February 1st, 2010 by Connor
Please join us on Tuesday, February 2nd for the second Tuesday Funk Reading of 2010.
Hopleaf Bar at 5148 N. Clark Street
Reading starts 7:30 PM.
Upstairs room opens 7:00 PM.
Come early to get a good seat.
Cash only at the bar upstairs.
Liza Ann Acosta teaches Comparative Literature at North Park University and is an artistic associate of Chicago’s only all-Latina theater company, Teatro Luna.
Mary-Terese Cozzola is a writer and filmmaker. Her prose and poetry have been published in Crawdad, After Hours, and Swivel, and her films have screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Chicago Short Comedy Video & Film Festival, and the Midwest Independent Film Festival. She has performed solo pieces at the Stockyards Theatre Women’s Performance Art Festival and SpeakEasy/SpeakHard: the Malinowski salon. You can learn more about her work at www.mtcozzola.com. She lives in and loves Chicago.
Ryan Philip Kulefsky lives in Chicago, IL and holds an MFA from Bard College. His chapbook, DEAD TWINS, published by Bathroom Reading Materials (2010), is comprised of contributions to an email listserv during the fall of 2009. He teaches writing and rhetoric and American literature at Columbia College.
Brian Russell earned his MFA from the University of Houston, where he served as poetry editor of Gulf Coast. His poems have appeared or will in Mid-American Review; Epoch; Quarterly West; LIT; and Forklift, Ohio; among others. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in the past three years.
Steve Timm is a poet and author of ’n’altra storio, Disparity, and the chapbooks Stragetics and Averrage. He was the performer in A Poem by Steve Timm, a video by Ya-Ling Tsai chosen for the 2004 Wisconsin Film Festival. He teaches English as a second language at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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January 22nd, 2010 by Connor
The Gothic Funk Nation offers its deepest sympathies to all of those who have been displaced, injured, and lost in the tragic earthquake in Haiti. We encourage all past and present participants in Gothic Funk Projects to contribute to relief efforts.
The mainstream media, focusing on the enormity of the catastrophe, has neglected to acquaint Americans with the remarkable and often tragic history of this near neighbor. With a population of over ten million, Haiti is one of the most densely populated nations in the world. The arrival of Columbus marks Haiti’s entrance into modern history. He brought with him European policy tantamount to genocide and diseases that sparked epidemics in the native population.
In 1791, responding in part to the rhetoric of freedom espoused by revolutions creating the (slavery-promoting) republics of France and the United States, slaves in Saint-Domingue, Hispanola, rose up in rebellion. The movement later expanded throughout the island and successfully rebuffed takeover attempts by the British, the Spaniards, and the French. Haiti, whose name is taken from its indigenous Taíno inhabitants, became (and remains) the only nation in the world to have been established through a slave revolution. The history of Haiti has involved frequent intervention and occupation by major world powers, including the United States, as well as dictatorships, extreme poverty, and frequent natural disasters.
However, Haiti has also given the world a unique and special perspective which is enduring and valuable to the Gothic Funk Nation specifically. Half of our ideas, “funk,” are derived from the French usage of the word fumus, or “smoke.” This complex and ancient word acquired many of its present connotations (aesthetic, sensory, and sexual) through the work of musicians like James Brown and Little Richard. The traditions of the African Diaspora, as carried over to Caribbean and American slave communities, inspired these artists. Faith traditions such as Vodou and Santería are highly developed in Haiti and the scope of their influence cannot be denied. These traditions not only form the dynamic foundations of American funk, but their affinity for the uncanny and the organic has impacted two centuries of southern gothic stylings.
The best conversations about Gothic Funk talk about a convergence between the spiritual and physical worlds, the possibility of progress through faith and ambitious humility, the paradox of human existence, and the preciousness and fragility of a living community. Our collective and cultural debt to Haiti should never be underestimated.
It is with all seriousness that we encourage you, once more, to make a donation to relief efforts in Haiti.
Your donation may be paid to the American Red Cross:
http://www.redcross.org/en/
Thank you for your consideration.
The Gothic Funk Nation Steering Committee
Tags: african disapora, caribbean, columbus, fumus, funk, gothic funk movement, gothic funk nation, haiti, hispanola, james brown, little richard, red cross, saint-domingue, santeria, southern gothic, steering committee, taino, vodou
Posted in General Funk | 1 Comment »
January 19th, 2010 by Connor
Dear Citizen,
The last year has been a busy one for the Gothic Funk Nation.
- We’ve seen two changes in venue (to Andersonville’s “Hopleaf”) for our Tuesday Funk reading series as it’s gotten bigger and better, and now averages about fifty attendees per reading. The last installment featured Marlon Carey, J-L Deher-Lesaint, Kristin Lueke, Arlene Malinowski, and Megan Stielstra.
- The creation and launch of our arts journal, The Paramanu Pentaquark (Issue #3 in production) has been featured in publications such as the Chicago Sun-Times, Centerstage Chicago, and Papua New Guinea Gossip, and has published dozens of musicians, writers, and artists from Hawaii to Manchester.
- A change in venue for the National Address reading circle / workshop to the Barista in Wicker Park. Several artists have brought their novels-, songs-, poems-, and ideas-in-progress to these welcoming and constructive sessions.
- We’ve thrown a variety of successful parties, from an absinthy magazine launch last February, to our lakeside Mutiny on the Bounty last August, to the more recent mystery of the Kaleidoscope (complete with midnight cemetery damps).
