Saturday, December 5, 2009

Photos - Arcata Theater Lounge - December 2, 2009

Art Brown (guitar)
Edmond Deraedt (lights)
Nicholas Karavatos (poems, projections)
Jeff Kelley (guitar)
Mark Weston (percussion)
Shao Way Wu (bass)

An inter-media spoken word performance celebrating the publication of No Asylum by Nicholas Karavatos


Poster by Richard LaPreziosa.































































The above photos were by John Chapman. The below photos are by Regina Espinosa.







Marianne Keller (l) proofread everything Rich typeset. Richard LaPreziosa typeset and designed No Asylum for Amendment Nine.


The marquee at night - Arcata Theater Lounge.

Friday, October 23, 2009

NO ASYLUM – Intermedia Spoken Word Performance & Book Launch at the Arcata Theatre Lounge – Wednesday, December 2, 2009


Nicholas Karavatos & Improv Band:
Intermedia Spoken Word Performance and Book Launch

This night’s intermedia spoken word performance is a spontaneous collaboration among a poet and improvising musicians. We are invited to celebrate Amendment Nine’s publication of No Asylum, a new book of poems by Nicholas Karavatos.

Beat legend David Meltzer (author of David’s Copy: Selected Poems [Penguin 2005,] Beat Thing [La Alameda 2004], and No Eyes: Lester Young [Black Sparrow 2000], among many others) writes on the back cover of No Asylum:

"Nicholas Karavatos is a poet of great range and clarity. This book is an amazing collectanea of smart sharp voiced political poetry in tandem with astute and tender love lyrics. All of it voiced with an impressive singularity."

Fresh-off-the-press copies of No Asylum will be available at the book launch performance.

Accompanying the poet on stage will be Mark Weston (drums), Jeff Kelley (guitar), Art Brown (guitar), and Shao Way Wu (bass):

Nicholas Karavatos currently teaches literature & creative writing at American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. He has also taught in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman and in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A graduate of Humboldt State University, Nicholas Karavatos was a local resident from 1983 to 1996 when he relocated to San Francisco to study Poetics with Tom Clark, Adam Cornford, Gloria Frym, Lyn Hejinian, and David Meltzer at New College of California. (The NCoC Poetics Program was founded by poet Robert Duncan.) While there he was also a Production Coordinator at Small Press Traffic Literary Arts Center, assisting author Dodie Bellamy.

Nicholas Karavatos, sparodically from 1983 to 1996, was a producer of KHSU’s Mad River Anthology, a sound technician at CenterArts, a tutor at the Indian Teacher Education & Personnel Program, a cook at The Sprouted Seed, an artisan at Holly-Yashi, an assembler at Tomas Jewelry, and a local day laborer.

Though he moved overseas in 2000, he still visits us often to perform – and has never stopped writing & publishing poems in such books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and ephemera as After the Fallen, Big Bridge: The War Papers, Blackbox – A Record of the Crash, Certain Stones, Cherry Bleeds, Country Activist, debt, Earth First! Radical Environmental Journal, EcoNews, Edge City Magazine, Hamilton Stone Review, Humboldt-Central American Solidarity Newsletter, Juke Jar, Log, Minotaur, mirage[periodical], Numinous, Paisley Moon, PoetsWest Online, Portland Review, Prophetic Voices, Prosodia, Punk Rock Saved My Life, Red Fez, San Fernando Poetry Journal, Steelhead Special, there., Thieves Jargon, Tight, Travelling Poet, Todd Point Review, Toyon, Unlikely Stories, West Wind Review, What the Hell, and With+Stand.

Nicholas Karavatos performed his poems in spontaneous collaboration with Art Brown, Morgan Stern, Mark Weston, and others at the North Country Fair in 1992 & 1993, and twice on KHSU’s Conscious World in the early 90s; with Krayola at HempFest West in Redwood Park in 1992; with Shao Way Wu on bass at the Jambalaya in 1996; and most recently with Jeff Kelley on electric guitar on KHSU’s Mad River Anthology and at the Accident Gallery in Eureka in early 2009. Over the years he’s given numerous readings throughout California, Oregon, and Washington. Outside the United States in 2007 he performed at “Betwixt & Between III: Globalization, Interculturalization & Translation,” an international conference in the United Arab Emirates sponsored by Queen’s University Belfast and American University of Sharjah.

Jeff Kelley, who originally brought Wax Hands to our community gatherings, is a sharp-witted songwriter & guitarist known from such bands as Dreadful Grapes, The River Rocks, Primordial Stew, Deltron 9, Fred & Wilma, The Miracle Show, and his innumerable solo acoustic appearances. From fireside folkie to electrified freak-out, Jeff Kelley is an aural delight of eternal energy.

