holly pester

Enemies of the South films

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Films from the 27th April event at the Arnolfini gallery in Bristol, including this by Emma Bennett and Holly Pester.

Holl Pester and Emma Bennett http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-TiVTTfDuM
Marcus Slease and Jeff Hilson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr9AP_KpU-s
Patrick Coyle and SJ Fowler http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF87RJ7BubU
Claire Potter and Daniel Rourke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQIqZoa-OVA
James Wilkes and David Berridge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCfpSt7O1QA
Tim Atkins and Mark Waldron http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HhpYQ5JQ7E
Chris McCabe and Tom Jenks, with Sophie Herxheimer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQfa1dRT3Mw

The ABC in Sound Ensemble for The Other Room 35: Bob Cobbing A Celebration

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THE ENSEMBLE: Tim Allen, Joanne Ashcroft, Richard Barrett, Leanne Bridgewater, Matt Dalby, Phil Davenport, James Davies, Ollie Evans, Patricia Farrell, Clive Fencott, Alan Halsey, Michael Haslam, Tom Jenks, Angela Keaton, Geraldine Monk, Maggie O’Sullivan, Holly Pester, Robert Sheppard, Adrian Slatcher, Chris Stephenson, Scott Thurston, Gareth Twose, Steven Waling, Steve Willey and Nigel Wood.

Visit Ubu at the LINK to hear letters d, p and t of the ABC in Sound.

The Other Room 35 takes place at The Castle Hotel, Oldham Street, Manchester, M2 4PD. Tuesday 23rd October 2012, 7.00 pm. FREE

if p then q videos from September readings in London

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Videos below from if p then q’s recent night in London with guest appearances from Michael Basinski and Jennifer Pike Cobbing. Look out for Jennifer Pike Cobbing in particular who read some of The ABC in Sound which will be read by an ensemble at the next Other Room, just under a month away.

Lucy  Harvest Clarke

Philip Terry

Michael Basinski

Tom Jenks

Tim Atkins

Holly Pester

Jennifer Pike Cobbing

if p then q readings in London tonight

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if p then q readingsTim Atkins, Michael Basinski, Lucy Harvest Clarke, Tom Jenks, Holly Pester, Philip Terry

Saturday 8 September 2012 7 PM Price: free The Betsey Trotwood 56 Farringdon Road London EC1R 3BL

if p then q is a Manchester based experimental poetry publisher with an international focus, which is especially keen on minimal and conceptual poetries. Following on from day’s events at The Free Verse Poetry Fair on 8th September, at which if p then q has a stall, an event will be held in the evening to celebrate the work of the UK based if p then q poets with a special guest appearance by the American poet Michael Basinski who has a limited edition postcard published by the press. A range of videos and sample materials are available on the website. The event is free and very welcome to all.

Tim Atkins is the author of To Repel Ghosts (Like Books, 1998), 25 Sonnets (The Figures, 2000), Oriental Tapping (Faber 2006), Horace (O Books, 2007), Folklore (Salt, 2008), and Petrarch (Crater, 2010). A selected Petrarch is forthcoming from Barque, and Honda Ode is forthcoming from Oystercatcher. He is editor of the online poetry journal onedit at http://www.onedit.net. Tim’s if p then q publication is 1000 Sonnets.

Michael Basinski is Curator of the poetry Collection, State University at Buffalo. His many books of poetry include Of Venus 93 (Little Scratch Pad) and All My Eggs Are Broken (BlazeVox). Michael’s if p then q publication is the postcard Dog Music.

Lucy Harvest Clarke was born in East Sussex in 1982. After studying Anthropology at Goldsmiths she travelled sporadically and lived by the sea. She now lives and works in London. Her poetry has featured on Great Works, Onedit, in Parameter magazine and in The Other Room Anthology Volume 1. Recently she has published a pamphlet EX3 with The Knives Forks and Spoons Press. Lucy’s if p then q publication is Silveronda.

Tom Jenks lives, works and writes in Manchester. He is the editor of zimZalla and one of the organisers of The Other Room. Tom’s if p then q publications are A Priori and *.

