Ballad talks, NYC, 11-13 April 2003

Subject: Folklore: Ballad talks, NYC, 11-13 April 2003
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 07:14 AM

If this event was annocunced in another thread, I've missed it. I was looking at today's http://www.nytimes.com, New York Times on-line and saw an article, "The Ballad of the Ballad, Poetry's Bearer of Bad News" by Billy Collins.
"... ...
the People's Poetry Gathering, a biennial three-day series of readings and talks sponsored by Poets House, the 40,000-volume poetry library on Spring Street in SoHo, and City Lore, a nonprofit group that documents urban folk life [takes place this weekend]. The focus will be on narrative poetry, particularly the ballad and its big brother, the epic.

"The events are many and varied, ranging from Donald Hall speaking on Thomas Hardy to a talk on the cross-dressing ballad (women dressing as men to have adventures), from a tribute to Alan Lomax to public readings of 'Gilgamesh' and 'Beowulf' in their entirety and an all-day reading of 'The Odyssey' by the translator Robert Fagles and others aboard the Peking, a tall ship at the South Street Seaport. There will also be rapping and slamming (take your helmet), as well as cowboy lyrics, calypso and klezmer music (separately) and the story-poems of countries including Russia, Finland, Albania and Kazakhstan."

the article then continues with a "crash course on the ballad".

I hope someone else will add contact details for the People's Poetry Gathering.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ballad talks, NYC, 11-13 April 2003
From: InOBU
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 07:52 AM

Seems I don't see any of us banned poets played on WBAI new york. Larry

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ballad talks, NYC, 11-13 April 2003
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 11 Apr 03 - 04:30 PM

peoplespoetry.org.

John Roberts, Tony Barrand, and Heather Wood will be performing, Friday 10 pm and Sunday at 3, and John & Tony, Sunday at 1, for the names I recognize.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ballad talks, NYC, 11-13 April 2003
From: Felipa
Date: 12 Apr 03 - 05:00 AM

I recognise a lot more names than those!
If you've come this far, do take a look at the peoplespoetry.org site

keeping this thread current so that Mudcatters in the area know about the event; I wish I hadn't titled it "talks", which makes it sound more academic than performance!

there's an open mike and poetry slam, so maybe they'll even let InOBU participate!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ballad talks, NYC, 11-13 April 2003
From: Felipa
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 06:07 AM

keeping this post current while those of you in the NYC area still have a chance to go along to the performances

go to http://www.peoplespoetry.org/
towards the bottom of the page, you'll see "What's New" --click on "People's Poetry Gathering 2003" and then on "View the schedule of events", then grab your coat or purse or whatever (maybe's it's warm there now? many of the events are free)and go!

Subject: RE: Folklore, poetry & music, NYC 11-13 Apr 2003
From: Felipa
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 02:30 PM

this is the last time I will refresh this thread, your last time to go along to -
(Sunday 13 April 2003)
2:00-3:45
Hip Hop Seder (CB's 313 Gallery, downstairs)
The Socalled Seder is a passover service set to the toe-tapping rhythms of the modern teenager. It's a hop-hop Haggaddah with beats, raps, niggunim, and readings that rock the story of the Exodus from Egypt in a contemporary setting. Set to the whimsical, funky productions of Montreal's Socalled (Josh Dolgin), this performance of the Seder will feature Brooklyn singer/performer Aron Waxman and Philadelphia's klezmer trumpetess extraordinaire, Susan Hoffman Watts.

Performance:
Spring Essence by John Balaban (American Museum of Natural History, Linder Theater-FREE with museum admission)
Spring Essence, poems of an 18th century concubine from Vietnam, are presented by translator John Balaban with Ho Xuan Huong and Ngo Thanh Nhan.

3:00-3:45 Paired Reading:
Donald Hall and Glyn Maxwell (Cooper Union, Wollman)

Open Mic:
with Danny Shot of Long Shot Productions (Cooper Union, Engineering Building, Room 509)
Sign-up sheets will be located on a table outside the classroom.

