Podcast Episode 1

Furious Cool: Authors Joe & David Henry

Authors and brothers Joe and David Henry visited The Project Room to chat about their new book Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and The World That Made Him. As young kids who fell under Pryor’s comedic spell, and as adults (and brothers) who collaborate, there was much to discuss in light of our current theme How Are We Remembered?

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New Podcast Series Launches in April!

Dear TPR Readers and Audience Members:

We are pleased to share a new podcast series this Spring, featuring interviews with fascinating creative people in all fields. In keeping with how TPR does things, the conversations will be focused on the current theme and topics, providing unique points of view on how creativity works for different types of makers.

TPR's Jess Van Nostrand interviewing Paul Rucker in February 2014

TPR's Jess Van Nostrand interviewing Paul Rucker in February 2014

Series 1 features the following guests:

Rebecca Walker, Author and Memoirist 

Joe & David Henry, Brothers and Co-Authors of FURIOUS COOL: RICHARD PRYOR AND THE WORLD THAT MADE HIM

Paul Rucker, Musician and Visual Artist

Jesmyn Ward, Author 

Stay tuned for the release of these podcasts- available on iTunes soon!

 

 

Introducing Siren

NEXT SIREN EVENT: Selife Surveillance, June 25th, 6pm

Throughout 2014, The Project Room is following the making of Siren, a new iPhone dating app made for-- and by-- women, and led by video artist Susie J Lee. Below, Susie introduces us to why she decided to use her art skills to tackle the online dating world. 

Merging arts and entrepreneurship, I am launching Siren, an app that empowers single women in their interactions with men by giving control and privacy online. Siren is a discerning female artist’s challenge to existing sites and a cultural response to the winner-takes-all, male-dominated start up culture.

Siren Founder Susie J Lee and Designer Katrina

Siren Founder Susie J Lee and Designer Katrina

When I announced I was going to make a woman-initiated social app, initial confusion gave way to sly smiles. “Of course you are…”My work explores transformation and human connection through technology, and Siren is an intuitive and clear extension of my

practice. I thrive in an “I don’t know” space with collaborators. I want to know what happens when rules change for women. I was curious about start up culture; that vantage point revealed both a devastating gender disparity and recognition that good art can also be good business.

A recent user-interface work session at TPR

A recent user-interface work session at TPR

Siren is a cultural tool designed to make an impact in the world. It expands the definition of art by reframing the scale and intent of social engagement and repositioning the artist within the machinations of hyper-capitalism. In city-by-city releases, partnerships with arts organizations and technology hubs will activate conversations through interactive exhibitions, online writing, gatherings and education. In Seattle, places such as The Project Room, Women in Tech, and UW are part of Siren.

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Sarah Novotny, an advisor for Siren recently told me, “Please document your process. So few women do.” Siren has an all-female coding team, and I am the CEO and founder. It is an artist’s reflective encapsulations coupled with a woman’s voice on sexuality and leadership.

Siren gives people the chance to discover the individual beyond a profile photo. It’s about unexpected moments that make us smile. Instead of a tedious, image-crafted résumé, Siren’s profiles are layers of responses to fun daily questions and micro-videos. Women always control their visibility and men get better signals for a better experience overall. We encourage charming the pants off someone. 

Stay tuned for event announcements in conjunction with this new endeavor!

The Makers of Siren:

Recognized for its intelligence, emotion, and sensuality, the new media work of Siren CEO Susie J. Lee explores transformation and connections through technology. Lee's work has been exhibited in the United States and abroad, in such venues as the Denver Art Museum, Blanton Museum, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro in Salerno, Italy; and Gallery Hyundai in Seoul. A winner of The Stranger Genius Award, Lee has received support from 4Culture and the Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, and her work is in notable public and private collections. Lee's Still Lives, an unfolding of time at the end of life in a series of video portraits, traveled to the Portland Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum and was featured in The Huffington Post. Of Breath and Rain at the Frye Art Museum was named "Best Multimedia Exhibition" in 2012. Her solo exhibition at the North Dakota Museum of Art Split Open revealed the quiet and fierce lives impacted by the oil boom in North Dakota, and her recent piece with collaborator Byron Au Yong, 11 Pianists was commissioned by the Mitchell Center for the Arts for its Countercurrent festival. 

Katrina Hess, Design Director of Siren, has had over seventeen years of experience as a graphic designer, web developer, and owns the urban raingear outfit, Made in Sodo. She spent over ten years branding and marketing for corporate and retail companies before branching out on her own. Her designs are distinctive and functional, with intelligent modifications at every turn, and comprehensive branding. She selects her collaborative partners with an eye on opportunity, invention, and outcome. 

