First Shots from Equilibrium 2 / 2007

Here are some first shots from the recent Equilibrium show held at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. The February show featured the amazing work of David Mura and Beau Sia.

Even by their usual standards this was a tour de force performance that was packed with over 100 people who braved one of the worst snowstorms of Minnesota this year to hear them. The MC of the evening was Bao Phi, with music provided by DJ Thuyet Nguyen.

Among the luminaries in attendance included award-winning writer Ed Bok Lee, as well as Juliana Pegues, Shannon Gibney, May Lee, Peter Yang, Katie Vang, Robert Karimi, and many others.

A more in-depth report will come soon, but in the meatime, enjoy these pictures!

Preparing for Oz in Augtember

I'm traveling through Australia at the end of August and the beginning of September for research purposes and to promote my new book, On The Other Side of the Eye, coming out this year.

Will definitely be traveling through Sydney and Melbourne and additional stops along the way. 

For my Australian readers, are there any bookstores, libraries or other institutions that you'd recommend for visiting poets? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Good restaurants for Lao/Southeast Asian cooking are also appreciated as well!

2 New Readings In Spring 2007

Coreopsis Poetry Collective
presents an evening of poetry
Tuesday, April 10, 2007, 7:00 p.m.

Featuring:
Steve Burt, Kathleen Heideman and Bryan Thao Worra
Black Dog Café, 308 Prince Street, lower town St. Paul

Stephen Burt is the author of the collections of poems, Parallel Play and Popular Music, which won the 1999 Colorado Prize. He is also the author of Randall Jarrell and His Age, which won the Warren-Brooks Award for Literary Criticism in 2002, and the co-editor of Randall Jarrell on W. H. Auden. His essays and reviews have appeared in the Believer, the London Review of Books, the Nation, the New York Times Book Review, Poetry Review (UK), Slate, Thumbscrew, and the Times Literary Supplement, among other newspapers and journals. He grew up in Washington, D.C., and now teaches at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Kathleen M. Heideman works as Developer of the MCAD Distance Learning Initiative at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and creates/teaches experimental online courses: The E(c)lectric Muse (poetry), Building the Visual Journal (artists' sketchbooks), and The Leap: Reading and Writing Creative Hypertext (creative writing hypermedia).

She has received fellowships from the Bush Foundation, Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and the Minnesota State Arts Board.  Her publications include the anthology 33 Minnesota Poets (Nodin Press), and The Cream City Review (Vol 24 #2). She has two chapbooks, Explaining Pictures to a Dead Hare (Traffic Street Press) and She Used to Have Some Cows (La Vacas Press).

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And on June 24th, I'll be reading as part of the Prism Poetry Series at the Coffee Gallery of the Open Book Center in Minneapolis at 1011 Washington Ave. N. from 1-3 P.M.

This time, I'll be reading with Betsy Andrews, coming from out of town with her new book of poetry in hand.

Betsy Andrews is the author of She-Devil and In Trouble. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in publications ranging from PRACTICE to the Yemeni newspaper Culture.

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Both of these are free, so if you're in town and looking for something to do, come on by!

Valentine's or Thao Worra Day?

For those of you in my network who are happily married, in love, or making love (and if so, why are you reading this post now), good for you, and I wish you all the very happiest of Valentine's Days, and a reasonably cheap bill for all the flowers, cards, chocolate or whatever nights out on the town that you take.

For those of you who do not fall into the above category, or who do fall into the above category but just hate celebrating Valentine's anyway, this post is for you as we offer you some other alternatives:

You can always celebrate the anniversary of:

1929: The St Valentines Day Massacre, in Chicago, between rival gansters.

1950: USSR and China sign peace treaty. Imagine how nasty that fight would have been.

1963: First successful kidney transplant. Millions of people are alive today because of it and all of the related scientific advances it paved the way for.

February 14th is also the birthday for the following people:

1766: Thomas Malthus, British philosopher. His misanthropic philosophy is a hoot, if you can make your way through the dated language.

1817: Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist.

1819: Christopher Sholes, American inventor of the typewriter. Where would we be without it?

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On the other hand, if none of these strike your fancy, I hereby endorse the celebration of Thao Worra Day.

Much as in the spirit of Festivus, the festival for the rest of us, you too may engage in the following activities to mark Thao Worra Day in good spirits and much amusement:

• Send a nice note to someone you have just met or haven't talked to in a while.
• Declare yourself Emperor of the World (or Empress) and see if anyone notices. But you have to give back everyone's stuff by the end of the day. Or before the cops come.
• Treat yourself to a nice meal with someone you genuinely like, but in a completely non-romantic way. I totally approve.
• Make sure all your electronic equipment is fully recharged, that it may go well for you.
• Read a short poem out loud, even if no one is looking. No, it doesn't have to be one of mine.
• Leave a chair for me at your desk or table. For I may come by. But don't hold it against me if I don't. I do have a busy schedule, you know.

And yea, though Thao Worra Day is not for everyone, it is free for all to choose and participate in.

And if you do so choose to mark it, let me know how it goes.

Have a great one!