A Performance of Writing & Publication at the Reanimation Library: Highland Park Branch.

As a project of the Los Angeles Reanimation Library, Les Figues Press will create and publish a reanimated version of Your New Image Through Color & Line. This 1981 book, written by Gerrie Pinckney and Marge Swenson (directors of the Fashion Academy in Southern California), recognized that “today’s woman is often juggling a career, family life, and involvement in home and community,” and that “if you look like a winner, becoming a winner is easier.”

Using a tool-box of pre-selected writing constraints, the Les Figues team of writers and producers will re-imagine this text for today’s busy image-maker. What is the difference, if any, between an image made on the page, though a book, or with a body? Together, we will explore the social construction of image-making as performance and creative act. The team will have two days to animate the text. The project will culminate with the publication and performance of the text.

The Les Figues Press team is comprised of individuals who play and have played key roles in the production of Les Figues books—as authors, designers, editors, curators, fundraisers, interns, and more—showcasing the kind of group effort it takes to make books that prioritize language and aesthetics over commercial appeal. All planning and workshop sessions will be held during open library hours, for the public’s viewing pleasure.

TEAM:

Amanda Ackerman, Andrew Wessels, Chris Hershey-Van Horn, Coco Owen, Harold Abramowitz, Janice Lee, Matias Viegener, Michael du Plessis, Saehee Cho, Teresa Carmody

MAKEOVER STATIONS:

Hair, Make-up/Skin Care, Wardrobe, Figure, Personality

WHERE:

Monte Vista Projects
5442 Monte Vista St
Los Angeles, CA 90042
Monte Vista Projects

SCHEDULE:

Production Sessions
Saturday, May 4: 12-5 pm
Sunday, May 5: 12-3 pm

Publication Party & Performance
Sunday, May 5: 3 pm

The Reanimation Library: Highland Park Branch is organized by Aurora Tang and Jen Hofer in collaboration with Reanimation Library Founder Andrew Beccone and Monte Vista Projects.

More about LES FIGUES TEAM MEMBERS:

Amanda Ackerman is the author of four chapbooks: Sin is to Celebration (co-author, House Press),The Seasons Cemented (Hex Presse), I Fell in Love with a Monster Truck (Insert Press Parrot #8), andShort Stones (Dancing Girl Press). She is co-publisher and co-editor of the press Eohippus Labs. Amanda also writes collaboratively as part of the projects SAM OR SAMANTHA YAMS and UNFO. Her first full-length book, The Book of Feral Flora, is forthcoming from Les Figues Press.

Andrew Wessels has lived in Houston, Cambridge, and Las Vegas. Currently, he splits his time between Istanbul and Los Angeles. His poems, translations, and collaborations can recently be found inVOLT, Witness, Fence, Colorado Review, The Journal, Washington Square Review, Grist, Handsome,Fact-Simile, and 580 Split. He has held fellowships from the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, where he was assistant editor of Witness, and Poets & Writers. He edits the poetry and poetics journal The Offending Adam and is the Les Figues Press managing editor.

Chris Hershey-Van Horn is a writer and performer based in Los Angeles. His writing is featured inGaga Stigmata and HTMLGIANT. His body is featured in other places.

Coco Owen is a stay-at-home poet in Encino. She blogs about the Valley at Tarzana Is My Heroineand is on the board of Les Figues Press. She has had poems in the Antioch Review, The Journal, 1913,Tidal Basin Review, Rio Grande Review, etc., and has a mini chapbook out from Binge Press. See more of her work at www.cocowenphd.com.

Harold Abramowitz’s books and chapbooks include (!x==³³) Book 1, Volume 1 (collaboration with Dan Richert), A House on a Hill (A House on a Hill Part One), Not Blessed, and Dear Dearly Departed. Harold co-edits the short-form literary press Eohippus Labs, and writes and edits as part of the collaborative projects, SAM OR SAMANTHA YAMS and UNFO.

Janice Lee is a writer, artist, editor, designer, curator, and scholar. She is the author of two highly acclaimed novels: KEROTAKIS (Dog Horn Press, 2010) and Daughter (Jaded Ibis, 2011). She also has several chapbooks: Red Trees, Fried Chicken Dinner (Parrot/Insert Press, September 2012), and The Other Worlds (Eohippus Labs, June 2012). Her newest project, Damnation, is forthcoming from Penny-Ante Editions in 2013. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she is Co-Editor of the online journal [out of nothing], Co-Founder of the interdisciplinary arts organization Strophe, Reviews Editor atHTMLGIANT, and Founder/CEO of POTG Design. She can be found online at http://janicel.com.

Matias Viegener is a Los Angeles based writer, artist and critic who works alone and collaboratively in the fields of writing, video, installation and performance art. He is a co-founder of Fallen Fruit, a participatory art practice focusing on fruit, urban ecology and public space, which has shown work internationally in museums and galleries. Viegener is the author of 2500 Random Things About Me Too, a book of experimental writing, and has co-edited two books, The noulipian Analects and Séance in Experimental Writing with Christine Wertheim. He is the editor and co-translator of Georges Batailles’ The Trial of Gilles de Rais.

Michael du Plessis teaches Comparative Literature and English at the University of Southern California, where he is also completing a masters degree in Professional Writing. His novel, The Memoirs of JonBenet by Kathy Acker, is recently published by Les Figues Press. He has written about a wide variety of subjects, from Goth culture to the French fin-de-siècle and has also performed, amongst other venues, at Highways and at the MAK Center/Schindler House.

Saehee Cho holds a MFA from The California Institute of The Arts. Her work has been featured in Out of Nothing, decomP, Sidebrow, BAP, Pank, Eleven Eleven, RECAPS, and is forthcoming in Black Clock. She was a finalist for 2012 The White Pine Press Poetry Book Contest and has contributed to the Enter>Text Performance Series, Area Sneaks at LAXART, and Not Content at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. She co-hosts The Unkindest Cut, a reading series and lives and writes in Los Angeles.

Teresa Carmody is the author of Eye Hole Adore (PS Books, 2008) and Requiem (Les Figues, 2005), and the chapbooks I Can Feel (Insert Press, 2011) and Your Spiritual Suit of Armor by Katherine Anne (Woodland Editions, 2009). She is co-founding director of Les Figues Press and currently teaches at California Institute of the Arts.