Reading List

Goldberg, RoseLee, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present (Abrams: 1988).

Kherdian, David, ed., Beat Voices: An Anthology of Beat Poetry (Beech Tree: 1995).

Waldman, Anne, ed., The Beat Book: Poems and Fiction from the Beat Generation (Shambala: 1996).

Algarin/Holman, ed., Aloud! Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café (Henry Holt: 1994).

Auden/Pearson, ed.,Viking Portable Poets of the English Language (Viking: 1975).

Blum/Holman/Pellington, The United States of Poetry (anthology, Abrams: 1996; CD, Mouth Almighty/Mercury Records: 1996, 2 VHS tapes, KQED: 1996).

Boland, Eavan, Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time (Norton: 1995).

Kerouac, Jack, On the Road (***If you haven’t yet read, do yourself favor***)

Phillips, U. Utah, & Ani DiFranco The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere (CD, Righteous Babe: 1997).

Rothenberg/Joris, ed., Poems for the Millennium, Vol. 1-2 (California: 97-98).

2/3	Overview. The Oral Roots of Poetry (Poetry [Poetry is Music] + Dance = Theater). The Beats: Outsiders, Oralities, Politics, & Media. The Beard. Sapphire. Your first book.
2/10	*Slater, Maya, 3 Pre-Surrealist Plays* (Oxford: 1997). Pere Ubu and the birth of modernism. Reading vs. Poets Theater vs. Performance (Art). Hand in assignment: a one-page Ubu with “real people” characters.**
2/17	Mayakovsky, Mayakovsky, A Tragedy. Hand in assignment, 5 pp: Your Name Here, A Tragedy. (Video)
2/24	The Beard. Assign: Two poems: one text, one perf. “What’s the difference” paragraph.
3/2	Beats, Slam. Assign: Imitation of a Beat poem, memorized, performed in Slam.
3/9	*ArrrrrrrrT + Poetry = ???????????????????????? The “art” of collaboration. Review of Ti-Jean* due.**
3/16	*O’Hara: “I’m assuming everything is all right and difficult.”* Sapphire.**
3/23	Mid-term Performance/text Title and description of Final Project aka “Book” due. Assign: A scene from The Beard.
3/30	Jazz workout. Sapphire + your own poem (memorized).
-4/6-	Spring recess.
4/13	*Performance “Art.”: From Futurism to the Present.* Sapphire.**
4/20	In Class Slam. Sapphire.
4/27	The Beard. The Performance. Sapphire papers due.
5/4	CyperPoetics. The Web ain’t nuttin but a poem
5/11	Your Book as performance.
5/18	Finals. Books due.

You are required to make a book of poems, one-of-a-kind or small run multiple. Books must be handed in last day of class. Penultimately, you’ll create a performance of Book --here, multidimensionality reigns: a cast, music, video, dance, set, cookies, environment........

Sapphire’s new book, Black Wings & Blind Angels, is the core of our poetry curriculum. Let it lead you. You are required to write a research paper of at least five pages on an aspect of the book that kills you. That’s due 4/27. We will be performing the book with a jazz crew in a public performance. Poems are made of WORDS. Enjoy the vocabulary world. The Beats are a special area of study this semester -- the Theater Department will be performing a play about Kerouac, by JoAnne Akalaitis, which you are required to see and review.

You are required to write two plays. One, your own Ubu, is due 2/10. The second, Your Name Goes Here: A Tragedy, is due 2/17.

There will be a series of readings/events March 4-8 around the performance of Ti-Jean. You will participate. We may stage our production of The Beard somewhere -- we will all participate. There will be at least one intercollegiate slam. You are required to participate. If you don’t make the team you will be a reporter or a cheerleader or heckleleader.

I am happy to look at all your writings. Hand in extra work for extra credit.