The Electro-Library

On the day of the total eclipse, Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, talks with Amra Brooks about her new work, the experiences that shape poetic practice, whether or not time exists, and the necessity of reimagining our relation to the Earth and one another. Theme music by Tubifex, featuring Hitek Meshat. Additional music: Jupiter the Blue by Gillicuddy, licensed under an Attribut...

Ring in the new year with Amra Brooks and Eileen Myles' intimate conversation about Myles' new edited volume, Pathetic Literature, art, music, dogs, finding the motivation to create in challenging times, and more! Recorded over Zoom, November 4, 2022. Music: More Brain by Lobo Loco, Creative Commons Non-Commercial License.

A real Thanksgiving feast: Ross Gay talks with Amra Brooks about poetry, the meaning of gratitude in dark times, radical presence, mushrooms, and so much more! Recorded over Zoom, November 7, 2021.

We are joined by Ross Gay, poet, essayist, professor of poetry at Indiana University, and founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard. Gay is the author of the poetry collections Against Which ; Bringing the Shovel Down ; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude , winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; and the essay collection, The...

Poet, author, and activist Layli Long Soldier joins Amra Brooks over Zoom to talk about writing during the pandemic, activism in the wake of the death of George Floyd, finding and nurturing creative inspiration, activist art, Lakota culture, and the complex, overlapping meanings of embodiment as women, mothers, and citizens. Originally recorded on October 30, 2020.

Poet, Essayist, and activist Layli Long Soldier reads from her latest poetry collection, Whereas , winner of the National Book Critics Circle award for poetry and the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. A question-and-answer and discussion session follows. Recorded live via Zoom on October 29, 2020.

00:47 D.A. Powell, "Quarantine," read by Sutopa Dasgupta Music: Abishai, Piano Improvisation, from Memento Mori 02:26 Don DeLillo, from White Noise , read by David Charlesworth Music: Chad Crouch, "Seafoam," from Atmospheric Piano Interlude: James Bohm, "Music for Handwashing (Out Damned Spot 2) 07:11 Clarice Lispector, from "Letters to Hermengardo," read by Richard Colton Music: Reiko Yamada, Int...

CONTENTS Introduction: 0:42-6:35 Rickey Laurentiis: Poetry Reading 6:44-41:34 Ocean Vuong: Poetry Reading 41:47-1:02:00 Rickey and Ocean in Conversation: 1:02:13-1:23: 13 Originally recorded November 15, 2018 at Stonehill College ABOUT OCEAN VUONG Ocean Vuong is the author of the debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin, 2019). He is also the author of the critically acclaimed poetry...

Jared is joined by award-winning poet and influential philosopher Fred Moten for a wide-ranging discussion of poetry, identity, music, community-formation, and resistive practices. Originally recorded October 16, 2019.

Visit: theelectrolibrary.org and raymo-series.org Recorded: October 16, 2019 6pm in May Hall: McCarthy Auditorium Fred Moten’s work explores black studies, performance studies, poetry, and critical theory. In 2014, Moten’s The Feel Trio was a poetry finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was the winner of the California Book Award; and in 2016 his The Little Edg...

From the Electro-Library Podcast Studio comes a new stand-alone feature: "Short Circuits": One guest in the spotlight, generating electricity and shooting off sparks! Short Circuit #1: Jared talks to Teju Cole about creativity, race, identity, and freedom.

0:00 Ad: Ansco Cadet Camera, ca. 1950. 0:19 Introduction: Scott Cohen. 1:29 Excerpt 1 from Charles and Ray Eames, Polaroid SX-70 camera, 1972. 2:11 Wisława Szymborska, “Photograph from September 11” (trans. Clare Cavanaugh), from Monologue of a Dog, 2005. Read by Helga Duncan. (Music: Jared Green, Untitled Ambient) 3:11 Italo Calvino, from “The Adventure of a Photographer,” (trans. William We...

0:00 Excerpt, "Photography," Holmes (Burton) Films, Inc., 1946 0:19 Intro, Amra brooks 1:43 Excerpt, "Photography," Holmes (Burton) Films, Inc., 1946 1:56 Jared Green reading from Nadar, “Balzac and the Daguerreotype,” from When I was a Photographer" 5:32 Chris Ives reading Ralph Waldo Emerson, from "Life in Boston” 7:20 Scott Cohen, reading from Umberto Eco, “A Photograph” 16:20 Vintage Polaroid...

** E-L 1.2: Memory ** Contents: 1:47 - Students reflecting on memories 3:10 - Wendy Peek reading The Aeneid, bk 1, Virgil 5:12 - Lacuna commercial from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 6:00 - Mary Joan Leith on memory and mortality 9:10 - Wendy Peek reading from The Odyssey, translated by Robert Fitzgerald 11:30 - Emily Schario reading from The Roth Memory Course (1918) 12:34 - Janice Lee rea...

** E-L 1.1: Storytelling ** Contents: 01:03 Amra Brooks on Joan Didion’s The White Album. 04:10 Poem: “Citizen,” Daria LaBoutina 05:38 Wearing your liver on your forehead: An Interview with Lynda Barry 11:52 Poem: “Names” Lin Chen 12:52 “Windows,” Charles Baudelaire 14:32 Timothy Woodcock: The Infinite Monkey Theorem 21:20 From “The Storyteller,” Walter Benjamin Thanks to: Lynda Barry, who visited...