Artists Space

Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival

Performance
November 10, 2022, 7pm

Evening One:
Thursday, November 10
Free RSVP here
RSVP is limited to one ticket per person for each evening

7pm: Doors & archival recordings
8pm: Performances

Performances by Thomas Buckner, Asha Sheshadri, Julie Patton, Mike Pollard & Eric Schmid, Sydney Spann, and an audio installation by Nour Mobarak

An offwhite poster with black letters framed two bands of a cropped watercolor painting announces a sound poetry festival entitled "Chorus."
[An offwhite poster with black letters framed two bands of a cropped watercolor painting announces a sound poetry festival entitled "Chorus."]

Artists Space and Los Angeles-based composer and Recital record label founder Sean McCann present a two-day festival of new sound poetry. Bringing together a flourishing generation of artists and musicians across a wide spectrum of experimental sound, alongside legendary historical practitioners, performers are invited to explore the freedom and limitations of the voice and speech phonetics. A particular focus of these performances will be acoustic and electronic sound worlds that may be void of grammar and comprehensible meaning.

Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival aims in part to rekindle the lost lineage of group-oriented sound poetry performance and the associated live events that first emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, reviving this tradition by offering a modest contemporary contribution to the legacy that it represents. To this end, the festival will be recorded and documented in full, to become the material of a future edition on Recital.

Over the past decade, Recital has released an astounding range of new and historic music and sonic art, spanning debut albums by emerging composers and performers, a dedicated series of releases of new and out-of-print sound poetry, and highly experimental and adventurous audio work by composers and multimedia artists. This festival at Artists Space celebrates the launch of The 12th Annual International Sound Poetry Festival box set, a major document of historic sound poetry.

Over two evenings November 10 & November 11, Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival includes performances by Thomas Buckner, Asha Sheshadri, Julie Patton, Mike Pollard & Eric Schmid, Sydney Spann, Suzanne Langille with Loren Connors, Charlie Morrow, Kiera Mulhern, Azikiwe Mohammed, Joan La Barbara, and an audio installation by Nour Mobarak

A figure stands on stage speaking into a microphone.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure stands on stage speaking into a microphone.]
A figure performs on stage, holding their iPhone up to a microphone.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure performs on stage, holding their iPhone up to a microphone.]
A figure performs on stage, speaking into a microphone and holding papers in their hands.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure performs on stage, speaking into a microphone and holding papers in their hands.]
A figure performs on stage, standing behind a microphone with a shocked expression and their hands up.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure performs on stage, standing behind a microphone with a shocked expression and their hands up.]
A figure performs on stage using a microphone and an audio mixer, with the audience in the back left of the image.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure performs on stage using a microphone and an audio mixer, with the audience in the back left of the image.]
A figure stands behind a microphone and table with audio equipment. They hold one hand over their mouth and the other around their neck.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure stands behind a microphone and table with audio equipment. They hold one hand over their mouth and the other around their neck.]
A figure smiles and stands behind a music stand and microphone.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure smiles and stands behind a music stand and microphone.]
A figure in a suit stands on stage, behind a music stand and speaks into a microphone.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure in a suit stands on stage, behind a music stand and speaks into a microphone.]
A figure in a suit stands on stage, behind a music stand and two microphones.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure in a suit stands on stage, behind a music stand and two microphones.]
A figure smiles and stands behind a music stand and microphone.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure smiles and stands behind a music stand and microphone.]
A figure in a suit performs on stage.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure in a suit performs on stage.]
A figure in a suit performs on stage, reading into a microphone off sheets on a music stand in front of them.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure in a suit performs on stage, reading into a microphone off sheets on a music stand in front of them.]
Two figures stand behind a table, setting up audio equipment.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [Two figures stand behind a table, setting up audio equipment.]
Two figures stand on stage, performing with audio equipment on a table in front of them.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [Two figures stand on stage, performing with audio equipment on a table in front of them.]
A figure stands on stage behind a table with a laptop, preparing to perform.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure stands on stage behind a table with a laptop, preparing to perform.]
A figure is shown in profile performing on stage into a microphone, with a music stand placed in front of them.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure is shown in profile performing on stage into a microphone, with a music stand placed in front of them.]
A figure performs on stage behind a music stand.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure performs on stage behind a music stand.]
A figure performs into a microphone, their mouth open, performing using material held on a music stand in front of them.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure performs into a microphone, their mouth open, performing using material held on a music stand in front of them.]
A figure performs on stage, standing straight and looking at material held on a music stand in front of them.
Chorus: A Sound Poetry Festival. Performance documentation, November 10, 2022, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman [A figure performs on stage, standing straight and looking at material held on a music stand in front of them.]

