PennSound is glad to have summer staffer Alex Moon doing all sorts of great work for us over the break, and have already highlighted several projects they've worked on recently. Today we're taking a look at another new addition to the archives: segmented audio of Jerome Rothenberg's 2013 appearance as part of the Readings in Contemporary Poetry series at Dia Art Foundation, New York:Chelsea.
Rothenberg's reading, which took place on April 8th of that year, is typical of the sort of career-spanning performance that he offers up to rapt audiences (and which I've had the pleasure of seeing in person on several occasions) late in his writing career. Running thirty-five minutes in length it includes twenty-one tracks in total, taking extended dips into several late book projects, including The Notebooks, The Variations, and Divigations, with "A Cruel Nirvana," "From the Book of Palaces," "A Letter to Paul Celan in Memory," and "The 13th Horse Song of Frank Mitchell (White)" among some of the individual titles read.
Of course, PennSound's Jerome Rothenberg author page is a thriving testament to the poet, translator, editor, and anthologist's long and influential career. There's a comprehensive survey of his own diverse poetic modes, spread across numerous recordings, from album releases via S Press and Optic Nerve's Rockdrill series to myriad readings and even some of his musical collaborations. There are a number of recordings related to his editorial and translation projects, including launch readings celebrating several different volumes in the Poems for the Millennium series and milestone events for Technicians of the Sacred (both its 40th and 50th anniversaries). There are lectures, class recordings, and interviews with Rothenberg, as well as commentaries on his own work, including several PoemTalk episodes. With nearly 300 MP3s alone — counting individual tracks and complete recordings — not to mention videos, it's a fittingly encyclopedic tribute to Rothenberg's influence, as well as a useful resource for all sorts of classroom settings. Of course, our listeners will also enjoy Rothenberg's ongoing Jacket2 commentary series, "Poems and Poetics," which we've been honored to host for the past decade. You can listen to this newly segmented recording by clicking here.