The Siren network of contributors and helpers, as of May, 2014

The Siren network of contributors and helpers, as of May, 2014

Difficult Fruit: February 28th, 6pm with Lauren K. Alleyne and friends

Friday February 28, 6pm: Difficult Fruit
Poet Lauren K. Alleyne presentation and book release for her new poetry collection, Difficult Fruit. Moderated by Catherine Chung and featuring guest writers David Mura, Anastacia Tolbert, Dawn Lonsinger, and Patricia Smith. In conjunction with the Annual AWP Conference.

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Transformation is the heart of Lauren K. Alleyne’s debut collection of poetry, Difficult Fruit. In these poems, bodies transform to smoke; passion becomes love, then memory; a girl flowers into womanhood; and innocence becomes knowledge. This launch event celebrates another transformative event--the publication of this collection of poems. The program, hosted by Catherine Chung, will feature readings by Lauren K. Alleyne, and the mentors and friends, who in one way or another nurtured the seeds that became Difficult Fruit.

 

About the Presenters:

Lauren K. Alleyne is a native of Trinidad and Tobago. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Cornell University and is currently the Poet-in-Residence and an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Dubuque. She has been published in several journals and anthologies, including Crab Orchard Review, The Cimarron Review, Black Arts Quarterly, The Caribbean Writer, The Belleview Literary Review, Growing Up Girl and Gathering Ground. Difficult Fruit( Peepal Tree Press) is her first collection.

Dawn Lonsinger is the author of Whelm (2012 Idaho Poetry Prize winner), the linoleum crop (Jeanne Duval), and The Nested Object (Dancing Girl Press). Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, Guernica, Best New Poets 2010, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Cornell University and a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Muhlenberg College.

David Mura’s newest poetry book is The Last Incantations. His other poetry books are Angels for the Burning, The Colors of Desire (Carl Sandburg Literary Award), After We Lost Our Way (a National Poetry Contest winner). His memoirs are Turning Japanese, which won an award from the Oakland PEN and was in the New York Times Notable Books of Year, and Where the Body Meets Memory. His novel is Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire.

Patricia Smith is the author of six books of poetry, including Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the 2013 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and Blood Dazzler, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, and in Best American Poetry, Best American Essays and Best American Mystery Stories. Patricia is a professor at CUNY and an instructor in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College.

Anastacia Tolbert is a writer, Cave Canem Fellow, Hedgebrook Alumna, VONA Alum and Artist Trust EDGE Program Graduate. She is the recipient of the 2004 San Diego Journalism Press Club Award for the article "War Torn." She is writer, co-director, and co-producer of GOTBREAST? (2007), a documentary about the views of women regarding breast and body image. Her poetry, fiction and nonfiction have been published widely.

Confession and Transformation: March 1, 6pm with Writers Gina Frangello, Pam Houston and Melinda Moustakis

Saturday March 1, 6pm: Gina Frangello, Pam Houston and Melinda Moustakis
A reading and discussion around our current topics "Transformation" and "Privacy," featuring the work of three writers whose work overlaps in interesting ways.  In conjunction with the Annual AWP Conference.

About the Presenters:

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Pam Houston’s most recent book is Contents May Have Shifted, published in 2012. She is also the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, the novel, Sight Hound, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton.  Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short StoriesThe O. Henry AwardsThe 2013 Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is Professor of English at UC Davis, directs the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers and teaches in The Pacific University low residency MFA program and at writer’s conferences around the country and the world.

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Gina Frangello is the author of three books of fiction: A Life in Men, just out from Algonquin Books, Slut Lullabies, and My Sister’s Continent.  She is Sunday editor for The Rumpus and fiction editor for The Nervous Breakdown.  The longtime editor of Other Voices magazine and Other Voices Books, she now runs Other Voices Queretaro (www.othervoicesqueretaro.com), an international writing program. Gina teaches at UC Riverside’s low residency MFA program in Creative Writing and can be found online at www.ginafrangello.com

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Melinda Moustakis is the author Bear Down Bear North: Alaska Stories, which won the Flannery O' Connor Award and the Maurice Prize and was a 5 Under 35 selection by the National Book Foundation. The book was also a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. She received a a Hodder Fellowship at The Lewis Center of the Arts at Princeton University and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Fiction. Her story "They Find the Drowned" won a 2013 PEN/ O. Henry Prize.

