The Eights--Launch, Celebration, Reading on 14 June in PARIS at 8pm

 

Every year going back quite a few now, it has been essential to my friends and I to remember the PLAY in art, and to let go of the ego and the eye and make poems together. This project was inspired by The 3:15 Experiment published by The Owl Press in 2001 which collected together writing by Bernadette Mayer, Danika Dinsmore, Lee Anne Brown and Jen Hofer. When my friends--Lisa Pasold, Barbara Beck, Michelle Noteboom and I--read that book, we decided to add a twist to the idea of knowing we were all writing at the same time: we wrote at the same time (our first time at midnight) for 10 days, but then we gave these writings to each other (we call these our "pre-writes"). From these pages of prewrites, we make--what we call "orchestrate"--poems. Most often, we have each supplied 4 poems of some sort to the collections which we then have self designed into chapbooks and then thrown public parties from friends who gather, share food and drink, and listen to a little reading linked to the time of the original writing--that first being, Midnight! I still remember the candelabra at Lisa Pasold's house and our lovely friends who came out to share with us the pretty first object we had made together. 

Now we have moved well around the clock. And this year it was the turn of the 8. Most of us wrote 8, or oddly 7 or 9 (poets can't count, or refuse to, rather!) We have been ordering and laying out our chapbook and Friday night we will be at Lisa's place putting the final touches into this year's cover. We have, in the past, stencilled, sewn, patched, staple-bound, wrapped and strung in a variety of ways our A5 sized "DoItYourself" editions; This year, we have added a twist and the binding will come from a new direction. Should be fun. Hope you can join us. We do host our events at a private house, and ask anyone who attends to treat this like a neighborhood potluck--bring some food to share, or / and drinks. In recent years we have also associated a cocktail creation with our reading events. To save us from over imbibing, we did NOT choose to make a cocktail containing 8 ingredients! The base this spring will be whiskey and the rest is for you to sample this delectable concoction sur place Saturday. 

Cost of our chaps? We sell them at cost. All the labor and the time are our gift to you--and each other! 

And, because the 8s allowed me to go look at a LOT of great octopus images, here is another invite image for you: 

Photos thanks to FabFunky: get that blue and white octopus print at https://www.fabfunky.com/products/octopus-8-blue-nautical-print-coastal-art?variant=48004608524608 The second image is on Pintrest
 

THE FOURS by Barbara Beck Jennifer K Dick Michelle Noteboom and Lisa Pasold

The Fours: out today! 

 

 

The 8th, and newest, chapbook in the collaborative 8-hand series by Barbara Beck, Jennifer K Dick, Lisa Pasold and Michelle Noteboom.

We shall brunch-read in celebration of this very YELLOW thus bright for summer newest installment in this project.

Process and history note: 

Born out of the 3:15 experiment, having decided to take a twist by all writing each year for 10 days at same time what we call "prewrites". This is basicallythe step where the 3:15 experiment by Lee Ann Brown, Bernadette Mayer, Jen Hofer and Danika Dinsmore stopped. They then gathered their shared writings from the same time together, each author in their own zone. We wanted to overlap the work somehow. SO, we decided to take the pre-writes as base material. 

So, once completed, we give this naked, unedited material to each other. Then, using the writings of all 4 of us, we each "orchestrate" from that 4 new poems, adding, subtracting, rearranging, playing across our four voices, thoughts, observations from a shared time though while we were in different spaces. Language from all of us, which arose in a shared time, coalesceses into these poems. 

Then, in our annual, each time a bit different design--to match some element of the project--we make our DoItYourselfEditions chaps for the celebratory brunch sortie where we share the fruits of our collaboration with any and all of you who are around. That celebration is nigh--as in, FOURs so 4pm today!

The history of these: We began with THE MIDNIGHT POEMS (and an evening of cocktails with brief reading at midnight). We have also done The 13s, The Solstice poems (21), Aquatic 7s, The Elevens, High Noon, and a hors séries one for an Art Show by Kate Van Houten "of a certain order". More to come!