Talking Paper

Episode date, May 4th, 2017: I speak with writer and artist Dallas Athent about her new book of poetry, Theia Mania, out now from AntiSentiMental Society. In addition to her own poetic work, Athent volunteers her time promoting the work of other writers by coordinating east coast reading events (along with myself) for literary nonprofit, Nomadic Press. I also recorded readings from the launch event for Theia Mania, which took place on April 30th 2017 at the Jersey City studio of its artist, Maria Pavlovska, and featured live readings by Athent, writer/editor Chris Campanioni, AntiSentiMental Society editor Ronna Lebo, Brooklyn writer/filmmaker Prospero Vega, and culture chronicler Anthony Haden-Guest. Campanioni reads a portion of "The Real Thing (#AlternativeFacts)" Lebo reads "9 Steps to Achieve Full Deniability" Vega reads "A Chinese Woman in the Rain" Anthony Haden Guest reads "Newscast" Dallas Athent: http://dallasathent.com/ Maria Pavlovska: http://www.mariapavlovska.com/ Eve Siegel: http://www.evesiegeldesign.com/ AntiSentiMental Society Theia Mania: http://www.blacksquareeditions.org/_p/prd1/4609841321/product/theia-mania-by-dallas-athent SPD Theia Mania: http://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9780979149566/theia-mania.aspx Hyperallergic Theia Mania: https://store.hyperallergic.com/products/theia-mania My PANK review of Theia Mania: http://pankmagazine.com/2017/05/11/review-theia-mania-by-dallas-athent/ Nomadic Press: https://www.nomadicpress.org/ #talkingpaper #interview #radiofreebrooklyn #nomadicpress #poetry #writing #books #antisentimentalsociety #theiamania

Episode date, April 20th, 2017: I sat down with veteran screen actor, director, and writer Hampton Fancher at his home in Brooklyn, New York. 2017 is a big year for Fancher. First, as the subject of a documentary film about his life and career, titled Escapes, set for a summer release. Second as the co-screenwriter of the feature film Blade Runner 2049, which debuts in October. The film is a follow-up to 1982's massively influential science fiction classic Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott -- a film production that Fancher set in motion when he secured the rights to the source novel (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) from author Philip K.Dick. He then served as screenwriter, before giving way to David Peoples, but maintained an Executive Producer credit. For this year's follow-up, actors Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling utilized a screenplay written by Fancher and Michael Green. This interview was my second with Fancher, some six years after speaking with him for my film site Camera In The Sun about Blade Runner's production, his directing the film The Minus Man, his acting career in television Westerns during the 1950s and 60s, growing up a mixed-race child in 1940s East Los Angeles, and his long love affair with Flamenco dancing -- which took him all the way to Spain as a teenager. During this interview, we discussed Fancher's love of writing, some of his favorite authors, and how their work affected him. He then read some of his poetry and short stories, including from his 2012 book of short works, titled The Shape of the Final Dog, published by Penguin Group imprint Blue Rider Press. The Shape of the Final Dog: http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/310217/the-shape-of-the-final-dog-and-other-stories-by-hampton-fancher/9781101600665/ Camera In The Sun interview: http://camerainthesun.com/?p=9069 Blade Runner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoAndroidsDreamofElectric_Sheep%3F Blade Runner 2049: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BladeRunner2049 Nomadic Press: https://www.nomadicpress.org/ #talkingpaper #radiofreebrooklyn #poetry #writing #film #filmmaking #screenwriting #hamptonfancher #bladerunner #bladerunner2049 #nomadicpress

