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The Gracefully Over-Ambitious

By Travis Nichols

kiki.jpg
The Machine Project is a little storefront gallery in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. It recently got some national attention for helping to take over the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, but anyone familiar with the wildly imaginative curators and artists involved with Machine know that the LACMA story was just one of many.
It’s a place that encourages “heroic experiments of the gracefully over-ambitious” and to that end, they’ve enlisted the poet Joshua Beckman to help them get through the holiday season.


Through December, Machine Project Artist-in-Residence Beckman and Machine Project Laureate Anthony McCann will run a “Dial-In Poetry Delivery Service.”
Monday through Thursday, from 9pm PST to 10pm PST, interested parties can call 213.448.7668 and hear messrs. Beckman and McCann read their poems aloud especially for the caller, live. For real.
In addition, the two poets will also be offering a door-to-door poetry delivery service on Sunday, December 21st from “sun up to sun down.” The poets will take requests on the poetry phone (213.448.7668), and then walk to the requested residence to deliver a poem in person to the poetry loving LA resident.
So if you know anyone on your holiday shopping list this season who lives within one mile of the Machine Project, you now know what to do.

2008-12-11

Comments (6)

  • On December 11, 2008 at 5:02 pm Cathy wrote:

    I love Machine Project! It’s a great space for artists and poets.
    Report this comment

  • On December 11, 2008 at 5:10 pm Paul Squires wrote:

    What a fantastic idea. The spirit of the diggers and yippies lives on. I have friends in California. I’ll be sure to notify them.
    Report this comment

  • On December 11, 2008 at 10:15 pm Doodle wrote:

    There was a huge difference between the Diggers and the Yippies. We could probably use a bit of Emmet Grogan these days, come to think of it (and he was a good writer, too).
    Report this comment

  • On December 14, 2008 at 5:36 pm vowelmovers wrote:

    we’ve been waiting for j-becks to ring the Vowel Movers’ office doorbell for years! and with a poem? hello: HEAVEN.
    Report this comment

  • On December 16, 2008 at 4:53 am Lavinia Greenlaw wrote:

    Having taken over a museum, would they care to take over a small country?
    Report this comment

  • On December 16, 2008 at 11:07 am Travis Nichols wrote:

    I wouldn’t tempt them, Lavinia, unless you’re serious. You could end up with a country overrun with poetry-speaking robots run on LOLcat code.
    Report this comment


Posted in Arts, Group Blog on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 by Travis Nichols.

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