Episode Five: Shabnam Piryaei

SHABNAM PIRYAEI's collection of poetry 'ode to fragile' was published by Plain View Press in 2010. 'A Method for Counting Days' will be published by Furniture Press Books in 2012. She has been awarded the Poets & Writers Amy Award for Poetry, as well as grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, and the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Most recently she has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her work has been published in several journals including Poets & Writers Magazine, Unsaid, The Florida Review, Flashquake, and The Furnace Review. Her writings have been performed at the MAD Theatre Festival in the United Kingdom, and her poetry-films have been screened in the U.S. at the Woodstock Film Festival, Indie Spirit Film Festival, Red Rock Film Festival, Miami Short Film Festival, Noor Film Festival, HollyShorts Film Festival, International Literary Film Festival, Video Art and Experimental Film Festival, Catskill Film and Video Festival, Co-Kisser Poetry Film Festival, Digital Arts Entertainment Laboratory, (sub)Urban Projections, Blissfest333 and the Target Art Gallery, and internationally at the Canterbury Short Film Festival, Portobello Film Festival, Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Sadho Poetry Film Festival, Visible Verse Festival, Art Monastery Film Festival, Festival Videomedeja, the Unlike Art Gallery, Elysium Art Gallery, New Gallery London, Youyou Gallery, Jotta and Galleria Perelà.

http://www.shabnampiryaei.com/


A Method for Counting Days 1

A Method for Counting Days 2

A Method for Counting Days 3

Paper Confessions

Partition

Alejandra

Global Feature: 100,000 Poets for Change / Waverly Public Library and Beyond

Musing after reading Lyn Hejinian's "The Quest for Knowledge in the Western Poem," it occurred to me that our westward curiosities, seemingly mind-expanding (as in theoretical or philosophical), and at the same time physically culminating in the acquisition (in no fair means, of course) of a landmass that stretched from sea to sea, was also a site of enormous loss, that of indigenous peoples, those souls that had been here since the dawn of consciousness: their land, their homes, their language, their universe, gone in a matter of decades. And there’s that other scourge, American slavery, that went eastward and ripped millions from their homes, their only known universe, and took from them everything, their religion, their language, their families, even their souls. And I have this feeling that we're making the same blind plunge now eastward, in that zone of revolution and civil war called the Middle East, decrying, "Let the people choose for themselves!" but resonating suspiciously of, "as long as it's friendly toward the West." No matter how invested the West might be in the improvement of human rights, there's still a tinge of the (now) age-old "You're either with us or against us." All of this seems to suggest that autonomy is the last hope of any people, and autonomy means the preservation of all facets of life that is a culture. And it is a good thing that all cultures are, in relation, vastly different, but necessary, humanly necessary. But it is necessary for cultures to define themselves without any outside influence, however well-meaning it may seem, and no matter how outwardly contentious it may be to others. And it is with this in mind that I can solidly answer the question, “What is the purpose of change in your recordings project?” It is with the same vitality that Harry Matthews spent in his youth capturing the sound of America that I, without coercion or influence, ask America to speak from the heart, to define, in their words, not words imposed or constructed for the masses, what it means to be human in an inhuman time. And I think that the language of poetry is the language of honesty.

Here, below, is the voice of honesty. But first, check out our story in The Sun.




"Kids Saying 'Hello'"

A A Rupert

Adam Robinson

A Adar Ayira

Aileen Sabira

Amanda Youngbar

Anne Adele-White

Ashley Mears

Barbara Morrison

"Becky"

Blanche Cohen Sachs

Brenda Iijima

Carla Jean

Caryn Coyle

Chris Casamassima

Chris Mason

Chris Toll

Christina Luk

Christopher Rykel

Cindy Kelly and Jessica Morrison

Daniel Rowe

"Darcy"

Dave Cavalier and Joe Keys

Dave Eberhardt

Dave K

Dean Smith

Doug Mowbray

Emily Skillings

Eric Elliott

Evie Shockley

Fernando Quijano III

Francesca Capone and Cariah Lily Rosberg

Hanna Badalova

Heck

Helen Vitoria

Ilene Lebson

J Hope Stein

Jacob Appelberg

Jamie Gaughran-Perez

Jayne French

Jason Ezell

Jasmine Ward

Joe Elliott

Joe Hall

Joe Stewart

Jon Patton

Josef Kaplan

Joseph Robinson

Juliana Grace

Juliana Guevara

Julie Fisher

Justin Sirois

Karen Morrison

Khadija

Laksamee Putnam

Leigh Stein

Les Wade

Lily Herman

Lisa Woznicki

Lydia Cortes

Magus Magnus

Malcolm Favor

Mary Do

Mary Elizabeth Mays

Mary Olson

Matthew Falk

Melinda Bennington Abbott

Melissa Ravely

Michael Harris

Michael Frailey

Nadia Nasr

Nathan Dennies

Nayeli Garcia-Mowbray

Nora Sandler

Norman Hogeland

Pattie MacDonald

Paul Hendricks

Rachel Lyons

"Rashad"

Ronna Lebo

Rosalind Heid

Roseanne Ullrich

Rupert Wondolowski

Ryan Eckes and Dan Yorty

Ryan Kistner

S J Fernandi

Sandy Kelman

Sarah Dunn

Sarah Jane Miller

Shana Gass

Sid Gold

Sophie Fisher

Stephanie Barber

Stephanie Gray

Stephen Mantanle

Susan Mowbray

Sylvia Kodis

Tantra Zawadi

Timmy Reed

Tony Hayes

Zserilyn Finney

Episode Four - William Patrick Tandy

A descendant of Irish patriot Napper Tandy, William Patrick Tandy takes his whiskey neat. He is editor, publisher and contributing writer for two-time Utne Independent Press Award nominee Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore!, a submission-based digest ostensibly devoted to life in Mobtown. Learn more at www.eightstonepress.com or eightstonepress.blogspot.com.



1. The Body in Motion
2. Mooncusser
3. Shooting Stars
4. Late for Work
5. Shift Change
6. Seeing Red
7. Waste
8. Carpe Diem
9. No Shoulder
10. Talkin' Trash

Episode Three - Chris Toll

Chris Toll is a poet and collagemaker who lives in Baltimore, Maryland. He co-curates the Benevolent Armchair Reading Series. In the spring of 2011, Publishing Genius Press will put out his new book, The Disinformation Phase.

Medley #1 (6:30)

National Poetry Month

One Planet One People One Love Blues

Insulator Drive Blues

The Contemplative Life

Land of the Fee

Carbon-Based Lifeform Blues

23 Palms

The Untitled Season

Edward Hopper at the OK Corral

Poetry 101 for Travelin' Tommy Tucker

Medley #2 (8:38)

The Shaken Is My Shepherd for Adam Robinson

Irregular Galaxy

All Is Suffering

Writing Groups of the Future by Sylvia Plath

Love Your Enemies for CA Conrad

I Can't Stand Along the Watchtower

No Blues Blues #43

The Third Station of the Double-Crossed

Bad File Handle

Money Never Weeps by Edgar Allen Poe

The Abyss Has No Biographer

Perfect Love

Medley #3 (5:43)

Adapt or Die

The Awry Sky Soothsays

The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Inventions

Old Fiends for Amy Peterson

My Muse Is An Ancient Scrip

The Best Loved Poem of the American People

Total Time: 20:51