innovative

Leslie Scalapino reads work appearing in The Return of Painting, The Pearl, and Orion (1997) and Way (1988).

Michael S. Harper reads from across his first four books, all published in the years shortly before this reading: Dear John, Dear Coltrane (1970), History Is Your Own Heartbeat (1971), Song: I Want a Witness (1972), and Debridement (1973). Harper shares poems that delve into the loss of children, racial inequality, and the Vietnam War, mixing them with poems that express his love for his wife and family.

Anne Carson reads from Men in the Off Hours, Short Talks, and The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos.

Charles Bernstein and Tracie Morris perform as part of the Poetry Center's Conceptual Poetry and Its Others Symposium.

Featured poets Caroline Bergvall, Charles Bernstein, Christian Bök, Craig Dworkin, Kenneth Goldsmith, Tracie Morris, and Cole Swensen provide a wide range of responses to questions proposed by Tenney Nathanson. This panel was part of the Conceptual Poetry and Its Others Symposium.

Mei-mei Berssenbrugge reads poems from her collection Empathy (1989), together with a poem that would appear in Sphericity (1993). She also reads an uncollected long prose piece, "A Context of a Wave," which considers relationships between individuals and place, as well as between life and literature.

Charles Bernstein reads from the manuscript of Rough Trades as well as from the published collections The Sophist, Controlling Interests, and Four Poems.

Juliana Spahr reads from The Connection of Everyone with Lungs (2005) and "Gentle Now, Don't Add to Heartache" as part of the Poetry Center's Fall 2009 sequence of themed readings, "Oh Earth, Wait for Me: Conversations about Art and Ecology." This reading was given alongside Jonathan Skinner.

Alice Fulton reads from three books: Powers of Congress, Palladium, and Dance Script with Electric Ballerina. "Losing It," from Powers of Congress, was collected two years after this reading.

Mónica de la Torre reads two pieces from Public Domain, including the long poem "The Crush." This reading was originally given with Bhanu Kapil and Ben Lerner as part of the Next Word in Poetry series. 

As part of the Next Word series, Philip Jenks reads from his first two books and from the chapbook How Many of You Are You? (2006). He opens and closes the reading with two poems that would go on to be collected in colony collapse metaphor (2014). This performance was originally given with Akilah Oliver and Brandon Shimoda.

In her Next Word reading with Brandon Shimoda and Philip Jenks, Akilah Oliver reads from The Putterer's Notebook and A Toast in the House of Friends. Her reading includes a standout performance of the long poem "An Arriving Guard of Angels, Thusly Coming to Greet," an elegy for her son Oluchi McDonald.

At his Next Word reading with Akilah Oliver and Philip Jenks, Brandon Shimoda reads three longer poems. Two of these were unpublished at the time of the reading, including the very recent "Poems for the People."

Bhanu Kapil reads selections from Humanimal: A Project for Future Children, released by Kelsey Street Press the year following Kapil's Next Word reading. This reading was originally given with Mónica de la Torre and Ben Lerner. 

Alice Notley reads from Reason and Other Women (2010).

In this performance, originally given with Alice Notley at the 2010 Tucson Festival of Books, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge reads poems that would go on to be collected in Hello, the Roses (2013).

At the 2010 Tucson Festival of Books, Tenney Nathanson reads work from Ghost Snow Falls Through the Void: Globalization, published in 2010 by Chax Press. This reading was given alongside Charles Bernstein and Barbara Henning and includes a question and answer session with all three authors.

This reading begins with Olga Broumas reading her translations of the Greek poet Odysseas Elytis. Sometimes performing poems in Greek and sometimes performing in English, Broumas experiments with the delivery of each translation and reads one poem by moving between Greek and English as she reads. Broumas also reads from five of her own books: Beginning With O, Pastoral Jazz, Soie Sauvage, Caritas, and Perpetua.

Eleni Sikelianos reads from Earliest Worlds (2001), The California Poem (2004), and Body Clock (2008). This reading was given as the final installment of the Poetry Center's "Oh Earth, Wait for Me: Conversations about Art and Ecology" series.

Fred Moten reads his sequence "come on, get it!," which would later be collected in The Feel Trio (2014). This performance was given for his Next Word appearance with Rusty Morrison.

Kazim Ali reads work in several genres, including excerpts from Orange Alert, a collection of essays; The Disappearance of Seth, a novel; and Bright Felon, a memoir; as well as published and new poems. He ends by performing a poem, "Queer Ishmael," composed on the spot. This reading was given alongside Ana Bozicevic as part of the Next Word in Poetry series.

Caroline Bergvall reads poems that would go on to be published in her collection Meddle English (2011). This reading was originally given alongside Cole Swensen and Christian Bök.

Charles Alexander reads widely from his work as part of the Tucson Lit Press Fest event. He closes with a selection from the ongoing collection Pushing Water, published in 2011 by Cuneiform Press.

TC Tolbert reads from his recent Kore Press publication Territories of Folding, accompanied by members of the movement improvisation group Movement Salon.

A reading celebrating the release of I'll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women, edited by Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, Teresa Carmody, and Vanessa Place.

Cecilia Vicuña presents an improvisatory oral performance in response to space and time as part of the Poetry Center's 2012 Poetry Off the Page Symposium. This recording includes a question and answer session with Claudia Rankine and Christine Hume, who performed along with Vicuña at the Poetry Off the Page Sonic Lens night.

At the 2012 Poetry Off the Page Symposium, Black Took Collective presents a multimedia performance exploring interrogations of a Black unconscious, using written and aural language, sound, video, and image.

Joyelle McSweeney reads primarily from Percussion Grenade (2012) as well as several unpublished pieces. This reading was originally given with Zachary Schomburg.

Cathy Park Hong reads from Engine Empire (2012) and Dance Dance Revolution (2007); she also reads an unpublished poem.

This event, part poetry reading and part jazz concert, pairs the work of poet Nathaniel Mackey with the music of jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell, featuring solo performances by each artist as well as two collaborative performances.

Joshua Marie Wilkinson reads from Suspension of a Secret in Abandoned Rooms (2005), Lug Your Careless Body out of the Careful Dusk (2006), and The Book of Whispering in the Projection Booth (2009). This reading was originally given with Brian Turner and Srikanth Reddy.

Heriberto Yépez reads poems from Babellebab (2003) as well as new and uncollected work. This event opens with readings by Tenney Nathanson, Lisa Cooper Anderson, and Matt Rotando.

Clark Coolidge reads from an unpublished work in progress. This reading was originally given with Teré Fowler-Chapman.

Tan Lin performs poems published in digital and print media.

Giancarlo Huapaya gives a gallery performance related to the exhibit BirúPirúPerú: Collective Projects of Peruvian Visual Poetry, on display at the Poetry Center from August 21 to November 22, 2017. His performance makes use of the inaugural addresses of nine United States Presidents, from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump. 

Poet Douglas Kearney and percussionist/electronic musican Val Jeanty present a collaborative performance titled "Fodder," which combines poetry and music at the 2017 Thinking Its Presence Conference. The poems primarily come from Kearney's Buck Studies (2016).