Holly Pester was born in Colchester in 1982. She now lives in London, teaching and researching at Birkbeck, University of London. Her PhD investigates the history of Sound Poetry and the poetics of analogue technologies. The sound texts and performance scores collected here have featured in various cross-disciplinary events, including the Serpentine Gallery Poetry Marathon, Text Festival 2011 and the Liverpool Biennial. In live scenarios her idiosyncratic vocal technique locates a poetic in between the disciplines of poetry performance, song and new media art. Holly’s if p then q publication is Hoofs.

Philip Terry is currently Director of the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Essex. His books include the edited collection of stories Ovid Metamorphosed (Chatto and Windus, 2000), a translation of Raymond Queneau’s last book of poems, Elementary Morality (Carcanet, 2007), and the collection of poems Shakespeare’s Sonnets (Carcanet, 2010). Philip’s if p then q publication is Advanced Immorality

James Harvey memorial reading – films

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On the evening of July 19th 2012, a large group of friends, family and fellow poets met in the Keynes Library, in Birkbeck college, in London’s Bloomsbury to celebrate the life and work of the British innovative poet, James Harvey.

James Harvey (1966–2012) studied biology at UCL before becoming a full-time poet in the thriving experimental and innovative poetry community in London. His interest in science, especially biology, extended into his poetry. He was fascinated by the potential of ‘science in poetry to dismantle existing structures, and then put them back together again, build them up “mechanically” while at the same time each level of complexity is acted upon equally through “the forces of nature,” questioning the integrity of the structure.’

Jeff Hilson and Holly Pester above. Full list below:

James Harvey Memorial reading

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Veer Books / Xing the Line / Writers Forum Workshop (New Series) and The Blue Bus have come together to celebrate the life and poetry of James Harvey, who died last month.  This memorial reading will take place at Birkbeck College on Thursday 19th July, from 18.00-21.00. The address is Keynes Library, Birkbeck Centre for Poetics, School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD. (When you  come in to the foyer, ask the person on the front desk who will give directions – it’s a room on the first floor overlooking the square.) Readers/performers will include Carol Watts, Will Rowe, James Wilkes, matt martin, Jeff Hilson, Holly Pester, Michael Zand, Stephen Emmerson, Juliet Troy, John Gibbens, Keith Jebb, David Miller, Antony John, Edward Carey, Peter Philpott, S J Fowler, Elizabeth Guthrie, and The Children (Armorel Weston and John Gibbens).

Please note that this is a free event.
 
James Harvey
James Harvey (1966–2012) studied biology at UCL before becoming a full-time poet in the thriving experimental and innovative poetry community in London .
His interest in science, especially biology, extended into his poetry. James took part in a forum discussion with Rae Armantrout, Amy Catanzano, John Cayley, Tina Darragh, Marcella Durand, Allen Fisher, Peter Middleton, Evelyn Reilly and Joan Retallack on the interaction of poetry and science, hosted by Jacket 2. He was fascinated by the potential of ‘science in poetry to dismantle existing structures, and then put them back together again, build them up “mechanically” while at the same time each level of complexity is acted upon equally through “the forces of nature,” questioning the integrity of the structure.’
The importance of ecology in his work is evident in one of his best poems, ‘Mackerelling’. This was published in Veer Away (Veer 2007) and subsequently became his first book (Intercapillary Editions 2009). The poem ‘is a movement through water … an exercise in naming as pattern’. As James explained: ‘Marguerite White sent me cardboard cuttings out in the shapes of sea birds she had used for one of her installations, I had been watching David Attenborough’s The Blue Planet and the idea for the poem came shortly after. At the back of my mind was also Bob Cobbing’s poem “alphabet of californian fishes” … one of my favourite poems.’
James was a regular at Writers Forum Workshop and many of his poems have a strong visual element, showing Cobbing’s influence. Part of his poem ‘Living Rock Ode’ (in Freaklung 2010) included a diagram of a marine plankton that he sounded when reading the poem. James read in honour of Jennifer Pike-Cobbing in 2010 with his work featuring in AND13 (Writers Forum 2010) produced to mark the event. Later he was part of Writers Forum Workshop (New Series), his work appearing in its first publication (Writers Forearm 2011).
Veer published a chapbook Temporary Structures in 2009 and included his work in Veer Off (2008) and Veer About (2011) in addition to Veer Away. He was published in the Openned magazine (2006) and Openned Issues 2006-07 (2008). In 2009, Openned brought out an e-pamphlet, Parts Composers, and Kater Murr’s press published a broadsheet From Marx’s Capital. James was featured in the anthology In the Company of Poets (Hearing Eye 2003).
James’s readings in London included the Blue Bus in 2008 with Nina Zivancevic and Vahni Capildeo and in 2010 with Harriet Tarlo, David Miller and Ken White. He read at Crossing the Line in 2009 with James Wilkes, Jon Clay, Antony John and Out to Lunch.
James was also part of a group of poets who travelled to Newcastle upon Tyne to celebrate Barry MacSweeney in a reading at Morden Tower in 2010. James read from his Japheth series, written in collaboration with Edinburgh-based poet Jow Lindsay. Other work appeared in Herbarium (2011), also with an associated reading, or were published online in Greatworks and Jacket, with work also appearing in Brittle Star magazine, Poetry Salzburg Review and the Morning Star.
 
