A Busy Summer 2026

A Busy Summer 2026


Greetings!

It feels good to be this busy — carrying Pierre’s work forward, & keeping the promise I made to him: to keep going with my own work.
So this spring/summer is full. Pierre’s Reader is out. the Poets House three-months exhibition of his notebooks opens on July 14 —his 80th birthday. His gravestone has been erected. My exhibition with my dear friend, the indefatigable & inspiring eco-artist Betsy Damon, is around the corner. Ariane Daguin & I keep cooking along on Voilà Voilà!!, our cooking channel. This Saturday I will be reading from Pierre’s work at Stand4 Gallery as part of Jennifer Jo McGregor’s beautiful exhibition, Charting the Narrows & the Harbor . And Rigwreck, titled after Pierre’s poem & for which he wrote the libretto, is now out from The Crossings the four-times Grammy winning choir conducted by Donald Nally.
Below you’ll find all the information, links & dates. Please come in person if you can — and if you are too far away, you can always follow along online.
Thank you for reading.

À bientôt,
Nicole

DAMON / PEYRAFITTE

 

Betsy DamonWATER, the Agent of Life
Nicole PeyrafitteMementos of a Life Practice

OPENING 6PM
with Action Performance Painting 7PM
Ben Chadabe (percussions)
Thursday June 18


COLLECTIVE ACTION CONVERSATION
Saturday, June 20, 4pm
Betsy Damon and Lauren Bon

LIVING PRACTICES
Friday, June 26, 7pm

Short Films & Conversations with Betsy Damon & Nicole Peyrafitte
Moderated by Alex Jones

BIRD-STATE: A PERFORMATIVE READING
Tuesday, June 30, 7pm
Nicole Peyrafitte
Please join Nicole Peyrafitte at the gallery for Bird-State: A Performative Reading, an evening of bird poems, field notes, voice, and embodied attention presented within the exhibition.
She will read from her ongoing Bird-State series, alongside selected bird poems by Pierre Joris.
Rooted in fieldwork, memory, shores, migration, and the other-than-human world, the evening will bring together poetry, observation, and performance as part of Peyrafitte’s living practice of Bird-State.

198 Gallery
198, 24th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232

https://www.flipsnack.com/6877BAF7C6F/damon_peyrafitte_card-_web

THE READER IS OUT!



In Between Keep Moving: A Pierre Joris Reader (2026)
Edited by Ariel Resnikoff & Pierre Joris
Afterword by Charles Bernstein.
In Between, Keep Moving: The Pierre Joris Reader gathers, for the first time, the range of Pierre Joris’ work across poetry, prose, poetics, translation & collaboration. Spanning more than half a century, it includes a previously unpublished memoir section and traces his lifelong movement through languages, thresholds & translingual word-worlds. The volume opens toward the continuing life of his work. 


PIERRE JORIS’ NOTEBOOKS

Poets House

Please save the date:
Pierre Joris’ Notebooks Exhibition
Poets House, New York
July–October 2026
Opening July 14 on Pierre’s 80th birthday
Reading with guests soon TBA

Before Pierre’s notebooks travel to the Centre National de Littérature du Luxembourg to be fully digitized and made available to the world, Poets House will present a three-month exhibition curated by John Vincler & the Poets House team, with events, readings & seminars to be announced soon.


VOILÀ VOILÀ ! 

Are you following Voilà Voilà?
With Ariane Daguin, we created a lively cooking series rooted in friendship, Gascon know-how & the pleasure of cooking with confidence. Find us, follow us, & comment on: InstagramFacebookTikTok or YouTube 
We have now posted to 40 fun, instructive food videos — and counting — and have also been leading joyful hands-on workshops at AOOA Farm, with more coming up. Next workshop: August 9 — Omelettes!  


READING PIERRE’S POEM AT STAND 4 GALLERY

I am delighted — & deeply moved — to have been invited by Jennifer Jo McGregor to read Pierre’s poems as part of her beautiful exhibition, Charting the Narrows & the Harbor. Pierre launched Interglacial Narrows at Stand 4 in 2023 (full reading here). So it was especially meaningful to read his poems to echo Jennifer’s work on the Narrows, the harbor, shoreline weather, maps, memory, land & water.

