WE HAD A READING HERE IN THE SPRINGS ON FRIDAY NIGHT & IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME & IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE HOME

It was the first reading in a new series called “Say Hello to Your Last Poem.” The readers were Matt Potter, a promising & motivated Colorado College student, and Corina Copp, a fantastic poet from Brooklyn & author of Pro Magenta/Be Met (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011). The series is being organized by Noel Black (author of Uselysses, also Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011) and myself, and it was held at the home of Noel and his wife, artist/curator Marina Eckler. They have this incredible house with a backyard that extends up to a red rock outcropping, like a mini national park, and that’s where we did the actual reading, with crazy colored lights and the vastness of the sky & mountains behind the readers. It started with a potluck dinner and just the right amount of people came out. Everything synced.

So why am I making such a big deal out of a little house reading? It’s not a novel format, even here in the Springs, which has a thriving house-show-music scene. And one would expect a good reading from two good poets. Hey, no big deal.

& “no big deal” is absolutely correct, which is why it was awesome, and which is why I am excited about it & the future of doing this. Because these things don’t have to be a big deal, and they’re often better if they’re not. All one needs is an interested & loving & awesome local community. & we’ve got that here in Colorado Springs, believe it or not.

The people, the place, the work, the event itself. It’s all there, shimmering, and on top of all that I realized what’s been missing from the work of the NewLights Press for far, far too long—being anchored in a community, one that is both local & reaching out & welcoming in. (It’s been since the early days in Baltimore, when we were organizing readings, making chapbooks, and having a great & terrible time all of the time.) I’ve often said, on this blog and elsewhere, that one of the most important & vital parts of small press publishing is the community, the community already established, and the community that the making & sharing of work is constantly building. But in all of my transience over the last 8 years (!) I had forgotten that literally bringing people together is one of the best parts, one of the most important parts.

I had somehow forgotten about the interplay between the work produced (the writing, the books) and the local-right-there-and-giving-you-hugs audience, about how important those flesh & blood & laughing people are, and about how work made in that environment can become an anchor point for a shared, lived experience.

More readings? Yes.
More books? Yes.
We hope to see you all here soon.

2011 SOUTHERN GRAPHICS COUNCIL CONFERENCE

The NewLights Press/The Press at Colorado College will be at the Southern Graphics Council Conference Publisher's Fair, which takes place on Saturday, March 19, from 8 AM to 3 PM. If you're going to be at the conference (in St. Louis this year) stop by and say hello. Both presses will have a bunch of new work to show and sell. It will be great to see you again.

THE PYRAMID ATLANTIC BOOK ARTS FAIR IS THIS WEEKEND

Hitting the road today so that I can be at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair this weekend. I am an exhibitor at the fair, and this time I will have some books and broadsides from the Press at Colorado College as well as NewLights Press. It should be a good fair (and related events) some come on down if you're in the neighborhood. The Description:

Pyramid Atlantic Art Center presents the 11th Biennial Book Arts Fair and Conference, the preeminent book arts event on the east coast. Now in its third decade, the fair will showcase a dynamic array of innovative book art, limited edition prints, fine papers, and specialty tools along with a rich program of notable speakers, demonstrations, and special exhibitions. This three day event will connect international artists, scholars, collectors, publishers, and art lovers. Serving to inform and inspire, the Book Arts Fair and Conference is a celebration of the printed form and the book as art.

The 2010 Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair
Friday Nov. 5 - Sunday Nov. 7
Silver Spring Civic Building
Silver Spring, MD
Their website has a full schedule of times for the fair and other events.

PRINT HERE NOW, TOMORROW

Just a little re-post, just a reminder that tomorrow, Saturday, 9/18, the Press at Colorado College will be hosting PRINT HERE NOW: Colorado College Broadside Bonanza. The official description:

PRINT HERE NOW: Colorado College Broadside Bonanza
Workshop & Open House
Saturday, September 18
1 PM – 7 PM
The Press at Colorado College, Taylor Hall
Free and open to the public

In the summer of 2010 Levi’s began a program of opening up temporary art studios devoted to different disciplines in cities across the US. The first one of those was in San Francisco, and that studio was focused on screenprinting and letterpress. The studio closed in August but the adventure is not over, because three of the intrepid letterpress printers that were involved with the workshop are now driving across the country to deliver a printing press to a community print studio in Braddock, PA, and they are stopping for a day here at Colorado College. They will be setting up shop in our letterpress studio, the Press at CC, to host a day of informal conversation about the trip, the experience of the Levi’s studio, and their personal experiences as young print artists in the Bay Area and beyond, as well as orchestrating an improvisational print project that anyone and everyone is invited to participate in. So come on over, meet Rocket Caleshu, Taylor Reid, and Tom Smith, see the Press at CC, and learn about letterpress printing by reaching in there and getting your hands dirty. The event will begin at 1 PM with a short presentation, and then will continue as an open studio until 7 PM.

And the links:
The official Colorado College page, with a map.
The blog of the Levi’s workshop.

I know that this event is going to be a lot of fun, and if you’re curious about the Press at CC and what we do here, and/or are wondering how you can be involved, this is an excellent opportunity to check things out, meet some other interested and interesting people, and, most importantly, to have a good time making a real thing.

PRINT HERE NOW, ON SATURDAY

I’m not sure if anyone in Colorado Springs is reading this blog yet, but if you are you should come to Colorado College on Saturday, 9/18 for PRINT HERE NOW: Colorado College Broadside Bonanza. The official description:

PRINT HERE NOW: Colorado College Broadside Bonanza
Workshop & Open House
Saturday, September 18
1 PM – 7 PM
The Press at Colorado College, Taylor Hall
Free and open to the public

In the summer of 2010 Levi’s began a program of opening up temporary art studios devoted to different disciplines in cities across the US. The first one of those was in San Francisco, and that studio was focused on screenprinting and letterpress. The studio closed in August but the adventure is not over, because three of the intrepid letterpress printers that were involved with the workshop are now driving across the country to deliver a printing press to a community print studio in Braddock, PA, and they are stopping for a day here at Colorado College. They will be setting up shop in our letterpress studio, the Press at CC, to host a day of informal conversation about the trip, the experience of the Levi’s studio, and their personal experiences as young print artists in the Bay Area and beyond, as well as orchestrating an improvisational print project that anyone and everyone is invited to participate in. So come on over, meet Rocket Caleshu, Taylor Reid, and Tom Smith, see the Press at CC, and learn about letterpress printing by reaching in there and getting your hands dirty. The event will begin at 1 PM with a short presentation, and then will continue as an open studio until 7 PM.

And the links:
The official Colorado College page, with a map.
The blog of the Levi’s workshop.

I know that this event is going to be a lot of fun, and if you’re curious about the Press at CC and what we do here, and/or are wondering how you can be involved, this is an excellent opportunity to check things out, meet some other interested and interesting people, and, most importantly, to have a good time making a real thing.