The day after the day after theTrump election two good friends, who both teach in colleges that are hardly havens for the 1%, reacted to the election results this way: One cried “How can I teach literature in the face of this?” The other reported he spent the afternoon of November 9 with his honors class — sitting in a circle reading in turn lines from “Leaves of Grass.”
Opening September 2, 2016: Basil King: Between Painting and Writing curated by Vincent Katz and Brian Butler, at the Black Mountain College Museum &Arts Center, Asheville, NC. Open until December 31, 2016.
Queen of Hearts – Highway Obstacle, one of the “Cards” series to be shown in Asheville
This show, will also include texts of King’s poetry and some of his covers for poetry books and journals, along with paintings using images from playing cards.
Opening October 28, 2016: Basil King’s Birds curated by Tom Patterson, at St. Andrews University, Laurinburg, NC. Open until November 19, 2016.
This show, focusing on King’s bird images, is part of a semester-long Black Mountain College Festival, with many exciting artists in residence for short visits.
For information and schedules: Ted Wojtasik – wojtasik@sa.edu or Whit Griffin – kudzuking@yahoo.com
These two North Carolina events overlap for the duration of the St.Andrews show. Laurinburg and Asheville are 230 miles apart, a drive of about four hours.
Opening February 25, 2017: Art of Basil King
John Molloy Gallery, 49 East 78th Street, 2nd floor, New York.
This will be the first solo New York exhibition of Basil King’s work since his historic exhibition of “Green Man” paintings at Poets House in 2010.
Fifty pages of my memoir Outside Inside — expertly excerpted and condensed by Brigid Hughes — is featured in issue 22 of A Public Space. With many photographs. Issue 22 –print or digital— or an annual subscription — can be ordered here: http://apublicspace.org/magazine
While I posted announcements on Facebook in October and had a marvelous send-off at the November 2015 Prose Pros reading series at Side Walk – aided by friends Vincent Katz, Mitch Highfill, Kimberly Lyons and Burt Kimmelman, who read excerpts from my work and their own autobiographical prose – I never posted the story on this blog.
So, once again, I have the pleasure of putting up the photograph taken by Lynn St. John back when I was 22. Here it is as the spread in the magazine:
Spread in A Public Space, with my article and Lynn St. John’s photo.
While the whole manuscript (all 300-plus pages of it) awaits a publisher, check out this issue. Not only for my stories, some sad and some glorious, with Basil King, Paul Blackburn, Dan Rice, Frank O’Hara, Lucia Berlin, G.R. Swenson, Robert Duncan, Jim Rosenquist and others, but also for the entire issue which has many special pleasures and rewards. I’m very happy to be in it.
We are still at the same address, same website (www.basilking.net), same Flickr site for Basil King art. But a move is a move, whether cross-country or just from upstairs to downstairs. We have moved within our house, up to down, to top half, to bottom half, to all, and now back to half. Six different configurations since 1969… But (no surprise) it took most of a year to pack, sort, sell, give away, and throw out…all the familiar wrenching drill of moving.
Now, we’re out of the top two floors, which have been converted into a nice apartment. No more stair-climbing. Plus improved income. Because while we we sat still, Park Slope became a pricey and desirable neighborhood. So desirable that we want to live here ourselves despite alluring offers from developers.
Now I’m writing downstairs at the dining room table. Baz is writing in the living room where his desk fitted nicely. We have a few hideaways when we need more space for domestic life. In fact much of the house is mostly unchanged…except for Baz’s studio. That was the big rub.
Baz and Martha in the new studio space
He’s now working in the front of what’s called in brownstones the parlor floor… Very narrow and about one-third of the size he was used to. Higher ceilings, yes. Skylight, no. But it works. For now.
And since this April he’s been birding…18 are complete, as of today, September l6. All on paper, most in mixed media. See one of them below. Do please visit the Flickr album called Bird Scripts.
Meanwhile all summer I’ve been working with Brigid Hughes, the editor ofA Public Space magazine (http://apublicspace.org/) on a very large condensed selection from my memoir, Outside Inside. It will be the feature of the fall issue.
I’m certain to trumpet this news more and again–in October when the print copies are in my hand and again in November. The November 5th Prose Pros reading will be a celebration of the issue, with brief readings from all the devoted Friends of Basil King: Mitch Highfill, Vincent Katz, Burt Kimmelman, Kimberly Lyons, and me.
A party after the move — it all looks the same downstairs.“Bird Script #17” – mixed media on Stonehenge paper, Basil King, 2015
The Friends of Basil King will present “Basil’s Arc – The Paintings and Poetics of Basil King” at Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue at Second Street, New York City, on Saturday, September 22, 2012, from 12 noon to 6 pm.
Sponsored by Lunar Chandelier Press — this free event includes conversations about King’s visual art illustrated by slides, with critics and poets including Edna Augusta, William Benton, Laurie Duggan, Tom Fink, Mitch Highfill, Vincent Katz, Burt Kimmelman, Harry Lewis, Kimberly Lyons, Tom Patterson, George Quasha, Corinne Robbins, Barry Schwabsky, Lilly Wei, and others….
Along with these discussions there will be performances of original music inspired by King images (“The Green Man” by Daniel Staniforth) and King text (“I Have a Little Song” from Mirage, by Nicole Peyrafitte).
Brief selections from King’s texts will be read by invited poets.
The highlight of the event will be the debut screening of a 22-minute film portrait, Basil King: MIRAGE, commissioned by The Friends of Basil King, and created by Nicole Peyrafitte and Miles Joris-Peyrafitte.
Poet Kimberly Lyons initiated this idea—and the whole is now a project of Kim’s small press, Lunar Chandelier. Here’s the official announcement:
Lunar Chandelier Press is proud to present Basil’s Arc on September 22, 2012, in New York City – A consideration of the paintings and poetics of the painter/poet Basil King, now in his 77th year.
The event will include the premiere of a film by Nicole Peyrafitte and Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, “Basil King: MIRAGE,” commissioned by The Friends of Basil King, performances of music inspired by King’s visual art, and discussions and presentations on the sources and implications of his aesthetics.
[To see the trailer of the film –and to give a donation (any amount will help)– please scroll to the earlier blog entry on “Basil King: MIRAGE.” ]
Before I was approached, Kim had invited Vincent Katz and Mitch Highfill. I suggested adding Burt Kimmelman. And I joined in as a highly interested member.Vincent urged us not to create a huge committee because it would soon become way too hard to get anything decided. So we stopped here.
But we wanted to have input from the poetry community – and the following poets accepted invitations to be advisors. They are:
News, opinion, excerpts, and images from Martha King – of my work and Basil King’s. There are, as it happens, two of each of us: The "other Basil King" was a Canadian Christian minister and novelist (1859-1928) – see page above. And the "other Martha King" was Martha J. King, who died in 2011. She was an editor and translator of contemporary Italian writing, especially women’s. See my post of February 1, 2013. Neither of these are us!
A Predella for the Green Man