Was May 23 — 3-4 PM 
414, 78th Street, Brooklyn, NY11209


GREENWOOD: Pierre’s resting place

Pierre’s gravestone has now been erected in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.He is located in Cedar Dell, also known as Druid Circle — one of the cemetery’s most historic areas, with some of its oldest grave markers dating back to the mid-eighteenth century. Pierre & I used to visit this place.Go read him a poem & bring your binoculars too — Green-Wood is a prime birding destination.  
Look for lot 44602 

LAST NOTE!

Pierre was very fond of his several collaborations with The Crossing, and it is wonderful to see Rigwreck — titled after Pierre’s poem, with music by composer Gabriel Jackson and text/libretto by Pierre Joris — now out, performed by the award-winning choir The Crossing under conductor Donald Nally. Streaming links are gathered here, and physical CDs are available through The Crossing’s album page.

Nicole Peyrafitte /  Karstic-Action : Overstory  / Pastels, Pigments, Egg Yolks on Paper / 78”x42”

FREEE for Woman-Life-Freedom

FREEE  for  Woman-Life-Freedom
 
 
          This Karstic-action piece is in solidarity with the Women of Iran. I am deeply inspired by their antediluvian strength resurfacing with force & clarity in their courageous actions.
          The text I wrote & that plays over the video (with music by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte) is loosely based on a Hymn to Inanna attributed to the Mesopotamian poet Enheduanna, the earliest known named author in world history —c.23rd century BCE —.
         Thank you to Sepideh Jodeyri for your activism & relentless work on relaying our support to our Iranian sisters. You prompted this action painting and I am so grateful you did.
            May freedom & peace prevail.
 

Text/ Action/ Video/Editing: Nicole Peyrafitte
Farsi translation : Sepideh Jodeyri
Music: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte
Length: 1:46mn

Filmed in my studio in Brooklyn, NY on October 20, 2022

FREEE

Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! Women of Iran
Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! Women of Iran
ante diluvian women
fighting for you rights inscribed in the Mes
our influence is mighty
your roaring makes the world tremble
your courage rings around the earth
your persistence is formidable 
all of you Enheduanna
all of you high priestesses of freedom
I deeply admire you
you exercise full ladyship over heaven and earth
let me praise your ways
let me praise your greatness
let’s call on Innana goddess of heaven & earth  to power your quest
may a whirlwind of freedom be the only mandatory garment on your hair
don’t be tired sisters
don’t be tired sisters
Khasteh nabâshid
Khasteh nabâshid
Merci!

آه، آه، ای زنان ایران!

زنانِ باستان!

ستیزِ بر حقِ‌ شما نقش می‌زند بر کتیبه‌ها 

با اثری شگرف

و غرّشی رعشه‌افکن در جهان

تهورتان گِرداگِردِ زمین پُرطنین 

استقامت‌تان اِعجاب‌افزا

شما همه انهدوانا

همه کاهنانِ عالی مقامِ آزادی

من همه مدح و ثنا

شما الهام‌بخش

شما حد اعلای زن بودگی بر زمین و در آسمان‌ها

بگذارید مدّاحِ راه‌تان باشم

بگذارید ثنا‌گوی شوکت‌تان

بادا که اینانا، خداوندگارِ زمین و آسمان‌ها بخشد نیرویتان 

بادا که گردبادِ آزادی

تنها پوشاکِ اجباری بر گیسوی‌تان 

خسته نباشید خواهران

خسته نباشید خواهران

خسته نباشید!

خسته نباشید!

مرسی!

 

Travaux/Actions Karstique 2021 at Galerie Simoncini

Travaux/Actions Karstique 2021 at Galerie Simoncini

KARSTIC ACTIONS/WORKS: DOCUMENTATION

From June 4th — July 15, 2021 Galerie Simoncini —Luxembourg, presented the second extensive installment of Nicole Peyrafitte & Pierre Joris’ Domopoetics creations. The couple, who has shared life for three decades, moved in with their most recent KARSTIC ACTIONS/WORKS —paintings, texts, videos — & occupied the three levels of the gallery.
— On the ground floor, the Karstic Refuge where their domestic & political processes interconnect & transform.  
— In the basement, the Sanctuary, neither holy nor secret, but table/altar for their intimate domopoetic works.
— On the second floor, the Canopy, where the diversity & resilience of multi-species relations can be experienced.
For the opening & the finissage live Karstic-Action performances were presented. Below are the two videos:

OPENING:  Friday, June 4th at 6:00PM with an improvisation of Pascal Delalée on violin

 

FINISSAGE:  July 15 2021 with Colin Toniello on keyboard

VIDEOS on displayed at the gallery:
ResistPersistAssist -2020: https://vimeo.com/477008625
Nicole Peyrafitte -VOTE!-2020: https://vimeo.com/473998922
Pierre Joris -VOTE Manifesto-2020: https://youtu.be/o2cL2mj7bu8
Dé-Suffire/De-Suffice -2020: https://vimeo.com/443524314
Manifesto -2020: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/492536015 
Altars of Light -2006: https://vimeo.com/43001870
KINGSTON Karstic-Action 2020: https://vimeo.com/389405431

PRESS RELEASES:
English
French

POSTER:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INVITATION:

KARSTIC ACTIONS/WORKS Luxembourg & More!

