One of Bumbershoot’s great distinguishing characteristics as an arts festival is its on-going love affair with literary arts. The Festival’s 30th anniversary program is an exuberant celebration that brings together more than fifty authors, activists, spoken word artists, scribblers, screamers and poets for four days of discourse, exploration and literary daredevilry, plus sixty small and independent presses at the Starbucks Bookfair.
Please join us at the Starbucks Literary Stage, Bagley Wright Theatre, and Opera House for a stellar showcase, and while you’re there, check out the rest of the sprawling spectacle of visual, musical and circus arts that Bumbershoot offers. Tickets for Bumbershoot are only $12 a day, and available now through www.bumbershoot.org, Western Washington Starbucks stores and through Ticketmaster. Kids under 12 are FREE this year, courtesy of Kozmo.com.
PERFORMANCES, SPOKEN WORD & COLLABORATIONS
Typing Explosion
Three women plus vintage typewriters equals poetry on demand, asTyping Explosion creates custom works of art in a minute.
Jim Carroll
Post-punk cultural icon, poet, diarist, rock star and spoken-word performer, Jim Carroll, best known for his 1978 book The Basketball Diaries, returns to Bumbershoot to share his philosophical musings, anecdotes and poetry.
New Waves Radio Theater Live
A marriage of classic radio variety theater and hot, new writing geared for live performance.
Sarah Jones
Star of New York City’s downtown spoken word scene, Jones presents her dynamic one woman show “Surface Transit,” a series of monologues which find Jones shifting through a collection of ordinary characters on a New York bus, plus reads from her poetry at the Starbucks Literary Stage.
Sandra Bernhard
This pop culture arsonist blows away audiences and critics alike with her scorching satire and raw emotion. Bernhard’s critically acclaimed one-woman Broadway hit, “I’m Still Here…Damn It,” is a potent cocktail of stand-up, performance art, cabaret, and fashion.
Sister Spit
San Francisco’s silver-tongued she-devils deliver a performance of kick-ass spoken word mayhem
Meat Again
An unexpected and powerful pairing of poet Paul Nelson and dancer Stephanie Skura.
Staggered Thirds
The voices of three disparate combined in a fast-paced, playful and irreverent performance.
June Melby with Matthew Niblock
Spoken word artist/composer June Melby and vocalist Matthew Niblock in an acapella duet.
SLAMS & BUMBERSHOOT OPEN MIC
BumberSlam
Seattle’s long-running poetry contest challenges performance poets to “say what they gotta say” in three minutes or less.
Bumbershoot Open Mic
hosted by Red Sky Poetry Theatre
This is everyone’s chance to read at Bumbershoot.
PANEL DISCUSSIONS & PRESENTATIONS
Salmon Rights: Now What?
Billy Frank, Jr., Charles Wilkinson, Elizabeth Woody, Lee Maracle and moderator Enrique Cerno discuss salmon rights and wrongs since the historic Boldt decision.
Artaud: a multimedia conversation with Clayton Eshleman
An exploration of Antonin Artaud, the early 20th century surrealist and founder of the ‘Theater of Cruelty.’ Eshleman observes, “In our exploded and massively wallpapered age, I have found that in Artaud the ancient, black springs of poetry are graspable, like a writhing piece of star gristle.”
Building a Personal Book Collection
The bibliophile’s delight, four book-lovers discuss the systematic creation of a library and collecting.
Prison Writing Program
Seattle novelist and prison writing teacher Robert Gordon with two of his former students talk about prisons and their impact on the creative process. Gordon is the author of a prize-winning novel, When Bobby Kennedy was a Moving Man.
New Century Poetry Panel
A panel discussion on the state of poetry and poetics, moderated by Alex Kuo with poets Janine Pommy Vega, Clayton Eshleman, Adeena Karasick and Joe Safdie.
THE INTERVIEW STAGE AT THE EXHIBITION HALL
Discussions, conversations and performances with Jim Carroll, Sisters Spit, Mark Lindquist, Robert Gordon, Eric Bogosian and Sandra Bernhard.
AFTERHOURS LITERARY SOIREE
Join Bumbershoot’s poets and authors for a very special group reading at Elliott Bay Book Company: Jim Carroll, Janine Pommy Vega and Roger Bonair-Agard. Admission free on first-come, first-served basis.
READINGS:
FRIDAY
Young Writers
The Seattle Teen Slam team brings their artful attitude.
