Gerrit Lansing (1928-2018): CRYSTALS OF TIME

Gerrit Lansing (1928-2018): CRYSTALS OF TIME
GERRIT LANSING : CRYSTALS of TIME 

A film by:
Nicole Peyrafitte
Pierre Joris & Miles Joris-Peyrafitte
Runtime: 33″07′
2024 Version (footage from November 2012 & June 2013)

In 2012 Pierre Joris & I had the idea of making a short film about Gerrit Lansing & his work. We went up to Gloucester that November 2012 to visit Gerrit who welcomed the idea. We started documenting. Then in June 2013 we came back with much better equipment & with our son Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, who was then a film student at Bard College. We put together an early draft of the film, but realized there wasn’t enough material to make a feature documentary. We would need to come back to shoot more.

Gerrit saw a rough cut and he thought it wasn’t crazy enough! So there was more filming & thinking to do. But we were never able to get around to it as life scattered the three of us in many directions …Then Gerrit’s passed in 2018 & the project went dormant until we decided to come & spend some time in Gloucester this May (2024). We had not returned to Gloucester since Gerrit’s memorial. 

Because this place and its people always gave so much to us, we didn’t want to come back empty-handed. It was time to share what we had.  Though we realize the footage we have is not adequate to make a proper documentary, we think these recordings will be valuable to Gerrit’s friends, to scholars, & to poetry aficionados.

The footage above, Crystals of Times, is all from 2012 & 2013 & contains mostly readings by Gerrit of his poetry.
 It was shot at a number of his favorite places in & around Gloucester and includes footage of a reading he gave while visiting Thorpe Feidt in his studio, with some fascinating banter between Thorpe & Gerrit.

While in Gloucester we decided to screen the footage I had reworked from the 2012/2013 visits, while also sharing  a few videos of memorabilia from 2001, a slide-show of photos of Gerrit’s house from 2012 & 13, and Pierre would read the opening of his essay on Gerrit. You will find all this material on this page.

We deeply thank Jim Dunn for organizing the first screening of Crystals of Time at Paul Cary Goldberg’s studio; we are very grateful to Jim & Paul for setting up this event so efficiently & generously. We thank all who came, both old friends & new aficionados whose reception was so heartwarming & confirmed that this material was worth sharing & circulating. We also thank John & Cecilia for welcoming us at their/Gerrit’s house, Caleb Murphy for opening the archives of Hammond Castle & David Rich for writing a beautiful obit on the Gloucester Times that we used as biographical info in the film.

Below are additional materials we showed at the screening, plus Pierre’s complete essay on Gerrit (he read only a short section that evening). This page will evolve as we process more material from our archives.

Gerrit Lansing’s spirit runs deep in all those he has touched in person or through his poetry. We will always sense his aura upon us. 

Footage shot when Pierre Joris & Nicole Peyrafitte came to visit Gerrit in the summer of 2001: Nicole had recently gotten a video camera, was still learning, so it is not very good quality but we think it has some sentimental value, as least for us! & also good info.
The 4 sections are:
1: Gloucester Beach
2: Plumb Island
3: Visit to Olson’s grave
4: Dogtown Commons with Joe Torra & Patrick Doud & a quick shot of the dinner with the same + Amanda & James Cook

Slide show of Gerrit’s house 2012

Screening at Paul Cary Goldberg’s studio.
Photographs Jim Dunn
Gloucester, MA, 05/22/2024

Recent & online

Recent & online

Recap of works recently published.
Immense gratitude to all the publishers
Care    Persist    Resist!

FAIM! French Online Poetry Festival 

Indefatigable performer/ curator Pauline Cathrinot curated & mc’d a great Online Festival! 
“Impérieuse. Elle grossit, gronde, épaissit. Une extraordinaire FAIM, faimgalle, fringale. Elle se lève, nous dresse. Oui, on a FAIM! de corps proférants, de cous tendus en dynamiques de cordes, de larynx émus et d’amygdales vibrantes, de ce qui lève monte s’accroît quand la chair est parole, et qu’elle se jette sur nous. Qu’on l’attrape, la saisit la gobe. De langue à langue, et par dévorations.” … more from Pauline here

our contributions:

KARSTIC-Action : Je me dé-suffis / I de-suffice myself from Tawil Productions on Vimeo.

