder of the vinyl & sound art production Corvo Records in Berlin. Currently she is conducting her PhD Research at the University of the Arts in Berlin.  Furthermore she is active in educational and cultural programs in Germany.

The residency and performance is being hosted by wortwedding - wortwedding is a space for interdisciplinary and interactive poetry projects, which opened in the spring of 2009 by Nicola Caroli. Artists of all disciplines are invited to explore their art form in connection with poetry. There are exhibitions, residencies, workshops, performances ... wortwedding is also a place of service - at exhibitions, there are actions to participate in residencies and visiting hours, where you can meet the artists. wortwedding is part of the project area network colony Wedding Association. On the last weekend of the month, the project rooms opened and guided tours are available for visitors.

Maintenant #95 - Ivan Hristov


An instrumental figure at the core of 21st century Bulgarian poetics, Ivan Hristov’s poetics are as variable and layered as the modern history of the country itself. As an educator and organiser, Hristov has been the driving force behind the Sofia poetics festival, bringing poets from around Europe to witness and interact with a surging new generation of poets emerging from the city, and as a poet himself, his connection and fusion with English language poetry has produced a unique style and cadence within his output which has gained plaudits from across the continent and America. Another figure in European poetry who conceives of organisation as a responsibility alongside his own practise, we are pleased to introduce Ivan Hristov as the 95th respondent of the Maintenant series.
 
 
Accompanying the interview are three of Ivan's poems, translated by Angela Rodel.
 

Modernism in Bulgaria contradicted the totalitarian doctrine known as “socialist realism.” Even though some scholars claim that socialist realism began as an avant garde offshoot of modernism, the two approaches conflict. This led to repression against many modernist writers by both extremely left-wing and extremely right-wing regimes. Modernism means “freedom” above all, followed by “individualism.” The first stage in Bulgarian modernism is called “individualism.” Freedom and individualism are the two things totalitarianism hates the most. Modernism was marginalized after the Second World War. During the 1960s, due to the partial liberalization of the totalitarian regime in Bulgaria, some modernist writers were rehabilitated and interest in their work was revived. But true interest in modernism began at the end of the totalitarian epoch, when new postmodern literature used the foundation of modernism as its steppingstone.
In the 95th of the Maintenant series, SJ Fowler interviews the Bulgarian poetIvan Hristov.

on the Scottish Poetry Library podcast

For the first episode of the new year, I'm on the Scottish poetry library podcast being interviewed / chatting with the grand Ryan Van Winkle, alongside Tomasz Rozycki. A pleasure indeed, it was recorded in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the Sofia Poetics festival. It was also recorded in the morning, before I had caffeined.  http://www.podomatic.com/profile/scottishpoetrylibrary
http://scottishpoetrylibrary.podomatic.com/entry/2013-01-07T00_00_00-08_00

 "Ryan chatted with SJ Fowler and Tomasz Rozycki during the Sofia Poetics Festival with Literature Across Frontiers. We get a chance to hear them reading from their work and they discuss their individual approaches to their work. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Music by Ewen Maclean."

digging up the dead - my Reilluminations series from 2010

friends like these

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/friends-like-these/
3:AM‘s S.J. Fowler on his exciting new project:
I’d like to announce a new programme of events and publications that I’ll be curating and launching over the next 12 months or so, supported by theJerwood Charitable Foundation, called the Enemies Project.  
The Enemies Project is a multifarious, multidisciplinary but essentially cogent programme of events and exhibitions that provide the grounding to comprehensively explore the notion of collaboration in a strictly contemporary, ‘active’ realm of poetry. When exploring what the medium of poetry can do with film and visual grammar, motion, sculpture, song, composition, music, sonic art, photography, paint, ink, graphic design, illustration, publishing etc… poetry will be presented not just as a monolithic mode with hard edges, but an immensely fluid medium that absorbs and is absorbed into that which gives it context and inspiration. 
The Enemies Project will include five publications, an exhibition, over a dozen readings and performances, three workshops, two screenings, over ten art/poetry organisations and well over one hundred poets, artists, musicians and performers, culminating in the publication of my selected collaborations withPenned in the Margins in September 2013.

