Moma Talks: Performances And Readings

Read by Thomas Sayers Elils as part of the Futurism and the New Manifesto program, February 20, 2009 On the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of the Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, poets Charles Bernstein, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, and Alicia Stallings recite historical works, as well as their own contemporary manifestos, in the public space of the Museum's Garden Lobby. This program is a collaboration with Poetry magazine. Download the program handout in PDF format More information available from the Poetry Foundation www.poetryfoundation.org Listen to the Poetry Foundation's interview with Mary Anne Caws.

Read by A. E. Stallings as part of the Futurism and the New Manifesto program, February 20, 2009 On the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of the Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, poets Charles Bernstein, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, and Alicia Stallings recite historical works, as well as their own contemporary manifestos, in the public space of the Museum's Garden Lobby. This program is a collaboration with Poetry magazine. Download the program handout in PDF format More information available from the Poetry Foundation www.poetryfoundation.org Listen to the Poetry Foundation's interview with Mary Anne Caws.

Read by Charles Bernstein as part of the Futurism and the New Manifesto program, February 20, 2009 On the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of the Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, poets Charles Bernstein, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, and Alicia Stallings recite historical works, as well as their own contemporary manifestos, in the public space of the Museum's Garden Lobby. This program is a collaboration with Poetry magazine. Download the program handout in PDF format More information available from the Poetry Foundation www.poetryfoundation.org Listen to the Poetry Foundation's interview with Mary Anne Caws.

Read by A.E. Stallings as part of the Futurism and the New Manifesto program, February 20, 2009 On the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of the Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, poets Charles Bernstein, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, and Alicia Stallings recite historical works, as well as their own contemporary manifestos, in the public space of the Museum's Garden Lobby. This program is a collaboration with Poetry magazine. Download the program handout in PDF format More information available from the Poetry Foundation www.poetryfoundation.org Listen to the Poetry Foundation's interview with Mary Anne Caws.

Read by Charles Bernstein as part of the Futurism and the New Manifesto program, February 20, 2009 On the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of the Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, poets Charles Bernstein, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, and Alicia Stallings recite historical works, as well as their own contemporary manifestos, in the public space of the Museum's Garden Lobby. This program is a collaboration with Poetry magazine. Download the program handout in PDF format More information available from the Poetry Foundation www.poetryfoundation.org Listen to the Poetry Foundation's interview with Mary Anne Caws.

The first Futurist Manifesto, written by the poet and writer F.T. Marinetti and published on the front page of Le Figaro on February 20, 1909, proclaimed a burning desire—fueled by industry, war, and the rise of the machine—to race into the future. Tired of resting on the laurels of their cultural heritage and disdainful of their uneventful present, the Futurists called for a new aesthetic language appropriate for the new modernity. On the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of the Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, poets Charles Bernstein, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Joshua Mehigan, and Alicia Stallings recite historical works, as well as their own contemporary manifestos, in the public space of the Museum's Garden Lobby. Excerpts from Luca Buvoli's video Velocity Zero (2007), in which the slow reading of the tenets of the Futurist Manifesto by people with aphasia contrasts with the frenetic speed that characterized Futurism, will also be on view. This program is a collaboration with Poetry magazine, whos

Wednesday, June 21, 2006 6:00 p.m. An evening of historical Dada poetry with LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Bob Holman, and Pierre Joris. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Dada.

March 28, 2007 6:00 p.m. The exhibition Out of Time: A Contemporary View considers notions of temporality and reconstructions of time through memory, fantasy, dreams, and history in a variety of media. The increasing prevalence of technology, whether as an artist’s medium or as visual stimulation in mass culture, changes the way we experience, record, and perceive time. On the occasion of this exhibition, MoMA asked poets to explore how technology informs the language and rhythms of poetry. Caroline Bergvall, poet, and Co-Chair, Writing MFA, Milton Avery School for the Arts, Bard College; Greta Byrum, poet and sound artist; Robert Fitterman, poet; Kenneth Goldsmith, poet, Professor, Creative Writing Program, The University of Pennsylvania, and founding editor of ubuweb.com read works of their own and of others. This program is a collaboration between The Museum of Modern Art and ubuweb.com. Photo courtesy of Paula Court

