The Electro-Library

Ring in the new year with Amra Brooks and Eileen Myles' intimate conversation about Myles' new edited volume, Pathetic Literature, art, music, dogs, finding the motivation to create in challenging times, and more! Recorded over Zoom, November 4, 2022.
Music: More Brain by Lobo Loco, Creative Commons Non-Commercial License.

A real Thanksgiving feast: Ross Gay talks with Amra Brooks about poetry, the meaning of gratitude in dark times, radical presence, mushrooms, and so much more! Recorded over Zoom, November 7, 2021.

We are joined by Ross Gay, poet, essayist, professor of poetry at Indiana University, and founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard. Gay is the author of the poetry collections Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; and the essay collection, The Book of Delights. Gay is also the co-author, with Aimee Nezhukumatathil, of the chapbook Lace and Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens, as well as co-author, with Rosechard Wehrenberg, of the chapbook, River. His most recent book, Be Holding (2021), is the recipient of the PEN America Jean Stein Book Award. Gay reads from his poems and essays. A question-and-answer and discussion session follows. Recorded live via Zoom on November 4, 2021.

Poet, author, and activist Layli Long Soldier joins Amra Brooks over Zoom to talk about writing during the pandemic, activism in the wake of the death of George Floyd, finding and nurturing creative inspiration, activist art, Lakota culture, and the complex, overlapping meanings of embodiment as women, mothers, and citizens. Originally recorded on October 30, 2020.

Poet, Essayist, and activist Layli Long Soldier reads from her latest poetry collection, Whereas, winner of the National Book Critics Circle award for poetry and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. A question-and-answer and discussion session follows. Recorded live via Zoom on October 29, 2020.

00:47 D.A. Powell, "Quarantine," read by Sutopa Dasgupta
Music: Abishai, Piano Improvisation, from Memento Mori

02:26 Don DeLillo, from White Noise, read by David Charlesworth
Music: Chad Crouch, "Seafoam," from Atmospheric Piano

Interlude: James Bohm, "Music for Handwashing (Out Damned Spot 2)

07:11 Clarice Lispector, from "Letters to Hermengardo," read by Richard Colton
Music: Reiko Yamada,

Interlude: James Bohm, "Music for Handwashing (Out Damned Spot 1)

10:33 Excerpts from the Diaries of Franz Kafka, read by Jared Green
Music: Pauline Oliveros, Miya Masaoka, "Afternoon - Hirusugi," from Accordion Koto

13:40 from Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits, by Bill Porter, read by Prof. Karen Teoh
Music: Olga Scotland, "Two Flutes," from Iron Flowers from Sirius

Interlude: James Bohm, "Music for Handwashing (Out Damned Spot 1)

19:05 John Keats, "To Mrs. Brawne, October 24th, 1820, Naples Harbour," read by Prof. Matthew Borushko
Music: Cellophane Sam, "The Turnaround Road," from Sea Change

22:59 Abigail Donovan, from Tar Paper no. 3, read by Abigail Donovan.
Music: Meydän, "Away," from Ambient

Interlude: James Bohm, "Music for Handwashing (Out Damned Spot 1)

31:22 Carlos José Perez Sámano, "Evening at Home," read by Carlos José Perez Sámano
Music: Monplaisir, "Basse 1," from Sous Tensions

Interlude: excerpt from Care of the Skin, Encyclopedia Britannica Films (Public Domain)

Interlude: James Bohm, "Music for Handwashing (Out Damned Spot 1)

34:40 Maira Kalman, interview
Music: Blue Dot Sessions, "The Poplar Grove," from Bitters

Outro Music: Neil Diamond, "Sweet Caroline" (COVID-19 PSA): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxnETrhOIAE

-Theme music: "Ecstasy in Umbra," by Tubifex (feat. Hitek Mesh@t), courtesy of Stable Genius Records
-"Memento Mori" by Abishai is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
-"Atmospheric Piano" by Chad Crouch is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.
-“Music for a 1912 Broken German Accordion.” Composed and performed by Reiko Yamada. Original recording courtesy of Richard Colton.
-Two Flutes by Olga Scotland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
-"The Turnaround Road" by Cellophane Sam is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
-Ambient by Meydän is licensed under an Attribution License.
-"Music for Handwashing" Composed and performed by James Bohm. Original recording courtesy of James Bohm.
-Sous Tensions Original Soundtrack by Monplaisir is licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License.
-"The Poplar Grove" by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