3:00-4:45 Performance/Lecture:
Ballads Wisely Expounded (Bowery Poetry Club)
A look at the Child ballads and other traditional ballads of the Anglo-American tradition. With Tony Barrand, Dianne Dugaw, John Roberts, and Heather Wood.

Reading:
Walt Whitman's epic, Song of Myself by Galway Kinnell (Cooper Union, Great Hall)
Acclaimed poet Galway Kinnell brings "Song of Myself," an excerpt from Walt Whitman's epic Leaves of Grass, to life with selected readings of this seminal work of American literature.

3:30-4:30 Reading:
Joy Harjo (Poets House)

4:00-4:45 Paired Reading:
Carolyn Forché and Semezdin Mehmedinovic (Cooper Union, Wollman)

Open Mic:
with Bruce Weber of ABC No Rio (Cooper Union, Engineering Building, Room 509)
Sign-up sheets will be located on a table outside the classroom.

4:00-5:45 Reading:
Yiddish Poetry (CB's 313 Gallery, upstairs)
Organized and led by Itzik Gottesman with Chaim Beider, Sholem Berger, Leyb Borovik, Beth Anne Cole, Gella Schweid Fishman, Yoel Matveyev, Albert Rosenblatt, Mindl Rinkewich, Bella Schaehter-Gottesman, Aaron Taub, and Josh Waletsky. The event is co-sponsored by The Congress for Jewish Culture.

4:00-5:30 Film Screening:
The Land Where the Blues Began (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
Produced and Directed by Alan Lomax, John Bishop and Worth Long, (USA, 1978, 60 min.)
A penetrating and moving look at the land, culture and above all the people who gave the blues to the world. Filmed in churches, fields, porches and bars, with R.L. Burnside, Jack Owens, Sam Chatamon, Eugene Powell, Napoleon Strickland, and Lonnie Pitchford.

Oss Oss, Wee Oss (Two Boots Pioneer Theater)
Produced and Directed by Alan Lomax with Peter Kenney and George Pickow, (1951, 30 min.) "Oss Oss, Wee Oss" is the cheer that rises from the crowd as the hobby horse dances through the streets of Padstow, Cornwall, England every May Day in an ancient celebration of spring.

4:45-5:45 Reading:
Popol Vuh with Dennis Tedlock (Poets House)
A look at the epic creation myth of the Maya.

5:00-6:15 Reading:
World of Poetry (Bowery Poetry Club)
With Ryoko Sekiguchi, a Japanese poet who writes in French and Japanese, and Stacy Doris, Sekiguchi's English translator. Organized by Carolyn Crumpacker. ($5, free for Gathering passholders.)

6:00-7:30
(FREE)
Grand Finale Peace Reading
(Cooper Union, Great Hall)
This coda to The Gathering weekend brings together poets from across the festival and from all over the world. The convocation includes former U.S. Poet Laureate, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Galway Kinnell, and many others whose poetry envisions alternatives to war. (FREE)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Ballad talks, NYC, 11-13 April 2003
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 07:32 PM

Well, this is after the fact, but the City-Lore/CUNY/Poetry Gathering/Lomax Archive event was a sort of conference, April 10-13 I think. I was there on the evening of the 11th to hear the Lomaxes and Seegers reminisce about Alan's life and work, and to see many old friends again. On the 12th, there were several panels-with-music; "I Was Recorded by Alan Lomax," "Folk Song as Poetry," were the ones in which I participated. In the evening there was a smashing, "Alan Lomax Tribute Concert, with The New Lost City Ramblers, Spencer Moore, Jean Ritchie, Arlo Guthrie and son, Odetta, Pete Seeger and Honeyboy Edwards. Cooper Union Great Hall was sold out, packed in, clapping, singing, and sometimes yelling, especially during the finale, "Irene, Goodnight." We had to leave the stage because time was up, but the applause went on for at least ten minutes! The crowd waited in the lobby, and such visiting afterward...it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me- and for about three hundred others...

Jean