James Grippando
Intelligent and terrifying, Grippando’s novels keep the reader guessing.
Joan Swift
Known for the fierce and compassionate language in her work, Swift reads from The Tiger Iris.
Sharon Hashimoto
Distinguished poet and fiction writer read excerpts from her new fiction.
Madeline DeFrees
Poet and retired creative writing professor published earlier work as Sister Mary Gilbert, a Sister of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.
Billy Frank, Jr.
A member of the Nisqually tribe and major force in the battle to shape Native fishing rights.
Charles Wilkinson
Readings from the distinguished environmental lawyer and historian on tribal rights in the West.
Lee Maracle
Prolific writer and activist in Native peoples’ political, historical, feminist and sociological topics.
Keith Egawa
Registered member of the Lummi Tribe, Egawa reads from Madchild Running.
Elizabeth Woody
Member of the Confederated Tribes of the Reservation of Warm Springs, Oregon and well-known writer of poetry and prose.
SATURDAY
Elizabeth Aoki
Aoki says: “My work is accessible, falling somewhere between clenched-teeth academic and spoken word flamboyance.”
Steven Wolfe
Writer and editor whose work has appeared in the publications Hampton Shorts, and City Primeval.
Christine Hemp
Hemp’s poem “Connecting Cord” was sent aloft in December 1998 in a NASA project to record the birth of stars.
Jayne Fenton Keane
Readings that fuse song, chant, vocal percussion and poetry.
Brett Axel
Poet and activist Axel bridges communities – gay and straight, performers and academics.
Shara McCallum
McCallum reads from The Water Between Us, an examination of the exile’s journey.
Roger Bonair-Agard
1999 National Poetry Slam Individual Champion, with a captivating voice and presence.
Adeena Karasick
Poet, cultural theorist, performance artist and the author of four books of poetry.
bill bissett
At the cutting edge of poetics and performance with more than 60 poetry collections, written in his own version of the English language.
James Gurley
Dramatic monologue and verse that examines the impact of music and nature on our lives.
Timothy Liu
Award winning poet and editor of Word of Mouth: An Anthology of Gay American Poetry.
SUNDAY
Mary Allen
From The Rooms of Heaven which deals with the depths of grief after the death of a loved one.
Susan Rich
From The Cartographer’s Tongue about questions of geography and identity.
West End Press
Three regional writers in this special poetry showcase: William Witherup, Arlene Biala and Ken Waldman.
Janine Pommy Vega
Shaped in part by her long involvement with teaching in prisons, Janine Pommy Vega’s poems look out through earnest eyes, open, discriminating and true.
Billy Collins
A poet once described as “…an ironist of the void, and his poems – witty, playful, and beautifully turned – bump up against the deepest human mysteries.”
MONDAY
Amy Schutzer
Heralded as a fresh and original new voice in gay and lesbian fiction, Schutzer has reads from her latest book, Undertow.
David Matlin
Author of several published volumes of poetry and a book about teaching in prisons.
Robert Cabot
Readings from The Sweetest Wine, a new triptych of novellas filled with gorgeous, elegant prose.
Molly Tenenbaum
Creative writing professor and professional banjo player reading from By A Thread.
Craig Van Riper
“Strong poems, all sure voiced and crafted, each word barbed, each line pointed, going hard for the end of the poem/the beginning of its meaning.”
Robert Lyons
A “barnyard mystic” shares his nature centered poems, love poems, humorous poems and elegies of rural America.
Peter Donahue
From The Cornelius Arms, about life in an old Seattle apartment building beneath the city’s smug facade.
David Shields
Shields tackles race head on with Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season.
Mark Lindquist
“Nevermind Nirvana is a telling inside view that perfectly captures the rhythms and sights of late-nineties Seattle.” —Peter Buck
Joe Safdie
Poems that deal with memory and failures of memory, what we remember and try to forget.
Duncan McNaughton
Lyrical and haunting poems from an individualistic writer who is profoundly involved in all the poetics of his time.
Ken Mikolowski
Co-founder of The Alternative Press, a flexible outlet for the poetry of Detroit writers in the late ’60s.
Clayton Eshleman
Winner of the National Book Award, this poet, translator and editor’s work creates an uproar and writhes with energy.
James Welch
A Blackfeet/Gros Ventre novelist, poet and winner of the 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Native Writer’s Circle.
