Between 1964 and 1966, in the first years of Brazil’s military dictatorship, Hélio Oiticica wrote a series of lyrical poems, entitled Secret Poetics, and reflected in a private notebook on their significance for his artistic practice. Despite his global fame as a founder of the interdisciplinary movement known as neoconcretismo, his collaborations with major Brazilian artists and writers (Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, Ferreira Gullar, etc.), and his influence across a range of disciplines (including painting, film, installation, and participatory art), Oiticica’s “secret” poems are almost unknown and have never been published as a collection. This edition, which features the original texts in facsimile reproductions along with English translations and accompanying essays by translator Rebecca Kosick and critic Pedro Erber, uncovers the significance of poetry to Oiticica’s thinking on participation, sensation, and memory. The first English-language translation of the “secret” poetry of Hélio Oiticica uncovers a crucial chapter in the development of one of Brazil’s most significant twentieth-century artists
 

This event features a presentation and reading by the book's editor and translator, Rebecca Kosick, followed by a conversation between Kosick and pioneering Oiticica scholar Irene Small. Listen to it on MPR here:
 

➚https://radio.montezpress.com/#/show/3250

Cuckoo, cuckoo

What do you do?
In April, I open my bill
In May, I sing night and day
In June, I change my tune
In July, far, far I fly
In August, away

I must…
Cuckoo, cuckoo

Bailey Scieszka brings us Whorology, the dramaturgical saga of Old Put.

In ➚episode one we meet Old Put, who works retail for the Detroit based company Enron Watches. By night, she creates a replica of the Playboy Mansion for her 12-inch fashion dolls. Old Put goes on a journey to meet the creator of Enron watches after faking her death to make her artwork (wicker sex dolls) more valuable.

In ➚episode two, "Blood on the Corn," Old Put is working as a butler at the Playboy Mansion West. Todd Popadopalis, worldwide watch mogul and creator of Enron Watches, has purchased the Playboy Mansion and spends his days building automatons with mechanical hearts. His latest monstrosity is a recreation of The Zodiac Killer. Guests begin to be picked off in a replica of The Shining maze that Todd had erected out of corn. It is up to Old Put to determine who is real and who is fake as she races against time to find the killer.

Morgan Bassichis has been a leading voice over the last month, guiding us through speech and action in his work as a member of Jewish Voice for Peace in the continued call for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide of Palestinians. 

Bassichis has been engaged in anti-Zionist work for many years, and a Crowded Field completes a trilogy of performance projects by Bassichis that use humor and music to activate the rich tradition of Jewish anti-zionism. The previous performances included Klezmer for Beginners, co-created with Ethan Philbrick at Abrons Arts Center in 2019, and Don’t Rain on My Bat Mitzvah, co-created with Ira Khonen Temple and organized by Creative Time in 2021. In this final installment, Bassichis performs a stand-up comedy crash course on the uses and abuses of the Jewish holidays. This performance was recorded at the Abrons Art Center on April 8, 2023, and you can listen in full ➚here.

A--Company presents collection 9 1/2 in the form of one-act play workshop, performing part of ANTIGONE (a new version by Anne Carson). Collapsing the edges of what is considered a play, performance, fashion show, A--Company insists through the deconstruction of form, the possible futurity is already building.

Listen to the performance, further deconstructed on Montez Press Radio, ➚here.

The play was directed by Daphné Dumons and performed by Blake Abbie, Morgan Bassichis, Jeremy O’ Harris, Sydney Lemmon, Rad Pereira, Bobby Slavör Menuez, Sophie Becker, and Diamond Stingily.

A--COMPANY, established in 2018 by designer Sara Lopez, is a ready-to-wear and accessories label based in New York City.

Since the fall of 2022, World Poetry's Colloquy event series has provided a forum for translators to engage with live audiences in an exploration of the art of translation. In ➚this episode, Lisa Hofmann-Kuroda, Patricio Ferrari, and Minna Zallman Proctor join translator and series curator C. Francis Fisher to discuss their recent publications with New Directions. 

Find past episodes in the archive and stay tuned for more of Colloquy in 2024.

Inside the launch issue of the Whitney Review (Spring/Summer 2023), including excerpted audio from the feature interview between Brontez Purnell and Michael Bullock and a reading of Philippa Snow's essay about Y2K celebrity fiction by Pamela Anderson, Nicole Richie, and the Kardashians. 

The Whitney Review is the biannual print review dedicated to new writing you've been waiting for -- founded and edited by Whitney Mallett and art directed by Immanuel Yang. The first issue includes interviews with Brontez Purnell, Tamara Faith Berger, Ishmael Reed, and Samuel Delany and reviews of novels, poetry, nonfiction,, art books, periodicals, and more. 

The first issue sold out so enjoy the audio supplement :) Listen ➚here.