Schedule of Events at the 2012 Book Fair
All of the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair workshops and presentations are free and open to the public. They will take place upstairs at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum. Space is limited, and it is available on a first come, first served basis. Each workshop will consist of a brief overview of the topic, some elementary equipment and skill overviews, and if applicable, a demonstration or activity. Please remember that these are meant to be brief and fun; they are not meant to be professional or academic learning experiences. Remember to ask questions, it’s the best way to learn!
Workshops and Presentations
1:00pm – Workshop: Letterpress: The Platen Press
Discover the unique world of letterpress – learn about the process, implements, and product an use centuries old technology to produce your own hand-printed keepsake. This workshop will focus primarily on the platen or “clamshell” letterpress, which is used primarily for small scale work. If you’ve ever wondered how a letterpress operates, this is your chance! All skill levels welcome and no experience necessary. Overview and instruction by WNYBAC Volunteer Staff Member Christine Gallisdorfer.
2:00pm – Presentation: Visual Poetry: Mike Basinski
Mike Basinski, curator of The Poetry Collection, SUNY at Buffalo does his best to describe the elusive sub-genre that comingles art and verse: visual poetry. Sometimes easier to show than to tell, the presentation will involve exploring sample visual poems; Basinski will draw from his own work as well as notable predecessors. This will be part lecture and part Q and A – there may be no hands-on workshop component to this presentation.
2:30pm – Mini Workshop: Thaumotropes
Squeaky Wheel Media Resources brings you this mini-workshop for all ages on Thaumotropes. Fun for everyone, simple to make, and you get to go home with your very own “wonder-turner.” Still have no idea what this is about? Check the link above, we’re sure you’ve seen them!
3:30pm – Workshop: Screenprinting for Newbies
Want to learn how to make your own t-shirts? Posters? Art prints? Well, you won’t be able to do that here, but you will get a clear overview of the screenprinting process, and then you’ll get a chance to pull your own handmade prints! Screenprinting is fun, versatile, and full of potential because it allows precise image replication on a number of different media – so come, ask questions, make some art, and uncover what you never knew you wanted to know, or maybe you did, so here’s your opportunity. Overview and instruction by Silkscreen Artist Anne Muntges.
All Poetry is Small Press Poetry Reading: Friday, March 23, 8pm @ WNYBAC, 468 Washington St, Buffalo, NY
Come help us kick things off with this amazing line up of small press poet-publishers!
Karen Randall
Proprietrix of Propolis Press, Karen Pava Randall has collaborated with Rosmarie Waldrop, Elizabeth Willis, and Nancy Kuhl (among others) & recently launched the Least Weasel chapbook series. She has taught letterpress printing at the Naropa Summer Writing Program and the Centers for Book Arts in Minneapolis, New York, and San Francisco. She is currently experimenting with gum bichromate photography and working on an artist’s book with Lee Ann Brown. Propolis Press and Least Weasel ChapbooksKyle Schlesinger
Kyle Schlesinger is a poet who writes and lectures on typography and artists’ books. His recent books of poetry include: Commonplace (Cuneiform, 2011); Bad Words to the Radio and Other Poems (Least Weasel, 2011); Picture Day (Electio Editions, 2011); What You Will (NewLightsPress, 2012) and Seeing Things (Chax Press, 2012). In 2010 he curated and authored a catalog entitled Poems & Pictures: A Renaissance in the Art of the Book that traveled from New York, to Houston, to Buffalo, to Chicago. He is proprietor of Cuneiform Press and co-director of the Graduate Program in Publishing at UHV. Cuneiform PressmIEKAL aND
mIEKAL aND lives outside the constraints of academia in the most lush and rural part of the unglaciated Driftless area of southwest Wisconsin. Choosing to focus on creating wilderness and abundance surrounded by the perfect setting for limitless imagination his course of action includes demonstrating alternatives to inbred aesthetics, delighting in the play of DIY culture, and making art and writing that is both anarchic and noisy. aND is the author of numerous books, many available via Xexoxial Editions. After many years working in the realms of digital poetry and video, he has surrendered his role as author and focused exclusively on interactions that allow the author to be reconfigured by the mysteries of the collaborative process, including books with Maria Damon, Sheila Murphy and Geof Huth. Anyone wanting to tap into his stream can find him on Facebook or at Xexoxial EditionsStarcherone Books 30 Under 30 Reading: Thursday, March 22, 7 pm @ Medaille College
Come see some of the best young writers during the Starcherone Books 30 Under 30 reading at Medaille College, Buffalo Campus 18 Agassiz Circle, Buffalo, New York 14214. The Write Thing Reading Series at Medaille College presents Danielle Adair, Beth Couture, and Brian Oliu, contributors to the anthology, 30 Under 30: Innovative Fiction by Younger Authors (Starcherone Books).For more about 30 Under 30, see
Starcherone Books.Long Poem Mysteriously Appears in the Sumptuous Mist of Collaboration: mIEKAL aND’s Poetry Event Thursday, March 22, 7 pm @ Sugar City
mIEKAL aND leads a poetry event: You heard somewhere that there will be a workshop of live spontaneous collaboration with a little-known post-avant-farmer poet from the outskirts of nowhere and come to the gathering having no expectations of what collaboration could possibly mean or how the author as sole intellect is surrendered to the greater multi-lingual spirit of sound and language and typography dancing unrestrained into the night. Once there, with the curious and inspired contributions of all gathered, a mysterious linguistic object arises as the time passes and the interactions overcome the barriers to unleashing creativity. BRING laptops, pencils, typewriters, iPhones, whatever communication device rocks your world.
Since the year 1999, mIEKAL aND has abandoned the world of the Author in exchange for the exciting and glamorous life of collaborations which dissolve the boundaries between identity, gender and the mysterious abstractions of the afterlife of thought.
Sugar City is located at 19 Wadsworth St. Buffalo, NY 14201
Electric City: Saturday, March 24, 9pm @ The Vault
After the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair the Poet Musicians rock with the Punk Musicians until late late at night then have a freakout dance party.
Jack Toft is returning from his month long tour and will be arriving the day of Electric City which will be his ALBUM RELEASE SHOW. His new album DOIN ART is full of non-stop bangers and truwords.
I’m excited to have Energy Club here—they destroyed The Vault the last time they were here. They are a duo with Lourdes on drums and Felix on destruction.
UVB-76 makes destroyable tunes that drive it crazy and they are a sight to see and hear.
Damian will be playing (with Mario) songs off his new album Soul Night.
My heroine Julie Byrne loves Electric City and the book fair and we love her and her beautiful songs.
Eric Unger is my favorite underground lo-fi rock noise acoustic poet and I love all his songs, and I always love it when he comes to Electric City and plays for us. Here is his bandcamp.
Andrew Biggie is NMH and Beriut, and his words are cool, and he’s got great heart!
In Your Hand is our special guest from Detroit and here is her music.
David Hadbawnik is an experimental poet musician publisher actor director.
Music at 9PM $5
The VAULT
702 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14202