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Friday, 29 November 2019

bill bissett's brain

Hi Henry  :  )

Thanks for letting me know the blewointment antho arrived OK. I was beginning to suspect Canada Post had screwed up once again. And thanks for the compliments on my "5 mins ago . . ." poem in the antho. I wrote that poem in 1984, and it's by far my most anthologized work. In it I'm pretty sure I coined the term EQ as a corollary to IQ. I did a blog posting a while ago to establish a claim to this - for what it's worth:

http://riffsandripplesfromzenrivergardens.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-invented-eq-in-1984.html

Last night I finally reached Terry by phone, and we enjoyed our usual 1 1/2 hour chat catching up on TO poetry scene news. Terry was very interested to learn about the upcoming 80th birfday celebration of bill at the Tarragon Theater on Dec. 9. He said he'll check with Anna to get the online details, and he sounded like he was planning on attending. Terry met bill a couple of years ago when bill was in the process of moving. bill was unloading various items of flotsam and jetsam and he gave Terry a couple of paintings, altho Terry doesn't know who painted them (he didn't think they were by bill) or even if they were a gift or for Terry to keep for safekeeping. bill also gave Terry a rubber brain, hence Terry's claim that he has bill bissett's brain!!! All the more reason for Terry to attend bill's event at Tarragon.

Terry was aware of all the recent feting and publicity for Margaret Atwood's 80th birfday, and he liked my comparison of the parallel celebrations as the "Upstairs, Downstairs" of Canadian poetry:  )-

Talking about bill reminded Terry that many decades ago bill and Milton Acorn collaborated on a yet unpublished book. Some mysterious dude named Schmaltz was supposedly going to finally publish it, but nothing has happened re this so far as Terry is aware. 

Think I'll pass on the Chernobyl doc for the time being - as you know, I'm already far behind on all the various docs you've sent me  :  )

peace & poetry power!
Chris

p.s. I'll cc Anna on this so she'll know what Terry is talking about re bill bissett's Tarragon event



On 2019-11-26, at 1:53 PM, Henry wrote:

Hi Chris!
I checked for mail on Monday but there was nothing. Fortunately, I decided to check again when I took in the night air ;-)

Much to my excitement, your package arrived!!! Thank you so much for the blewointment Anthology! What a great work to receive!
I had to read Milton's poem immediately and then your poem. Your poem really shook me in its relevance. We have gotten complacent with the nuclear threat that continues to be a danger.

Coincidentally, I borrowed the recent tv miniseries 'Chernobyl' DVD from the library. It's about the 1986 nuclear catastrophe in the Soviet Union. Absolutely harrowing! Particularly illuminating is the examination of why the disaster occurred. It makes worried about the maintenance and operations of nuclear power plants. Darlington is uncomfortably close and I heard of a disaster test for the surrounding region recently.

Are you interested in seeing 'Chernobyl'? Warning: may scare the shit out of you! ;-)

thanks again for blewointment and your kind inscription!

Thursday, 14 November 2019

celebrations for bill bissett's 80th birthday: Tarragon Theater Dec. 9

bill was the first person to publish a non self-published collection of my poetry, unacknowledged legislator, with his blewointmentpress in 1981. I met bill when I featured him several times at The Main Street Library Poetry Series I organized in Toronto in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. bill is an artistic polymath and a dynamic and heartfelt performer - many congrats to bill on his 80th birthday and that he's still rockin' the freeworld at 80!  

bill bissett in Brooklyn, St. Catherines, New York, and Toronto!

Poster for bill bissett brethday tour

bill bissett will celebrate his eightieth brethday with a series of poetry readings from his new collection, breth.
Saturday, November 16
7 p.m.
Niagara Artists Centre
354 St. Paul Street
St. Catherines, ON
Monday, November 18
6:30 p.m.
Pratt Institute
Schafler Gallery
200 Willougby
Brooklyn, NY
Wednesday, November 20
6 p.m.
The Player’s Club
16 Gramercy Park Street
New York, NY
Thursday, November 21
7 p.m.
Poets House
10 River Terrace
New York, NY
Monday, December 9
8 p.m.
Tarragon Theatre
30 Bridgman Avenue
Toronto, ON

Tuesday, 12 November 2019

bill bissett celebrates 80th birthday at Poets House in NYC

North of Invention: A berthDay Celebration with bill bissett

Introduced by Adeena Karasick

Nov 21, 2019 | 7:00 pm



On the occasion of polymath bill bissett’s 80th birthday, join us in welcoming the poet, painter, musician, and editor to Poets House! bissett will present on his legendary career in Canadian small press publishing, introduced by Adeena Karasick. The evening will conclude with a reading from bissett’s latest collection, breth.
Co-presented with the Consulate General of Canada.
(Photo Credit: Aloysius Wong)
Admission $10, $7 for students and seniors, free to Poets House members

Details

Date:
Nov 21, 2019
Time:
7:00 pm
Event Category:

Venue

Elizabeth Kray Hall, Poets House
10 River Terrace
New York, NY 10282 United States
+ Google Map
Phone:
212-431-7920
Website:
www.poetshouse.org

Friday, 1 November 2019

my old alma mater, Miami-Dade College, sponsoring Miami Book Fair

BUY TICKETS NOW


Hi,

I was reading about the Miami Book Fair on LitHub today when I realized it's sponsored by my old alma mater, Miami-Dade College. I graduated in 1968 from the south campus, when M-D was still known as M-D Junior College. I thought you might be interested in knowing that a M-D graduate has gone on to achieve some substantial degree of literary publication, success and international recognition in a number of fields, including haiku/haibun/lyrical and political poetry/criticism/essay/memoir etc. .

Perhaps the quickest and most convenient way I can present my story is via the website of the small Ontario (Canada) village where I've resided for almost 30 years:

https://www.marmorahistory.ca/chris-faiers-poet

Of course there's lots more info about my literary activities on the web, including from my blog, "riffs and ripples from zenriver gardens":

http://riffsandripplesfromzenrivergardens.blogspot.com/

Best wishes for another successful Miami Bookfair. It would be fun to be there, but I haven't considered travelling to the U.S. since the paranoia of the 9/11 era. As a VN War draft resisting foreign born national, I feel it's especially unsafe to visit Miami, where I went through grade school on Key Biscayne and college at M-D.

peace,

Chris (Faiers)

zenriver@sympatico.ca

Marmora, Ontario, Canada