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L N L R A A B SW Tracie Morris Workshop: Getting in the Flow by Sylvana Straw Almost 20 years after I first heard Tracie Morris perform at the National Poetry Slam, I find myself in a house in a forest with several other women who have come to take a workshop with the master called Generating Sound in Poetry. “As artists, you have to be connected to your bodies and memories,” Tracie says. We listen to Stein, Eric B & Rakim, to Tibetan monks. We learn about “sonic aesthetics.” The intensity of mind-body work requires bravery and vulnerability. Listening is critical. We need to listen for the poem. Tracie teaches us to ride the waves of sound, to access the flow-- that “altered state.” The more we listen, the easier it is to find our frequency. On day one, we are in private conversations with our bodies, asking our vital organs to tell us things. (Dear Sadness, What does a wound sound like?)
I am having a conversation with my lungs. After almost 30 years, I have not had a cigarette in 11 months and have not written a poem since I quit. A woman tells me that ritualistic breathing is smoking without the smoke. I spend the next four days writing a poem about loss. I am breathing my way through it. The sound is cathartic. I surrender to it. This is my sound. Only in a place so quiet can we truly hear ourselves. I walk in the woods with Chelsea the Love Dog and make my sounds. I’m getting braver. I try singing like Lisa Gerrard. By day four, I’m so free that I find myself singing Host of Seraphim at the top of my lungs. On the night of the Blue Moon, we all go outside. She, too, is asking us to listen. We are one with each other. We are one with the moon. Weren’t we always.
Pictured (l to r): Elvira Clayton, Tracie Morris, Sylvana Straw, Catherine Woodard, and Madeline Djerejian
The Millay Colony for the Arts Issue 13 Spring 2013
MILLAY AT A GLANCE April: Residency Season Begins! Full list of 2013 Residents available on our website.
Workshops This year we are offering workshops at the Millay Colony as well as weekend workshop programs in New York City! Full line-up inside! . Check online to apply: www.millaycolony.org/workshops Call 518-392-4144 for details.
Millay Colony Available for Rental We are expanding on our capacities to host events, think-tanks, and private retreats! More details inside and at www.millaycolony.org/rental.
Cave Canem 2013 Fellow at Millay Colony Announced! Congrats to LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs! Diggs is the third annual Cave Canem Fellow following in the footsteps of Kevin Vaughn and Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Cave Canem, a home for Black Poetry, was founded by Toi Derricotte and Millay Colony alum Cornelius Eady in 1996.
2013 Workshop Retreats and Weekend Intensives at a Glance! WORKSHOP RETREATS AT THE MILLAY COLONY IN AUSTERLITZ, NY We offer four-day retreat workshops at our gorgeous campus. Each includes twelve hours of workshop time, all meals, and ample time to work, ruminate, and explore our lush surroundings.
*The Long & Short of It with Eileen Myles: May 31 - June 4 *What Matters Most with Carole Maso: August 28 - September 1
Eileen Myles
Carole Maso
Rebecca Wolff
Kara Lee Corthron
NEW YORK CITY WEEKEND WORKSHOPS AT TRISHA BROWN STUDIO IN TRIBECA These intensive sessions are two-day/eight-hour workshops with some of our most exciting teaching artists, all at Trisha Brown Studios in Tribeca, Manhattan.
*Editing as Generative Adventure with Rebecca Wolff: April 13 - 14 *Goodbye, Writer's Block! with Kara Lee Corthron: May 11 - 12 *What Can Writing Really Do?: A two-day workshop for visual artists with Julia Dault & Selena Kimball: June 6 - 7 *B[e]aring the Line, Free[k]ing Your Mind with R. Erica Doyle: September 21 - 22 *Content is a Glimpse: Rebuilding a Practice from the Ground Up with Anselm Berrigan: October 19 - 20 *Revisionary Trance with Catherine Wagner: November 16 - 17
Julia Dault
Selena Kimball
R. Erica Doyle
Anselm Berrigan
Catherine Wagner
For full workshop descriptions, instructor bios, and details on how to apply go to our website: www.millaycolony.org/workshops. Or contact Caroline Crumpacker at: director@millaycolony.org; ph 518-392-4144.