Welcome to our New Website

I hope you enjoy exploring content and finding information easily on our new website! We are still editing content from 2011-2012, so if you can't find something specific, send me an email through the contact link. And special thanks to Volunteer Matt for his tireless work designing and-- more difficult-- training me on this new platform.

Happy Reading!

Jess Van Nostrand, TPR Founder 

Transforming Text: Behind the Scenes of a Poem

Thursday February 276-7pm 

Featuring poets Hannah Stephenson, Nick Courtright, Leah Umansky, Luisa Igloria, and Justin Runge
In conjunction with the 2014 AWP Conference & Bookfair

How does a poem become a poem? How do the lines take shape? What if a book of poems came with a blooper reel? Join us as five poets candidly present the transformation of one of their pieces. Presentations will be accompanied by excerpts from journals and notes, drafts, photographs, and short video. Part of TPR’sTransformation topic, this event is for anyone interested in inspiration, artistic process, creativity, and words.

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About the Presenters

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Hannah Stephenson is a poet, editor, and instructor living in Columbus, Ohio (where she also runs a monthly literary event series called Paging Columbus). Her writing has appeared in The AtlanticThe Weekly Rumpus, Verse Daily, The Huffington PostHobartContraryMAYDAY, and The Nervous Breakdown; her collection, In the Kettle, the Shriek, is now available from Gold Wake Press. You can visit her online at The Storialist (www.thestorialist.com).

Nick Courtright’s debut full-length, Punchline, came out in April 2012 with Gold Wake Press, and a chapbook, Elegy for the Builder’s Wife, is available from Blue Hour Press. His poetry has also appeared in many literary journals, including The Southern Review,Kenyon Review OnlineBoston ReviewThe Iowa Review, and many others.

In Austin, Texas, he teaches classes such as Creative Writing, Classicism, Romanticism, and Writing for Publication, among other literature and writing courses.

From 2007-2013 he was a music journalist and Interviews Editor for the Austinist, and he has interviewed such interesting personalities as “Weird Al” Yankovic, Nick Offerman, Michael Ian Black, Henry Rollins, and Paul Giamatti, and musicians from bands like St. Vincent, MGMT, Odd Future, and Destroyer.

Less résumé-ly, he is an Ohio native and the oldest of six kids.  And lastly, but most importantly, he lives with his wife Michelle, who works in media, and his sons William and Samuel.

Leah Umansky’s first book of poems, Domestic Uncertainties, is out now by BlazeVOX [Books.] Her Mad-Men inspired chapbook, Don Dreams and I Dream is forthcoming from Kattywompus Press in early 2014.  She has been a contributing writer for BOMB Magazine’s BOMBLOG and Tin House,  a poetry reviewer for The Rumpus and a live twitterer for the Best American Poetry Blog. She also hosts and curates the COUPLET Reading Series. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Thrush Poetry Journal, and The Brooklyn Rail. Read more at: http://iammyownheroine.com

Originally from Baguio City in the Philippines, Luisa Igloria (previously published as Maria Luisa Aguilar-Cariño) has four daughters, and now makes her home in Virginia with most of her family. She is a Professor of Creative Writing and English, and Director of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University.

Her work has appeared or been accepted in numerous anthologies and journals including Poetry, Crab Orchard Review, The Missouri Review, Indiana Review, Poetry East, Umbrella, Sweet, qarrtsiluni, poemeleon, Smartish Pace, Rattle, The North American Review, Bellingham Review, Shearsman (UK), PRISM International (Canada), Poetry Salzburg Review (Austria), The Asian Pacific American Journal, and TriQuarterly.

Various national and international literary awards include  the 2009 Ernest Sandeen Poetry Prize for JUAN LUNA’S REVOLVER (University of Notre Dame Press), the 2007 49th Parallel Poetry Prize (selected by Carolyne Wright for the Bellingham Review), the 2007 James Hearst Poetry Prize (selected by former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser for the North American Review); Honorable Mention in the 2010 Potomac Review Poetry Contest; Finalist in the first Narrative Poetry Contest (2009); Finalist, the 2007 Indiana Review Poetry Prize; the 2006 National Writers Union Poetry Prize (selected by Adrienne Rich); the 2006 Richard Peterson Poetry Prize (Crab Orchard Review); the 2006 Stephen Dunn Award for Poetry; Finalist, the 2005 George Bogin Memorial Award for Poetry (Poetry Society of America); the 2004 Fugue Poetry Prize(selected by Ellen Bryant Voigt); Finalist, the 2003 Larry Levis Editors Prize for Poetry from The Missouri Review; Finalist, the 2003 Dorset Prize (Tupelo Press); the first Sylvia Clare Brown Fellowship, Ragdale Foundation (2007); a 2003 partial fellowship to the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg; two Pushcart Prize nominations; a 1998 Fellowship at the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers in Lasswade, the Midlothians, Scotland; and the 1998 George Kent Award for Poetry.