Le Chant de la Sirène Journal  

“Chant de la Sirène began as a weblog in 2007 by Laura Hinton, on the topic of the hybrid literary arts. First focusing on the radical New York poetry & multi-media arts scene through which Hinton had been floating adrift, the original blog came to offer a wider array of poetry book reviews, artist-poet interviews, poet tributes, conference travelogues, memoirs, and guest essays… (more here)

5 Pages & a text from my Daily Carnets in here

 

The A-Line  Journal

the A-Line

Convergence 5: Apocalypse Now and Then    

By  on July 1, 2020
“The announcement of this issue was circulated some months ago, but these past weeks have reassured the editors of the necessity of an enterprise seeking to draw together the best of contemporary progressive thought in order to provide the intellectual and emotional sustenance we need to survive this enormous contraction, and continue the work of overhauling our society. Although the A-Line was founded two years ago as a response to felt crisis, I believe we’d all agree that our current political order—home and beyond—has reached a not-to-be-doubted inflection point beyond which we can neither see, nor even guess. “Apocalypse Now and Then”—in its varied figurative and referential valence—lends its name to this timely issue that includes  essays, poems, and images taking up the many dimensions  of this national and global emergency— from the COVID-19 pandemic, to climate change, economic disaster, as well as the spectacle of violence and lawlessness at the highest levels of governance that currently defines US society. (more here)

Nicole : A text & 3 paintings in the  The A-Line  Journal

RED RAT

Pierre Joris:

from: DIARY NOTES MARCH-MAY 2020

Steve Dalachinsky has departed

Steve Dalachinsky has departed

It is impossible to wrap my head around Steve’s departure. I met Steve and Yuko at an Art opening for Mary Beach in the early 2000.  When I permanently moved to NYC in 2007, they were incredibly supportive. They took me around and Steve got me several readings &  introduced me to a lot of great music & musiciens.

When I asked them to be part of my film Thing Fall Where They Lie along with Eric Sarner & Katalin Pataki, they were once again totally supportive. We shot for one week. These two pairs of artists had never met each other and their backgrounds were four different countries and four different mother-tongues. What was supposed to be some sort of historical portrait of Bagnères-de-Luchon, my hometown in the French Pyrenees, became an exercise in poetic drift through their personal  stories. They all fell in love with each other, they shared love for jazz and poetry — their sensitivities coupled with a joyous curiosity took over. For seven days, shooting in cinéma vérité style, I followed them in the once upon a time glamorous spa where we all re-imagined the lives of a famous jazz violinist and of Karl Marx’s grandson, both buried in Bagnères-de-Luchon. 

Steve was inexhaustibly funny, smart, bringing so much to the group dynamic of group — & yes! He was happy for a full week! I personally never saw him so consistently happy for one full week.  I spent countless hours editing the film, and it truly was a joy, I loved looking at Steve on the screen, his soft gaze, his pursing lips, his deambulations….

We have not lost Steve, he departed before us.  Thank you for being you, Steve, and to you Yuko, be strong! We need you! Much much love and we hug you tight.

I am so blessed to have known you, Steve: you enriched and brought much joy to my life. I love you forever.

Film Trailer:
https://vimeo.com/261864528

Steve’s last reading — shortly before the massive brain hemorrhage. He transitioned at 5:04 next morning:

New York Times obit

Art Forum obit

 

 

2 0 1 9 !

2 0 1 9 !

A HAPPY 2019 TO YOU ALL!

We started the year “en fanfare” with a short installment of a new Domopoetic-Karstic-Action, “Two, Zero, One, Nine: a line, a cave, a hand, a song” at the 45th Annual New Year’s Day Marathon Benefit Reading for The Poetry Project. You can watch the live video above. Thank you, Miles Joris-Peyrafitte for the phone-video-capture.
Below, some news about upcoming events & publications. We are looking forward to see you in 2019 — keep in touch!
Nicole & Pierre

EVENTS:

