Rodney Koeneke and Benjamin Friedlander Reading / April 4, 2008
Event Report
Poets Rodney Koeneke and Benjamin Friedlander read to an audience of approximately fifty people in the New Writing Series on April 4, 2008.
For the full photoset, visit our Flickr page here.
Set List (compiled by Katie Lattari)
Rodney Koeneke
Epigraph for this reading, derived from the sign of the University Inn: “Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face”
Excepts from Rouge State
#50 Summer Acrostic Hotshot
#39 How to Find Safe Passage
#21 Sweethearts of what rodeo?
Excerpts from Musée Mechanique
Afterword
Use Dips to Initiate
Pizza Kitty
Chary as Gary
In Memory of My Feelings
The World is Loud
Europe. Memory. Squid Parts. Grace.
The Adorno Corollary
Excerpts from “Etruria” (manuscript)
ben friedlander
Rules for Drinking 40s
chinoiserie
Etruria
Film/ poetry “neo-benshi” performance for Guru Dutt’s film Pyaasa (1957)
Koeneke’s Commentary
-On “The Adorno Corollary”: the poem is referencing Adorno’s famous statement about poetry after Auschwitz
-On “Ben Friedlander”: this is a birthday poem
-On “Etruria”: “FLARF, like soylent green, is people”
Benjamin Friedlander
“It’s a pleasure to read for the home crowd…”
Reads works in translation, originally in either German or Italian; then proceeds to his own poems
The Fox, the Cook, the Cock (translation)
Prayer of Exhortation or Encouragement (translation)
To Set Your Mind at Rest (translation)
Afternoon with Circus and Citadel (translation)
Brecht (translation)
History lesson
The Social Contract
Urban Renewal
Network News
Dictation
The Mind is a Bubble Sheet
The Emergency Broadcasting System
Dedication
Patriot Days
When a Cop Sees a Black Woman
Biological or Social Female Parent of a Child or Offspring and Its Poetry
Somebody Blew Up America
Hillary Duff
Fame
The Chinese Written Character is a Medium for Poetry
Beloved
Eliot
Me and My Gang
Charmed
Drew’s Old
Friedlander’s Commentary
– The poem “Hillary Duff” as his “statement on poetics”
– “Fame” is in memory of a friend; “may be my first FLARF elegy”
– “The Chinese Written Character is a Medium for Poetry”: “for Burt and Sylvester if only they were here”
– “Charmed” is a “Birthday Poem”: “My favorite thing about FLARF is the Birthday poems”
Questions
How do you use Google searches to help sculpt your [FLARF] poems?
(To Koeneke) Do you have any audio files of your poetry available anywhere?
For birthday poems, how/ what do you search? Is there a certain way you go about it?
How much FLARF do you write in comparison to non-FLARF poetry?
(To Koeneke): How long did it take you to write the “neo-benshi” piece?
(To Koeneke): Are you striving for persona-type poems?
Do you think writing can change things?
(To Koeneke): You like performance—do you have any background in theatre?