Luisa is an eleven-time recipient of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature in three genres (poetry, nonfiction, and short fiction) and its Hall of Fame distinction; the Palanca award is the Philippines’ highest literary prize.

Justin Range is a writer, designer, and raconteur, currently living in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife and cat.

Photos above of: Leah Umansky (top) and Hannah Stephenson

 

Introducing: Transformation

Transformation is one of TPR’s topics of focus during the 2014 Big Question, “How Are We Remembered?” As with all of the programs at TPR, this topic will be looked at through the lens of creativity. Questions will be asked such as, “How does a new idea go from its seed into a finished work?” “What’s it like to make something that’s pretty good into something that’s outstanding?” and “Why might someone successful in a particular creative area change directions and make something entirely different?” Throughout the Transformation topic, we will explore and learn from a diverse group of presenters and online contributors whose work speaks to sudden change, different directions, and the mystery of how an artistic thing comes to be.

See the Online Calendar for Upcoming Events!

About the image: A detail of Origami Butterfly instructions by Darren Abbey. My five year-old daughter received a “Geogami” kit for Christmas, which, if anyone has tried anything in the origami family before before, is NOT for young children. It is also not for impatient adults. She asked me to make one of the forms for her (not sure if that’s the right term for these tiny pieces of finger torture), and I ended up cursing out the lovely squares of paper and the ridiculous instructions they are meant to correspond with. I felt like I was in a reverse Ikea vortex, in which something which should not be hard is made heard by the instructions- except, with Ikea furniture everything is drawn and I want them to TYPE the words for me, and here, everything is in words that make no sense when you are dealing with making your hands do something special that I will never be able to do. After having my little fit in front of my mother who was the giver of this cruel gift she replied, “I thought it would be relaxing.” This made me feel greatly misunderstood, for if anyone knows me (especially if they have raised me) they should know how making origami plays into all my worst qualities, like sitting quietly and exercising patience. However, parenthood trumps everything, so I continue to try geogami in the hopes of making myself a better person for my daughter. In the meantime, she has happily used most of the remaining paper to draw pictures of princesses.

 

For Today I Am a Boy: Author Kim Fu in conversation with Rebecca Brown

February 6th, 6-7pm
FREE
For Today I Am A Boy: A conversation with authors Kim Fu and Rebecca Brown about Fu’s new novel, which follows the life of a family whose only son longs to be just like his sisters. Join these two Seattle authors in a discussion about the role privacy plays in the way they work and the stories they create. 

About the Presenters

Kim Fu holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of British Columbia. She is the author of the novel FOR TODAY I AM A BOY, coming in January 2014 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, HarperCollins Canada, Random House Australia). Her work has appeared in Maisonneuve, The Rumpus, Ms. Magazine, The Tyee, Prairie Fire, The Stranger, Grain, Room, and Best Canadian Essays, among others. She is the news columns editor for This, a magazine of progressive Canadian politics now in its 47th year, and writes the advice column ASK FU! for the YourBoxClub.com blog. She lives in Seattle with her husband and their many computers.

Rebecca Brown is the author of seven novels, including The End of YouthThe Terrible Girls, and What Keeps Me Here, and her short stories are widely anthologized. Her novel The Gifts of the Body won a Lambda Literary Award and has been translated into several languages. Brown divides her time between Seattle and Vermont, where she is a faculty member in the Master of Fine Arts program at Goddard College.

 

Introducing: Privacy

Throughout 2014, The Project Room continues to ask the big question “How Are We Remembered?” Within this question, we will focus on several topics, one of which is Privacy.

From a contemporary perspective, privacy is an ever-changing part of our lives: it is both a thing we hold dear, and a thing we often give up in exchange for visibility, connections, even celebrity. From a historical perspective, sharing our personal business may not be as modern as we thought. (Tom Standage’s 2013 book WRITING ON THE WALL is a fascinating account of how it was handled in Roman times).

How has privacy changed in our lifetime? What value does it have for today’s youth culture? How will legacies be preserved for those who worked electronically? And, how important is privacy as part of the human experience? These are only some of the many questions expected to be raised during this program series.

In keeping with TPR’s practices, programs will be both long-term studies of how a new artistic project is being made and evening events featuring a diverse group of voices who work in different creative fields. Online writing and on-site events will present many different points of view on what privacy means and why it matters to us.

