kyle tells all

mr. kaufman of the werdenfield times has written a bit on the last ARTIFACT reading (which was fabulous). thanks to alli, lauren, and brandon for reading their astounding work, thanks to all who came & enjoyed themselves, and to those who didn't come: I feel a little sorry for you.

www.werdenfield.blogspot.com

TOMORROW!!! ARTIFACT: 8 : 20 : 05

artifact nove

brandon brown
lauren shufran
alli warren

saturday, august 20th 7:30pm (we mean it slackers)
byoblah

2921b folsom street (at 25th street)

415 647 7689 artifact109@yahoo.com

bios

Brandon Brown is a poet and translator from Kansas City,

Missouri. He is the author of Kidnapped, an unpublished work

which deals with translation, abduction, love, sex, and Marx.

His previous book, E PODES, was a faulty translation of the

Latin poet Horace which dealt with translation, meter, terrorism,

love, and lunch. With Jocelyn Saidenberg, he co-curates

Performance Writing at New Langton Arts.

Lauren Shufran received her B.A. in Buffalo, New York where she

helped found House Press and the Saucebox forum for women writers.

Her previous, and now very old, chapbooks are 'Day is a Flatland'

and 'A Study of Distance,' both out of House Press, as well as a c.d.,

‘Sound Bytes,’ co-recorded with Sandra Guerreiro. She's currently

at San Francisco State for her M.F.A., and also studying and

sometimes very slowly translating Arabic poetry.

Alli Warren is nordic champion in pace twin competition. She

is a pagan jack certified quality auditor under the auspices of

the american society of quality control and has expertise in the

development of quality. She is so excited she jumps right out of

bed as 3 year olds do at 4. Despite her plans to open an auto

dealership, Alli mostly just publishes "poems" in Magazine Cypress,

The Hat, Shampoo, etc. All in all, Alli is the architect of a rowdy and

iridescent system of astrology that has produced Schema ('04), Yoke

('04), and HOUNDS ('05).

Shampoo 5th Anniversary Celebration : Thursday 8.18.05

shampoo!

Thursday, August 18
6:30pm

GalleryOne San Francisco
One Embarcadero Center, Mezzanine Level
(same building as Embarcadero Cinema)
on the corner of Battery and Clay Streets

Expect to hear poetry from
Brent Cunningham
Bill Berkson
Kit Robinson
Alli Warren
Kevin Killian
Ronald Palmer
Leslie Scalapino
Robert Gluck
Solidad Decosta
Justin Chin
Stephen Vincent
Phil Crippen
Cynthia Sailers
Cedar Sigo
Stephanie Young

ARTIFACT: this saturday

artifact otto

Melissa R. BENHAM

Kyle KAUFMAN

Sean MACINNES

saturday, july 16th
7:30pm

2921B folsom street at 25th
(bottom buzzer)

for more info: call 415 647 7689
email: artifact109@yahoo.com

byob darlings

The Drunk Sheep Cabaret : July 17 : 21 Grand

The New Brutalism Presents: the Drunk Sheep Cabaret

Dont miss a night of Sheepish Debauchery!

Sunday, July 17th at 7pm. $4

at 21 Grand
416 25th St. at Broadway
behind Gods Gym

Free spiked punch if you come wearing a sheepsuit.

Hosted by the inimitable Mr. Brent Cunningham

Featuring poetry, dance, music, pastorals and playlets
by

-Dana Teen Lomax & John Mello
Even Toed Ungulata

-Stephanie Young, Rodney Koeneke, Kelly Holt, Cynthia
Sailers, Tanya Brolaski and others in "I Pity the Fool
(Who'd Undertake Such a Project)"

-Honeydew (here known as Honeyed Ewe)

-Eleanor Bayne-Johnson
Lamblet: the Drunken Dane

-Edgar Garcia, the amorous Swain (and his Lady)

-Geoff Dyer and Sweet William


and more

I shall be the one to judge between sheep and sheep.
Ezekiel 34.22

They sacrifice sheep together, while they are
themselves covered with
sheepskins.
Ioannes Lydus, De Mensibus

Volunteers needed!  Please contact
brolaski@berkeley.edu

goodbye to Lorenzo Thomas

goodbye to the darling man that was Lorenzo Thomas. I only met him once, but we talked for a while & for some unknown reason he expressed a real interest in seeing my work. it was this kind of generosity that struck me most.

last night when I heard the news I went to Extraordinary Measures, (which he had signed) & read this "for Melissa, in the hope that our voices can ring as beautifully as the poets of ages past. with all best wishes, Lorenzo Thomas."

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