ARTIFACT: 7 . 16 . 05 : bios

7 . 16 . 05 : saturday : 7 : 30 pm

melissa r. benham

kyle kaufman

sean macinnes

bios

Kyle Kaufman lives in San Francisco, where he lives in a tiny and hidden apartment, and makes his living as an archivist in a downtown architecture office. He is a founding member of the Rock Paper Scissors Collective [Editor's note: Not to be confused with the illustrious Rock! Paper! Scissors! Collective! in Oakland]. He’s also editor (w/ Sara Larsen) of the poetry zine el pobre Mouse, and publisher (w/ Summer Rodman) of Subday Press. His Steely Dan, Subday’s seventh offering, came out in May. In the same month, he joined the blog world with werdenfield.blogspot.com, an ongoing experiment in articulating a poetics, or something approximating that when seen quickly, in the fog, slightly drunk, at night.

Sean Thomas MacInnes was born in Flint, Michigan and has also lived in Murfreesboro and Memphis, Tennesse; Leeds, England; and currently resides in Boulder, Colorado. His work includes Critical Series and A Room Of Trees from Subday Press, and the novel Albert Valentine, parts of which have appeared in Bombay Gin and The American Drivel Review. His poetry has been published in The Stolen Purse, threethereforetwo, and el pobre mouse. He received a BFA in Theatre from The University of Memphis, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. He has also studied the Comedia Del Arte and Lazzie Theatres at Bretton Hall College in Leeds, England. Sean has, in one way or another, been involved with over a hundred theatrical productions in Memphis, Leeds, and Boulder; where he last served as a guest director at Boulder High School’s production of one-act plays The Plays The Thing, directing Samuel Beckett’s An Act Without Words. And even more recently he has joined Free Speech TV where he serves as the production coordinator for the show Sourcecode, a ten-part series which centers on progressive social change by framing local issues through the lens/themes of The American Empire.

Melissa R. Benham's bio can be seen to your left. thank you. More about her can also be found at www.geocities.com/evilwarlordprincess

ARTIFACT: 7 . 16 . 05 : excerpt : melissa r. benham

excerpt from melissa r. benham's repronounceable

ARTIFACT: 7 . 16 . 05 : excerpt : kyle kaufman

excerpt from kyle kaufman's Steely Dan
in order to view the image, click on it & zoom in.

Poll: intimacy vs. publicity

here is a question I put to all of you:

in light of last night's reading, which was a lovely & joyful event, packing close to 60 people inside 2921B to hear Micah, Patrick, & Cedar read their poems, I'm wondering how you all feel about possibly moving ARTIFACT to a public space, perhaps a gallery setting

there are pros & cons here, of course

the pro being that we would have more space for people, chairs for everyone, & no one would have to stand on the porch stairs, peering in through the window

the cons seems one being we might have to charge a nominal fee
another being that there is the possibility of losing the intimate, informal, party-type atmosphere that seems key to our readings (which is something I'm really not interested in doing)

o how I wish it were possible to have remained at the cypress house, but I hear that the boys have cluttered up the living rooms with musical equipment & boxes for days

so let me know what your thoughts are on this subject

-melissa

note about viewing this page in explorer vs. firefox

firefox good. explorer bad. I use firefox & so microsoft is aethetically punishing me. or maybe it's blogger. who knows. all I know is that when you all are at your office jobs looking at this blog in explorer all the content appears at the bottom of the page. did I mean to do this? no no no. I would not be so silly.

so standby for technical difficulties.

artifact sette

artifact sette

6.18.05 reader excerpts

Micah Ballard

Benediction

They should like
to be quiet, motionless
no more alive than
before. But now the

royal ghosts are calling
the empty theatres
their thieves, harlots their
garlands. Is it the toil

in spirit or sounds
of open tombs that after
time one becomes numb
& so the hour no longer

comes. Last night
her body was carried
to a small wagon
& a death mask–

cask of her face
& hands were made.
Gone are the guests
bones of those who

have not stood alone.
Buried early morning
& involuntary exile
may their remains

cease to be released
& her name left behind
as both signature
& sign.


En Route

for Jeff Butler

Scores of letters, telegrams & poems
Lie unread on the table. Veiled in the folds
Neglected light, there are no more arches
Only wall & shadow. Head of Nero
Bone-pin & scissor, in uniform departure
They pass in procession & do not stand up
To cold or hunger. We keep moving, making
A white cross over both wrist & shoulder.
This does not work well. There are five marks
The first of which enables life after death
So let the first override the third & second
Override the fourth. There are no
Excavations here, only private vaults
Ceremonies left without safe keeping.


Patrick James Dunagan

Acts of Faith

Gazing at the river I understand suicides

in a sky of burnt pink

my eyes turn to blanks

each and every feeling comes along

on a gorgeous afternoon

of course I continue to walk

it wasn't like I'd go for a swim

all the colors of the clouds

piled high and proud

orange purple grey and brown

white mountains I accept

a later day to climb

Randall Jarrell

Natalie Portman is my crutch in this poem

of truths I've nothing to hide.

Every "I've never heard that name" line

like television background noise

another story of full circle success at a young age.

Competing with the movies is difficult

living with a woman in love with herself.

Committed to the words "I love flesh"

into the Real I fold up the screen

following her down the street

as the cars pass and the agony begins.

Cedar Sigo

LIVE at The East

These tears
bury
They have been
left out
in Hades sun

Patterns in
music I once
found difficult
to distinguish

Now repeat
themselves
in fire and
kiss the ring

connecting
passages
to the black
vaults

and crowned heads
of the
coral seas, the edges
of their
collars

had onyx scaled
to amber
The dust
that we wish
to gather against.
That would flash
on me still

The writings
already
a tape already
revolving
so much


with jewelry
cleaners
concentrate
Make light so
pained
No smoke
in the
lungs.