UPCOMING “PRIVACY” PROGRAMS:

February 6th, 6-7pm
For Today I Am A Boy: A conversation with authors Kim Fu and Rebecca Brown about Fu’s new novel, which follows the life of a family whose only son longs to be just like his sisters. Read more here.

Saturday March 1, 6-7pm: Gina Frangello, Pam Houston and Melinda Moustakis
A reading and discussion around legacy and privacy, featuring the work of three writers whose work overlaps in interesting ways. In conjunction with the Annual AWP Conference.

March (date to be announced)
The Making of Siren: An Artist Tackles the Flawed World of Online Dating. Be among the first to see how this innovative Dating App gives users — especially women– the power to make a personal connection.

Join the mailing list for the most recent event listings, and follow along with our events calendar as new programs are added throughout the year!

Image: Detail of the cover of FOR TODAY I AM A BOY by Kim Fu. Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

He’s Finished: Charles Spitzack’s Celebratory Print Party!

November 14, 6-8pm

The Big Question Print Series by Charles Spitzack
Read more about this series here:

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Join us for a special presentation of the completed twelve-print series that Seattle artist Charles Spitzack has been working on at TPR since January 2012. Created in response to TPR’s themes and topics, Spitzack has made twelve different woodblock prints over the course of many Saturdays, and will share the entire series in person on November 14 from 6-8pm. 

See prints #1-#10 below!

About Charles: 
Charles Spitzack is a Midwest artist and entrepreneur based out of Seattle WA. Taking a multifaceted approach to survival, Spitzack is the founder of The New Number Two, a small business operating in the Capitol Hill neighborhood offering a wide range of hands-on services. Though he graduated from Cornish College of Art in 2010 with a focus in Print Arts & Drawing, Spitzack prefers to be known as a self-realized individual.

The majority of Spitzack’s work resolves itself in the form of a print. Dedicated to dissolving barriers in commitment to the communal whole, Spitzack has found printmaking to be an excellent way to express these ideas in both subject matter and process. Having pledged himself to a life of mystery at the age of 9, he wonders how long he will be able to hold on before becoming a Jehovah’s Witness.  Charles Spitzack is represented by Davidson Galleries.

All the works from this series are available for sale, with a portion of the proceeds benefitting The Project Room’s programs. Prices are as follows: $125 unframed; $300 framed; $1200 for the unframed set. Contact Charles directly with inquiries: charles.spitzack[at]gmail.com

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#1 564: “Introduction” (2011). Read more about how Charles approached making the first print in the series.

#2 565: “Disjointed” (2012) came from original feeling of overwhelmed when approaching the project and the questions this presented- Read more about that here.

3# 567: “Child’s Play” (2012). Working off TPR’s big question, “Why Do We Make Things?” I thought of how the child’s construction toy– in this case–a the backhoe that you often see at playgrounds– reminds us that in the future (when the child has grown), our landscape may be drastically different from today. It is also saying we make things to do just that, change our landscape, change & alter our environment so it meets with our ideals & perspective better.

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#4  568: “The Futurist’s Manifesto” (2012) came from a series of obstructions/challenges that a friend gave me to work around: read more about that here.

#5  569 “Extension Bridge” (2012) is another response to Tim’s assignment of “obstructions.”

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#6  570: “Leviathan” (2012) is the third print made from Tim’s assignment of “obstructions”, number 1.

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To hear more about the ideas behind each print, join us on November 14th! 

The Empathy Workshop: Share Your Stories

Paul Rucker is sharing the making of his new body of work with The Project Room throughout 2013-2014. Please join him on October 11 at 6pm for an on-site workshop, and share your stories in response to this essay about his work and ideas.

A couple of weeks ago I was part of the “8th Annual Constitution Day” at the Maryland Institute and College of Art. The theme this year was Inequity and Incarceration in America. My video Proliferation is pictured here behind David Simon- creator of The Wire, Ashley Hunt- Artist Activist, and Susan Barton- Activist.

 

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When I started working on bringing attention to incarceration, it wasn’t because I spent time in prison. During my first year of college, four of my friends back home were involved in a drug related murder. They robbed an elementary school principal who was working late one evening. When the principal resisted handing over his wallet, he was shot. They used the $76 from the robbery to buy drugs and beer. Later convicted, one was executed by lethal injection. A second was released and later incarcerated again for an unrelated crime. He died in prison during his second sentence. The other two have since been released after time served.

