every unknown wanderer

This past week the poet and novelist Ben Lerner spoke with the students of SUNY New Paltz about his work.  Lerner is the poetry editor for Harpers, and the previous poetry editor for Critical Quarterly.  He is also currently a professor at Brooklyn College, and has taught at The University of Pittsburgh and California College of the Arts.  His latest book is The Lights (2023). 

Lerner discussed, in his terms, “the dramas of repurposing language and recontextualizing language.” (1)  I was first introduced to Lerner through his poetry book Angle of Yaw, published in 2006 by Copper Canyon Press.  The “angle of yaw” is the angle between the direction of travel and the direction of wind, specifically the rotation around the vertical axis (picture shaking your head no).  

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transmission and reflection

The Holocenter, or Center for Holographic Arts, is located in midtown Kingston.  I have seen featured artists here from Japan, France, the UK, Canada, Germany, the US and South Korea.  Holography deals with the recording of the transmission and reflection of light.  A hologram is basically a light sculpture.  I must say the art really doesn’t translate in pictures at all…you need to be present to see it.

I took a workshop here a year ago with the executive director Linda Law.  My classmates and I first learned about the history of this medium, from Law who was a part of the scene in New York since before I was born.  Then we each created our own 3 dimensional art piece using different materials.  Later Linda took us individually into the dark room to shoot our pieces.  Everyone outside of the classroom had to be very quiet and still, so as not to throw off the recording process.  No talking or going to the bathroom, or preferably moving at all.  I sat still in my chair, silent, conscious of the vibrations a chair leg could make if tilted to one side.  

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