EVP tour in 2013

http://www.electronicvoicephenomena.net/index.php/electric-dada/

ON TOUR

EVP is going on tour with a specially produced show featuring new commissions by Outfit, Hannah Silva, Ross Sutherland and SJ Fowler. Plus special guest artists and performances at each venue. More dates will be announced in the New Year.

10 MAY 2013   THE SAGE GATESHEAD

17 MAY 2013   LIVERPOOL

18 MAY 2013   LONDON RICHMIX

23 MAY 2013   ARC STOCKTON

DATE TBC   NORFOLK & NORWICH FESTIVAL

Electric Dada – SJ Fowler

The sorrowful centenary of Dada looms electric in this eulogy for the lost art of mocking the shrill, shrieking ghoul of the soul-destroying machine of war and commerce. In song, video & poetry, SJ Fowler performs a dead dodo dada language as an attempt at resurrecting a happy ghost.

Electric Dada descends into the realms of electric harm through noise, humour and horror.

very proud to announce The Enemies Project

I'd like to announce a new programme of events and publications that I'll be curating and launching over the next 12 months or so, supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, called the Enemies Project.  www.jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org

The Enemies project is a multifarious, multidisciplinary but essentially cogent programme of events and exhibitions that provide the grounding to comprehensively explore the notion of collaboration in a strictly contemporary, ‘active’ realm of poetry. When exploring what the medium of poetry can do with film and visual grammar, motion, sculpture, song, composition, music, sonic art, photography, paint, ink, graphic design, illustration, publishing etc… poetry will be presented not just as a monolithic mode with hard edges, but an immensely fluid medium that absorbs and is absorbed into that which gives it context and inspiration. 

The Enemies project will include five publications, an exhibition, over a dozen readings and performances, three workshops, two screenings, over ten art / poetry organisations and well over one hundred poets, artists, musicians and performers, culminating in the publication of my selected collaborations with Penned in the Margins in September 2013. 
On the website and listed below you can find details of the events that are confirmed to happen as of now, as well as details of the artists and poets involved in thevarious collaborations that make up Enemies, including work with Tim Atkins, Emanuella Amichai, David Berridge, Patrick Coyle, Frederic Forte, Tom Jenks, Pekko Kappi, Alexander Kell, David Kelly, Sarah Kelly, Anatol Knotek, Ben Morris, Eirikur Orn Norddahl, Tamarin Norwood, Matteo Patocchi, Claire Potter, Monika Rinck, Endre Ruset, Marcus Slease, Rob Thomas, Ryan Van Winkle, Philip Venables, Wenjing Wang and more to be announced

These are just the core events that formulate the Enemies project, but more will be added as the year goes by. Thanks go to Tom Chivers, Jon Opie, Shonagh Manson, Nathan Jones amongst many others. Hope to see you as the year unfurls.http://www.sjfowlerpoetry.com/

new poets on 3am - Young, Steiner, Britton, Norris, Rathore, Collins, Akalin

I've recently had the pleasure of publishing these remarkable poets from Australia, New Zealand, England, Northern Ireland, Turkey and the US on 3am:

Mark Young - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-podunk-poems/

Adam Steiner - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/adam-steiner-omni-di/

Iain Britton - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/lipstick-lady/

Patrick Norris - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/patrick-norris-three-poems/

Sian S Rathore - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/worlds-worst-boat-race-other-poems/

Sophie Collins http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-white-lady-other-poems/

Julia Tillinghast Akalin - http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/julia-tillinghast-akalin-how-the-strip-club/

Amazing reading to celebrate Ed Dorn by Tom Raworth et al



Carcanet Press invites you to celebrate the launch of
 
  Collected Poems
 
 by
EDWARD DORN
from 7pm on   
Thursday 29th November
      
Join us for a celebration of Edward Dorn's poetry, featuring recordings and readings by a host of friends and fans. Linked to the Black Mountain poets and The Cambridge School of Poets, Edward Dorn was the author of over forty books of poetry, fiction, non-fiction and translation. The evening will be introduced by Iain Sinclair with readings by the poet's widow Jennifer Dunbar Dorn, Carcanet poets Tom Raworth and Elaine Feinstein, as well as Lee Harwood, Tom Pickard, Justin Katko and more at the London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place, London, WC 1A 2JL. 020 7269 9030. RSVP toalice@carcanet.co.uk. The event is free and all are welcome. Refreshments will be available.  
 
