Back from Albany (Capital City of New York State!)

Back from Albany (Capital City of New York State!)

Mike Bisio and I whipped cream at Justin’s on Thursday night. We had a big, wonderful and most of all very attentive crowd. The best audience I ever had at Justin’s so far. We mostly performed originals, contemporary poems with only a dash of French songs and jazz standards. Mike played two incredibly moving solos, one was John Coltrane’s Alabama & the second was a piece he created on September 11th, 2001 – as he was in the studio that day. By the way Mike Bisio will be playing next Saturday, 9/20 at The Clean Feed Fest at the Living Theatre with Basso Continuo : Stephen Gauci, Nate Wooley, Ken Filiano and Mike Bisio. Starts at 9pm. I will be there!

I also wanted to note that on Wednesday my younger son Miles Joris-Peyrafitte had his first solo public appearance as a singer/songwriter at the famous Tess’ Lark Tavern open mike hosted by the rock goddess of Upstate New York: Mother Judge. Miles did very well: he also accompanied me on guitar on my song the Brooklyn Bridge & on a poem by his father, Pierre Joris. After that he played drums for his long time friend, the very talented Lindsey Rogowski.

One of the poems Mike Bisio and I performed on Thursday was by Mustafa Benfodil. I met Mustafa at the Festival “Voix de la Méditéranée” in Lodève and really liked his work. With his permission I would like to post the poem I translated and performed with Mike Bisio on Thursday. Voilà for now, enjoy this short, but intense poem and THANK YOU so much if you were in the audience on Thursday & always THANK YOU to the wonderful crew at Justin’s for their graciousness –and I know this week was very hard for them as their were dealing with the sudden loss of one of their very dear co-worker. Merci à tous!

Lune de miel à Baghdad
Nous nous sommes connus à Gaza
Nous nous sommes aimés à Ramallah
Nous nous sommes embrassés à Beyrouth
Nous nous sommes mariés à Alger
Nous nous sommes envolés à Baghdad
Nous sommes morts sous les bombes
Et nos coeurs ont fondé une ONG
Pour la protection des amours à haut risque
Et la continuation de la passion sous les tombes!

Honey moon in Baghdad
We met in Gaza
We loved in Ramallah
We kissed in Beirut
We wed in Algiers
We flew to Baghdad
We died under the bombs
& our hearts founded a NGO
for the protection of high risk love
& the continuation of passion under the tombs!

Poem by Mustafa Benfodil translated by Nicole Peyrafitte

Events 09/11 & 09/14

Events 09/11 & 09/14

Getting ready to go to Albany to see my family but also looking forward to gig with Mike Bisio the grand bassist & composer extraodinaire on Thursday Sept 11 @ Justin’s 9PM.

We will perform mostly originals, contemporary poetry and maybe our signature song or is it a dish? Pierre Joris posted two videos of Mike and I on his blog. Speaking of Pierre, he and I will be part of a celebration I am very much looking forward to:

At the Bowery Poetry Club, Sunday, September 14, 4:00 to 6:00PM

Jerome Rothenberg will be hosting a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Technicians of the Sacred, which brought a global range of oral & tribal poetry into focus & launched ethnopoetics as a new approach to poetry & performance. Joining him will be a group of active poets & performers including Charles Bernstein, Bob Holman, Pierre Joris, Charlie Morrow, Nicole Peyrafitte, Diane Rothenberg, Carolee Schneemann, & Cecilia Vicuña. (Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, between Houston & Bleecker, in NYC.)
Technicians of the Sacred: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania, Second edition, Revised and Expanded


and for the new French edition, http://www.jose-corti.fr/titresmerveilleux/techniciensSacre.htm

Fire & Hopeless French Poem

Fire & Hopeless French Poem

In Bourg d’Oueil we cook most our food in the fireplace. Simmering on the left Pierre’s delicious ratatouille.

A poem in French just finished, and started in Lodève and inspired by  Dr.Thomas Fogarty’s article “ L’espoir est un leurre

L’Espoir Tue

L’espoir est une maladie incontournable et difficilement curable
L’espoir est un miroir qui offre une réflexion floue et idéalisée de mes désirs
L’espoir -tout comme les Belles de Jour- envahit et appauvrit les ressources essentielles à mon développement durable
L’espoir est une fantaisie toxique du futur
L’espoir remplit les vides nécessaires d’une satisfaction synthétique
L’espoir ne préserve ni de la mort ni du tourment
L’espoir pourrait être
devrait être
sera peut-être
Mais il n’est pas

Et oui l’espoir inspire le calme
il promet l’abondance aux riches et même aux pauvres

Sans l’espoir
l’amour du bonheur se détache
Il fait place à une inévitable et inconfortable réalité

Mais c’est bien là, dépouillé de tout artifice
sans prestige
sans séduction
sans échappatoire
–et avec beaucoup moins de consommation

que commence la quête
et s’ouvre la Vie.

©Nicole Peyrafitte- Summer 2008

5C Café this Saturday

5C Café this Saturday

This Saturday, June 14th 8PM Mike Bisio and I will be at the 5C Café in Manhattan for a multilingual & multigenre performance. We will offer a selection of my originals, contemporary poetry/texts by Pierre Joris, Henri Michaux, Frida Kahlo, Occitan songs and our signature song…or is it a dish? See details below and spread the news!

Café 5C – 68 Avenue C at 5th street. New York City
(delicious light fares + teas, coffee, beer & wine available)
(212) 477-5993
$8 COVER+ $5 MINIMUM

ManyBody 2

ManyBody 2

Very hot in NYC today.
I will probably stay put and work on my on going series “ManyBody”, unless I can’t resist a short trip to Coney Island and refresh in the Ocean!
My post today : “ManyBody 2”. See the section “Paintings/Drawings” in the “categories” to see more of these. Some have titles some have numbers. Stay cool!

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