Tuesday January 22  6:00PM
Washington, D.C
Pierre & Nicole w/ Charles Bernstein and other poets.
A Night With American Poets Against US Sanctions on Iran on the night of the State of the Union
Busboys And Poets
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
View Map
Saturday February 9  1:30PM
Albany N.Y
Nicole feature poet
Know Reading
The Excelsior Pub
54 Philip St, Albany, NY 12207, USA
April 4-7  
Austin, Tx
Pierre & Nicole at the Austin International Poetry Festival 
April 18-21
New-Orleans, La
Pierre & Nicole translation panel & poetry readings at New Orleans Poetry Festival 

2018 PUBLICATIONS:

Pierre
Revolution Goes Through Walls, by Safaa Fathy 
(SplitLevel Texts). Translated from the Arabic by Safaa Fathy and Pierre Joris; now long listed for the 2019  PEN Award for Poetry in TranslationPurchase
Adonis & Pierre Joris : Conversation in the Pyrenees  Contra Mundum Press, 2018 
with a Pyrenean Invocation by Nicole Peyrafitte
Méditations sur les Stations de Mansour al-Hallaj  Pierre Joris (translated into French by Habib Tengour; APIC Algiers)

N & P
Junction Box Issue 11
A very special edition, featuring a number of papers & documentation delivered at the Black Mountain College symposium, which took place in Crickhowell, Wales, over a weekend in May 2018.
We both participated and here are our contributions:
Pierre JorisOlson Now
Nicole Peyrafitte:  Basil King: Mirage (A Film) — A great opportunity to see the entire film if you haven’t yet —plus drawings from Carnets

Nicole
LANDSC0PEÉditions Plaine Page, June 2018
U.S book release TBA / disponible chez votre libraire et/ou en vente ici
CARNET 2, an artist book by Redfoxpress, Ireland, August 2018.
available here  / en vente ici
Requiem for Gaza  available here
LiveMag #15  online
TESTE 32  

Pierre
Forthcoming in 2019:
Meditations on the Stations of Mansur al-Hallaj (translated into Arabic by Safaa Fathy; Cairo)
Arabia (Not So) Deserta Essays on Maghrebi and Mashreqi Literary & Cultural Matters. (Spuyten Duyvil, New York)
Microliths : The Complete Posthumous Prose by Paul Celan (attem press).

New Film Trailer & Upcoming Travels

New Film Trailer & Upcoming Travels

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT:
Above is the trailer of my latest film:
THINGS FALL WHERE THEY LIE (2018)
Directed by Nicole Peyrafitte
RUN TIME: 57:43 m
Synopsis:
A filmmaker invites 4 characters for a 5-day visit to Bagnères-de-Luchon, the once-upon-a-time famous and fashionable spa town in the French Pyrenees. The four visitors are Eric Sarner, a poet, translator and broadcaster born in Algeria, now living in Berlin; his wife Katalin Pataki, a Hungarian-born librarian — they met when both lived in Uruguay; and Yuko Otomo, a poet and visual artist born and raised in Japan, who lives in New York with her husband, Brooklyn-born poet, visual artist and jazz critic Steve Dalachinsky. The film follows this group of real-life characters as they are prompted to react to a daily itinerary of (old folklore) events, mysterious (burial) places, excursions, and locals revealing — or not — the connections to the many layers of the town’s and the filmmaker’s history. Can Karl Marx’s grandchild and swing era jazz violinist Michel Warlop meet? Can four languages find each other over lunch and be the talk of the town? Who is buried in what grave? Where did that wedding ring roll? Is he a real shepherd and who is riding on the one (town) horse? What is a better clue: a prehistoric cave or a Spanish border town? Jump on the train and ride that line: Things Fall Where They Lie, and not the other way around.

MAY 26-27
GLASFRYN PROJECT presents:
BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE – a celebration
in the Black Mountains of Wales Glasfryn, Llangattock, Powys
Pierre Joris
Charles Olson now.
Nicole Peyrafitte
Basil King: Mirage. A film directed by Nicole Peyrafitte, co-directed by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, starring Basil King.
Full program: here

JUNE 6-10
Marché de la Poésie
Nicole’s new book Land0scape out with éditions Plaine Page
Reading/Signature TBA

JULY 20-28
Festival Les Voix Vives de Méditerranée

Details TBA, but both Pierre Joris & Nicole Peyrafitte will present daily performance/readings
More info: here

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