Click here to order Collected Poems with 10% discount or here to read more about Ed Dorn.   

Pictures from Poets for Pussy Riot II by Alexander Kell


Alexander Kell is a friend. More than the fact that we worked together for awhile (money work) and trained together for a bit too (martial arts), we also just hang around a lot. I give him chips and he then comes to the poetry events to take snaps. These pictures have come to be a record of this time in London, and one I think might be important to me in the future. 

 For the PFPRII event, he indulged me by taking some more snaps of me with friends and people I admire - Michael Horovitz, Marcus Slease and Tim Atkins. I am adorned with the Koto Atkin's designed wolfhood.

Sarah Crewe reviews Ways of Describing Cuts for Establishment

http://issuu.com/alecnewman/docs/est_issue_2/1

 The remarkable north-west based poet and editor Sarah Crewe has published a really generous review of my collaboration with the poet Sarah Kelly 'Ways of Describing Cuts', in the second issue of the Jo Langton edited Establishment magazine, the poetry magazine wing of the ever brilliant Knives Forks and Spoons press. This small collaborative chapbook has garnered some really positive reviews, which is heartening, considering it's experimental form and tone.

European Frontline Fiction


European Frontline Fiction
Friday November 16th at the Betsey Trotwood
Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3BL London
7.30pm – entrance free
Equus press presents a unique opportunity to witness some of the most exciting contemporary avant garde European fiction authors from London and abroad, representing equally adventurous and groundbreaking 21st century publishing houses, including 3am press, Stork press, Equus and Carcanet. The authors will be reading excerpts from their works.
 
Louis Armand / Stewart Home / AM Bakalar
 Thor Garcia / Lee Rourke / Philip Terry
 
For more information about the authors and their work please visit: http://www.equuspress.com/ http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/3am-press/
http://storkpress.co.uk/ http://mhpbooks.com/ http://www.bookworks.org.uk
http://www.carcanet.co.uk http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/reviews/RCF/

The Golden Hour tour experience

The Golden hour is a tradition. This is what I discovered spending a week touring with Ryan Van Winkle's capricious enterprise of music, poetry, art writing and I suppose one could say Cabaret. The tradition he is maintaining is one that is far too rare but is fundamentally a part of the avant garde history of performance. When surrounded by artists who work in other mediums, whether through desire or osmosis, their performitivity, their personality of performance affects your own, and rarely does the poet become consistently exposed to that kind of difference. By aligning the spoken word (and I obviously I mean that phrase in its purest sense, not in the sense of the escape clause phraseology used by cheesey motivational speakers who parade as poets) with the epithets of other mediums in one whole, curated by a strong aesthetic hand, there is a lot to be given and a lot to be taken. 
I had an extraordinary time on this tour. Brighton, Oxford, Bristol, Cardiff and London saw shows both in the confines of a travelling van, a moveable gallery as it were and in venues I had never performed in before, art cafes and bars and such. The intimacy of the smaller shows really forces an adaptation of manner which is a unique challenge, the onus of the poet to become a performer, or at least to present people with something that they can engage with when it is just three bodies in a small space, is interesting. This model was based on an installation work Ryan Van Winkle pioneered at the Edinburgh festival and I glad to have a part in it.
The other artists were both warm and humble as well as quite brilliant at what they were doing. Discovering the work of Deborah Pearson and Garance Louis were special highlights of the experience. I was able to adapt the originally commissioned 22 poems I wrote for the tour day to day thanks to immersion of the tour experience and much of what the other artists said and did found their way into my work. The 22 meditations on scent owes much to Bill Griffiths too and his remarkable 'tract against the giants'.
I would be lying if I said the fact that the tour was sponsored by a perfume company did not give me pause for thought. The reality was in fact what I was promised. An unobtrusive presence, complete creative freedom and the sense, whether one believes it or not from the outside, that a perfumier is the olfactory artist equivalent to the poet with language. In such an environment as this tour, such concerns have a way of falling away, even if there immediate consideration is vital if one is going to maintain integrity.