WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.290 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.290 --> 00:00:03.040 align:middle line:84% Thank you everyone for being here. 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:08.280 align:middle line:84% I'm really pleased tonight to introduce Lee Ann Brown. 00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:11.520 align:middle line:84% Lee Ann's books include verse Polyverse, 00:00:11.520 --> 00:00:15.000 align:middle line:84% which was selected by Charles Bernstein for the New American 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.020 align:middle line:84% Poetry Series; The Sleep that Changed Everything 00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:23.110 align:middle line:84% from Wesleyan University Press; and many collaborative works, 00:00:23.110 --> 00:00:27.690 align:middle line:84% including The 3:15 Experiment with Bernadette Mayer, Jen 00:00:27.690 --> 00:00:32.640 align:middle line:84% Hofer, and Danika Dinsmore; and Diagnostic with painter Anne 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:33.540 align:middle line:90% Slacik. 00:00:33.540 --> 00:00:37.980 align:middle line:84% She teaches poetry at St. John's University in New York City 00:00:37.980 --> 00:00:41.580 align:middle line:84% and has taught at Naropa, Barnard, Bard, 00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:43.890 align:middle line:84% the New School for Social Research, 00:00:43.890 --> 00:00:46.110 align:middle line:84% and in the New York City public schools 00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:48.480 align:middle line:84% through the organization Teachers and Writers 00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:50.160 align:middle line:90% Collaborative. 00:00:50.160 --> 00:00:55.080 align:middle line:84% She's editor and co-founder of Tender Buttons Press 00:00:55.080 --> 00:00:59.640 align:middle line:84% and co-founder of a new project for multidisciplinary poetry 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:03.330 align:middle line:84% and performance, the French Broad Institute of Time 00:01:03.330 --> 00:01:06.550 align:middle line:84% and the River in Marshall, North Carolina. 00:01:06.550 --> 00:01:08.400 align:middle line:84% She's performed her work internationally 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:12.130 align:middle line:84% at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Foundation 00:01:12.130 --> 00:01:16.350 align:middle line:84% Royaumont, the Poetry Project, Bowery Poetry Club, and Alice 00:01:16.350 --> 00:01:18.840 align:middle line:90% Tully Hall. 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:22.620 align:middle line:84% In 1999 when her first book, Polyverse, came out, 00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:25.200 align:middle line:90% I wrote the following. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:27.540 align:middle line:84% "Last night I dreamed that Polyverse 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:30.630 align:middle line:84% was such a voluminous book that I couldn't lift it 00:01:30.630 --> 00:01:33.850 align:middle line:84% with one hand, but it wasn't a book at all. 00:01:33.850 --> 00:01:36.270 align:middle line:84% It was more like a mysterious black box 00:01:36.270 --> 00:01:39.570 align:middle line:84% containing multimedia images and texts, which 00:01:39.570 --> 00:01:41.670 align:middle line:90% moved of their own accord. 00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:46.020 align:middle line:84% Every time I opened the box, a new kaleidoscope of movements 00:01:46.020 --> 00:01:48.210 align:middle line:90% would begin." 00:01:48.210 --> 00:01:52.920 align:middle line:84% Looking back on the statement, I see now how it remains true. 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:55.770 align:middle line:84% In a time when many poets are defining themselves 00:01:55.770 --> 00:01:58.770 align:middle line:84% early into a niche, into an aesthetic, 00:01:58.770 --> 00:02:02.820 align:middle line:84% and a particular singular focus, within a book project 00:02:02.820 --> 00:02:05.760 align:middle line:84% it is increasingly rare to find a poet who 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:10.800 align:middle line:84% is willing to extend and expand and to do so, so wonderfully. 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:13.890 align:middle line:84% It also strikes me that images and text which 00:02:13.890 --> 00:02:18.210 align:middle line:84% move of their own accord are alive, meaning nothing here 00:02:18.210 --> 00:02:21.270 align:middle line:84% is entirely fixed and predetermined. 00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:26.040 align:middle line:84% The written word is pliant, leans in, and listens. 00:02:26.040 --> 00:02:29.700 align:middle line:84% In other words, the work isn't merely to be received. 00:02:29.700 --> 00:02:32.490 align:middle line:90% It is, by nature, relational. 00:02:32.490 --> 00:02:35.310 align:middle line:90% The reader leaps onto the page. 00:02:35.310 --> 00:02:36.570 align:middle line:90% How does she do this? 00:02:36.570 --> 00:02:39.435 align:middle line:84% Perhaps it has something to do with being numerous, 00:02:39.435 --> 00:02:40.950 align:middle line:90% à la Oppen. 00:02:40.950 --> 00:02:45.930 align:middle line:84% She writes, polymorphously we walk in the park. 00:02:45.930 --> 00:02:50.340 align:middle line:84% She does not negate one lineage to celebrate another. 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:54.270 align:middle line:84% She writes, I've slept with both Emily and Whitman 00:02:54.270 --> 00:02:59.010 align:middle line:84% and feel no need to choose one lover over the other." 00:02:59.010 --> 00:03:02.520 align:middle line:84% Perhaps it has something to do with her formal range. 00:03:02.520 --> 00:03:04.650 align:middle line:84% For instance, in any of her books 00:03:04.650 --> 00:03:09.600 align:middle line:84% you may find an eloquently rendered flower, 00:03:09.600 --> 00:03:14.610 align:middle line:84% a song, a Dickinson cut-up, a cafeteria menu, 00:03:14.610 --> 00:03:19.260 align:middle line:84% a tribute to another poet, a collaboration, an erotic love 00:03:19.260 --> 00:03:24.270 align:middle line:84% poem, a sestina, a chance operation, an Olympian game, 00:03:24.270 --> 00:03:26.340 align:middle line:90% an occasional poem. 00:03:26.340 --> 00:03:30.870 align:middle line:84% Her work has, and continues, to illustrate that a book is not 00:03:30.870 --> 00:03:32.400 align:middle line:90% a finite thing. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:33.780 align:middle line:90% Please welcome Lee Ann Brown. 00:03:33.780 --> 00:03:37.130 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE]