A review of my Wives Shows performance at LitFest Pasadena at Radar Productions
It's summertime
41 minutes ago
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
New Things
Two reviews of Kept Women in Tarpaulin Sky
A review of my Wives Shows performance at LitFest Pasadena at Radar Productions
It's summertime
A review of my Wives Shows performance at LitFest Pasadena at Radar Productions
It's summertime
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
LitFest Pasadena
This Saturday I will be reading from my novella Wives Shows, about reality TV wives, at LitFest Pasadena. I will be casting the audience in roles as "wives."
I go on at 2:55 on the stage, and finish around 3:15. Would love to see you there!
LITFEST PASADENA IS BACK!
Saturday, May 11 * 10am-5pm *
Pasadena's Central Park
Join over 80 renowned authors and performers and 40 exhibitors for a fantastic, fun filled day of readings, panels, and performances for all ages!
View our schedule of events on three stages and exhibitors online now at www.litfestpasadena.org!
I go on at 2:55 on the stage, and finish around 3:15. Would love to see you there!
LITFEST PASADENA IS BACK!
Saturday, May 11 * 10am-5pm *
Pasadena's Central Park
Join over 80 renowned authors and performers and 40 exhibitors for a fantastic, fun filled day of readings, panels, and performances for all ages!
View our schedule of events on three stages and exhibitors online now at www.litfestpasadena.org!
Monday, May 6, 2013
The Polished You
A few years ago I created/conceived of a chapbook for V Places' factory series, called The Polished You, and Amaranth Borsuk wrote about the work for a piece on conceptions of authorship in the digital age for JEP. Writing The Polished You was an interesting experience for me, in that I conceived of using the Nancy Taylor book (which is the same book I used for my Prices Upon Request performance) since I thought it'd be most compelling to appropriate another text as Place would be appropriating mine, and because the Nancy Taylor book's author was "unknown," raising further questions of authorship, and because using this text would allow readers to further the level of appropriation by adding in their own words in the survey section. I had people send in their images of "their" books to me, as was featured in HTML GIANT.
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Borsuk writes:
"This contradiction perhaps reaches its zenith in Vanessa Place’s Factory Series, a set of print-on-demand chapbooks written by her contemporaries to which she (with their permission) has affixed her own name. The project’s very title plays on Andy Warhol’s appropriative approach to art, which, like conceptualism, attributed as much value to idea as to artifact.[23] The project itself thus plays with notions of authorship. For example, The Polished You, contributed by performance artist and poet Kate Durbin, appropriates selections from a 1960s finishing school workbook from the four-volume Nancy Taylor Course. Durbin’s source text is aptly chosen for the ways it highlights questions of selfhood and authorship. The book takes the form of a survey inviting “a completely honest self-evaluation” by the reader in the interest of determining “what type of woman you are, and, more importantly, the type of woman you want to be.”[24] Questions range from analyses of one’s face, figure, and interests to considerations of how others perceive one, culminating in an objective “comprehensive picture of yourself.” In every case, the questions are subjective: for example, “Is your face pretty?”, “Do you enjoy making up your face and styling your hair?”, “What subject, other than yourself, are you most interested in?”, and “What do you want most out of life?”. Many also provide a limited range of potential answers: “How do you think you appear to others? Sophisticated? Clean-cut and wholesome? Sexy? Tomboyish? Why do you think you appear this way?” Still others hint at the author’s own values: “Describe the kind of environment you enjoy most. Casual? Plush? Intellectual? Sophisticated? Avant-garde? A combination of these? Some other? Why?” In juxtaposing these questions, the text highlights the absurdity of its own premise and encourages readers to reflect on how the self is constructed (“Do people consider you active, average, or passive? Do you agree with this? Why?”), and, by extension, how authorship is built. Each page provides several blank lines for the reader to respond to these prompts, further complicating questions of The Polished You’s authorship.
Whose text is this—the author listed on the title page, Vanessa Place; her surrogate, Kate Durbin; the reader who fills in the blanks; or the text’s original author Nancy Taylor, who may herself have been a pseudonym for another writer? According to Library of Congress records, the 1971 copyright entry (the edition Durbin used) lists “ITT Educational Services” as the applicant and “Taylor Career Programs” as the book’s author.[25] Was there ever a Nancy Taylor? The secretarial school bearing her name was founded in 1964 by an entrepreneur named Bert Schiff to provide vocational training and finishing classes to women, but Schiff transformed it in the 1970s into the Taylor Business Institute, which currently offers associate degrees in a range of skills including accounting, medical billing, and electronics engineering.[26] A note at the end of the chapbook acknowledges “the author of the texts is unknown,” pointing to the central question of the book: What does it mean to be known, and how do we know ourselves?"
You can read the entire article here.
Borsuk writes:
"This contradiction perhaps reaches its zenith in Vanessa Place’s Factory Series, a set of print-on-demand chapbooks written by her contemporaries to which she (with their permission) has affixed her own name. The project’s very title plays on Andy Warhol’s appropriative approach to art, which, like conceptualism, attributed as much value to idea as to artifact.[23] The project itself thus plays with notions of authorship. For example, The Polished You, contributed by performance artist and poet Kate Durbin, appropriates selections from a 1960s finishing school workbook from the four-volume Nancy Taylor Course. Durbin’s source text is aptly chosen for the ways it highlights questions of selfhood and authorship. The book takes the form of a survey inviting “a completely honest self-evaluation” by the reader in the interest of determining “what type of woman you are, and, more importantly, the type of woman you want to be.”[24] Questions range from analyses of one’s face, figure, and interests to considerations of how others perceive one, culminating in an objective “comprehensive picture of yourself.” In every case, the questions are subjective: for example, “Is your face pretty?”, “Do you enjoy making up your face and styling your hair?”, “What subject, other than yourself, are you most interested in?”, and “What do you want most out of life?”. Many also provide a limited range of potential answers: “How do you think you appear to others? Sophisticated? Clean-cut and wholesome? Sexy? Tomboyish? Why do you think you appear this way?” Still others hint at the author’s own values: “Describe the kind of environment you enjoy most. Casual? Plush? Intellectual? Sophisticated? Avant-garde? A combination of these? Some other? Why?” In juxtaposing these questions, the text highlights the absurdity of its own premise and encourages readers to reflect on how the self is constructed (“Do people consider you active, average, or passive? Do you agree with this? Why?”), and, by extension, how authorship is built. Each page provides several blank lines for the reader to respond to these prompts, further complicating questions of The Polished You’s authorship.
Whose text is this—the author listed on the title page, Vanessa Place; her surrogate, Kate Durbin; the reader who fills in the blanks; or the text’s original author Nancy Taylor, who may herself have been a pseudonym for another writer? According to Library of Congress records, the 1971 copyright entry (the edition Durbin used) lists “ITT Educational Services” as the applicant and “Taylor Career Programs” as the book’s author.[25] Was there ever a Nancy Taylor? The secretarial school bearing her name was founded in 1964 by an entrepreneur named Bert Schiff to provide vocational training and finishing classes to women, but Schiff transformed it in the 1970s into the Taylor Business Institute, which currently offers associate degrees in a range of skills including accounting, medical billing, and electronics engineering.[26] A note at the end of the chapbook acknowledges “the author of the texts is unknown,” pointing to the central question of the book: What does it mean to be known, and how do we know ourselves?"
You can read the entire article here.
Megan Milks Reviews Kept Women
I love this review of Kept Women by Megan Milks for Fanzine:
"Kept Women is quintessential Durbin: strange, beguiling, and funny in a nervous, beyond-ironic way. In these poems, the mansion’s residents have vacated the premises; what we know of them arrives through their rooms and the objects within them."
"Kept Women is quintessential Durbin: strange, beguiling, and funny in a nervous, beyond-ironic way. In these poems, the mansion’s residents have vacated the premises; what we know of them arrives through their rooms and the objects within them."
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Tonight in NYC
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧SILENT DRAPE RUNNERS & ANIMALNewYork PRESENT*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ (✿◠‿◠) G1RLZ NI†E (◠‿◠✿) *:✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ "GIRLZ NITE" is a dance + video art party celebrating fresh video art by local and international artists. It's a shamelessly feminine pop-up art experience co-opting a club aesthetic. Come see selfie and net-based works that are good & a get down time. *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧* DJs: PRINCE RAMA CHIPPY NONSTOP SILENT DRAPE RUNNERS +performance by Rhinestone Gorilla Burlesque *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧* FEATURED ARTISTS: Alexandra Gorczynski, Petra Cortright, Carla Gannis, Bunny Rogers, Angela Washko, Casey Jane Ellison, Laura McMillian, Saoirse Wall, Actually Huzienga, Giselle Zatonyl, Mary Rachel Kostreva, Erica Lapadat-Janzen, Jessie Stead and more! + Kate Durbin, Rollin Leonard, Anthony Antonellis, Systaime... *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧* HOSTS: Julia Kaganskiy (#ArtsTech, The Creators Project) Kait "#TheDutchessofKent" Browne Anthony Tran (BIRFDAY BOI!!!) Cammisa Buerhaus Rhinestone Gorilla Burlesque Zoo Lion ･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ FREE 21+ Complimentary drinks via drink ticket between 10 and 11 pm
95 Delancey St., New York, New York 10002
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧* (｡♥‿♥｡) C - U - SOON (｡♥‿♥｡) |
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Finkelstein Reviews Kept Women for Lemon Hound
Rachel Finkelstein wrote a really interesting review of my latest chapbook, Kept Women, for Lemon Hound. I like her discussion of the work's "defeat" and "bleakness" (not included in this excerpt), as I think my conceptual strategy lends itself to reading the work ultimately as incredibly bleak/depressing or incredibly liberating, in that it leaves the reader a lot of space to come to their own conclusions.
Here is a snippet. Click through for full review:
Durbin echoes Marilyn Frye’s proposal to “consider the birdcage*.*” One might recall the birdcage as Frye’s visual metaphor conveying oppression as a force of many powers. Durbin’s poems are cages, restricted spaces inhabited by replicated books, sexy devil / angel costumes, insects frozen in amber—women “kept” as objects. The poem “Stone Sanctuary” gives a particularly disturbing portrait of female entrapment: “Modeled on / prehistoric caves in France, the grotto’s glass ceiling is implanted with/panels of prehistoric objects and insects rapt in amber.”
Like the glass slipper in Cinderella, the objects of Kept Women glimmer with a potential magic for enactment. These objects are unable to function autonomously and are positioned for use, such as in “Baronial Bachelor Pad,” “A curved double/staircase, perfect for late night drunken banister sliding or posing for/pre-red carpet event photos.”
Many times an object will crack in presentation, allowing the object to exude subtle defeat. There’s an unexpected sympathy for the sponges in the grotto shower that “once were natural, living creatures,” —a sadness in the performance of designated, fixed roles which are dutifully carried out.
Here is a snippet. Click through for full review:
Durbin echoes Marilyn Frye’s proposal to “consider the birdcage*.*” One might recall the birdcage as Frye’s visual metaphor conveying oppression as a force of many powers. Durbin’s poems are cages, restricted spaces inhabited by replicated books, sexy devil / angel costumes, insects frozen in amber—women “kept” as objects. The poem “Stone Sanctuary” gives a particularly disturbing portrait of female entrapment: “Modeled on / prehistoric caves in France, the grotto’s glass ceiling is implanted with/panels of prehistoric objects and insects rapt in amber.”
Like the glass slipper in Cinderella, the objects of Kept Women glimmer with a potential magic for enactment. These objects are unable to function autonomously and are positioned for use, such as in “Baronial Bachelor Pad,” “A curved double/staircase, perfect for late night drunken banister sliding or posing for/pre-red carpet event photos.”
Many times an object will crack in presentation, allowing the object to exude subtle defeat. There’s an unexpected sympathy for the sponges in the grotto shower that “once were natural, living creatures,” —a sadness in the performance of designated, fixed roles which are dutifully carried out.
Friday, April 19, 2013
LA Readings Tomorrow!
I am reading in LA twice tomorrow!
A book launch for
THE SONNETS: TRANSLATING & REWRITING SHAKESPEARE
Edited by Sharmila Cohen & Paul Legault
Featuring readings by:
Kate Durbin
Julia Bloch
Kelli Anne Noftle
Martha Ronk
& more
Saturday, April 20 2013
Doors open @ 7pm, reading starts @ 7:30pm
The Poetic Research Bureau @ Telic Arts
951 Chung King Rd.
Los Angeles, CA
The Sonnets, edited by the founding editors of the translation journal Telephone, pairs 154 poet-translators with each of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets--literally rewriting history, or at least the great Bard's poetic oeuvre. This collection of English-to-English "translations" includes work by Rae Armantrout, Mary Jo Bang, Jen Bervin, Paul Celan, Tan Lin, Harryette Mullen, Ron Padgett, Donald Revell, Jerome Rothenberg, Juliana Spahr, and many others.
In the tradition of Ezra Pound's Cathay or Jack Spicer's After Lorca, these versions explore the themes of their originals while completely re-authoring them--imagining a new Shakespeare, self-described in his dedication to The Sonnets as: "THE WELL-WISHING. ADVENTURER ... SETTING FORTH."
http://distranslation.com/
***********
The Poetic Research Bureau presents...
A book launch for
THE SONNETS: TRANSLATING & REWRITING SHAKESPEARE
Edited by Sharmila Cohen & Paul Legault
Featuring readings by:
Kate Durbin
Julia Bloch
Kelli Anne Noftle
Martha Ronk
& more
Saturday, April 20 2013
Doors open @ 7pm, reading starts @ 7:30pm
The Poetic Research Bureau @ Telic Arts
951 Chung King Rd.
Los Angeles, CA
The Sonnets, edited by the founding editors of the translation journal Telephone, pairs 154 poet-translators with each of Shakespeare's 154 sonnets--literally rewriting history, or at least the great Bard's poetic oeuvre. This collection of English-to-English "translations" includes work by Rae Armantrout, Mary Jo Bang, Jen Bervin, Paul Celan, Tan Lin, Harryette Mullen, Ron Padgett, Donald Revell, Jerome Rothenberg, Juliana Spahr, and many others.
In the tradition of Ezra Pound's Cathay or Jack Spicer's After Lorca, these versions explore the themes of their originals while completely re-authoring them--imagining a new Shakespeare, self-described in his dedication to The Sonnets as: "THE WELL-WISHING. ADVENTURER ... SETTING FORTH."
http://distranslation.com/
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
JUPITER 88 READING
Had so much fun reading a short excerpt from Kept Women for the amazing CA Conrad's Jupiter 88 series. *Now with fixed link!
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