Speech is Not Free Festival in New York City!
The sixth annual Speech is Not Free Fest will take place at the KGB Bar in NYC on November 11th, 2021 to celebrate the release of Ouroboros Must Eat and Other Food for Thought, and will feature readings by Anne Waldman, Brenda Coultas, Shelley Marlow, Joanna Fuhrman, Lucía Hinojosa Gaxiola, No Land and Maria Garcia Teutsch. Readings will begin at 7:00 pm and much mayhem will follow. Proof of vaccine is required at the KGB Bar.
About Ouroboros Must Eat and Other Food for Thought:
“Amid the deafening drone of our late anthropocene death cult, each act of creation blooms like a mushroom fruiting in ruin. Here we have such little works of alchemy: twelve poems, fetid with life, working their mycelial way into our barely conscious minds until—with the quiet throw of a final switch—we find ourselves again in love with the world, falling into a bright void.”
~Janaka Stucky, writer, performer, EIC of Black Ocean, and all-around raconteur.
Ouroboros Must Eat and Other Food for Thought, Poet Republik Vol. I,–A limited edition anthology to commemorate the 6th Annual Speech is Not Free Fest: will feature poetry by Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Brenda Coultas, Lucía Hinojosa Gaxiola, Eleni Sikelianos, Shelley Marlow, Joanna Fuhrman, Aliah Rosenthal, Jean-Noel Chazelle, J. Hope Stein, Madeline Rose Hernandez, and a few other angel-headed hipsters…with special thanks to Jesse Goodman for the good vibes, Peter Hale at the Allen Ginsberg Estate for not only being a teen wolf.
Poet Republik will celebrate the CD release of Ginsberg’s “Plutonian Ode” by Anne Waldman and Fast Speaking Music: Plutonian Ode can be purchased here.
Speech is Not Free Festival, a brief history: The first event took place in Los Angeles at Coagula Curatorial Gallery and at the legendary McCabe’s Guitarshop: with Deradoorian, Tim Youd, Sesshu Foster, Paz Lenchantin, Pearl Charles and Lauren Barth, Kevin Morby
Then the second and third at the my old stomping grounds: Henry Miller Memorial Library
The Fourth festival took place when we joined forces with Howl! Happening to present an evening of writing dedicated to freedom of the press and against fascism.
The fifth reading took place in 2019 at the Sprechsaal Gallery in Berlin, Germany.
Readings typically feature the writings of the contributors to Poet Republik and also a long history with publications in the legendary Ping-Pong Journal of art and literature, We love our authors of the publications from Ping-Pong Free Press and Poet Republik Ltd: Anne Waldman, Brenda Coultas, Joanna Fuhrman, Janet Hamill, Kate Lutzner, Jameson O’Hara Laurens, Shelley Marlow, Eleni Sikelianos, Pamela Sneed, J. Hope Stein, and Maria Garcia Teutsch.
As Editor-in-Chief of Ping-Pong journal of art and literature, and longtime president of the board of the Henry Miller Memorial Library, Maria Garcia Teutsch, published writing and art in the spirit of Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin, who championed the disregarded, the liminal, and the censored, and who, above all, wanted to bring into the light writing and literature that troubled the elite. Teutsch founded Ping-Pong Free Press to further the work done by Ping-Pong journal in the hopes of upending the literary world’s expectations and expose readers to a wider, stranger universe. Teutsch says, “my association with Ping-Pong Journal is something I am incredibly proud of. Through this publication the Library has in turn supported hundreds and hundreds of poets, writers, artists and photographers through its pages. These writers are part of varied communities: LGBTQ, people of color, and the under-represented—some of whom would never have found a voice in the mainstream, like Henry Miller, like Anaïs Nin, like Arturo Vega.”
Poet Republik Ltd. has published the following titles: Forthcoming: Cave and other poems by Brenda Coultas; Pearl Eye Medium and Star-Blood by Jean-Noel Chazelle; Occasionally I Remove Your Brain through Your Nose by J. Hope Stein; Horologion by Mark Lamoureux, Invitation to a Rescue by Kate Lutzner and more to come…
The Henry Miller Memorial Library has published the following titles by Ping-Pong Free Press: A Small Suitcase of Russian Poetry, EDS. Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris; Medeaum, by Jameson O’Hara Laurens; White Fire by Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts; and the forthcoming, No Ledge Left to Love, by Dylan Krieger.
