An audience of approximately forty people turned out for poet Robert Grenier’s reading in the UMaine New Writing Series on Thursday, 5 October 2006. Grenier interpreted his hand-drawn notebook poems from slides projected onto the Soderberg Auditorium’s large screen. A first set of slides, showing poems composed in the early spring of 2006, explored the natural landscape of Connecticut. After a short break, Grenier showed a second set of slides, rooted in the environment of Bolinas, California, where he has long made his home. Grenier offered a running commentary on the process by which his “drawn” poems are made, their quatrain-like character (four words, four colors), their relationship to conventional mimesis and the history of poetry, the ecological imperatives underpinning them, and the activity required of readers, including himself, of deciphering them. Audience members asked questions and assisted in the reading at various points. Archival record: digital video tape (VHS and dvd duplicates available shortly). See more photos on Ben Friedlander’s flickr page.
Prior to showing the slides, Grenier talked about the limited-edition prints he makes from the notebook poems (an example of which can be seen lower left):
This picture shows Grenier and his partner Susan Friedland sorting slides before the event:
After the reading, an audience member studies Grenier’s work:
[...] Close Listening is a poetry radio show hosted by Charles Bernstein (NWS ) on WPS1.org. On the most recent show, aired 20 October 2006, Bernstein hosted poet Bob Grenier for an hour’s worth of conversation on his development as a poet, his relationship to Larry Eigner, and his long work “Sentences,” from which he reads in the second half of the program. The audiofiles, split into two mp3s of roughly 30-minutes each, can be heard here. The event report for Grenier’s 5 October 2006 reading in the NWS is here. [...]
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