&NOW 2018

Martin Nakell, "How to Survive a Bombing Raid in Syria, 2018"
A three-layered multi-media presentation, involving, simultaneously, a previously recorded reading of my poem, "How to Survive a Bombing Raid in Syria, 2018," an original musical composition, and images projected on a screen from the war. I will only introduce the piece. No one will be at the podium, leaving no barrier between the elements of this piece and the audience. The piece runs about 25 minutes. A Chapman graduate student, Tyler Hardy, is composing the music, a haunting and beautiful piece. The images are from news photographers. Given its importance, I would like to show this piece at a gathering of the whole conference. I hope to generate a conversation on just what we mean by "now" and why "it's needed." i would prefer that discussion to take place informally. i.e., I would prefer not to take questions, as what I have to say the art speaks for. While it talks specifically about Syria, I mean this piece to signify war in general, and our human spirit, so enigmatically capable of both war and tenderness.

Yuriy Tarnawsky, "Homage to Stephen Hawking"
I will read the poem "Stephen Hawking Goes Flying" written in 2015 and published in the 2015 Jaded Ibis Press anthology "Devouring the Green," which anticipated his passing. The reading will be 20 minutes long. I have not been able to organize a full-length session and would like to be included in an existing one.

Tyler Hardy contributing participant to this panel.

M.D. Coverley, Pacific Surfliner – San Juan Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano is one in a series of videos that comprise the Pacific Surfliner project.  The videos map the route of the Pacific Surfliner train along the California coast from San Diego to San Luis Obispo.  These works trace a story in stations – tales of a certain generation in time.  The passing windows reveal arrivals and departures over the years, loss and joy. A lifetime in fleeting impressions.
While San Juan Capistrano has some elements of overview, touching on many life transformations, each piece draws on events, both fictional and autobiographical, associated with the location.  The vagaries of recollection suffuse the landscape and haunt the gaps.
The individual videos are layered with images, sound, and text. The casual viewer may experience a quick evocation – the more persistent reader can explore the detail.
This performance will include some background explanation and a showing/reading of San Juan Capistrano.

Pacific Surfliner continues my experiments with narrative structure - the layering of time and space, the merging of history with private events, the juxtaposition of place and memory.  The temporal gaps and the imaginative space of the in-between invite the reader to enter into the visual space and complete the world. But it also involves some new directions and experiments with storytelling modes, some specific aesthetic and technical issues.