Be Well, Friends & Family!

In consideration of the safety of our communities, and in deference to the LA Department of Public Health's recent guidance, the Poetic Research Bureau is suspending its public programming for the time being. We're watching current events closely, and hope to see you all again later this spring.

In the meantime, read some good books, stream some good films, play games with your pals, and make great stuff. We know you will.

Good health, and bon courage,
The PRB

Sunday, March 8: Alan Bernheimer, Aaron Kunin & Martha Ronk

Alan Bernheimer’s latest collection is From Nature (Cuneiform Press, 2019). Recent work has appeared at Across the Margin and at SFMOMA’s Open Space and in The Equalizer, The Delineator, and Hambone. The Spoonlight Institute was published by Adventures in Poetry in 2009. Born and raised in Manhattan, he has lived in the Bay Area since the 1970s. He produces a portrait gallery of poets reading on flickr and edits Retroscope, a series of literary travel writing from yesteryear at Nowhere magazine. His translation of Philippe Soupault’s memoir, Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism, was published by City Lights in 2016. More information is at The Electronic Poetry Center.

Aaron Kunin is the author of seven books of poetry and prose, including Love Three (Wave Books, 2019), Character as Form (Bloomsbury, 2019) and the collection of poems Cold Genius (Fence, 2014). He lives in California where he works as a literature professor at Pomona College.

Martha Ronk is the author of several collections of poetry, including Silences* (Omnidawn, 2019); Ocular Proof (Omnidawn, 2016); Transfer of Qualities (Omnidawn, 2013); Partially Kept (Nightboat, 2012); Vertigo (Coffee House Press, 2007), which was selected by C. D. Wright as a part of the National Poetry Series; and Desire in LA (University of Georgia Press, 1990). In addition to poetry, she has written a collection of short stories, Glass Grapes: And Other Stories (BOA Editions, 2008); and an ironic memoir, Displeasures of the Table (Green Integer, 2001).

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Sunday afternoon, March 8
Doors open: 1pm
Readings start: 1:30pm

951 Chung King Rd
Chinatown, Los Angeles

Free, open to all. 

Saturday night reading postponed

Our Saturday night reading with Tessa Micaela and Thabile Makue has been canceled due to recent changes in travel schedules. However, Thabile will read with us in a few weeks, on March 20, along with Darcie Dennigan.

Sunday afternoon, we welcome Alan Bernheimer, whose latest book From Nature is just out from Cuneiform Press. Alan will be joined by Martha Ronk and Aaron Kunin.

Saturday, February 28: Cardboard House Bilingual Poetry Series

Doors 7:30pm
Reading 8pm

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The Poetic Research Bureau and Cardboard House Press presents:

Maricela Guerrero
David Shook
Stalina Villarreal
Cristián Gómez Olivares
Ilana Dann Luna

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https://cardboardhousepress.org/
(Desplazarse hacia abajo para leer las bios en español)

Maricela Guerrero Reyes (Ciudad de México) composes poems and other written materials while she works at a bureaucratic institution. She has published some books of poetry, including De lo perdido, lo hallado (CONACULTA-FONCA, 2015), Análisis del desgaste (Frac de Medusas, Madrid, 2016), and the digital edition of Fricciones (Centro de Cultura Digital, 2016) http://editorial.centroculturadigital.mx/libro/fricciones. With her latest book, El sueño de toda célula (Antílope, 2018), she earned the Clemencia Isaura prize. In translation, she has published Kilimanjaro, translated into the English by Stalina Villarreal (Cardboard House Press, 2018) and Fricciones/Reibungen, translated into the German by Johanna Schwering (Hochroth, 2019). In collaboration with Paula Abramo and Xitlalitl Rodríguez, she created Ropa Sucia, in which they expose the various problems that make the work of women writers invisible. Guerrero Reyes currently lives in Mexico City.

David Shook is a poet, translator, and editor whose work has spanned a wide range of languages and regions, with an emphasis on underrepresented voices. As founder of Phoneme, Shook has edited award-winning books translated from twenty-six languages, including the first ever book-length translations from Lingala and Uyghur. Their most recent translations include Jorge Eduardo
Eielson’s Room in Rome, presently a finalist for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, and a selection of contemporary poetry from Rojava. Shook is currently at work on their next collection of poems, Atlas estelar.

Cristián Gómez Olivares (Santiago, Chile). A poet and translator, his most recent poetry books are El hombre de acero (2020, Liliputienses), El libro rojo (2019, Mantrax) and  La nieve es nuestra (2015, Luces de Gálibo); he translated Cosmopolitan and Model City, by Donna Stonecipher, and translated and edited Feliz Año Nuevo, a compilation of Monica de La Torre's poetry. Together with Monica de La Torre, he edited Malditos latinos, malditos sudacas: Poesía hispanoamericana in USA (2009, El Billar de Lucrecia), a compilation Latinx/Latin American poets. He was a writer in residence at the IWP, at The University of Iowa and at The Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, Canada. He is Associate Editor of Cardboard House Press and teaches Latin American Poetry at Case Western Reserve University.