CONTENTS

Introduction: 0:42-6:35 Rickey Laurentiis: Poetry Reading 6:44-41:34 Ocean Vuong: Poetry Reading 41:47-1:02:00 Rickey and Ocean in Conversation: 1:02:13-1:23: 13

Originally recorded November 15, 2018 at Stonehill College

ABOUT OCEAN VUONG

Ocean Vuong is the author of the debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin, 2019). He is also the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2016, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. A Ruth Lilly fellow from the Poetry Foundation, his honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, and the Pushcart Prize.

Vuong’s writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Harpers, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets. Selected by Foreign Policy magazine as a 2016 100 Leading Global Thinker, alongside Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki-Moon and Justin Trudeau, Ocean was also named by BuzzFeed Books as one of “32 Essential Asian American Writers” and has been profiled on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” PBS NewsHour, Teen Vogue, VICE, The Fantastic Man, and The New Yorker.

Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he serves as an Assistant Professor in the MFA Program for Poets and Writers at Umass-Amherst. He is currently not writing anything.

For more information about Ocean Vuong and his writing go to: https://www.oceanvuong.com/

ABOUT RICKEY LAURENTIIS

Rickey Laurentiis (b. 1989, February 7) was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, to love the dark. His poetry has been supported by several foundations and fellowships, including the Whiting Foundation (2018), Lannan Literary Foundation (2017), Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy (2014), Poetry International Rotterdam (2014), the National Endowment for the Arts (2013), Cave Canem Foundation (2009-2011), and the Poetry Foundation, which awarded him a Ruth Lilly Fellowship in 2012. In 2016, he traveled to Palestine as an invited reader for the Palestine Festival of Literature. He received his MFA in Writing from Washington University in St Louis, where he was a Chancellor’s Graduate Fellow, and his Bachelors in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College, where he read literature and queer theory.

He is the author of Boy with Thorn, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and the Levis Reading Prize, and a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry and a Lambda Literary Award. Boy with Thorn was also named one of the top ten debuts of 2015 by Poets & Writers Magazine and a top 16 best poetry books by Buzzfeed, among other distinctions. Individual poems have appeared widely, including Boston Review, Feminist Studies, The Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, New Republic, The New York Times, and Poetry; have been anthologized in Extraordinary Rendition: (American) Writers Speak of Palestine, Bettering American Poetry, A Tale of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation, and Prospect.3‘s art catalogue Notes for Now; as well as translated into Arabic, Spanish and Ukrainian.

Laurentiis’ interests include visual culture, ekphrasis, chiaroscuro and shade, revisionary logics, penetration and the body, radical justice, cultural studies, and shame. He has taught at a selection of institutions, including Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the 92nd Street Y. He is the inaugural Fellow in Creative Writing at the Center for African American Poetry and Poeticsat the University of Pittsburgh, and serves on the executive board for the Black Art Futures Fund.

For more information about Rickey Laurentiis and his writing go to: https://www.rickeylaurentiis.com/#1

Jared is joined by award-winning poet and influential philosopher Fred Moten for a wide-ranging discussion of poetry, identity, music, community-formation, and resistive practices. Originally recorded October 16, 2019.

Visit: theelectrolibrary.org and raymo-series.org

Recorded: October 16, 2019 6pm in May Hall: McCarthy Auditorium

Fred Moten’s work explores black studies, performance studies, poetry, and critical theory. In 2014, Moten’s The Feel Trio was a poetry finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was the winner of the California Book Award; and in 2016 his The Little Edges was a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.

In 2016 Fred Moten was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Stephen E. Henderson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry by the African American Literature and Culture Society. Moten has taught at the University of Iowa, Duke University, the Naropa Institute, and Brown University.

Moten currently teaches in the department of performance studies at New York University and lives in New York City.