STARBUCKS BOOKFAIR
Check out the largest small press bookfair on the West Coast, a tribute to the craft of writing, illustration, hand-making books and publishing. From ‘zines to broadsides, chapbooks to comix, the Starbucks Bookfair is a place where writers and bibliophiles browse, buy and converse.
Daily, Noon – 8:00pm
Snoqualmie Room
The following small presses and booksellers offer their wares at the bookfair:
A Fine Line Press
Anvil Press Publishers/ sub-TERRAIN Magazine
Asia 2000
Austen Press
Bezalel-Levy Editions
Black Heron Press
Blue Begonia Press
Blue Unicorn Press Inc.
Brownfield Press
Calyx Books/ Journal
CDM Publications
Crab Creek Review
Dharma Publishing
East Point Press
Ekstasis Editions
El Draco Press
Fine Madness
Fun Ed. Productions
Hardscratch Press
Home of African Concepts
Kota Press
Laughing Elephant / Darling & Company
Mandala Publishing Group
Missing Spoke Publisher
New West Press
nine muses books
Nurun Garden Books
Octagon Press / ISHK
Omega Point Productions
Pongo Publishing
Prism International
Rain City Projects
Revolution Books
Richard Hugo House
Roberta Gregory
Rose Alley Press
Rowhouse Press
Sagittarius Press
Sasquatch Books
SCW Publications
Seal Press
Self Publishing Resource Center by Wise Owl Books
Soaring Sparrow Press
Spindrift Magazine
Talonbooks
Tartu Publications
The Alternative Press
The Raven Chronicles
Touch the sky books and papers
Tsunami, Inc.
West End Press, Inc.
Whale Tales Press
WHEEL Women’s Housing,Equality and Enhancement League
WHITEAKER PRESS
Wonder Publishing
Wood Works
| Starbucks Literary Stage | Other Festival Venues | |
| Friday, September 1 |
1:00: Young Writers 2:15: James Grippando 3:00: Sister Spit 4:30: Joan Swift, Sharon Hashimoto, Madeline DeFrees 5:45: Salmon Rights: Now What? 7:15: Billy Frank, Jr., Charles Wilkinson 8:00: Lee Maracle, Keith Egawa, Elizabeth Woody 9:15: Bumbershoot Open Mic
hosted by Red Sky Poetry Theatre |
6:00: Sister Spit Speaks
Interview Stage at the Exhibition Hall |
| Saturday, September 2 |
12:15: Meat Again 1:00: Staggered Thirds 2:15: Elizabeth Aoki, Steven Wolfe 3:15: Christine Hemp, Jayne Fenton Keane 4:30: Brett Axel, Shara McCallum, Roger Bonair-Agard 6:00: Adeena Karasick, bill bissett 7:15: James Gurley, Timothy Liu |
1:00: Jim Carroll
Interview Stage 6:00: Artaud: a multimedia conversation with Clayton Eshleman Bagley Wright Theatre 6:00: “Never Mind Nirvana” with Mark Lindquist
Interview Stage 8:30: Bumbershoot After Hours Literary Readings & Soiree
Elliott Bay Book Company |
| Sunday, September 3 |
12:00: Building a Personal Book Collection 1:30: Mary Allen, June Melby with Matthew Niblock, Susan Rich 3:00: West End Press 4:30: Prison Writing Program 5:45: Janine Pommy Vega 6:45: New Waves Radio Theater Live 8:00: BumberSlam |
1:00: Prison Writing Panel: The Funhouse Mirror
Interview Stage 4:30: Eric Bogosian
Opera House sponsored by Northwest Ford Stores 5:00: Jim Carroll
Bagley Wright Theatre 7:15: Eric Bogosian
Interview Stage 9:00: Billy Collins
Bagley Wright Theatre |
|
Monday, September 4 |
12:00: New Century Poetry Panel 1:15: Amy Schutzer, David Matlin, Robert Cabot 2:30: Molly Tenenbaum, Craig Van Riper, Robert Lyons 3:45: Peter Donahue. David Shields, Mark Lindquist 5:15: Joe Safdie, Duncan McNaughton, 6:30: Ken Mikolowski, Clayton Eshleman 8:00: Meat Again 8:45: Sarah Jones Poetry Reading |
1:00: Sandra Bernhard
Boombox at Key Arena sponsored by garageband.com 3:30: Sandra Bernhard
Interview Stage 5:00: Sarah Jones “Surface Transit”
Bagley Wright Theatre 8:30: James Welch
Bagley Wright Theatre |