Stalina Emmanuelle Villarreal (Merida, Mexico) lives as a rhyming-slogan creative activist. She is a Mexican poet who identifies as Chicana. She is a student in the Creative Writing Program at University of Houston. Her poetry has been published in the Rio Grande Review, Texas Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and The Acentos Review. She is a coauthor of an article in the book Chicana Movidas. She has translated Luis Alberto Arellano, Ilán Stavans, Minerva Reynosa, Maricela Guerrero, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz into English. She lives in pochismos.

Ilana Luna (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, EEUU) is Associate professor of Latin American Studies and Spanish at Arizona State University. She is a writer and translator of poetry and prose. You can find some of her recent creative work in Jacket2, Hostos Review, Askew, Four Chambers Press, Oomph!, Barzakh, Vice Versa, Contrapuntos, and Hektoen International. She has translated books of poetry that include Juan José Rodinás’s Koan: Underwater (Cardboard House Press, 2018), Judith Santopietro’s Tiawanaku: Poems from the Madre Coqa (Orca Libros, 2019), and Giancarlo Huapaya’s Sub Verse Workshop (Lavender Ink/ Diálogos, 2020). She is author of Adapting Gender: Mexican Feminisms from Literature to Film (SUNY Press, 2018) that considers the subversive potential of film adaptation of literary texts that intersect with feminist discourses in a neoliberal Mexico, and Director of Programming for Femme Revolution Film Fest, in Mexico City.

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Maricela Guerrero Reyes (Ciudad de México) crea poemas y otros materiales escritos mientras trabaja en una institución burocrática. Ha publicado algunos libros de poesía, entre ellos se encuentran De lo perdido, lo hallado (CONACULTA-FONCA, 2015), Análisis del desgaste (Frac de Medusas, Madrid, 2016) y la edición digital de Fricciones (Centro de Cultura Digital, 2016) http://editorial.centroculturadigital.mx/libro/fricciones. Con su último libro, El sueño de toda célula (Antílope, 2018), obtuvo el premio Clemencia Isaura. En traducción ha publicado Kilimanjaro, traducido al inglés por Stalina Villarreal (Cardboard House Press, 2018) y Fricciones/Reibungen, traducido al alemán por Johanna Schwering (Hochroth, 2019). En colaboración con Paula Abramo y Xitlalitl Rodríguez creó el proyecto Ropa Sucia, en la que exponen los diversos problemas que hacen que el trabajo de las escritoras sea invisible. Guerrero Reyes actualmente vive en la Ciudad de México.

David Shook es poeta, traductor y editor que divide su tiempo entre el norte de California y el norte de Irak. Ha traducido a más de quince libros del español, incluyendo obras de Mario Bellatin, Tedi López Mills, Jorge Eduardo Eielson y Pablo Jofré. Desde que fundó a la editorial Phoneme Media ha publicado traducciones de 26 idiomas al inglés, incluyendo las primeras ediciones de idiomas como uighur y lingala. Actualmente termina de escribir su segundo poemario, Atlas estelar.

Cristián Gómez O. (Santiago de Chile). Poeta y traductor, ha publicado -entre otros títulos- Alfabeto para nadie (2008), La casa de Trotsky (2011), La nieve es nuestra (2012, 2015) y El libro rojo (2019). Junto a Mónica de La Torre, publicó la antología Malditos latinos, malditos sudacas. Poesía hispanoamericana made in USA. (2009). Ha traducido los libros Cosmopolita (2014) y Ciudad modelo (2018), de Donna Stonecipher, y la plaquette Yo solía decir su nombre (2020), de Carl Phillips. También publicó La poesía al poder. De Casa de Las Américas a Mcnally Jackson, donde reúne sus ensayos en torno a la poesía hispanoamericana contemporánea.

Stalina Emmanuelle Villarreal (Mérida, México) vive como activista creativa del slogan rítmico. Es una poeta mexicana de identidad chicana. Estudia en el programa de escritura de la Universidad de Houston. Su poesía se ha publicado en Rio Grande Review, Texas Review, Spoon River Poetry Review y The Acentos Review. Es coautora de un artículo en el libro Chicana Movidas. Ha traducido a Luis Alberto Arellano, Ilán Stavans, Minerva Reynosa, Maricela Guerrero y Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz al inglés. Vive en pochismos.

Ilana Luna (Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, EEUU) es profesora asociada y coordinadora del programa de Estudios latinoamericanos en Arizona State University (ASU) donde imparte clases de literatura, cine y estudios culturales. Es autora del libro Adapting Gender: Mexican Feminisms from Literature to Film (SUNY Press, 2018). Es traductora de poesía y prosa, incluyendo la obra de Ignacio Ruíz Pérez (Chiapas, México), Paul Guillén (Ica, Perú), Mauricio Espinoza (San José, Costa Rica) Gaelle Le Calvez (México) Jesús Ramírez Bermúdez (México) y Carlos Monsiváis (México). Ha traducido los libros de poesía Koan Underwater del ecuatoriano Juan José Rodinás (Cardboard House Press, 2018), Tiawanaku: Poems from  the Mother Coqa (Orca Libros, 2019) de la mexicana Judith Santopietro y Sub Verse Workshop del peruano Giancarlo Huapaya (Diálogos/ Lavender Ink, en imprenta). Actualmente sirve en la mesa directiva de Cardboard House Press, una casa editorial cuya labor es la difusión de poesía latinoamericana en traducción y es la directora de programación del festival internacional Femme Revolution Film Fest (FRFF), en la Ciudad de México.

Friday, Feb 28: A Night with Filmmaker Ryan Darbonne

On Friday February 28th, 951 Chung King Road once again opens its doors and lends its venue to a screening series programmed by writer/filmmaker Nick Toti. This installment will feature the work of comedy maverick Ryan Darbonne, a Texas native who has spent the past decade dissecting the absurdities of alienation through sketch comedy, music, theater, and his recent short film I AM TX.

This screening will feature a selection of work from Hello Optimism (Darbonne's outré and seriously underrated sketch comedy group), music videos he has directed and/or performed in, and the film I AM TX.

Date: Friday, February 28th, 2020
Time: doors open at 7:30pm; screening begins at 8:00pm
Location: Poetic Research Bureau - 951 Chung King Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Cost: Free

Saturday, Feb 22: Steve Benson, Michael Smoler, Alexis Krasilovsky

 

Steve Benson lived in Southern California from 1971 to 1976. He’s lived in Surry, Maine, since 1996. He collaborated with Suzanne Stein in 36 improvised public on-line chat messaging performances now collected in Do Your Own Damn Laundry (Gauss.pdf, 2019). Benson co-authored the Grand Piano series of autobiographical essays (Mode A, 2006-10) with nine old friends. What This Is, three new long poems, is forthcoming from Chax Press.

Alexis Krasilovsky is the author of the book Great Adaptations: Screenwriting and Global Storytelling (Routledge: NY/London, October 2017) and a novel entitled Sex and the Cyborg Goddess (under the pseudonym Alexis Rafael), which tackles sexual liberation and sexual assault on a college campus, and sexual harassment in the film industry.

Michael Smoler lives in Los Angeles. He is the author of five small-press poetry chapbooks, including most recently, Pieces of Water, from Insert Blanc Press. He studied Writing and Poetics at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

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Saturday, February 22, 2020

951 Chung King Road

Chintaown, LA

Doors 7:30pm
Reading 8pm

Friday, February 21: JoAnna Novak, Emily Brandt, Sophia Le Fraga, Joshua Escobar

The Poetic Research Bureau presents...

JOANNA NOVAK
EMILY BRANDT
SOPHIA LE FRAGA
& JOSHUA ESCOBAR

Friday, February 21, 2020

Doors 7:30pm
Reading 8pm

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JoAnna Novak is the author of the novel I Must Have You and two books of poetry: Noirmania and Abeyance, North America. Her essay “My $1000 Anxiety Attack” was anthologized in About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of The New York Times. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Paris Review, The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Fence, Guernica, AGNI, BOMB, and other publications. She is a co-founder of the literary journal and chapbook publisher, Tammy, and teaches in the MFA program at Mount Saint Mary's University in Los Angeles.

Emily Brandt is the author of the poetry collection Falsehood, as well as three chapbooks. She's a co-founding editor of No, Dear, curator of the LINEAGE reading series at Wendy’s Subway, and an Instructional Coach at a NYC public school. She’s of Sicilian, Polish & Ukranian descent, and lives in Brooklyn.

Sophia Le Fraga is the author of literallydead, founding editor of the Instagram zine, No Issue (@no___ish), and host of Having a Smoke With You. She lives and works in LA.

Joshua Escobar (DJ Ashtrae) is the author of the chapbooks Caljforkya Voltage, and xxox fm. He publishes the all-ages zine Orange Mercury, and the student publication Open Fruit. Bareback Nightfall, his first book, will be published in the Akrilica Series in 2020. He is a CantoMundo fellow, and Assistant Professor of English Composition and Literature at Santa Barbara City College.