November 10, 2008 6:30 p.m. In 1913, the cartoonist George Herriman created Krazy Kat, a comic strip that first appeared in William Randolph Hearst's New York Evening Journal. The cartoon was published in the United States until 1944, offering American and international readers constant companionship in its characters: Krazy Kat, an innocent cat of indeterminate gender; Ignatz Mouse, Krazy's antagonist; Offissa Pupp, the protective police dog; and others. This evening's program reconsiders Herriman's stories through the lens of comics and poetry. Poet Monica Youn reads her own collection of works about Ignatz, first published in The Paris Review in the summer of 2007; and J. Hoberman, senior film critic, The Village Voice, speaks about the impact of Krazy Kat on the comics medium. Meghan O'Rourke, poet, critic, and co–poetry editor, The Paris Review, moderates a discussion. This program is a collaboration between The Museum of Modern Art and The Paris Review.

October 6, 2008 6:30 p.m. Throughout his short career, Vincent van Gogh grappled with the daunting problem of painting light at night. The exhibition Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night features depictions by the artist of twilight and nocturnal landscapes, interior scenes, and the effects of both gaslight and natural light on their surroundings. This program, held in the Museum's Sculpture Garden, presents artists and poets whose own work elicits the spirit of the night as they read a diverse selection of poetry and literature. Vija Celmins, artist, and Eliot Weinberger, writer, editor, and translator and collaborator on the book The Stars; Neil Folberg, photographer of the collection Travels with Van Gogh and the Impressionists; and Ann Lauterbach, poet, read works that Van Gogh admired by Hans Christian Andersen, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Walt Whitman, along with poems by contemporary writers on the theme of nighttime. This event is held in conjunction with the exhibition Van Gogh and the Colors of

Modern Poets Frank O'Hara: Selected Poems at Lunchtime July 16, 2008 12:00 p.m. Alfred A. Knopf, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Poetry Society of America present a reading from the recently published Selected Poems by Frank O'Hara, edited by Mark Ford (which includes poetry, a play, and essays). Held at lunchtime, the program commemorates O'Hara's tradition of writing poetry during his lunch hour while working at MoMA. Participants include poets Lee Ann Brown, Dan Chiasson, Hettie Jones, Vincent Katz, Philip Schultz, and Maureen O'Hara, Frank O'Hara's sister. Selected Poems, as well as O'Hara's In Memory of My Feelings, will be available for sale following the reading.

June 30, 2008 6:30 p.m. This program showcases a range of Salvador Dalí's provocative and poetic writings, from his opinions on art and popular culture and his well-known explanations of Surrealist practice (including his so-called paranoid-critical method) to unpublished and newly-translated texts. Performers read the artist's poetry, diary entries, musings about New York, letters, interviews, and film scripts, as well as his notorious 1928 Manifest Groc (Yellow Manifesto). Participants include performance artist Laurie Anderson, former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic, Academy Award nominee David Strathairn and Wooster Group founding member Kate Valk. This event is held in conjunction with the exhibition Dalí: Painting and Film.

December 11, 2007 7:30 p.m. Toward the end of his brief but influential career, Georges Seurat turned to the Parisian café-concert for subject matter, creating a significant body of work that explored the singers, musicians, and audience of this intriguing nineteenth-century urban cultural spectacle. Using these drawings by Seurat as a springboard, The Civilians, a New York–based theater company, will bring together a selection of original songs rarely performed today with projected depictions of the café-concerts by Seurat's Impressionist predecessors, such as Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas, as well as those by Seurat and his contemporary Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Interspersed between these songs—providing texture and context—will be readings from contemporary literature offering evocative descriptions of these locales. Founded in 2001 by Artistic Director Steven Cosson, The Civilians is an innovative theater company that produces original work from creative investigations of real life. The company has cre

February 20, 2008 6:30 p.m. Alvaro Barrios and Fernando Bryce, artists featured in New Perspectives in Latin American Art, 1930-2006: Selections from a Decade of Acquisitions, use newspaper clippings, comics, and advertisements, as well other documentary images and texts, in order to reflect upon history, popular culture, and issues of identity. For this evening's reading, these artists read poetry that has informed the political and social consciousness of their work. Mónica de la Torre, poet and translator, joins them, offering her own selection of poetry about Latin American politics and identity. Following the reading, Luis Pérez-Oramas, The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art at MoMA and organizer of the exhibition, moderates a discussion. Selected readings are in Spanish. Photo courtesy of Paula Court

