Barry,
Actually, the only live poet who was present at that DC — Katzen Museum event (silently, though, as it was the ambassadors themselves reading the poems) was my humble Luxembourgian self (yes, that's still my passport) who had translated a poem into Letzeburgesch, a language in which I have never composed a poem, to be recited by my ambassador. The best offer that evening was by the Barhraini cultural attaché who recited one of the great tongue-twisting classic poems (with sound qualities close to some of Schwitters) from the 9C.
Pierre Joris
On Thu, 28 Jun 2012 09:26:11 +0100, Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Thanks so much for posting this--otherwise I might have never have heard of it. I can easily imagine (if something comparable was staged in Wash DC or the nearby police state aka Virginia) that the helicopter would be shot down (for "security" reasons) by the military.
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>Otherwise, the Ambassador from Liechtenstein found poetry from writers born or based in his country to read at an event hosted very recently by the Katzen Museum in Wash DC.
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>Finally, Kay Ryan is not a "star". She owes whatever recent notice she has attracted to her appointment by the Librarian of Congress, a Russian Studies scholar who apparently listened to Dana Gioia's Bush-era argument about her. And I gave KR a chance, listening to two very minor readings by her, from which I learned absolutely nothing. Eileen Myles would have been at least 100 times better, but of course DG couldn't tolerate her because she's not meek.
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>Barry Alpert
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