Episode date, April 6th, 2017: I went to GAMBA Forest, a multi-purpose space that serves as both a performance and art venue, located at 231 Norman Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's run by Melissa Hunter-Gurney and Chris Carr, who are co-founders of the literary publication, GAMBAZine. They recently worked with literary nonprofit Nomadic Press to host a poetry and music showcase at GAMBA Forest, titled "Texts 2 Tascha." The event's name and the night's lineup was curated by poet Dallas Athent, to honor the birthday of her friend, the artist Natascha Young, who was visiting Brooklyn from her home in England -- where she oversees the Venus A Day project, in which she carves the ancient female form, known as "the venus", from one of a variety of materials over the course of a single day, as part of a larger series, which she then chronicles on Instagram. I recorded the event, which included the following performers: Joanna Valente reading four poems: -- The Ones You Left Behind Are Still With You -- The Night Is Dark And Full Of Terrors -- Son -- Your Only Son Is Dead Craig Kite reading two poems: -- Fuck, We're All Going To Die -- The Algorithm Hates Me Stephanie Valente reading three poems: --Lake -- It Happened To Me, I Kissed A Gravedigger -- Married To The Mob Chris Carr reading three poems. Melissa Hunter-Gurney reading one poem: -- We Still Wear Fucking Fur Dallas Athent reading four selections from her new book of poetry Theia Mania: -- Page 21. -- Page 27. -- Page 33. -- Pages 58 & 59. La Julietissima singing four songs: -- Cuando vuelva a tu lado (or, "When I Return to Your Side"). -- Angelitos Negros (or, "Black Angels"). -- Besame Mucho (or, "Kiss me a lot"). -- La Llorona (or, "The Weeping Woman"). GAMBA Forest: http://gambazine.com/ Nomadic Press: https://www.nomadicpress.org/ Dallas Athent: http://dallasathent.com/ Natascha Young: http://cargocollective.com/nataschayoung Joanna Valente: http://joannavalente.com/ Craig Kite: https://twitter.com/craigkitefly Stephanie Valente: http://stephanievalente.com/ La Julietissima: http://www.lajulietissima.com/ #talkingpaper #performance #radiofreebrooklyn #poetry #writing #singing #nomadicpress #gambaforest #texts2tascha

Episode date, March 23rd, 2017: I speak with Claire Durand-Gasselin, Craig Kite, & Brian Sheffield. They are three of the co-founding editors (along with Margaux Taleux) of POST(blank) -- a French-American bilingual word-art publication from Mad Gleam Press. The publication's first volume, titled POSTpaper, debuted in fall of 2016 with 92 pages. The second volume, POSTmortem, came out in winter of 2017 with 144 pages. The Mad Gleam Press website describes its mission as highlighting "the conjoined strengths of text and image by publishing visual poetic pieces, visual poems, dialogues on arts and ideas between artists of the two media, and excerpts of artist books. We also want to celebrate and speak to the infrastructure of the physical communities that come together around small press publications. We hope to offer a space for visual and literary artists to compliment each other’s work and to make new connections across mediums, genres and cultures." The Mad Gleam summary of the content found in POSTmortem states: "Death less represents the romantic stuff of tragedy as much as a shirked inevitability, viewed indirectly through the rosy lens of metaphor, or through some white frowning mask. Death is a hard-nosed fact checked on the ice of stark reality, an open-eyed kiss and reason to fuck, to connect, to practice life. We can only understand the constant flux of our experience, collective or individual, through reflection: taking stabs at post-analysis, even if only via abstract expression. In our own ways, we attempt to make sense of these things without it shaving any days off our lives. So allow yourself a reminder. Touch the bone inside your skin. Tickle your mortality and understand that nothing ever has been, currently is, nor ever will be, permanent." Mad Gleam Press Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/madgleampress/ POST(blank) purchase link: https://www.madgleampress.com/postblank Nomadic Press: nomadicpress.org #talkingpaper #interview #radiofreebrooklyn #poetry #writing #literarymagazine #litmag #madgleampress #postblank #nomadicpress

Episode date, March 9th, 2017: I speak with Ronna Lebo and Boni Joi -- two of the founders of Black Square Editions. Since 1999, the New York-based imprint has published translations of little-known books from around the world, written by well-known poets and fiction writers, while also handling the work of both emerging and established authors. Black Square is part of the nonprofit, Off The Park Press, which also includes the new imprint, AntiSentiMental Society Press, which is dedicated to publishing work that combines visual art and poetry. Its first published title is Theia Mania, a book of poems by Dallas Athent, illustrated by Maria Pavlovska, and book design by Eve Siegel. The book will have its launch event, featuring live readings by Athent, Anthony Haden-Guest, Chris Campanioni, and Prospero Vega on Sunday April 30th at 3PM at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City. Black Square Editions: blackquareeditions.org Theia Mania - The Last Book Launch on Earth: https://www.facebook.com/events/1874045392884898/ Nomadic Press: nomadicpress.org #talkingpaper #interview #radiofreebrooklyn #poetry #writing #blacksquareeditions #nomadicpress