I felt for the shooting victim, but I also felt something different for the four involved in the shooting. I remember a time we were all young kids playing on the playground. Part of what I felt was survivor’s guilt; part of me knew that no one is born with ambitions of robbing, or killing.

So I’m creating work about incarceration, but I have never been incarcerated. Would I have more “street cred” if I had been? I ask this because out of the three panelists and the moderator at the Constitutional Day event, Susan Barton, understood the broken system more than anyone because she lived it. She served 6 prison terms for drug related offenses. What’s remarkable to me is that she started A New Way of Life Reentry Project, an organization that gives to just-released female offenders a sober and safe place to live and other support services. She’s helped more than 400 women get back on their feet.

I can try to understand, but even with the best imagination, I’ll fall short of having any idea about what she has experienced.

Former drug users that are now drug treatment counselors are far more trusted than someone who has never been an addict. Mutual understanding of the struggle can be a strong base for trust.

While I work on my project Recapitulation, I feel that exploring empathy should be part of the project. I’d like to extend an invitation to share your stories about your earliest experiences with empathy. You can submit it anonymously. Stories will be shared.

Special instructions:

Everyone:

Write 500 words or less about your early experience with empathy.

OR

For artists:

Create something using only discarded or failed art pieces that have been set aside. No one is allowed to buy any new art material, but they can and are encouraged to exchange failed or incomplete art pieces from each other. Any medium- including digital, photos, movies, drawings, sculpture, etc.

Please send writings and images to empathy@projectroomseattle.org

And Join me in The Project Room on Friday October 11 from 6-7pm for a workshop based on this work.

Thank you for joining in this discussion.

-Paul

 

Paul Marioni Presents His Work and Film

Wednesday, October 2
Paul Marioni conversation, 6-7pm at The Project Room: 1315 E Pine St
Film Screening and special reception: 7:15-8:30pm at Northwest Film Forum: 
1515 12th Ave

Free and open to the public

Please note that reserved seating is not available and space is limited for the 6pm conversation- seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. However, everyone will be accommodated at the Northwest Film Forum for the film screening at 7:15pm. We encourage you to arrive early.

Tickets to the film are being generously underwritten by Chihuly Garden and Glass. 

Glass artist Paul Marioni will give a free and unique presentation about his life and work at The Project Room (TPR) during the ongoing “How is Seattle Remembered?” series. Featuring a conversation with TPR Founder Jess Van Nostrand and a special screening of Paul’s 1972 experimental film, HOLE, this is a rare opportunity to see a different side of this legendary figure from the American Glass Movement. The program takes place in two parts, the first at The Project Room and the second at Northwest Film Forum. Join us at 6pm for the discussion and at 7:15pm for the screening down the street!

About the Program Series

As part of The Project Room’s 2013-2014 theme, How Are We Remembered? Seattle’s thematic based arts organization presents a unique series of conversations specific to Seattle, featuring guest presenters who have deep roots in the city. Taking The Project Room’s position as a platform for understanding creativity, questions that address Seattle’s legacy and its creativity will be addressed through a personal approach to our city’s history, this special group of guest presenters will share their stories, memories, and hopes for the city’s future.

Each event in the series will feature a guest speaker from a creative field who shares his or her point of view on this subject in a conversation with the audience. This will provide an unusually-intimate setting for these high-profile public figures- so arrive early and be ready to participate! Past speakers include Total Experience Gospel Choir’s Patrinell Wright, Architect Peter Steinbrueck, and Sub Pop Records’ Megan Jasper. For more info, go here.

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About the Artist

Paul Marioni, one of the founding members of the American Studio Glass movement, creates sculptures and vessels that incorporate humor, images of taboo sexuality, genre figures, tribal masks, photographs, and visual puns.

Paul moved to California in the mid 1960s, where he was attracted to the beat poets of San Francisco and to the burgeoning counterculture of that city.  There, he became part of the influential group of artists working in stained glass in the Bay Area during the early 1970s.

Paul has completed more than 85 public commissions, including cast glass walls, ceilings, and skylights. Known as an innovator in the glass world, Marioni pushes his techniques to their limits, regularly redefining what is possible to achieve with the material.

Marioni graduated in 1967 from the University of Cincinnati, and is a Fellow of the American Crafts Council. He has received three fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts. He has taught at the Penland School of Crafts and at the Pilchuck Glass School.

Paul Marioni has a son, Dante, who is also a glassblower, and in 1998, the two of them presented a feature exhibition of their glass at the Fresno Art Museum in California. Paul Marioni’s program is sponsored by Chihuly Garden and Glass, which aims to celebrate our region’s creative energy and inspire visitors to engage with our region’s cultural community.

