Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Weekend Readings

Attractive run of readings in Portland this weekend, Thursday through Sunday, to round out an exceptionally active August. I’ll be at three of the four, but haven’t yet figured out the fourth. People keep mentioning how much poetry activity has picked up here over the last few years. It’d be interesting to put together a list of the poets who’ve moved or returned here, new series launched, and the increase in writers passing through town to read since, say, 2003 or ‘04. Of course other poets moved away in that time, and not all series stick around for long; sometimes what looks like growth is just churn. Still, consensus seems to be that things are waxing. The crowd that turned out to see Norma Cole read with Lindsay Hill at Spare Room on Thursday is about as good a non-university audience as you’ll get outside of New York or San Francisco (and even there you have off nights). I wonder if the audiences this weekend will be the same core spreading itself across readings, or a new swatch of the recently arrived. On the menu:
Thursday, August 13 JARED STANLEY & LAUREN LEVIN 6 PM, Valentine’s, 232 SW Ankeny

Friday, August 14 SCOTT INGUITO & JARED STANLEY 6 PM, Pushdot Studio, 1021 SE Caruthers

Saturday, August 15 CRAG HILL & DOUGLAS ROTHSCHILD 3 PM, 213 SE 26th Ave., Spare Room

Sunday, August 16 ERIC BAUS & GRAHAM FOUST 7:30 PM, Concordia Coffee House, 2909 NE Alberta, Spare Room
Then on Thursday:
Thursday, August 20 EILEEN MYLES 7:30 PM, Powell’s on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

6 comments:

Maurice Burford said...

awwww shucks. I wanted to see Eileen Myles read. This whole job thing is killin' me.

rodney k said...

Hi Alex,

Are you up here, too? With Bryan and Willie?

mark wallace said...

Rodney, when you say this stuff it's like you're sending a secret message to me: "Move to Portland, Mark. Move to Portland."

And I'm trying, believe me, it's just that right now it doesn't seem to be in the cards.

Maurice Burford said...

No, I'm not moving up to Portland with Bryan and Willie. But lately I'm seriously jonesing to move up. It's seems like the Wild West of poetry scenes up there. Maybe I can talk Jess into moving up.

I did a panel at the Zine Symposium on small press publishing a couple weeks ago up at PSU. It's a cool town.

Bryan Coffelt said...

Rodney,

We just signed a lease on a place -- Willie's up there already, and I'm headed up for good after Labor Day.

I'm really excited to become a fixture at all the reading series in Portland.

rodney k said...

Hi Bryan,

Congrats on the new place. Glad you found something. Once you get moved in, look forward to seeing you this fall.

Hi Mark,

San Diego's loss would be Portland's gain.