Brolaski, Larsen, & Tillinghast 1/13 7 p.m. @ IPRC

Switch No. 44 pairs Julian Talamantez Brolaski from Santa Barbara, David Larsen from New York City, & Julia Clare Tillinghast from right here in Portland...

Where: IPRC, 318 SE Main St., Portland, OR

When: Saturday, January 13, 7 p.m. sharp

$5 donation at the door; no one turned away

Julian Talamantez Brolaski is poet and country singer, the author of Macho Chango (forthcoming Wave Books 2019), Of Mongrelitude (Wave Books 2017), Advice for Lovers (City Lights 2012), gowanus atropolis (Ugly Duckling Presse 2011), and co-editor of NO GENDER: Reflections on the Life & Work of kari edwards (Litmus Press / Belladonna Books 2009).  Julian is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist in the bands Juan & the Pines (NYC) and The Western Skyline (Oakland).  It currently lives in Santa Barbara, researching and editing a book on the Mescalero Apache initiation ceremony with its grandmother, Inés Talamantez.

David Larsen is a US poet and translator of pre-modern Arabic literature. His article on the prison poetry of ‘Alī ibn al-Jahm (d. 863 CE) appeared in a 2016 Festschrift for Everett Rowson, and in 2017 his translation of the Names of the Lion of Ibn Khālawayh (d. 980) was brought out in a new edition by Wave Books. His verse collection The Thorn came out in 2005 from Faux Press. At The Switch, he'll read cat poems dating to the 8th-11th centuries. David Larsen lives in New York City.

Julia Clare Tillinghast is from Michigan. She studied poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and Virginia Tech, where she received her MFA. She has spent a number of years, on and off, living in Istanbul, Turkey, and is Co-Translator, along with Richard Tillinghast, of Dirty August, a Selected Poems of the experimental 20th-century Turkish poet Edip Cansever. In addition to translations in Agni, Guernica, Arts & Letters, Poetry Daily, The Boston Review & others, she has had or has forthcoming original poems in 3:AM Magazine, The Bakery, Fence Magazine, H_NGM_N, Passages North, Pank, Pleiades, Rattle, Salt Hill, Sixth Finch, Sou'Wester, and Tin House. She lives in Portland with her partner, Matthew, and children, Owen & Hamza.

Cisper & Sigo 12/2 7 p.m. @ IPRC

Switch No. 43 presents Mary Cisper from New Mexico, Cedar Sigo from San Francisco and Portland's own Sara Sutter

Where: IPRC, 318 SE Main St., Portland, OR

When: Saturday, December 2, 7 p.m. sharp

$5 donation at the door; no one turned away

Cedar Sigo was raised on the Suquamish Reservation in the Pacific Northwest and studied at The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute. He is the editor of There You Are: Interviews, Journals, and Ephemera, on Joanne Kyger (forthcoming from Wave Books, 2017), and author of eight books and pamphlets of poetry, including Royals (Wave Books, 2017), Language Arts (Wave Books, 2014), Stranger in Town (City Lights, 2010), Expensive Magic (House Press, 2008), and two editions of Selected Writings (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2003 and 2005). 

Amid bindweed and migrating hummingbirds, Mary Cisper lives in northern New Mexico.  Her first poetry collection, Dark Tussock Moth, won the 2016 Trio House Award (Trio House Press, 2017).  Her poems and reviews have been published in various journals including Denver Quarterly, ZYZZYVA, Lana Turner, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Terrain, Water-Stone Review, Newfound, FIELD, and Omniverse.  A former chemist, she was once on intimate terms with ion trap mass spectrometers.  She recently completed her MFA in Poetry at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Carr, Olstein and Vermaas, October 7, 7 pm @ IPRC

Switch No. 42 presents Julie Carr from Boulder, Lisa Olstein from Austin, and Portland's own Jake Vermaas

Where: IPRC, 318 SE Main St., Portland, OR

When: Saturday, October 7, 7 p.m. sharp

$5 donation at the door; no one turned away

Julie Carr is the author of six books of poetry, including 100 Notes on Violence (Ahsahta, 2010), RAG (Omnidawn, 2014), and Think Tank (Solid Objects, 2015). She is also the author of two prose works: Surface Tension: Ruptural Time and the Poetics of Desire in Late Victorian Poetry (Dalkey Archive, 2013) and Objects from a Borrowed Confession (Ahsahta, 2017). With Jeffrey Robinson she is the co-editor of Active Romanticism (University of Alabama Press, 2015). A chapbook of prose, “The Silence that Fills the Future,” was released as a free pdf from Essay Press: http://www.essaypress.org/ep-19/

Carr’s co-translation of Leslie Kaplan’s Excess-The Factory is due out from Commune Editions in 2018, as is a mixed-genre work, Reallife: An Installation (Omnidawn). Also to be published in 2018 is her book of critical essays, Someone Shot my Book (University of Michigan Press).

Carr was a 2011-12 NEA fellow and is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder in the English department and the Intermedia Arts Writing and Performance Ph.D. She regularly collaborates with dance artist K.J. Holmes and, with Tim Roberts, is the co-founder of Counterpath Press, Counterpath Gallery, and Counterpath Community Garden (www.counterpathpress.org) in Denver.

Lisa Olstein is the author of four poetry collections: Radio Crackling, Radio Gone (Copper Canyon Press 2006), winner of the Hayden Carruth Award; Lost Alphabet (Copper Canyon Press 2009), a Library Journal best book of the year; Little Stranger (Copper Canyon Press 2013), a Lannan Literary Selection; and Late Empire, forthcoming from Copper Canyon in fall 2017. Her chapbook, The Resemblance of the Enzymes of Grasses to Those of Whales Is a Family Resemblance, won an Essay Press prize and was released in 2016. Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, and her honors include a Pushcart Prize, a Lannan Writing Residency, and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Centrum.

A member of the poetry faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, Olstein  teaches in the New Writers Project and Michener Center for Writers MFA programs. She is also the lyricist for the rock band Cold Satellite, fronted by acclaimed songwriter Jeffrey Foucault. Previously, she co-founded and for ten years directed the Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where she also served as associate director of the MFA program. She serves as an associate editor for Tupelo Quarterly, a contributing editor for jubilat, and advisor for Bat City Review.

Olstein earned a BA from Barnard College and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, undertaking additional studies at the Aegean Center for Fine Arts and Harvard Divinity School.

Jake Vermaas is the co-founder of the Whitenoise Project, a reading and discussion series aiming to center writers of color and underrepresented voices. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Gramma Poetry, Capitalism Nature Socialism, and TAYO. A poet and engineer in Portland, OR, he can science the shit out of things and actually be Asian, unlike Matt Damon.

 

Eisen-Martin, Scott, Wayne 9/15 7 pm @ Ford Food and Drink

Switch No. 41 presents Tongo Eisen-Martin from the Bay, Jordan Scott from Vancouver, B.C., and Portland's own Jen Coleman

Where: Ford Food and Drink, 2505 SE 11th Ave, PDX

When: Friday, September 15, 7 p.m. sharp

Tongo Eisen-Martin is the author of Heaven Is All Goodbyes, number 61 in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series. His previous poetry collection is the critically acclaimed someone's dead already, and his work has been featured in Harper's Magazine. He is also a movement worker and educator whose work in Rikers Island was featured in the New York Times. He has been a faculty member at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, and his curriculum on extrajudicial killing of Black people, "We Charge Genocide Again!" has been used as an educational and organizing tool throughout the country.

Jordan Scott is the author of Silt (2005), and from Coach House Books: blert (2008), Decomp (2013, a collaboration with Stephen Collis and the ecosphere of British Columbia) and Night & Ox (2016). Scott’s chapbooks include Clearance Process (SMALL CAPS 2016), and Lanterns at Guantánamo (Simon Fraser University). Both chapbooks treat his experience after being allowed access to Guantanamo Bay in April 2015. Scott was the 2015/16 Writer-in-Residence at Simon Fraser University and works with Broc Rossell at The Elephants (www.theelephants.net).

Jen Coleman lives in Portland and works at Oregon Environmental Council. She spent some time as part of the Spare Room reading collective and the 13 Hats collaborative arts project. Jen is author of We Denizens (Furniture Press, 2016) and Psalms for Dogs and Sorcerers (Trembling Pillow Press, 2013). You can see some of her work at http://acrossthemargin.com/jennifercoleman/

6/9 Knittle, Quinn, Yeary 7 pm @ Ford Food and Drink

Switch No. 40 presents Davy Knittle from Philadelphia, and Portland's own Hajara Quinn and James Yeary

Where: Ford Food and Drink, 2505 SE 11th Ave, PDX

When: Friday, June 9, 7 p.m. sharp


Davy Knittle is the author of the chapbooks empathy for cars / force of july (horse less press 2016) and cyclorama (the operating system 2015). His poems and reviews have appeared recently in Jacket2, Fence, Denver Quarterly and The Brooklyn Rail. He lives in Philadelphia where he curates the City Planning Poetics series at the Kelly Writers House.

Hajara Quinn lives in Portland OR. She is an assistant editor for Octopus Books, Program Director at the IPRC, and the author of the chapbook Unnaysayer (Flying Object 2013). Her poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, The Volta and Sixth Finch, and she is the recipient of a 2015 Oregon Literary Fellowship. Her first book, Coolth is forthcoming from Big Lucks Books in 2017.

James Yeary is, with Nate Orton, co-author of My Night at Chopsticks III (Abandoned Bike, 2017), a political and phenomenological survey of a Portland karaoke venue (and pop-up book). My Night at Chopsticks III is the 41st installment of the my day series. He has his fingers in a handful of micropresses, and writes for the Northwest Review of Books.

5/13 Hasegawa, Levin, Putnam and Sneathen 7 pm @ IPRC

Switch No. 39 presents Kreg Hasegawa from Seattle, Lauren Levin and Eric Sneathen from Oakland, and Portland's own C.E. Putnam

Where: IPRC, 1001 SE Division, PDX

When: Saturday, May 13, 7 p.m. sharp

Kreg Hasegawa is the author of the chapbook The New Crustacean (2007). His short stories have been published in Sal Mimeo and The Sienese Shredder (edited by Trevor Winkfield), among other very small magazines. He is currently a member of Interrupture, a group of poets who create and perform poetry games, and Margin Shift, a poetry collective in Seattle. A new chapbook is forthcoming in the fall. He works as a librarian.

Lauren Levin is the author of THE BRAID (Krupskaya, 2016) and the forthcoming TWO ESSAYS (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2018) as well as several chapbooks. From 2011-2014, she co–edited the Poetic Labor Project. She grew up in New Orleans and lives in Richmond, CA with her family.

Eric Sneathen splits his time between Oakland and UC Santa Cruz, where he is a PhD student in Literature. His poetry has been published by Mondo Bummer, littletell, Faggot Journal, P-Queue and The Equalizer, and his first collection, Snail Poems, is out now from Krupskaya.









C.E. Putnam maintains the Putnam Institute for Space Opera Research in Portland, OR. His six book back catalog was published on the Autumnal Equinox in 2012. The chapbook "The Bunny Manuscript: Episode 3" is from the Little Red Leaves Textile series. His Halloween themed psych-mixes can be listened to here: https://m.mixcloud.com/PISOR/

3/25 Scappettone, Herrera, & DinéYazhi´ 7 p.m. @ IPRC

Switch No. 38 presents Jennifer Scappettone from Chicago and Portland's own Brandi Katherine Herrera & Demian DinéYazhi´

Where: IPRC, 1001 SE Division, PDX

When: Saturday, March 25, 7 p.m. sharp

Brandi Katherine Herrera is a Portland, Ore. based multidisciplinary artist, poet, and translator, whose work in text, film, and sound explores the poetics of space. She is the author of Mutterfarbe, a limited edition artist book of color theory, experimental translation, photography, and poems, and Natürlicher, a chapbook of color swatch poems (Broken Cloud Press, 2016). Her work is held in various private and public collections, including the Seattle Art Museum, and Yale University's Faber Birren Collection of Books on Color, and has been featured in a number of solo and group exhibitions, performance series, and publications, including 23 Sandy Gallery, Cube Gallery, Poetry Press Week, Pure Surface, The Volta, Octopus Magazine, The Common, and Poor Claudia, among others.

photo by Dino Ignani

Jennifer Scappettone works at the crossroads of writing, translation, and scholarly research, on the page and off. She is the author of the hybrid-genre verse books From Dame Quickly (Litmus, 2009) and The Republic of Exit 43: Outtakes & Scores from an Archaeology and Pop-Up Opera of the Corporate Dump (just out from Atelos Press), and of the scholarly monograph Killing the Moonlight: Modernism in Venice (Columbia University Press, 2014). Her translations from the Italian of the polyglot poet and musicologist Amelia Rosselli were collected in Locomotrix: Selected Poetry and Prose of Amelia Rosselli. She founded, and curates, PennSound Italiana, a new sector of the audiovisual archive based at the University of Pennsylvania devoted to experimental Italian poetry. Her installation pieces were exhibited most recently at Una Vetrina Gallery in Rome and WUHO Gallery in Los Angeles, and she has collaborated on site-specific performance works with a wide spectrum of musicians, architects, code artists, and dancers, at locations ranging from the tract of Trajan’s aqueduct beneath the American Academy in Rome to Fresh Kills Landfill. Scappettone is an associate professor of various subjects at the University of Chicago.

Demian DinéYazhi´ (born 1983) is an Indigenous Diné transdisciplinary artist born to the clans Naasht'ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water's Edge) & Tódích'íí'nii (Bitter Water). Through research, mining community archives, and social collaboration and activism, DinéYazhi´ highlights the intersections of Radical Indigenous Queer Feminist identity and political ideology while challenging the white noise of the contemporary art movement. DinéYazhi´ is the founder of the artist/activist initiative, R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment, which is dedicated to the education, perseverance, & evolution of Indigenous art & culture. DinéYazhi´ also serves as co-director for the zine, Locusts: A Post-Queer Nation Zine. DinéYazhi´ is currently a 2017 resident for Portland Institute of Contemporary Art’s Creative Exchange Lab Residency Program, as well as an awarded recipient of Crow’s Shadow 2017 Golden Spot Residency. You can follow him on Instagram @heterogeneoushomosexual.

3/14: Abreu, Goldberg, Harris @ IPRC 7 p.m.

Switch No. 37 presents three innovative poets, thinkers and artists from NYC and Portland.

Who: manuel arturo abreu, Ariel Goldberg and Jamondria Harris

Where: IPRC, 1001 SE Division, PDX

When: Tuesday, March 14, 7 p.m. sharp

manuel arturo abreu (b. 1991, Santo Domingo) is a poet and artist from the Bronx. Currently living and working in a garage in southeast Portland, they received their BA in Linguistics from Reed College in 2014. Recent work in AA|LA, As It Stands (LA), INCA (Seattle), Rhizome, Open Space, NewHive, et al. They wrote List of Consonants (Bottlecap Press, 2015) and transtrender (Quimérica Books). They co-facilitate home school, a free pop-up art school in Portland. Find manuel at www.manuelarturoabr.eu.

ARIEL GOLDBERG is a writer, artist and curator. Their publications include The Estrangement Principle (Nightboat Books) and The Photographer (Roof Books). Goldberg is the Friday Night Coordinator at The Poetry Project. Their research and performance based work has been supported by the New York Public Library, Franklin Furnace Fund, Headlands Center for the Arts, The Invisible Dog, Residencias Artísticas Intercambios and SOMA in Mexico City. They teach at Parsons, The New School, Pratt Institute, and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Photography & Imaging.

Jamondria Marnice Harris is a poet & artist living in Portland. They use words, sounds, wires, instruments, textiles & what falls into their hands to engage with blackness, desire, decolonization, fairy tales, femme supremacy, & body horror. They are a VONA Workshop Fellow, among other things. Their music can be found at soundcloud.com/meroitic.