 

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Lit Crawl Seattle Presents “Hauntings”

Thursday, October 24
8-8:45pm
Hauntings: Three authors tell stories of mothers and other ghosts

As part of the 2013 Seattle Lit Crawl, writers Wendy Call, Anastacia Tolbert and Storme Webber perform stories of women haunted, women who haunt, and the ties that bind them together. All three have participated in the Hedgebrook Women’s writing retreat, and will be introduced by Hedgebrook’s Katie Woodzick.

About the Presenters:

Wendy Call’s book No Word for Welcome won the Grub Street National Book Prize for Nonfiction in 2011. She has been Writer in Residence at twenty institutions, including Richard Hugo House, Harborview Medical Center, and Everglades National Park – all of which were definitely haunted.

Anastacia Tolbert is a writer, Cave Canem Fellow, Hedgebrook Alumna, EDGE Professional Writers Graduate, VONA alum, creative writing workshop facilitator, documentarian and playwright. She is the recipient of the San Diego Journalism Press Club Award for the article “War Torn.” She is writer, co-director, and co-producer of GOTBREAST? Documentary (2007): a documentary about the views of women regarding breast and body image. Her poetry, fiction and nonfiction have been published in: WomenArts Quarterly, Specter Magazine, Crab Creek Review, Everyday Other Things, Women Writers in Bloom, Saltwater Quarterly, The Poetry Breakfast, Things Lost, Midnight Tea Book, Reverie, Alehouse Journal, Women. Period., The Drunken Boat, Torch, Clamor Magazine, Cave Canem XI, Check the Rhyme, An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees (Nominated for the 2007 NAACP Award), I Woke Up and Put My Crown On: 76 Voices of African American Women, Essence Magazine, Number One Magazine, Chicken Bones Journal, The Nubian Chronicles, Hair Piecez, San Diego City Beat, The Pitch Weekly, and The Source Magazine.

Internationally nurtured poet, playwright, teacher, interdisciplinary artist Storme Webber creates blues infused, socially engaged texts about Two Spirit identity, art activism and the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, memory and spirit. Her performances are an innovative melding of text, performance and a cappella vocals. She’s featured in the award-winning documentary “Venus Boyz”.

Katie Woodzick is Hedgebrook’s External Relations Manager. She is also a writer, director and actress.

Hedgebrook is a global community of women writers and people who seek extraordinary books, poetry, plays, films and music by women. A literary nonprofit, our mission is to support visionary women writers whose stories and ideas shape our culture. We offer writing residencies, master classes and salons at our 25-year-old retreat on Whidbey Island, and public programs around the country that connect writers with readers and audiences.

About Lit Crawl Seattle:

Lit Crawl Seattle is literary mayhem at its finest: an entire evening of free readings by some of the Seattle area’s most groundbreaking and beloved writers in bars and cafés, bookstores and art galleries, performance spaces and dance halls. On Thursday, October 24, Seattle lit lovers will Crawl in three hour-long shifts beginning at 6 p.m., progressing toward an afterparty at Richard Hugo House.

Now in its second year, Lit Crawl Seattle is among the constellation of literary pub crawls that started in San Francisco as part of the storied Litquake festival and now has a presence in New York, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Iowa City, and London. Each location organizes its own version of the Crawl, reflecting the unique literary makeup and talents of that city.

Last year’s Seattle Lit Crawl featured more than 60 writers, actors, dancers, and musicians in 15 different venues across Capitol Hill. The 2013 event promises to be just as exciting, with fiction, memoir, poetry, art, and more from the likes of Ivan Doig, Nicole Hardy, Will Self, Kathleen Flinn, Sean Beaudoin, Ellen Forney, and many, many others.

For updates on author appearances and other news, follow Lit Crawl Seattle on Facebook and Twitter. Look for maps to appear early in October; they will be available at the Elliott Bay Book Company, the Richard Hugo House, and at various locations on Capitol Hill.

Above photos (L-R): Katie Woodzick by Kathryn Parrott, Anastacia Tolbert by Zorn Taylor, Wendy Call by Rosanne Olson, Storme Webber by Jack Straw Productions

 

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Inside Art Series Debuts at Town Hall Seattle

Begins Tuesday, September 10
at Town Hall Seattle
7:30-9pm
Tickets: $5

LISTEN TO AUDIO HERE

The Project Room’s Founder Jess Van Nostrand hosts Town Hall Seattle’s new visual arts series titled “Inside Art.” Created by visual artist Juan Alonso and featuring four evening events that each feature three artists and a moderator, this series will open up a conversation about how, when and why visual artists do what they do. Jess will moderate events #1 and #4 based on The Project Room’s first two “big questions”: Why Do We Make Things? and How Are We Remembered? Actor and singer Sarah Rudinoff and writer Brangien Davis will moderate the other two conversations, rounding out the series with their perspectives as makers from different art forms. This first evening features Seattle artists Marita DingusRodrigo Valenzuela, and Margie Livingston.