- While there’s been heavy involvement by longtime members, we’ve seen some new faces as well. Dion Mindykowski made the long trek from Michigan to read at the journal launch, Maggie Kast, William Shunn and others have become regular and eagerly anticipated readers at Tuesday Funk, and Richard Whaling and Elizabeth Moylan have upped their involvement, giving us a much needed adrenaline boost just as we’ve lost several active members to parenthood and the magnetism of foreign capitals.
Because we’ve been more busy of late, and because many leaders in this group have been going through major life changes (from having a child to purchasing a house) we’re taking a look at what can stay the same and what has to change. We ultimately decided to form a steering committee of five members who will:
- ensure that Gothic Funk projects are in communication with each other
- so far as is desirable, set agendas for the Nation as a whole and articulate this
- coordinate efforts to throw parties and cross-promote across different projects
- keep open lines of communication between participants and attendees
- explore and pursue a rigorous understanding of the words “gothic funk” in a contemporary context
I am happy to announce that we have finished assembling this committee as follows:
CONNOR COYNE, representative from The Paramanu Pentaquark arts journal
SKYLAR MORAN, representative from National Address reading circle
ELIZABETH MOYLAN, member-at-large
AMBER STAAB, member-at-large
REINHARDT SUAREZ, representative from Tuesday Funk reading series
We will send you updates from time to time about the choices we make and developments in the Nation, and will also be resuming monthly Announcement emails starting this February.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to write me at: connor@gothicfunk.org
Best wishes,
Connor Coyne
and
The Gothic Funk Nation Steering Committee
Tags: gothic funk nation, Update
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January 15th, 2010 by Sam
National Address is the Gothic Funk Nation’s official reading circle, a safe and friendly place to informally workshop works-in-progress. Consisting of readings and round table discussions, the National Address aims to provide a forum for writers of all Gothicly Funky stripes and a voice for the Gothic Funk Nation. Attendance is open and participants are welcome to bring unsolicited material.
National Address
Thursday, January 21, 2010
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Barista Coffee House
852 N Damen Ave
RSVP on Facebook
Tags: Barista Coffee House, Coffee, Reading
Posted in National Address | No Comments »
December 24th, 2009 by Reinhardt Suarez
Please join us on Tuesday, January 5th for the first Tuesday Funk of 2010.
Hopleaf Bar at 5148 N. Clark Street
Reading starts 7:30 PM.
Upstairs room opens 7:00 PM.
Come early to get a good seat.
Cash only at the bar upstairs.
J-L DEHER-LESAINT was born and raised in Guadeloupe (French West Indies) and moved to the United States in 1995 where he earned degrees from Harold Washington College, Loyola University Chicago, and the University of Virginia. He is an English professor at Harold Washington College.
KRISTIN LUEKE received her MA in Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she completed a chapbook called The Troubadour Detours. Her work has appeared in decomP Magazine.
As actor, educator, and writer ARLENE MALINOWSKI views solo work as an artistic extension of the social justice work she has been doing for the last twenty five years. Her five solo plays including What Does the Sun Sound Like and Aiming for Sainthood have been produced and performed in venues nationwide including St Louis Center of Contemporary Art; 16th Street Theater, Chicago; Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival; HBO Workspace; NoHo Theatre Festival; Ojai Solo Series; National Center on Deafness; West Coast Ensemble; and Blue Sphere Alliance, as well as at numerous colleges throughout the country. Most recently she performed a new piece which was named one of the five best solo shows by Windy City Times. Her solo work has been honored with an LA Garland Award and nominations for the LA Weekly Award and the Los Angeles Theatre Ovation Award. As an actor she has appeared in numerous theater productions including the world premiere of By the Music of the Spheres at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Other favorite roles include Lovers and Other Strangers, Labor Pains, Chapter Two, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with Deaf West, the critically acclaimed In A Different Voice and Faith, Hope and Clarity.
Arlene is also a writer and performer with the nationally touring, multicultural show A Slice of Rice, Frijoles and Greens which was honored with the White House Award for the Initiative on Race. Recent TV credits include CBS Movie Sweet Nothing in My Ear, CSI, ER, The Division, The Practice, The Division, Any Day Now, twelve segments of Fit Spa and Resort and The X Files. She teaches solo writing and performing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, and coaches individual artists. Her numerous solo students have been honored with Garland Awards, special recognition at the Edinburgh Fringe, LA Weekly Awards, FEM Finalists, Windy City Chicago best solo show, and numerous critics pick. She is a contributing writer for the Week Behind and Selling Lemonade for Free and is a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists and Artist in Residence at 16th Street Theater. Her newest play Anonymous Donor about sperm banks, technology and mean girls will have a Chicago reading in 2009.
MEGAN STIELSTRA is the Literary Director for 2nd Story, a personal narrative storytelling series held in wine bars where she regularly tells stories to drunk people. She’s performed for the Goodman, the MCA, the Cultural Center, the Neo Futuraium, Story Week, Wordstock, all sorts of bars and conferences, a vineyard, Opium’s Literary Death Match (which she won. Because Literature is a dangerous thing!) and regularly on Chicago Public Radio. She teaches creative writing at Columbia College and The U of C.
Tags: Hopleaf Bar, Reading
Posted in Tuesday Funk | No Comments »
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