Residency Director's Report : Note from Calliope Nicholas 2012 was one of the colony’s more challenging years working with residents, a record number of applications along with partnerships at various organizations, creating a sometimes difficult situation in setting up residency months that worked well. It was also a fairly serious year with many residents coming in under difficult personal circumstances, hampering their ability to arrive at the start of their month, needing to come late, with disruptions to everyone else. What became apparent as the season continued was that it was extremely vital that all residents appreciate the wide diversity of backgrounds and personalities and that basic respect for each other with good communication was paramount to successful colony life. Even through the challenges there were many wonderful moments throughout the residency season. One of my favorites was of Taro Hattori, one of our August artists who’s gentle spirit keenly felt for the plight of a colony of frogs stuck in the spring-fed pool at Millay’s house. With the dry summer, the pool was down at least 8 feet with no way to climb out. Taro, a sculptor, graciously received permission from Millay Society’s director, Peter Bergman, to create the frogs very own ‘stairway to heaven’, (pictured) giving them an escape route. And July writer, Maria Damon, created a crossstitch piece for the colony inspired by a passage from Savage Beauty, the biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Edna wanted to fortify her sister to the profane language bantered about in the West Village (this was the 1920’s), so she had them darn socks while saying those words in a sort of poem which Maria so beautifully sewed into the piece.
Above: Stairway to Heaven Right: (l) Karen Correa (r) Taro Hattori
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, fielding many heartbreaking calls from artists who had applied for the 2013 season and now desperate to work in a studio not ruined by the storm, I feel more strongly than ever this colony is a vital refuge for artists, writers, and composers. This is the place to come where you can feel safe, where you can relax, not have to be on your guard, where you can recharge your artist batteries and lose yourself in the creation of your art. It is a place where you can appreciate the beauty of the world and hold that peace and sense of spaciousness in your heart, even after going back into the ‘real world’. I am thrilled to be welcoming the new season and the new batch of eager residents. I see the relief and wonder on the faces of Aprils residents and am convinced all over again of the importance of our mission.
Millay Colony Available for Private Events, Retreats, Think-Tanks
The Millay Colony for the Arts is available to rent
All of this takes place on our incredible grounds
for retreats, parties, think-tanks, weddings, and
with magical walks and trails, swimming holes,
many other group gatherings. During the Residency
ice-skating and cross-country skiing. Whatever your
Season (April - November), we have inter-residency
needs, we can make your Colony retreat or event
breaks of three to six days each month. After the
inspiring, successful, and refreshing.
Residency season (December - March), we have
.
several week-long periods open.
For more information:
Our spectacular campus in the Berkshires is located
(518) 392-3103
on the former property of legendary poet Edna St.
residency@millaycolony.org
Vincent Millay. Bordering Harvey Mountain State
www.millaycolony.org/rental
Forest, The Millay Colony is nestled on seven acres of meadows and wooded land and offers stunning views, lush fields, and historic walking trails. Our facility can board groups up to fourteen, with seven double beds, and we can arrange further lodging with discounts at nearby locations for events with larger numbers. The Colony has hosted parties of up to 300 and has also been an intimate home for retreats of creative collaborative groups of four members. Whether it is a pastoral retreat, think-tank, party, or working vacation, our dazzling Upstate New York location is an idyllic location. Some of the features of our facility include: . 1.Up to seven private bedrooms with double beds (includes all bedding, linens and towels) 2.Up to seven large private work studios 3.Access to large meeting and dining rooms 4.Wireless Internet, Fax Machine, Copier, Computer & Printer, Telephones 5.Two libraries 6.Darkroom 7.Laundry room 8.Full use of kitchen, stocked with basics and/or 9.Chef-prepared dinners (all diets accommodated) 10.For larger events we can arrange catering, tent rental, sound system, etc.
Letter from Executive Director Caroline Crumpacker...
