Last Saturday, undrea becker, a fellow typewriter poet from Decorah, Iowa came into town and we met for the very first time. As part of her visit we set up our typewriters at the Walker's Point Center For the Arts (WPCA) and composed spontaneous essences for anyone who came up to us and held a branch of bittersweet, a plant that undrea brought with her from Iowa. Over a period of 3 hours, 62 people (including a couple who wanted their essence as one person) got their essences read by us. 124 essences were transcribed on March, 12th, 2016! The event included a poetry installation of the essences of inanimate objects in WPCA from the art, to the electrical outlets and vents, bathroom fixtures and hallway. There was a table with cut up words and a spare typewriter so people could compose their own poems. And the thing that really brought everything together was the six piece band of musicians who had never played together, but improvised for the entire duration of the evening. The band, Spectron and the Nebulous Ones consisted of Anton "Spectron" Sieger, Erik Schoster/ He Can Jog, Micheal Bettine of Gongtopia, Jess Lemont of Be A Waterwolf, Jade Kästel and Dennis Tomashek.
undrea becker of Insta-poems and Anja Notanja of La Prosette. Photo: Howard Leu
Photo: Howard Leu
Something undrea wrote for the hallway.
Photo: Elmer Golon, Design 709
A bathroom mirror essence. Photo: Sara Risley
Toilet paper dispenser essence. Photo: Heidi Parkes
Here are some of the essences... The succinct ones are by undrea, the longer ones are mine.
A slideshow of my poster illustrations for the event. I still have posters left so if you want one, email me notanja@gmail.com. Thank you to everyone for sharing your essences with us!
Here is some of the sound from the event: