Clearly, I need to start paying attention to things…
April 15th - 17th will bring the &Now Festival to the campus of Chapman University. What is &Now you ask? Well, official website of &Now 2008, how would you answer that question?
&NOW is a biannual gathering for authors and critics of contemporary, innovative literature and art, including fiction, poetry, e-writing, visually-driven writing, and other kinds of mixed and indeterminate genres.
Basically, writers, artists and critics will gather for three days and read, lecture, discuss, etc. If you happen to be in/around Orange CA, then you may want to take a look at the schedule of events.
Now as all Normalinauts know, Chapman is where I am currently pursuing two (semi-worthless) graduate degrees. For some reason (my guess is a mixture of apathy and obliviousness) I did not find out about said “festivities” until, literally, last night when I discovered that fully half of my current workshop class will be participating in readings over the course of the three days. Well, good for my classmates…bad for Kilian…
Now that I am informed about the whole “festival” I would like to highlight a few specific events. First off, James P Blaylock and Alicia Kozameh will be reading a on the 17th as part of a group entitled “Sexual Stealing; Skin; Fabulous; Exile/Home/Immortality.” I had the opportunity to hear Kozameh read last year and I highly recommend seeing her if you get a chance. And, of course, we are all aware that James Blaylock is considered a good friend of Normality Restored. In Blaylock’s own words, he will be reading a “short story that I wrote.” So, that’s a fairly glowing recommendation, I think. Also, David Antin will be the closing speaker on the final day of the event, for all you poetically minded out there.
And, as I mentioned, several Chapman students will be reading throughout the event. While I can’t speak to every student reading, I can suggest that, if you happen to attend, you might want to make a point of hearing Cruz Medina, and Daniel Schutz on the 15th, Ryan Wirick on the 16th, and Danielle Soucy, Nidzara Pecenkovic, and Jazmine Green on the 17th.
Of course, my inability to realize such an event was taking place at my very own school means that no one will be graced with a reading by yours truly. Though, even if I had submitted something for consideration, my guess is that I would have been told in no uncertain terms, “thanks but no!”
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April 3rd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Clearly, the planner needs a serious beating. How many people aren’t either A)working, or B)in class at those times?
Until then I’ll prefer to watch the Urban Ninja:
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I’m one click away from removing that clearly off topic video…but anyway, most English classes on campus are shutting down for the events. Most academic conferences occur at least partly on weekdays. And the events run all day, and into the night. Honestly, if I would have known about it sooner I would have taken at least one day off of work to attend…
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
The ninja is clearly on topic since it was a ninja event. But I’m digressing my point was more normal people are either working, or have classes during the hours of the festival. To which I say the organizer needs a beating.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:27 pm
No you are wrong on both points. Ninja events clearly ARE NOT on topic. This wasn’t a random event post, but a specific event post, so unless they have secretly added Ninja’s to the &Now platform, it has no bearing on this at all…
Secondly, I already pointed out that the people this event is for will more then likely be attending since A) most classes relating to the subject matter won’t meet during the conference, and B) people coming in from other places to take part are used to this sort of thing and would plan accordingly. You might be working, but again, these things are usually announced a year or so in advance (my total obliviousness not withstanding) which is more then enough time to TAKE SOME VACATION TIME…and besides, you’re trying to tell me that if you wanted to go to one of the readings in the middle of the day and you left the shop for a few hours anyone would care and/or comment about it…
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I was saying ninja as in Hidden, or not known about. Not as in the &Now platform would have Ninjas attending,or performing at the event(though that would be cool too). In all the time you’ve been attending Chapman I’ve never heard of this festival. In fact I didn’t hear about its existance until you uncovered it so it can’t have been anounced that well.
My point is that not everyone who would like to attend such an event would be in the English grad program, and thus not having the time off from class. I mean noon to 5 is not a great time segment during the middle of the week. The segments after 5 looks to be fillers, and thus not something most(could be wrong on this) people would be interested in.
As for complaints from me randomly leaving work in the middle of the day let me quote a Buffy episode “I have heard a few complaints over the years, but then I just killed whoever spoke up, and that was pretty much that.”
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:18 pm
In fact, Chapman hasn’t ever had this festival before because it switches host schools every time it is held (which is only in even years, actually), last time it was somewhere in Illinois. And, actually, when I was a full time student, I often had huge chunks of the middle of the day open…obviously there’s no way to accomodate everyone…most college students that I know/knew that did work mostly did it on the weekend, so I’d venture less students would be able to attend a friday-sunday conference…no one would who didn’t travel from out of town would be able to see everything, obviously, but I’m willing to bet that even non-english students (and by the way, all grad classes are at night, i was speaking about the undergrad classes being canceled) would be able to convince their professors to let them attend…unless you had a particularly a-hole of a professor…
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
And some people obviously heard about it because you had to have submissions in by December 15…just because I didn’t hear about it doesn’t mean everyone else is as unaware when on campus as I am…
April 5th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Hello, kilian, I didn’t know you had this web site going on. I especially enjoyed the interview with Blaylock. Thanks for spreading the word about &now. I’ll be reading the scene with Lyla/Isabella/Cleopatra and Cleve in the desert from the end of chapter three. For some reason I thought everyone got an email about the festival. Wish I would’ve made an announcement in Powers’ class. Oh well… Your reading shall be missed, but your attendance shall be extolled!
April 6th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I think the consensus is that each of the scenes with Cleopatra are the some of the best in your work. I would say that the audience is in for a treat…even if they aren’t exactly sure what’s going on…
And thanks for the kind words re: Blaylock…I would say, you may want to check back in around the 17th or 18th…