February 10, 2008
Hank Lazer & Laura Feldman
Spare Room presents...
Hank Lazer
Laura Feldman
Sunday, February 10th, 7:30 pm
New American Art Union
922 SE Ankeny
$5.00 suggested donation
Hank Lazer's books of poetry include The New Spirit (Singing Horse, 2005), Elegies & Vacations (Salt, 2004), and Days (Lavender Ink, 2002). He is a Professor of English at the University of Alabama, where he is also an administrator serving as the Associate Provost for Academic Affairs. With Charles Bernstein, he edits the Modern and Contemporary Poetics Series for the University of Alabama Press. Lyric & Spirit: Selected Essays 1996-2008, just out from Omnidawn, will be available at the reading.
Laura Feldman has published two chapbooks, Café Songs (Apetulous Press, 1984) and Prosthetic Landscapes (Full Deck, 2002). She was one of the founding members of Spare Room, and has been a percussionist with the Mambo Queens, a singer with the Afro-Cuban performing ensemble Omo Iré, and a percussionist with the Lions of Batucada Samba band in Portland.
an excerpt from "6" (in The New Spirit)
soul upon waters soul in air soul goes thinking
scribe sky soonest mended shut eyes embrace shining after-image
verb without complication
that state of being
air bubbles
rise to surface & burst as we are lived
bells toll
each quarter-hour arrives departs
reaches the surface
against that face
bursts bell-toll absorbed within recurring sky
—Hank Lazer
How To Write About Africa
1. Maribou stork next to Peace Corps office in Kampala
2. Patricia’s pig
3. Road to district office
4. Catholic church in Bujuni Parish. My house down below
5. My front door
6. Back of my house with my book and Jack fruit --two of my favorite past times
7. My first housekeeper Agnes burning my storage pot for water
8. Chapati maker in Karuguza, the nearest trading center
9. Nyamugura Primary school
10. You were burned up other in it. As you meant as it was meant. You make peace with your destiny on these roads. Muzungu how are you?
11. Pupils of St. Thereza’s slashing the compound under the direction of Sr. John Mary
12. One of the shops in Karuguza
13. Not an unusual way for folks to travel
14. Kitaba Primary School
15. Some of my friends in town
16. Find the Colubus monkey
17. Road to St. Luanga Kikaada primary school. On the way back it rained and it took me two hours to go 4 kls. on my bike
18. Daren and her friend coloring
19. A typical family shamba (farm)
20. Me and Jenny one of my language trainers
21. St. Olivia’s Speech Day which happens at the end of the term when the parents come to see their children perform
—Laura Feldman