Dear Readers, Simply put, we are thrilled with our evolving programming. We innaugurated a series of “Weekend Workshops” at the Trisha Brown Studio in Tribeca (New York City). These eight-hour, two-day classes offered intensive sessions with teaching artists in a lovely Manhattan loft space. Rachel Levitsky and Christian Hawkey kicked things off with a riveting workshop from the Office of Recuperative Strategies that brought together twelve people for a weekend of walks, writing, exercise, conversation, reading, and deep thinking. We also had “Workshop Retreats” at our Upstate campus – five-day classes in our little slice of rural paradise upstate. Tracie Morris and Carole Maso offered experiences so multi-faceted, brilliant and enriching that the word ‘workshop’ does not begin to do them justice. And we brought together alumni and friends for a cocktail party at the home of poet Monica Youn and architect/art collector Whitney Armstrong in May. The wine, the conversation and of downtown Manhattan were all spectacular. Our Master Classes in writing at Germantown High School in Columbia County have grown through 2012 into 2013. This year we have expanded into Chatham High School! We work with our amazing alumni writers and artists to offer free Visiting Artist programs in these regional schools. We pay the teachers as well as offering them a bedroom and studio at our lovely campus while
they teach. In 2012, a student reading at Germantown High School and a book of student poems from the unit were a highlight for student participants, and we expect the event later this spring to rise to the occasion. We could not be more proud of our teachers or their marvelous students… The new types of residency we introduced have flourished: we welcomed artists’ collaboratives for Group Residencies, working and/or parenting artists for “Virtual Residencies” and also those with busier schedules for Two Week Residencies. Each year, we look for ways to make our space as open and easy for as wide a range of artists as possible. These new residencies helped us reached some important new groups. We hope to hear from you these coming seasons. You can call us or email us any time. And, always, feel invited to come visit. Each season at Millay is its own unique theater of art-making, seasonal spectacle and personalities. If you have come before, come again. We promise everything will be somewhat different. If you have never been, well, what are you waiting for?? With all affection, Caroline Crumpacker, ED
Above (l to r): Rachel Levitsky, Madeline Djerejian, Caroline Crumpacker, and Tracie Morris Left: Cara Benson and Caroline Crumpacker at AWP
Breaking Broken Gestures The Office of Recuperative Strategies "Breaking Broken Gestures" (excerpted below) is a collaboratively written text/performance score which came out of an OoRS workshop commissioned by the Millay Colony. It was performed on May 9, 2012 at Thierry Goldberg Projects, 103 Norfolk Street, NYC. Gesturers: Lizzy Crawford * Krystal Languell * Jillian Buckley * Leslie Mcintosh * Caroline Crumpacker * Christian Hawkey * Corina Copp * Liz Roberts * Simone Kearney * Rachel Levitsky * Jack Henrie Fisher * Breaking broken gestures OoRS
Gesture of a particular view Gesture of contortion Gesture of meaning pressed against the body like pressing a balloon Gesture of detecting a pre-existing edge already in place Gesture of self-injury Gestures of stereotypy Gesture of body that is not thinking of itself Gesture of aversion Gesture of non-committal action Gesture of erosion Breaking broken gesture Gestures that are parts of games Breaking open gesture Gestures of rerouting / interruption Hand is a thread gesture Recalls loss gesture Private communiqué gesture Fixed gesture Gesture of the ingenue Gesture of earthbound selfhood Direct gaze as gesture Sidelong gaze as gesture Gesture toward sensation of gesturing Gesture beyond its boundary Infinite gesture Gesture of friendly approach Gesture of opening Gesture of egg shells, bringing hands together in one’s lap, in an unconscious mimicry of Gesture of a child waiting for a lesson Gesture of stuffing meat in Gesture of cracking open Gesture of exploration Gesture of noncommittal action Gesture of the ‘no’. Gesture of the ‘yes’ sheet 1
Millay Colony Mise-en-scène
The Millay Colony for the Arts 454 East Hill Road Austerlitz, NY 12017 STAFF Caroline Crumpacker / Executive Director Calliope Nicholas / Residency Director Cara Benson / Program Manager Donna Wenzel / Chef T. Hall & Evergreen Property Management / Groundskeepers Ira Sher / Web Designer Berkshire Bookkeeping / Bookkkeepers
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Melissa Sandor / President Katy Lederer / Vice President Spencer Short / Secretary Rob Dennis / Treasurer Sunil Bald Betsy Rosenfield Samet Virgnia Sheridan
ADVISING ARTISTS COUNCIL Mark Wunderlich / Chair Nick Brooke Nicole Eisenman Pierre Joris Timothy Liu Keith Mayerson Chiori Miyagawa Sina Najafi Tomรกs Urayoรกn Noel Frances Richard Jill Schoolman Prageeta Sharma Christopher Stackhouse Lynne Tillman Jennifer Tseng Rebecca Wolff Patty Ybarra Monica Youn Albin Zak
The Millay Colony for the Arts was founded in 1973 as an artists' residency program located on the former property of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay in Austerlitz, NY. Our mission is to nurture and promote the vitality of the arts by providing writers, visual artists and composers with a rural retreat that encourages creative intensity and exploration in the context of an artistic community. www.millaycolony.org http://millaycolony.blogspot.com/ 518-392-3101