Mark Weston has drummed in the North Coast’s most evocative worldbeat and alt-prog bands. A percussion luminary, the rest of the world knows Mark Weston from his good times with Chris Berry and OJ Ekomode.

Art Brown is a maestro of ambient guitar, both electric and electronically processed acoustic. He has recently (finally) graduated from Humboldt State University.

Shao Way Wu is a bassist – The Bassist – and performs locally with jazz groups Zu Zu's Petals and Inkling. He teaches music part time at his alma mater, Humboldt State University.

Richard LaPreziosa designed No Asylum for Amendment Nine & Nicholas Karavatos. An upstate New Yorker graduated from Sacramento State University, Richard LaPreziosa is a singing-songwriting guitar-shaman who has been regionally appearing everywhere all time with such bands as the Jazz Monks, The River Rocks, Deltron 9, The Replacements, The Miracle Show, and Eyes Anonymous. He appears here tonight as the sacred typesetter & graphic designer.

Amendment Nine is a new publishing project out of McKinleyville, California.

No Asylum is printed by Robert Arena and Bug Press.

WHEN?
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Door at 7:00pm - Show at 8:00pm – ALL AGES

WHERE?
Arcata Theatre Lounge
1036 "G" St.
Arcata, CA
707-822-1220
info@arcatatheatre.com

HOW MUCH?
Admission is a whopping $3 but your ticket stub gets you a $3 discount on the book available at the show.

Friday, July 31, 2009

"Saw a Face in the Grain" in Big Bridge #14



Saw a Face in the Grain
Big Bridge, #14
http://www.bigbridge.org/BB14/WAR09.HTM#NKaravatos


WAR PAPERS (3) Poems and essays against war. Sub-features by John Bradley, Joel Lewis, Philip Metres, Vincent Katz, Francesco Levato, and Louise Landes Levi, plus reflections from around the world on the election of Barack Obama, and, of course, Halvard Johnson's continuing anthology of anti-war poems.
http://www.bigbridge.org/BB14/WAR09-A.HTM

WAR PAPERS: POETRY 3; Eating Chocolate Ice Cream: Reading Mayakovsky
Compiled and Edited by Halvard Johnson
http://www.bigbridge.org/BB14/WAR09.HTM

Big Bridge: The Nola Issue
http://www.bigbridge.org/BB14/toc.htm

Friday, July 10, 2009

"Greenhouse Effect Coffeeshop" & "now with you" in Hamilton Stone Review, #18

Greenhouse Effect Coffeeshop
Hamilton Stone Review, #18 (July 2009)http://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr18poetry.html#greenhouseeffectcoffeeshop

now with you
Hamilton Stone Review, #18 (July 2009)http://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr18poetry.html#nowwithyou


Both of these poems have been revised. The poem "Greenhouse Effect Coffeeshop" now reads:


Greenhouse Effect Coffeeshop

I’m in the bass line
While everybody’s watching

The last few I slipped down
Steepest stairs in the world
Are Amsterdam’s

One Thousand One Arabian Nights
Is my room above the Greenhouse Effect

Four women walk
Through the front door
My age

Cider in the coffeeshop
Seated at the threshold I see
The first looks



Both of these poems have been revised. The poem "now with you" reads:


now with you
is like being
alone only more
so
now with you
is like convers-
ing with nothing left
to say
now with you
not able to see
outside
more than you could
not before
now with you
is less different than without
and I am even more
so
as I was before.


Monday, May 11, 2009

Mad River Anthology - May 10, 2009 on KHSU-FM


In the spirit of neo-dada free-jazz, these are the spontaneous collaborations of an electric guitarist and an electrifical poet.

Producer Tim Ayers writes:
"Former Mad River Anthology host Nicholas Karavatos returns to the show on a visit from the United Arab Emirates. Nick’s collage of international imagery is accompanied by guitarist Jeff Kelley with his wide array of sound bending foot pedals for an improvised collaboration at the KHSU studio."


Nicholas Karavatos & Jeff Kelley
Posted in Radio Programs on May 11, 2009 by Tim Ayres
http://madriveranthology.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/nicholas-karavatos-jeff-kelley/

The Show:
http://mra.yoursavinggrace.net/MRA090510.mp3

The Raw Tape:
http://mra.yoursavinggrace.net/NickJeffBonus.mp3


Mad River Anthology is available on iTunes.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=286474699


Mad River Anthology is produced by Tim Ayres & Brent Jenkins for KHSU, a non-commercial public radio station, licensed to, supported by, and located on the campus of Humboldt State University. KHSU broadcasts a diverse mix of programs throughout Northwest California and Southwest Oregon. As a public service of Humboldt State University, KHSU strives to present thoughtful and intelligent perspectives on local, national and international issues. Its objectives include fostering the arts, sciences and humanities, giving voice to underrepresented points of view, serving minority as well as majority needs, and both guiding and reflecting public intellect and taste. Mad River Anthology, first airing in the 1970s, is KHSU’s longest running program. http://www.khsu.org/

Friday, May 8, 2009

Poet Nicholas Karavatos with guitarist Jeff Kelley - Webcast on KHSU-FM on Sunday/Monday

LISTEN LIVE in DUBAI on Monday, May 11 at 9:00 AM
Live Streaming at http://www.khsu.org/

LISTEN LIVE in CALIFORNIA on Sunday, May 10 at 10:00 PM
KHSU 90.5 FM Arcata, 91.9 FM Crescent City-Brookings, 89.1 Ferndale-Fortuna, 89.7 Garberville, and 99.7 Willow Creek.
Live Streaming at http://www.khsu.org/

While in California to perform at Accident Gallery in Eureka last January, Nick & Jeff spent an afternoon at KHSU studios at Humboldt State University. The afternoon was recorded by Tim Ayers who has edited down a 25 minute episode of "Mad River Anthology."

These are unrehersed, spontaneous collaborations between a poet and an electric guitarist.

Mad River Anthology is available on iTunes.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=286474699

MAD RIVER ANTHOLOGY BLOG
http://madriveranthology.wordpress.com/
You can click on the "Listen" link in each show description to stream the audio, or right-click on it to save as an mp3. Special thanks to Grace Kerr. Listen to "Your Saving Grace" on Saturdays at 5pm on KHSU.

Mad River Anthology is produced by
Tim Ayres serya@suddenlink.net
Brent Jenkins bbbjenkins@gmail.com

If you would like to be added to the Mad River Anthology mailing list, please contact Tim Ayers

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

"Direct Action" in With + Stand 3: the red issue

a recently appearing poem

Direct Action
With + Stand 3: the red issue (March 2009)

This issue will be available at the With + Stand edition of the Canessa Gallery Reading Series in San Francisco on March 14, 2009.

http://canessagalleryreadingseries.blogspot.com/2009/03/march-14with-stand-reading.html

http://withplusstand.blogspot.com/2009/03/announcing-with-stand-3-red-issue.html

http://withplusstand.blogspot.com/2009/03/with-stand-3-some-contributor-bios.html


The editors write:
Recent crises in global capitalism have functioned, as crises often do, to reveal the historical contours of the present, providing new opportunities to read history against the grain and to unsettle established assumptions. With + Stand 3: the red issue proposes that as our economies enter a period of potentially profound structural transformation, it is all the more necessary to examine the relationship between the economic mode of production and cultural and social forms in the period after WWII.

"Critique does not simply liquidate the system." - Adorno, Negative Dialectics

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Friday, February 20, 2009

"The al-Masjid Code" & "The music is played like it has somewhere to go"

Two recently appearing poems:

The al-Masjid Code
Portland Review, vol. 55, #2 (Fall/Winter 2008)

The music is played like it has somewhere to go
Portland Review, vol. 55, #2 (Fall/Winter 2008)

Friday, January 9, 2009

Nicholas Karavatos & Jeff Kelley at the Accident Gallery in Eureka, CA on Thursday, January 8, 2009

Poet Nicholas Karavatos performed poems in spontaneous collaboration with electric guitarist Jeff Kelley at the Accident Gallery in Eureka, CA on Thursday, January 8, 2009.

The evening began with an open mic at 7:30, followed by the inter-media spoken word performance by Nicholas Karavatos and Jeff Kelley.

Projections by The Aix http://www.magneticvideo.com/eventsamples.html


the poems:

1. Rapunzel Akbar
2. Calemnity Specs
3. Procreate the Revolt
4. S

The audio links:
http://www.archive.org/details/NicholasKaravatos-200818-AccidentGalleryInEurekaCa
and
http://pages.suddenlink.net/jeffkelley/accident.mp3


We headlined the gallery's monthly event: the Accident Slam. During the evening's readings, an artist makes a painting. The audience votes on the best open-mic poet from the opening set. The following week that poet is invited back to perform their winning poem and receives the painting as a prize. http://www.accidentgallery.com/

I bought drinks for all my friends there on behalf of all my friends who couldn't be, especially Vivienne in South Africa.