Ecopoetics addresses the environment in all of its complexity; it includes both the butterfly and the bulldozer. Although the term "ecopoetics" didn't exist when Bern Porter started writing poetry, it is a term that now helps us to better understand his projects. Porter started out as a scientist and worked on the Manhattan Project, which created the first atomic bomb. After the bomb was detonated, he quit his job and devoted his life to making art. Porter is perhaps best remembered for his founds, which were spare collages that recontextualized words one can find in everyday places like fashion magazines or junk mail. During the course of this event at Temple Gallery, participants will listen to Bern Porter poetry (read by CA Conrad), discuss entropy and recycling in relation to Porter's work, the idea of waste as an essential component of energy, and the notion of permaculture. Additionally, participants are asked to bring a non-precious piece of paper with text (from a magazine or newspaper, or perhaps selected randomly), which will be incorporated into a collective found and hung in the Temple Gallery at the culmination of the workshop.
ABOUT OUR GUESTS:
Jena Osman's latest book of poetry is The Network (selected for the National Poetry series in 2009 and published by Fence Books). Other books include An Essay in Asterisks and The Character. She co-edits the Chain Links book series with Juliana Spahr, and she teaches creative writing and literature in the English Department at Temple University. You can read Osman's essay Bern Porter: Recycling the Atmosphere by clicking here.
CA Conrad is a recipient of a 2011 Pew Fellowship in the Arts. He is the author of A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)tics, (Wave Books, 2012), The Book of Frank (Wave Books, 2010), Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009), Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press, 2006), and a collaboration with poet Frank Sherlock titled The City Real & Imagined (Factory School, 2010). He has taught poetry at St. Mark's Poetry Project, CUNY Graduate Center, Naropa University, Goucher College, and elsewhere.
