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October 14 to November 13, 2017

Poetry Reading

Sharon Mesmer and Wayne Koestenbaum


Dia Chelsea

Readings in Contemporary Poetry

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24/10/2017 18:30 24/10/2017 23:45 America/New_York Sharon Mesmer and Wayne Koestenbaum Event DetailsTuesday, October 24, 2017, 6:30 pmDia:Chelsea535 West 22nd Street, 5th FloorNew York City  Readings in Contemporary Poetry curator, Vincent Katz provided an introduction for the evening's reading. Free for Dia members; $10 general admission; $6 admission for students and seniors Advance ticket purchases recommended. Tickets are also available for purchase at the door, subject to availability.  Sharon Mesmer’s newest poetry collection, Greetings from My Girlie Leisure Place (2015), was voted “Best of 2015” by Entropy. Her previous poetry collections include The Virgin Formica (2008), Annoying Diabetic Bitch (2007), Vertigo Seeks Affinities (2006), Half Angel, Half Lunch (1998), and Crossing Second Avenue (1997). Four of her poems appear in Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (second edition, 2013). Other anthology appearances include Brooklyn Poets Anthology (2017), Poems for the Nation (2000), and The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (1999). She is currently at work on a new collection of poems, Even Living Makes Me Die, inspired by the lives and writings of thirty-five female poets of the Americas, from the nineteenth century to modern times. Her fiction collections include Ma Vie à Yonago (2005), In Ordinary Time (2005), and The Empty Quarter (2000). An excerpt of her story “Revenge” appears in I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (2012). Her essays, reviews, and interviews have appeared in the American Poetry Review, Brooklyn Rail, New York Times, and Paris Review, among other places. Her awards include a Fulbright Specialist grant, a Jerome Foundation/SASE award (as mentor to poet Elisabeth Workman in 2009), and two New York Foundation for the Arts fellowships. She teaches in the undergraduate and graduate programs at New York University and the New School, and lives in New York City. Velocity and Turbulence             — to Gabriela Mistral (Lucila Godoy Alcayaga), Chile, 1889-1957 Be always conscious of your wings. Darknessis overtaking, and tension is tired. In the houseof keeping still, all is hollow-eyed, groaning. Shiver and tingle outside the automobile: Grandmais on life support. The nurses found her, called youa wanderer. They knew nothing of resistance— or did they?  Disrobe, as the holiest were often requiredto be naked. Under the serpent dome the sun doorstood open, all of creation flying through it,in radiant rounds of joy.  Take the mantle of an earth-colored insect and make a wandwith twigs and leaves. Use it to conjure the cunning beautyof certain corpses. If performed correctly, their faces will resembleluminous, apricot-colored clouds. Make a pilgrimage to the Mountain of Butterflies — love descendson those defenseless. If your hearth is redolent with the scent of flesh, fan the flames to producea cooling jewel. The ocean-born virgin was nicknamed “Fishy Smell” but her real namewas “Bird.” Find her in the neck of time. Her vaginais enough; you don’t need the legs. Rememberthat initiation takes a lifetime. One day a triangle of lightwill come pouring through the porch. Breathe deep. Everything that torments and suffocates, everythingthat imparts sorrow and despair, is the moving waterthat turns the wheel that transforms airinto tree into prayer into air.Make scribble pictures of the stain on your ceiling and tryto sell them. Very few will buy. When you stall, when your coverts beatto no advantage, you may choose to sacrifice happiness to restorewhat was lost, but the sacrifice itselfis a privilege. How long will it take you to forget this?  Now recall the glory of your wings. Wayne Koestenbaum has published eighteen books of poetry, criticism, and fiction, including Notes on Glaze (2016), The Pink Trance Notebooks (2015), My 1980s & Other Essays (2013), Humiliation (2011), Hotel Theory (2007), Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films (2006), Andy Warhol (2001), Jackie Under My Skin (1995), and The Queen’s Throat (1993), which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. He has had solo exhibitions of his paintings at White Columns in New York City, 356 Mission in Los Angeles, and the University of Kentucky Art Museum in Lexington. His first piano/vocal record, Lounge Act, was issued by Ugly Duckling Presse in 2017. Koestenbaum is a Distinguished Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and French at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. excerpt from Camp Marmalade (“#12 [the dematerializing marzipan]”) spit on every painting soI can list saliva asingredient, also usecum in every paintingas underlayer_________                      father begged formarzipan—did he pretendto love marzipan so we kidshad something inexpensiveto buy him?_________                                            mothernever bought him marzipan—did he ever buy it for himself?_________           why didmarzipan always comein trompe l’oeil shapes—Elvis Presley, carrot,car, Colosseum, tulip?_________marzipan was a jokefood, sold at underdog shops—no normal stores sold it_________            my sentimentallove for him centeredon his supposed loveof marzipan and theease of satisfying himby buying him marzipanthough it remained amystery whether heactually loved marzipan_________maybe he secretly threw it away—it disappeared shortly afterwe gave it to him—the dematerializing marzipan_________ jetting euphemism isolatescum for extermination—keep mentioning exterminationbecause it’s real, whathe suffered under, andhis suffering (even if heonly rarely mentioned it)became mine—_________          dead boyrevenant, stop knockingon my bedroom window—_________ men who demote meare the ones I desire—rejection’s aphrodisiac Dia Chelsea FALSE DD/MM/YYYY Sharon Mesmer and Wayne Koestenbaum

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