Anne Waldman
Walker Art Center — February 20, 2000
co-sponsored by the Walker Art Center
Our first collaboration with the Walker, which led to the creation of our ongoing collaborative series Free Verse. The dynamic Waldman performed on the museum's main stage to a nearly full auditorium, with occasional saxophone accompaniment by Minnesota's own Michael Lewis, from the acclaimed jazz trio Happy Apple.
George Kalamaras
Rain Taxi Salon — April 9, 2000
In town for another engagement, the prolific Kalamaras dropped by to read selections from The Theory and Function of Mangoes, an award-winning first book that is part travelogue, part meditative trance.
Poetry as Theory/Theory as Poetry 2000
A conference sponsored by the University of Minnesota, with readings co-sponsored by Rain Taxi
Lyn Hejinian: April 13 at Weisman Art Museum
Reading from Happily and her then unpublished work A Border Comedy, Lyn Hejinian gave a riveting and surprisingly funny performance.
Marjorie Welish: April 14 at Weinstein Gallery
Marjorie Welish, poet and art critic, gave a hushed and captivating reading of her sensually cerebral poetry, which had recently been published in The Annotated “Here” and Selected Poems.
Lee Ann Brown, Will Alexander, and Bob Perelman: April 15 at the Weisman Art Museum
This startling reading juxtaposed the quite distinct voices of three poets who share a love for challenging writing. Lee Ann Brown, poet and publisher, sang and read her poems. Will Alexander, a true Surrealist, wove an intricate tapestry of imagery and language around the trope of a “quantum sailor.” Bob Perelman took up the theme and delivered a spellbinding reverie on water that originally was performed in collaboration with a film made by his wife.
Craig Arnold
Rain Taxi Salon — April 30, 2000
The Yale Younger Poetry Award-winner dropped in to give an energetic recital from Shells as well as new poems.
James Tate & Dara Wier
Open Book — May 21, 2000
co-sponsored by the Loft Literary Center
Celebrating the publication of his Rain Taxi Brainstorm Series chapbook Police Story, James Tate kept the audience in stitches as he read from this collection, while Dara Wier sailed us to parts unknown with a reading from her forthcoming book, Voyages in English.
Elizabeth Macklin
Ruminator Books — July 27, 2000
co-sponsored by Ruminator Books
They weren't actually called Ruminator back then, but the starving brains at the Twin Cities' largest independent bookstore helped host Macklin as she visited to read from her new book, You've Just Been Told.
Not Bill Knott Poetry Reading
Loring Bar — August 13, 2000
At a party celebrating Rain Taxi's continued existence, anyone who was not Bill Knott was invited to read his poetry. A controversial interview with Knott that had been printed in the previous issue (#18) of Rain Taxi had everybody talking about his work.
Anthology Salon with Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Kurt Brown
Open Book — September 27, 2000
co-sponsored by Milkweed Editions
Poets Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Kurt Brown have together and separately edited five anthologies on themes from cars to urbanity. Here they gave a fascinating discussion about their editorial process and goals.
Richard Jones
Weinstein Gallery — October 15, 2000
This much-beloved poet (and Poetry East editor) charmed with a reading from The Blessing, his new and selected poems.
Free Verse: Mark Nowak
Walker Art Center — October 26, 2000
Our series with the Walker kicked off with local writer-editor-activist Mark Nowak, whose volume of poetry Revenants had just been released. In the multimedia spirit, Nowak not only read but showed a photography-poem suite and short film of his own, as well as Stan Brakhage's Riddle of the Lumen.
Damon & Naomi
Let It Be Records — October 28, 2000
co-sponsored by Let It Be
Sub Pop recording artists Damon & Naomi are also Exact Change publishers Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang. At this combination in-store performance and book fair, they played haunting tunes from their new album With Ghost and spoke about their experiences publishing surrealist literature.
Jaap Blonk
Southern Theatre — November 15, 2000
Acclaimed Dutch “sound-poet” Jaap Blonk gave an incredible two-part tour of the genre, first performing historical works of sound-poetry ranging from Hugo Ball to Dick Higgins, and then performing a set of his own inimitable work.
Co-sponsored by the Program in Creative Writing, the College of Liberal Arts, the Humanities Institute, and the Dept. of German, Dutch, and Scandinavian, all of the University of Minnesota, as well as the American Composers Forum.
Free Verse: An Evening in the Wunderkammern
with Rikki Ducornet & Rosamond Purcell
Walker Art Center — November 30, 2000
Dovetailing with a month-long series on the theme of collecting at the museum, this Free Verse performance featured photographs and commentary by Purcell and verbal musings by Ducornet, both of whose work has been inspired by and addressed historical “cabinets of wonder.”