Back from Albany (Capital City of New York State!)

Back from Albany (Capital City of New York State!)

Mike Bisio and I whipped cream at Justin’s on Thursday night. We had a big, wonderful and most of all very attentive crowd. The best audience I ever had at Justin’s so far. We mostly performed originals, contemporary poems with only a dash of French songs and jazz standards. Mike played two incredibly moving solos, one was John Coltrane’s Alabama & the second was a piece he created on September 11th, 2001 – as he was in the studio that day. By the way Mike Bisio will be playing next Saturday, 9/20 at The Clean Feed Fest at the Living Theatre with Basso Continuo : Stephen Gauci, Nate Wooley, Ken Filiano and Mike Bisio. Starts at 9pm. I will be there!

I also wanted to note that on Wednesday my younger son Miles Joris-Peyrafitte had his first solo public appearance as a singer/songwriter at the famous Tess’ Lark Tavern open mike hosted by the rock goddess of Upstate New York: Mother Judge. Miles did very well: he also accompanied me on guitar on my song the Brooklyn Bridge & on a poem by his father, Pierre Joris. After that he played drums for his long time friend, the very talented Lindsey Rogowski.

One of the poems Mike Bisio and I performed on Thursday was by Mustafa Benfodil. I met Mustafa at the Festival “Voix de la Méditéranée” in Lodève and really liked his work. With his permission I would like to post the poem I translated and performed with Mike Bisio on Thursday. Voilà for now, enjoy this short, but intense poem and THANK YOU so much if you were in the audience on Thursday & always THANK YOU to the wonderful crew at Justin’s for their graciousness –and I know this week was very hard for them as their were dealing with the sudden loss of one of their very dear co-worker. Merci à tous!

Lune de miel à Baghdad
Nous nous sommes connus à Gaza
Nous nous sommes aimés à Ramallah
Nous nous sommes embrassés à Beyrouth
Nous nous sommes mariés à Alger
Nous nous sommes envolés à Baghdad
Nous sommes morts sous les bombes
Et nos coeurs ont fondé une ONG
Pour la protection des amours à haut risque
Et la continuation de la passion sous les tombes!

Honey moon in Baghdad
We met in Gaza
We loved in Ramallah
We kissed in Beirut
We wed in Algiers
We flew to Baghdad
We died under the bombs
& our hearts founded a NGO
for the protection of high risk love
& the continuation of passion under the tombs!

Poem by Mustafa Benfodil translated by Nicole Peyrafitte

Events 09/11 & 09/14

Events 09/11 & 09/14

Getting ready to go to Albany to see my family but also looking forward to gig with Mike Bisio the grand bassist & composer extraodinaire on Thursday Sept 11 @ Justin’s 9PM.

We will perform mostly originals, contemporary poetry and maybe our signature song or is it a dish? Pierre Joris posted two videos of Mike and I on his blog. Speaking of Pierre, he and I will be part of a celebration I am very much looking forward to:

At the Bowery Poetry Club, Sunday, September 14, 4:00 to 6:00PM

Jerome Rothenberg will be hosting a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Technicians of the Sacred, which brought a global range of oral & tribal poetry into focus & launched ethnopoetics as a new approach to poetry & performance. Joining him will be a group of active poets & performers including Charles Bernstein, Bob Holman, Pierre Joris, Charlie Morrow, Nicole Peyrafitte, Diane Rothenberg, Carolee Schneemann, & Cecilia Vicuña. (Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, between Houston & Bleecker, in NYC.)
Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania, Second edition, Revised and Expanded


and for the new French edition, http://www.jose-corti.fr/titresmerveilleux/techniciensSacre.htm

Waiting for Gustav

Waiting for Gustav

All our thoughts to Megan Burns, Dave Brinks & all the poets in New Orleans. I just spoke to Dave, they have evacuated & they are patiently waiting for Gustav to do his thing. The good news is the storm has weakened slightly before landfall, it is now a category 2 hurricane. Dave recommended getting infos from WWLTV.com, I have also been looking at the National Hurricane Center website.

Saturday, Megan Burns posted a poem on her blog about their current hurricane experience, I have pasted it below but do log on to Megan’s blog for more great poetry. I am also posting two videos made by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte with poems by Megan Burns & Dave Brinks. They were recorded, shot & edited when Pierre Joris, Miles (our son) and I, visited New Orleans after Katrina in November 2005. Miles was then 13 and by the way he will he be 16 tomorrow (Happy Birthday Miles!) since then Miles returned twice to Nola. I am planning to return early this winter and hopefully research on a project that involves food, poetry & genealogy. More on that later, meanwhile we are thinking of you friends down there!

3rd Anniversary/ 1st Evacuation Since…
by Megan Burns

More Than Halfway

infected season
if time won’t hold still
this life too is a dreary anger
let it come
take us what water that will
grasp at our designs
a life that falters as best can be described
it’s a short ride in darkening light
to a part of the city still trembling
and tethered
most of the block stays the same
looking further into the enveloping night
see how the homes have been beaten
a memory from childhood
taken out to lay down in disgrace
folded edges as witness palimpsest
danger overlapping disaster
shimmering gaze—all cities reject silence
desolate as is the world wrapped round us
the repetition of “towards recovery”
place holders these empty hulls
beached on the shore of this sunken city
exposed as a vacuum filling with anxiety
each time a breeze picks up in the Atlantic
each time a butterfly wing opens and closes
half way around the earth

Megan Burns
8.29.08

November 2005:
Long Night Moon poem Megan Burns, Video Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

Good House Keeping poem by David Brinks, Video Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

More about the summer

More about the summer

ready for the reading!

I promise this my last post about the “Voix de la Mediterranée” in Lodève (well maybe, because it bring so much joy to reminisce about it!). During 10 days, about 80 poets and performers, take over the entire town. Poets perform everyday and sometime twice a day. The readings are outdoor, they start at 10 AM and end at about 2 AM every day!
There are readings along the river with the audience on buoys, or with their feet in the water, on a hammocks, or in chaises longues at candle night very late, and sometimes even on a real chairs!
There are action poets, political poets, lyrical poets, great poets, boring poets, storytellers, translators, musicians and a big book fair. Poets & performers come from all around the Mediterranean countries. There were Occitanans, Catalans, Basques, Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, Greeks, Italians, Macedonians, Turks, Iranians, Egyptians, Saudi Arabians, Croatians, Israelis, Slovenians, Bosnians Herzegovinians, Syrians and even a bunch of French poets! Unfortunately the Palestinian poets were missing, they were not given visas, it is not clear to me how and why but it is deplorable.

Bon, that is is for now your turn to enjoy!
https://www.nicolepeyrafitte.com/imagesblog/lodeve/LODEVE.html