EPISODE NOTES AND LINKS:

Introduction: Prof. Daniel Itzkovitz, Stonehill College

Links to Images and Songs:

•Pieter Brueghel, The Elder, The Peasant Dance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peasant_Dance#/media/File:Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Peasant_Dance_-_WGA3499.jpg

•Ernie Barnes, "The Sugar Shack", 1976.
https://innovativeblackartists.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/tumblr_m5iuaerz1q1qks9rho1_r2_12801.jpg

•Marvin Gaye, "Since I Had You": https://youtu.be/kfdEnYEhmvA

•Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderly, Save Your Love For Me
Version 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDLifqaldeA
Version 2 (Live, 1968): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS-1NoPOAoo

From the Electro-Library Podcast Studio comes a new stand-alone feature: "Short Circuits": One guest in the spotlight, generating electricity and shooting off sparks!

Short Circuit #1: Jared talks to Teju Cole about creativity, race, identity, and freedom.

0:00 Ad: Ansco Cadet Camera, ca. 1950.
0:19 Introduction: Scott Cohen.
1:29 Excerpt 1 from Charles and Ray Eames, Polaroid SX-70 camera, 1972.
2:11 Wisława Szymborska, “Photograph from September 11” (trans. Clare Cavanaugh), from Monologue of a Dog, 2005. Read by Helga Duncan.
(Music: Jared Green, Untitled Ambient)
3:11 Italo Calvino, from “The Adventure of a Photographer,” (trans. William Weaver, Peggy Wright, and Archibald Colquhoun), from Difficult Loves, 1987. Read by Wendy Peek.
4:29 Vladimir Nabokov, “The Snapshot.” Read by Jared Green.
(Music: Erik Satie, Gnossiene n°3. Performed by Laurent Bonetto.
https://soundcloud.com/laurent-bonetto/satie-gnossiene-n-3)
5:56 Ad: Orson Welles for the Vivitar compact camera, 1978.
6:27 John Berger, from About Looking, 2015. Read by Wanjiru Mbure.
6:56 Jessica Costello, “To the Girl in the Photo Dated May 8, 2018.“ Read by Jessica Costello.
9:26 Excerpt 2 from Charles and Ray Eames, Polaroid SX-70 camera, 1972.
10:12 Roland Barthes, from Camera Lucida, 1980. Read by Daniel Itzkovitz.
(Music: Bach, Siloti transcription, Prélude in B Minor. Performed by Laurent Bonetto.
https://soundcloud.com/laurent-bonetto/bach-siloti-transcription-prelude-in-b-minor)
14:13 Ad: Liv Ullmann for the Polaroid Sonar, 1979.
14:38 Amra Brooks, untitled story from This Long Century, 2018. Read by Amra Brooks. To read the full text, go to: http://www.thislongcentury.com/?p=9984
(Music: David Szesztay, “Chains Down,” Atmospheric Electric Guitar. CC BY-NC 3.0.
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/David_Szesztay/20170730112627137/Chains_Down)
23:02 Music: “Pictures of You,” The Cure, from Disintegration, 1989.
23:43 Ad: Kodak Brownie Starmatic camera, 1958.
24:06 Ethan Canin, “Vivian, Fort Barnwell.” Read by Ethan Canin.
Music: Ukelele Parade by Fernando Oyaguez Reyes CC BY-NC 3.0
https://archive.org/details/UkeleleParade
26:34 Interview: Ethan Canin with Jared Green on Photographs, Unreliable Memory, and Time.
36:21 Ad: Excerpt 3 from Charles and Ray Eames, Polaroid SX-70 camera, 1972.
38:38 Music: “Photograph,” Ringo Starr, from Ringo, 1973. Cover version performed by Danny McEvoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBU556przmA

Thanks to: Ethan Canin for sharing his work and thoughts (recorded via Skype on February 21, 2019); Amra Brooks for reading her short story, Jessica Costello for her poem; Helga Duncan, Wendy Peek, Wanjiru Mbure, and Daniel Itzkovitz for their readings; Danny McEvoy and Laurent Bonetto for agreeing to share their performances. Finally, big thanks to Jessica Williams and Madison Parenteau for their expert audio engineering.

