Jow Lindsay Comments On His Blog Everyone's Cup of Tea About the Land for Lajee Fundraiser

Openned / Land for Lajee Fundraiser. We heard around fifteen poets read in three-minute slots, all relevant & some intentionally so, & we saw a short film about the Aida camp & heard some short talks about the camp and the Lajee Centre.  We were taken at our stations by the reverie wherein Steve Willey psyches himself up with Cobbing glossolalia strapping on his brown shinpads for another full day's football against the camp children.  There was an auction and other stuff.

The only thing that didn't make me fucking ecstatic was the sense of a special occasion.  Openned & other itinerary bezoars, like The Blue Bus, Utter!, Xing the Line, Penned in the Margins, Chlorine, and the stuff which happens in Cambridge, should regularly schedule mixtures of poetry and direct prosaic political and activist-administrative address.  New nights too.  If you want concrete suggestions, backchannel me.

Review of Openned Night

Below is a review of the March 2009 Openned Night by Michelle Nake Pierce. The original appears on her blog.

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John Sparrow Comments On his Blog 'Itch Away' About Openned

Openned was another good one. Decent turnout this evening, perhaps due to the extra-high-profile readers. Here’s a quick recap:

Ensemble whose name I didn't catch first. Illness meant improv insert, skillfully achieved by good conducting and keen ears. My friend commented that in all the years he’s accompanied me to poetry events, this one fulfilled his need for woodwind, string, words and jazz hats. Bravo. But it wasn’t mere Jazz Club. It was, indeed, well-crafted sonically, and Steve did a good job, meeting crescendoes like Bruce Dickinson without the plane. He looks good in a hat.

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Review of Openned Night

This night was put on for the poet Jerome Rothenberg. At this reading the poets, Martin Dean / Caroline Bergvall / Openned mic (filled by Becky Cremin) and Carol Watts read, amongst others… possibly. Will Rowe had put us in touch with Rothenberg and there was a reading at Birkbeck late in the week. Rothenbergs reading was divided into two sections, an introductory ten minute section followed by a longer thirty minute section in the second half. The night was reviewed the next day by the Poet Ryan Ormonde (who later was to perform at Openned 12).

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Jow Lindsay's Account of Openned 6

These reviews of Openned 6 were first published on Jow Lindsay’s blog.

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Review / Interview of Openned Night

Below is a copy and paste job (date today: 15th March 2009) of a really old review of an Openned night by the website Insolent Boy. I think it has some not so small problems both in terms of its accuracy, and in terms that, when it is accurate the views expressed are not wholly representative of the views we hold now, but it is good to remember that these things happened, no?

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