KARSTIC ACTIONS/WORKS Luxembourg & More!

Hello everyone!
After a year & more sheltering at home in Brooklyn we are happy to head out to Europe, fully vaxxed, to pick up on gigs delayed by the pandemic. Four events are central, all taking place in Luxembourg:
1) our most recent KARSTIC ACTIONS/WORKS at Galerie Simoncini;
2) Pierre Receiving the Batty Weber Award;
3) the CNL celebrating his 75th birthday on 14 July (details to be announced)
4) the “finissage” of the KARSTIC ACTIONS/WORKS show on 15 July.
Voilà! Details below & looking forward to reconnect other that virtually.

1). Nicole Peyrafitte & Pierre Joris
ACTIONS/TRAVAUX KARSTIQUES
June 4th — July 15, 2021
Opening with a Performance Action on Friday, June 4th at 6:00PM

This exhibition/performance of paintings, texts, videos will occupy the gallery’s three levels:
—Sanctuaire/Sanctuary: basement
—Abri/Shelter: street level
—Canopy/Canopée : upper floor
Galerie Simoncini 6, Rue Notre Dame, Luxembourg.
For more details on this see:
Communiqué de Presse
Press Release

2) Just before the KARSTIC ACTIONS/WORKS, exhibition/performance, a long-delayed (because of covid) event will take place on 1 June: Pierre will receive the Batty Weber Prize  (Luxembourg’s life-time achievement award in literature). The ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. at the CNL (Centre National de Littérature) in Mersch in the presence of Minister of Culture, Sam Tanson & the director of the CNL, Nathalie Jacoby. A laudatio will be read by Jean Portante, celebratory poems sung by Nicole Peyrafitte accompanied by Pascal Delalée on violin, & Pierre will read the essay he wrote for the occasion & which will be available as a pamphlet from the CNL (Various Variable Words Variably Arranged in the Form of a Celebratory Talk-Essay on Language & Luxembourg).

3) We’ll be back in Mersch on July 14 as the CNL has proposed to celebrate Pierre’s 75th birthday by creating an event that will include poetry readings & performances by Nicole & some others of our friends, a public interview of PJ by Florent Toniello for a future book, and more. Details to be announced.

4) Finally on 15 July, the finissage will happen at the galerie Simoncini, possibly with a final performance as we take down the paintings, pack the videos & get ready to return to Brooklyn.

Other news:
Nicole’s
“Karstic-Action Je me dé-suffit/ Dé-suffice“: Official Selection of the 9th International Video Poetry Festival. The premiere of the festival will be on Sunday June 6th & will accessible to everyone in the entire world in the Video Art Zone 2021 section.
—Things Fall Where They Lie /Les Choses Tombent où Elles Reposent:
is now available on VOD to rent/buy
English subtitles  /  Sous-titres Français
—The Museum of the Women Library in Glasgow acquired the painting Nicole made during our performance at the CCA on 5th October 2016 as part of the Outside-In / Inside-Out poetry festival and symposium held in Glasgow and  here it is 
—Karstic Actions featured  in Periodico de Poesia UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)

Pierre’s
upcoming online events include:
— Workshop “Celan übersetzen” (FU Berlin, Literarisches Kolloquium Berlin), 14.-15. Juni 2021. This will be a zoom occasion. DTBA
— A Claude Pélieu Symposium in Paris to be held at the University of Chicago Center Paris, On 8/9 July. Still uncertain if this will be live or zoom. DTBA. 
— Pierre’s two 2020 Celan booksPaul Celan: Microliths (Posthumous prose) (CMP) & Paul Celan: Memory Rose into Threshold Speech —  Collected Earlier Poetry (FSG) have garnered quite some reviews. Here are links to some of these:

Have a wonderful summer everyone stay strong & healthy!
 

Pierre & Nicole

Invitation:

Poster:

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