Verbatim: North of Invention

All aspects of the program(s) below will be streamed live as video. Follow the schedule - and watch at any time simply by going here:

http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/multimedia/tv/

The Kelly Writers House presents

NORTH OF INVENTION
a Canadian Poetry Festival

hosted by Sarah Dowling and Charles Bernstein

co-sponsored by
the Canada Council for the Arts, the University Research Fund,
the Provost's Interdisciplinary Arts Fund, Asian American Studies,
the Working Group in Poetics, and Writers Without Borders

Thursday, January 20, from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM in the Arts Café
and Friday, January 21, from 9:30 AM to 10:00 PM in the Arts Café
Kelly Writers House | 3805 Locust Walk
No registration required - this event is free & open to the public

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For more information on North of Invention and its participants, please visit http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/archival/events/northofinvention/.

DAY ONE, 1/20

10:00 am: Opening remarks by SARAH DOWLING and CHARLES BERNSTEIN
10:30 am: Presentation by LISA ROBERTSON, introduced by Julia Bloch
11:15 am: Presentation by M. NOURBESE PHILIP, introduced by Janet Neigh
12:00 pm: Break
1:30 pm: Presentation by STEPHEN COLLIS, introduced by Danny Snelson
2:15 pm: Presentation by CHRISTIAN BOK introduced by Sueyeun Juliette Lee
3:00 pm: Break
4:00 pm: Presentation by NICOLE BROSSARD, introduced by Rachel Blau DuPlessis
5:00 pm: Reception and break
7:30 pm: Reading by ADEENA KARASICK, A. RAWLINGS, JEFF DERKSEN
9:00 pm: Reading by LISA ROBERSTON, FRED WAH

DAY TWO, 1/21

10:30 am: Presentation by ADEENA KARASICK, introduced by Katie Price
11:15 am: Presentation by JEFF DERKSEN, introduced by Bob Perelman
12:00 pm: Break
1:30 pm: Presentation by JORDAN SCOTT, introduced by Laura Neuman
2:15 pm: Presentation by A.RAWLINGS, introduced by Jena Osman
3:00 pm: Break
3:30 pm: Presentation by FRED WAH, introduced by Josephine Park
5:00 pm: Reception and break
7:30 pm: Reading by JORDAN SCOTT, CHRISTIAN BOK, STEPHEN COLLIS
9:00 pm: Reading by M. NOURBESE PHILIP, NICOLE BROSSARD

North of Invention presents 10 Canadian poets working at the cutting edge of contemporary poetic practice, bringing them first to the Kelly Writers House, then to Poets House in New York City for two days of readings, presentations and discussion in each location. Celebrating the breadth and complexity of poetic experimentation in Canada, North of Invention features emerging and established poets working across multiple traditions, and represents nearly fifty years of experimental writing. North of Invention aims to initiate a new dialogue in North American poetics, addressing the hotly debated areas of "innovation" and "conceptual writing," the history of sound poetry and contemporary performance, multilingualism and translation, and connections to activism.

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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