***note: Cedar's poem has lost its line formatting here.

to see this poem in its original state below or click here.

my apologies.

all copyrights are reserved by the authors of these works. no touching.

ah, the readers of june...

6 . 18 . 05 : saturday : 7 : 30 PM

micah ballard

patrick james dunagan

cedar sigo

bios

Micah Ballard is 29 years old & is from Louisiana. Besides having poems appear in a variety of publications, recent books include: Bettina Coffin (Red Ant Press), Scenes from the Saragossa Manuscript (Snag Press), In the Kindness of Night (Blue Press), Emblematic (Old Gold), & Negative Capability in the Verse of John Wieners (Auguste Press). As of late, he continues to direct the Humanities B.A. Program at New College of California.

Patrick James Dunagan lives in San Francisco and has published in Blue Book, Chain, Joe Brainard's Magazine, Riprap, Shrimp!, and WeighStation. Chapbooks include: Young American Poets (Showerhead Press, 2000), U.S.A. (surfZombie, 2001), Of Stone (The Snag Press, 2003), Fess Parker (Red Ant Press, 2003) and After the Sinews (forthcoming, Auguste Press 2005.)

Cedar Sigo is 27 years old. He studied Writing and Poetics at The Naropa Institute. The expanded second edition of his SELECTED WRITINGS was just published by Ugly Duckling Presse. A book of collaborations, DEATH RACE V.S.O.P. is forthcoming.

Cedar Sigo's excerpt as it should appear

Cedar Sigo's excerpt as intended...
click on the image & zoom in.

Small Press Distribution needs you terribly

If you are looking for a way to dedicate a few brief hours to small
press literature, consider voluteering at SPD on Sunday, June 26.

Small Press Distribution (SPD) is having our annual inventory that day,
and we need all the help we can get. As many of you know, SPD is the
nation's only distributor dedicated exclusively to independently-published
and small press literature.

The inventory will run from 10am until 7pm, and you can stop by anytime.

Please let Neil Alger neil@spdbooks.org or Brent Cunningham brent@spdbooks.org 
know that you’re coming beforehand.

Staff and volunteers will be counting every book in the warehouse (there
are over 13,000 titles). It’s a great chance to get intimate with a few
rows of SPD’s titles, and to meditate on the many charms of the number
system.

Plus: every single hour you can donate helps SPD continue to provide
access to hard-to-find titles, especially the thousands of poetry titles
that only SPD carries and champions!

Stop by for a quick hour or two of counting, or stay for the whole day.
If you can stay for three or more hours, we’ll happily give you a 40%
one-time discount on your next order from SPD. There will be pizza and
soda available, and of course the camaraderie of fellow poets, writers
and small press readers.

SPD is at 1341 Seventh Street, cross street Gilman, in Berkeley.

Bird & Forest by Brent Cunningham

Bird & Forest
by Brent Cunningham

104 pages, perfect-bound
ISBN: 1-933254-06-8

$10

order from Ugly Duckling Presse

Advance praise for Bird & Forest:

"Bird & Forest is clear, beautiful writing. There is a simple quality of the well-told-tale to these fractured fables. This is a patient, wise and hilarious work whose intimate tone insinuates itself into your psyche only to have its way with you and then suddenly vanish. What more could you want?"

—Laura Moriarty

"With orations, fables, axioms, proofs, journals, and letters, Brent Cunningham offers a riposte to the confounding realities of empire just when we need it most. The repeated "awakenings" of Bird & Forest suggest the wonder of conversion narrative without the ideological baggage. Engaging myriad rhetorical "types," he exhausts their function to disclose the backstory of creation, romantic love, and the curious permanence of warfare while gorgeously demonstrating the resilience of the imagination."

—Peter Gizzi

creative writing summer class by Ryan Newton at CELLspace

From Ryan Newton:

This Summer I am teaching a six week Creative Writing Course at CELLspace, a non-profit artistic community enabler dedicated to aiding emerging/emergent artists in the bay area and beyond. Class begins July 1st and runs until August 5th each Friday from 7-9pm. It is called The Lyric Voice, and will include examples of verse craft from diverse poets such as: Bob Kaufman, Amiri Baraka, Federico Garcia Lorca, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Alice Notely, Maria Tsvetaeva, Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley and many others (subject to change). The best news is the course is quite affordable, only forty dollars for six weeks instruction (I do believe there is a nominal registration fee). For a more thorough course description and other information, I have attached the very lovely CELLspace Summer Course booklet (full of many intriguing classes) as a PDF. My course is listed on page 18. If you cannot download the attachment, check out the CELLspace web site at www.cellspace.org, where links to the course catalog and booklet are on the home page, along with registration information. I hope you will forward this on to those friends of yours who might be looking to get back into writing, or those wishing to continue with current projects. Writers of all levels are encouraged to register. I intend to make it FUN.

For more info email Ryan at neelyfan28@hotmail.com

Xantippe reading, Sunday, June 12th, 3pm

from the editors of XANTIPPE:

Please join us for a reading to celebrate the release of XANTIPPE
No. 3. Reading from their work are Joseph Lease, Sarah Rosenthal,
Michael Sikkema, and Brian Strang.

Where: Canessa Park Gallery
708 Montgomery (at Columbus)
San Francisco

When:  Sunday, June 12, 3 p.m.

Admission is $5 or $10 w/ copy of XANTIPPE

For information about the new issue, or to order a copy, please
visit http://xantippemag.blogspot.com