0:00 Excerpt, "Photography," Holmes (Burton) Films, Inc., 1946
0:19 Intro, Amra brooks
1:43 Excerpt, "Photography," Holmes (Burton) Films, Inc., 1946
1:56 Jared Green reading from Nadar, “Balzac and the Daguerreotype,” from When I was a Photographer"
5:32 Chris Ives reading Ralph Waldo Emerson, from "Life in Boston”
7:20 Scott Cohen, reading from Umberto Eco, “A Photograph”
16:20 Vintage Polaroid Swinger Ad
17:19 Excerpt, "Photography," Holmes (Burton) Films, Inc., 1946
17:29 Adam Lampton on Photography, Memory, and Moving
24:02 Vintage Polaroid Sonar Ad (with Liv Ullmann)
24:38 Joanna McNaney Stein, “Clean Slate” and in conversation with Jared Green
38:15 Excerpt, The Ed Sullivan Show/Kodak Commercial:
"All America is Cameraland", 1961
38:36 Sutopa Dasgupta, reading Susan Sontag, from “On Photography"

-
Thanks to: Joanna McNaney Stein for sharing her work and thoughts (recorded via Skype in November 2018), Scott Cohen, Chris Ives, and Sutopa Dasgupta for their readings, Adam Lampton for his spoken essay, Jessica Williams and Madison Parenteau for their expert audio engineering.

Music:
Theme song: "Ecstasy in Umbra," Hitek Mesh@t/Tubifex https://soundcloud.com/user-736000448/ecstacy-in-umbra
"Stickle," by Blue Dot Sessions. CC BY-NC 4.0 https://www.sessions.blue
"Blind Love Dub," (ft. Kara Square (mindmapthat)) by Jervis. CC By 3.0. http://ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/55416
"Titter Snowbird," by Bue Dot Sessions. CC BY-NC 4.0 http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Resolute/Titter_Snowbird
https://www.sessions.blue
"Swollen Cloud," by Podington Bear. CC BY-NC 3.0 http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Ambient/SwollenCloud
"Future History," by Jared Green
"Blue," by Podington Bear. CC BY-NC 3.0 http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Homage_Fromage/Blue_1246

**

E-L 1.2: Memory

**

Contents:
1:47 - Students reflecting on memories
3:10 - Wendy Peek reading The Aeneid, bk 1, Virgil
5:12 - Lacuna commercial from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6:00 - Mary Joan Leith on memory and mortality
9:10 - Wendy Peek reading from The Odyssey, translated by Robert Fitzgerald
11:30 - Emily Schario reading from The Roth Memory Course (1918)
12:34 - Janice Lee reading from her book Reconsolidation: Or, it’s the ghosts who will answer you and in conversation with Amra Brooks.
22:04 - Lori Phillips reading from her poem “Lori”
23:51 - Emily Schario reading from The Roth Memory Course
25:30 - Jared Green reading from Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time translated by Lydia Davis
31:37 - Jennifer Segawa on the science of memory, smell, and taste.
37:30 - Emily Schario reading from The Roth Memory Course

Thanks to:
Janice Lee, who spoke with Amra Brooks via Skype in February 2018;
Wendy Peek and Jared Green for their readings; Mary Joan Leith for her memory; Jennifer Segawa for her insights into the science of memory; Lori Phillips for her original poetry; Michaela Bottino for her audio engineering; and Tubifex for their beats.

Special thanks to Emily Schario, Stonehill class of 2018, who served as managing editor for the Electro-Library.

Music:

Creative Commons By NC ND 4.0

A production of the Digital Innovation Lab at Stonehill College

**

E-L 1.1: Storytelling

**

Contents:
01:03 Amra Brooks on Joan Didion’s The White Album.
04:10 Poem: “Citizen,” Daria LaBoutina
05:38 Wearing your liver on your forehead: An Interview with Lynda Barry
11:52 Poem: “Names” Lin Chen
12:52 “Windows,” Charles Baudelaire
14:32 Timothy Woodcock: The Infinite Monkey Theorem
21:20 From “The Storyteller,” Walter Benjamin

Thanks to:
Lynda Barry, who visited Stonehill in October 2016
Amra Brooks, Daniel Itzkovitz, and Jared Green for their reading
Timothy Woodcock for his mathematical storytelling
Daria LaBoutina and Lin Chen for their original poetry
Lila Lifton for her violin loops

"Windows" by Charles Baudelaire, trans. Jared Green

Music:

A production of the Digital Innovation Lab at Stonehill College