The schedule of programs is as follows:

Oct. 15: Inspiration, featuring Laura CastellanosDan Webb, and Sharon Arnold in a conversation moderated by actress Sarah Rudinoff;

Nov. 19: Imagery & Art, featuring Barbara Earl ThomasStephanie Hargrave, and Alan Lau, moderated by writer Brangien Davis

Dec. 10: How are We Remembered? featuring Diem ChauAlfredo Arreguin and Ronald Hall and moderated by Jess Van Nostrand

To read more, go here!

Inside Art, curated by Juan Alonso, is presented by Town Hall and The Project Room as part of Town Hall’s Arts & Culture series. Media sponsorship provided by City Arts.

Note that this event takes place at Town Hall Seattle, not at The Project Room

 

Allen Ginsberg Marathon Concludes at TPR!

Remembering Allen Ginsberg’s LGBT Poetics and Activism

Part of the 12th Annual Allen Ginsberg Marathon

Sunday June 2, 10am

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TPR is pleased to present one hour of the 12th Annual Allen Ginsberg Marathon with the poetry organization, SPLAB. As part of TPR’s new big question How Are We Remembered? Nadine Antoinette Maestas, PhD; Andy Meyer, PhD; and Gregory Laynor will discuss the poet Allen Ginsberg’s contributions to LGBT culture and activism. The presentations will include select Ginsberg poems and discussion with the audience. Whether you are attending the Marathon or just curious about it, this will be a great event that shines a light on the legacy of one of America’s most important cultural figures.

About Allen Ginsberg

One of the fathers of the Beat generation, and an influential 20th century American poet, Allen Ginsberg was a major contributor to modern poetry. He rose to fame during the counter-culture era of the 1950’s and 60’s, challenging the norms of society. While most poets of the time used eloquent language and spoke of things such as the natural world, love or death, Ginsberg’s poems could come off as violent rants, filled with vivid images and obscenities. Not surprisingly, this confrontational method of poems wasn’t necessarily well recieved by the general public. However, Ginsberg would find his place alongside other disillusioned artists of the era, helping shape the Beat generation, alongside fellow poets like Jack Kerouac, Carl Solomon and William Burroughs. These poets expressed anger with modern society, capitalism and the conformity of post-war America.
The wild writing style of Allen Ginsberg and his rebellious personality can be partly attributed to his upbringing in Patterson, New Jersey. His parents were Jewish, although far from traditionalists. His father, Louis, composed poetry as well and his mother, Naomi, was an active communist. She also suffered from mental illness and eventually was committed to a mental asylum, an experience that would have a great effect on Ginsberg. As a young man, he studied in New York, where he would meet the friends that would shape his future, through rebellious acts and discussions on poetry and society. Moving between the counter-culture centers of New York and San Francisco, Ginsberg would develop his poetic style. In 1956, he wrote and performed his most famous work, Howl, explicitly expressing the frustrations of his generation and sub-culture. Ginsberg would go on to play a role in inspiring and propelling the revolutionary spirit of the late 50’s and 60’s. He worked with artists like Bob Dylan, worked to spread awareness of LSD with Timothy Leary and appeared at countless protests and movements. Ginsberg would go on to help evolve poetry, bringing it into the ‘post-modern’ world, and challenging traditions. Throughout his life, Ginsberg would advocate free speech and left-wing ideals and also worked for gay rights, himself being a homosexual. The poems and personality of Allen Ginsberg are essential to understanding the Beat generation and the evolution of modern poetry. His pioneering style changed the structure and norms of poetry in America and across the world.

About SPLAB

The SPLAB mission is to promote spokenword performance, develop the audience for poetry, develop resources to support poetry, to do public outreach, and build community through shared experience of the spoken and written word.

The SPLAB membership includes poets, poetry organizations, and individuals that maintain a distinct presence in field of poetry both in the United States and internationally. As the SPLAB gathers support, finances, and staff to deploy its resources it will first concentrate its efforts in the Pacific Northwest, extending to other regions of the US and eventually reaching into Latin America.

Read more about SPLAB here