For decades, baritone Thomas Buckner has dedicated himself to the promotion and performance of new and improvised music, collaborating with a host of new music luminaries including Robert Ashley, Noah Creshevsky, Tom Hamilton, Earl Howard, Matthias Kaul, Leroy Jenkins, Bun Ching Lam, Annea Lockwood, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, Wadada Leo Smith, Chinary Ung, Christian Wolff, and many others. Buckner has appeared at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Herbst Theatre, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Berlin Spring Festival, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Prague Spring Festival, and the Angelica Festival of Bologna. He is featured on over 50 recordings, including six solo albums, the most recent being “New Music for Baritone & Chamber Ensemble,” which includes works by Annea Lockwood, Tania Leon, and Petr Kotik. Buckner also appears on the CD/DVD “Kirili et le Nymphéas (Hommage à Monet)” filmed at the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, which houses Monet’s celebrated Water Lilies murals. For the past thirty years, Buckner has curated the Interpretations series in New York City and continues to produce recordings on the Mutable Music label, introducing current artists and repertoire as well as presenting important historic material, previously unavailable in CD format.


Asha Sheshadri moves freely between video, writing, sound, and photography. Her forms flow together to create unpredictable observations of the overlooked, while documenting personal and political networks within our collective, imperfect memory. Her recent work has been released through Recital, Anomia, HOLD, and Entr'acte. She currently lives and works in New York.


Julie Ezelle Patton is a sculptor of sound, image and text. Her poetics take the form of found object assemblage, scrolls, extended texts, limited edition work, performances, ephemeral libraries, and site-specific installations. Patton bridges musical and literary improvisations in performances emphasizing collaborative “in-the-moment” compositions and otherworldly chora-graphs. Her noted Womb Room Tomb installation honoring her mother, Virgie Ezelle Patton (1928-2015) was featured in The Front International Triennial 2018. Patton is the author of Notes For Some (Nominally) Awake. She has performed at numerous venues and festivals including the Stone, Jazz Standard, Festival Internacional de Poesía in Medellín, Colombia, and The Kitchen. She has collaborated with choreographers, poets, filmmakers, musicians, and composers such as Nasheet Waits, Abou Farman, Vinie Burrows, Henry Hills, Sally Silvers & Bruce Andrews, the late Henry Grimes and Anne Waldman. She performs with composer/instrumentalist Janice Lowe and improvising guitarist Paul Van Curen in the group Rock Paper Sisters.


Mike Pollard: Nina Protocol (2021-present), Fpbjpc (2014-present), Svetlana Gallery (2020), Arbor Records (2004-2012)


Eric Schmid is a philosopher of math, artist, and musician based in Chicago.


Sydney Spann, originally from Baltimore, MD, is a sound artist and musician based in New York. They work with synthesis, electronics, and voice to intervene within a personal archive of field recordings, culminating in long-form compositions and improvised live performances. Their music lately engages the private experiences that shape domestic and public spaces, and the affective dynamics within childcare work. They have released albums with She Rocks! (New York), and Reading Group (New York), with a full-length release forthcoming on Recital. They have performed at the High Zero Festival of Experimental Free Improvised Music, Bar Laika by e-flux, Performance Space New York, Center for Performance Research, Cafe OTO (London), KM28 (Berlin), and in DIY spaces and galleries throughout the US. Recent commissioned works include Attached/Detached (partial disappearance) for ISSUE Project Room’s With Womens Work series and original music for artist Nile Koetting’s installation Downtime Salon at Musik Installationen in Nuremberg. They are a 2022 Artist-in-Residence at ISSUE Project Room and an MFA candidate in Music/Sound at Bard College.


Nour Mobarak's work uses poetic strategies to investigate how systems become entangled and mutate. Working with voice, language, mycelium, sound, and memory, she considers how processes such as time, decay, and symbiosis change the ontology of things, and how she as an artist senses that change. How is the reality of what she's presenting ephemeral or unstable? Mobarak has released music through Recital, Ultra Eczema, and The Tapeworm, and has performed at such locations as the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), LAXArt (Los Angeles), Miguel Abreu Gallery (New York), Stadslimeit (Antwerp), Cambridge University (Cambridge), and the Getty Museum (Los Angeles). She has published poems in journals such as F.R. David, The Claudius App, and The Salzburg Review,and has participated in exhibitions at the Miguel Abreu Gallery (New York), JOAN (Los Angeles), Museum of Contemporary Art (San Diego), and Rodeo Gallery (London), among others.

Artists Space Venue is generously supported by Stephen Cheng, Lonti Ebers, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Allan Schwartzman, and David Zwirner.