2002 Rain Taxi Readings

Free Verse: Gerard Malanga

Walker Art Center — January 31, 2002

Well-known as a multimedia talent, Malanga-poet, photographer, filmmaker, and artist-presented a movie he made in 1967 entitled In Search of the Miraculous. After this remarkably romantic and stirring portrait of youth, Malanga read more wistful, elegiac poems recently collected in No Respect.

Cyberliterature Performance: Alan Sondheim & Miekal And

McNamara Center, University of Minnesota — February 22, 2002

The computer reigned in this evening with Sondheim, who lectured by tapping on his keyboard while showing Quicktime movies, and And, who played handmade instruments amidst his hypertext innovations.

Co-sponsored by the U of M's Program in Creative Writing, the Digital Media Center, the College of Liberal Arts, the Humanities Institute, and the English Department.

Free Verse: Michael Palmer

Walker Art Center — February 28, 2002

For his first reading ever in Minneapolis, the acclaimed poet read selections from his many works, including a suite of new poems written in response to paintings by Gerhard Richter.

Norma Cole

Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, College of St. Catherine
March 3, 2002, co-sponsored by XCP: Cross-Cultural Poetics

Reading from the recently published Spinoza in Her Youth, Cole captivated the audience with her challenging and riveting work.

Peter Richards and Matthew Zapruder

Rennaissance Box, St.Paul — April 4, 2002

Two young poets from the East Coast read from their first books, Peter Richards's Oubliette, and Matthew Zapruder's American Linden.

Free Verse: Cole Swensen

Walker Art Center — April 11, 2002

Touring us through the past, Swensen read from the medieval meditations of Such Rich Hour, as well as new poems based on antiquated household instruction manuals.

Dean Young

pARTs Gallery, Minneapolis — April 20, 2002

“Foetal robots trolled the river” as Young read from his recently published book, Skid.

Lytle Shaw

Rain Taxi Salon — June 2, 2002

Shaw and his wife, artist Emilie Clark, stopped in while passing through on a cross-country trip from San Francisco to New York City to read from his new book of poems, The Lobe.

Free Verse: Harryette Mullen

Walker Art Center — September 19, 2002

We had to turn people away because of fire codes for this one! More than a hundred people came to hear Harryette Mullen read from Sleeping with the Dictionary, her latest work of poetic wordplay, as well as Blues Baby, a collection of early work.

The Great American Prose Poem: a talk by David Lehman

Walker Art Center — October 6, 2002

Poet and critic David Lehman offered his thoughts on the seemingly paradoxical art form of Prose Poetry, tracing its development and divergences among American poets. Co-sponsored by the Walker Art Center and the Literary Arts Institute of the College of St. Benedict.

Twin Cities Book Festival

October 12th, 2002

 

Brenda Hillman

Soo Visual Arts Center — October 26, 2002

Acclaimed Bay Area poet Brenda Hillman dazzled this Twin Cities audience with her ability to combine lightness and gravity into a poetry of “Curved Knowledge.” Co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota Creative Writing Program.

Free Verse: Serge Fauchereau

Walker Art Center — November 7, 2002

French poet and art critic Serge Fauchereau read from Complete Fiction, his U.S. debut translated by John Ashbery and Ron Padgett. Fauchereau's energetic reading was followed by a lively question and answer session.

Free Verse: Ron Padgett

Walker Art Center — December 5, 2002

The ever-charming Ron Padgett read from his newest collection of poems, You Never Know, leaving audience members' cheeks salty from tears of laughter.