pictures | cut. fold. staple. howl

We took a break from our Second Saturday Reading Series in October, deciding not to compete that weekend with the Sacramento Poetry Center's conference and a variety of other readings going on here and in nearby San Francisco where folks were celebrating the 50th anniversary reading of Allen Ginsberg's Howl in a big way. We opted for an un-event. That is, no formal reading; we'd set up tables and anyone who wanted to could come and build poems-for-all and/or drink wine and beer. At the last minute we sent out an announcement that if there was enough interest, we'd also read Howl. (We did.)



Ahhh, free labor. It's a beautiful thing. Especially when there are so many booklets to be cut! Pictured (left to right) are J. Greenberg, Kevin Porter, Ru Hansen, Rachel Hansen, and Crawdad Nelson.

I decided to focus our attention on just one booklet, PFA #1 The Bells of the Cherokee Ponies by d.a. Levy for two reasons: first, working with this many volunteers (many hobbled by good wine) is like wrangling cats. The thought of trying to make a variety of PFA booklets, overseeing which guts went with which covers, etc., seemed harrowing. Secondly, I wanted to make a contribution to the upcoming d.a. Levy conference in Cleveland, OH (Oct. 29 and 30) of a bunch of Levy PFAs to be given to attendees for free.

We made over 400 booklets.



"Kathunking," is the art of using the Stanley Saddle Stitch stapler to connect covers to guts with a single staple in the center of the spine. My seven-year-old daughter Ru (pictured) loves to Kathunk and won the MVP award this evening for all the booklets she managed to make. (She didn't drink any wine and did more than most of the adults, hmmmm.)



J. Greenberg reads Howl from a collection of Ginsberg poems (we didn't have the tidy and convenient City Lights Pocket Poets edition). Crawdad Nelson listens.



Crawdad's turn to read Howl. Rachel and Richard Hansen and Tom Working also read. Star Vaughn was also there to help build poems.