James Harvey discussing poetry and science with other poets in Jacket 2 is here http://jacket2.org/features/archive?page=1
James Harvey’s poem ‘Mackerelling’ (2007) can be downloaded free from http://www.lulu.com/shop/james-harvey/mackerelling/ebook/product-4880571.html;jsessionid=2AF6BA9D292AC56685B11016B5DC1DCF  
Video of James Harvey reading in honour of Jennifer Pike-Cobbing in 2010 http://www.openned.com/writers-forum-jennifer/?currentPage=4  
Veer About (Veer 2011) can be downloaded free via http://www.bbk.ac.uk/cprc/publications/Veer_Publications/Veer037  
James Harvey’s work in the Openned magazine (2006) is here http://www.openned.com/epubs/2009/9/28/openned-magazine.html  
James Harvey’s work in Openned Issues 2006-07 (Openned 2008) is here http://www.openned.com/epubs/2009/9/28/openned-issues-2006-2007.html  
James Harvey’s Parts Composers (Openned 2009) is here: http://www.openned.com/epubs/2009/9/28/parts-composers.html  
Video of James Harvey reading at Morden Tower in 2010 (including ‘Living Rock Ode’ and Japheth poems)

BROKEN AND REDUCED

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Thursday 29 March 2012
Room B20, Birkbeck main building on Torrington Square, London WC1

6.00-7.30pm
“I lost my mother tongue more than thirty years ago and am still searching for it.”

Hungarian visual poet MÁRTON KOPPÁNY talks about his work, and projects images. Introduced by Holly Pester.

Upcoming polyvocal explorations

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A double bill – talk and performances – of polyvocalia at Birkbeck. Monday 20 June. Free and all
welcome.

6pm, 43 Gordon Square, Room 124
Cris Cheek, ‘Before I am Anything Else: provisional transatlantic communities in polyvocal poetic
performance’.

& then around the corner…
7.15pm, 32 Tavistock Square
FRIENDLY AMENDMENTS
Lawrence Upton, Chris Goode, Cris Cheek, Holly Pester & others revisit work by Sumner, bpnichol,
Basinski, Cobbing, MacLow & other scores, poems and possibilities

Maintenant #46 – Holly Pester

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Perhaps other than the rarefied skill of performance, originality might be the hardest attribute to find in contemporary poetry. The ability to engender an audience to one’s work without appearing reluctant or melodramatic or trite is a trait often located in the poet’s personal dedication and consideration. Originality is perhaps harder to explicate, given the nature of its newness. These characteristics are what define the work of Holly Pester, and the experience of seeing or hearing her perform leaves an indelible impression on the viewer that they are witnessing a deeply gifted poet, one who it would seem will lead the way in the UK in the near future and beyond. Her work is incisive and wise, unpretentious yet sophisticated. She is without posture or affectation and still her urbane performances entrap and captivate audiences, their exploration of tonality, voice, volume and sound forcing a profound concentration on the potentialities of everyday language, whether that is a potential for oppression or amusement. Truly representative of what we hope to advocate in the Maintenant series, the 46th edition of the series – Holly Pester.

Accompanying the interview are soundfiles of two of her poems and Holly’s reading for Maintenant at the Icelandic embassy.