1907/2007: Poets on Les Demoiselles d'Avignon May 23, 2007 6:30 p.m. In conjunction with the one hundredth anniversary of Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, May's installment of Modern Poets reflects upon Picasso's masterpiece, other works in the Museum's collection made in 1907, and the year 1907 itself. Readings include works written by Picasso's friends and acquaintances—such as Guillaume Apollinaire, André Salmon, and Gertrude Stein—who saw and responded to Les Demoiselles, as well as other literature from this cultural and artistic milieu. Following in the tradition of the MoMA Members Magazine, which commissioned poets to respond to works in the collection and then published the results, the Museum also offers contemporary poets the opportunity to write new poetry about art from all curatorial departments made one hundred years ago. Participants include Mary Jo Bang, poet and Associate Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program, Washington University, St. Louis; Mary Ann C

April 9, 2007 6:30 p.m. The Venezuelan Armando Reverón (1889–1954), a figurative and landscape painter who also created life-sized dolls later in his career, experimented with the sensations and effects of light, color, opacity, and shadow. In this Spanish reading with English translations, José Luis Blondet, poet and Administrator of Education Programs, Dia Art Foundation; José Falconi, Curator, Latino and Latin American Art Forum Program, and Associate Director, Cultural Agents Initiative, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University; Alejandro Merizalde, painter, translator, and Book Specialist, The Museum of Modern Art; Luis Pérez-Oramas, poet and The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, read works by Jorge Luis Borges, José Gorostiza, José Antonio Ramos Sucre, Ana Enriqueta Teran, and others. Mónica de la Torre and Laura Pérez provide the English translations. The evening reveals the relationship between the pictorial qualities of poetry a

April 9, 2007 6:30 p.m. The Venezuelan Armando Reverón (1889–1954), a figurative and landscape painter who also created life-sized dolls later in his career, experimented with the sensations and effects of light, color, opacity, and shadow. In this Spanish reading with English translations, José Luis Blondet, poet and Administrator of Education Programs, Dia Art Foundation; José Falconi, Curator, Latino and Latin American Art Forum Program, and Associate Director, Cultural Agents Initiative, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University; Alejandro Merizalde, painter, translator, and Book Specialist, The Museum of Modern Art; Luis Pérez-Oramas, poet and The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, read works by Jorge Luis Borges, José Gorostiza, José Antonio Ramos Sucre, Ana Enriqueta Teran, and others. Mónica de la Torre and Laura Pérez provide the English translations. The evening reveals the relationship between the pictorial qualities of poetry a

Thursday, November 30, 2006 6:00 p.m. Frank O'Hara worked at The Museum of Modern Art on and off for fifteen years—first selling postcards, then curating exhibitions and writing catalogue copy—all while composing poems during his lunch hour. This program features poets John Ashbery and Bill Berkson, artist Alfred Leslie, and Museum Archivist Michelle Elligott as they share their memories of O'Hara and his love for poetry and art during his time at MoMA. Photo courtesy of Miriam Berkley

with Melvin Gibbs, Mary Halvorson, Lee Ranaldo, Vernon Reid, and Elliott Sharp Musical director: Elliott Sharp September 13, 2006 6:30 p.m. The Museum of Modern Art presents Christian Marclay: Graffiti Composition, a performance of Christian Marclay's musical score Graffiti Composition. In 1996 the artist plastered more than 5,000 blank musical notation sheets in public places throughout Berlin during a month-long sound festival, thus randomly enabling the public to fill them freely with musical notations, scribblings, or anything else. Marclay photographed the graffitied sheets, selected 150 from the group, and compiled them into a portfolio that is meant to be used by musicians to perform. Graffiti Composition has been interpreted by a variety of musical ensembles in the last few years, including at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 2001, the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans in 2002, and the Barbican Centre, London, in 2005. For this one-time performance, composer/producer/sound artist Elliott Shar