Unshod Quills

INTERNATIONAL VIDEO POETRY FESTIVAL

SCREENINGS: PORTLAND OREGON – JACK LONDON BAR – 3/19/12 –  8 PM – COVER $8

SHANGHAI CHINA – THE RABBIT HOLE – 3/15/12 – 8 PM – COVER 50 RMB

Finalists –

Lani Jo Leigh (Portland) – Darcy Fisher (Shanghai) – Andrea Hope (Portland) – Posie Currin (Portland) – Ren Rey (Renee Reynolds) – Matthew Reed (Vancouver, BC) – Fork Burke (Switzerland) – Jacques Korn (California) – Zachary Schomburg(Portland) – David Foote (Shanghai) – Michael Earl Craig & Dalton C. Brink (Montana) – Robert Duncan Gray(Portland) – Josh Fernandez (California) – Barbara Anderlic (Shanghai)

HAL PUBLISHING OF SHANGHAI CHINA  and UNSHOD QUILLS OF PORTLAND, OREGON have teamed up with Portland’s Monica Storss to produce a cross-cultural, trans-Pacific video poetry film festival. Hosting bi-lateral events in Shanghai and Portland, the festival will celebrate the spoken word as infused by the medium of film, promoting and connecting artists from around the world.

Shanghai and Portland, Oregon have more in common than meets the untrained eye. Dark, busy, and both studded with Shanghai tunnels (those in Portland were used in the insidious pursuit of many illegal activities, including the kidnapping of young men for use as slave sailors on the Pacific; Shanghai’s own tunnels transport people in cars beneath the river to do whatever the hell they want). Both cities are divided by a river of trade and both cities are booming with literary communities as vibrant as anywhere else in the world. Both cities lay claim to Unshod Quills and HAL Publishing, sister sites and companies united in the pursuit of promoting excellent art and literature the world over.

$300 USD (RMB 1900) Grand Prize – Judges Choice for Best Video Poem – Second and Third Prizes – Screening Events in Shanghai and Portland, Oregon – Publication on HAL and Unshod Quills – SECOND AND THIRD PRIZES – DINNER AND BOOKS – more TBA

HAL Publishing, (www.haliterature.com) independent English language publisher based in Shanghai, China and Unshod Quills, (www.unshodquills.com) a Pandemic Journal of the Arts and Letters based in Portland, Oregon, in cooperation with Monica Storss (www.monicastorss.org) of Portland, Oregon announce the first ever SHANGHAI TUNNELS PROJECT — AN INTERNATIONAL POETRY FILM FESTIVAL.

With screening events to be held during March 2012 in both Portland, Oregon and Shanghai, China, this festival will celebrate the art of video poetry—the mix of verse and video into a creative form all its own.

Between now and February 22, 2012, poets and video artists are invited to submit a video poem for entry into the festival. Initial judging will be conducted by editors from HAL Publishing and Unshod Quills.

Eleven finalists will be chosen. Three must reside in Shanghai and three must reside in Portland; remaining finalists may be from anywhere in the universe.

Finally, an international panel of five independent judges (including Mike Tsang, Editor at Penguin Books China, Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, editor for Hong Kong’s Asian Cha and London’s Fleeting Magazines, B Frayn Masters, writer and producer of Portland, Oregon’s Back Fence PDX, and author and publisher Kevin Sampsell, of Portland’s Future Tense Books)  will select the grand prize winner from a group of eleven finalists. Two judges will be Shanghai-based, two will be Portland-based and one will be based elsewhere.

Those eleven finalists will be featured at events screened live in Portland and Shanghai where audience members will be provided with a chance to vote for their city’s second and third place choices. There will be only one grand prize winner, but there will be two second and two third place winners.

Grand prize winner will be announced prior to the event

GRAND PRIZE: One winner will be awarded $300 USD/ 1900 RMB

SECOND PRIZE: (LOCALS ONLY) one artist based in Shanghai and one artist based in Portland will be awarded dinner and drinks for two at a local restaurant (Shanghai) or at UQ editor Dena Rash Guzman’s delightful pastoral home, Stargazer Farm in Sandy, Oregon, and assorted books provided by Future Tense Publishing (Portland.) and Small Press Distribution. One copy for each winner of HAL’s newest publication Middle Kingdom Underground will be awarded. Once copy for each winner of HAL’s first publication, Party Like It’s 1984 will be awarded.

THIRD PRIZE: Two finalists will receive a collection of books from HAL Publishing and other sponsors.

ALL FINALISTS WILL RECEIVE PRESS, PROMOTION AND/OR PUBLICATION BY UNSHOD QUILLS AND HALiterature.

(All prizes are subject to change depending on sponsorship, but the guaranteed GRAND PRIZE will be a minimum of $300.)

SHANGHAI TUNNELS CONTEST RULES AND REGULATIONS

• For the purposes of this competition and festival, video poetry is defined as a piece of film or video based around a poem. Therefore, entries must be a video or film and it must feature either some form of poetic text or spoken word.

• Video poetry entered into the contest is not to exceed five minutes in length.

• Each contestant may enter one (1) video poem.

• Videos may have been previously published, but they must reasonably be the property of the contestant. Collaborations between filmmakers and poets are welcome, but failure by the contestant to ensure both parties are willing to submit the video will result in disqualification. Further, any copyrighted material of any length or media not belonging to the contestant or his/her collaborator is strictly disallowed. By entering the contest, the participant agrees to relieve Shanghai Tunnels and its associates of all responsibility for ensuring work is legal to disseminate and that all parties owning rights to the video have been notified of entry.

• Contestants may live anywhere in the world. However, a minimum of three Shanghai and three Portland based artists will be chosen in the preliminary round.

• There is no entry fee.

• Contestants may enter by completing an entry form providing a link to a hosted video poem to the email addresses provided for this purpose. No files will be accepted. Vimeo and Youtube, for example, are acceptable formats for initial entry.

• Finalists will be notified by March 1. Finalists will have five days to submit their work via an electronic file sharing system to the contest holders. A method will be assigned when finalists are announced. Failure to do so will disqualify finalist from the contest.

• Employees, family members, domestic partners, editors or board members of HAL Publishing, Unshod Quills or Monica Storss Publicity are ineligible to enter.

TO ENTER:

ENTRY FORM

Please download, fill out and return the entry form above by February 22 to both dena@haliterature.com and butler@haliterature.com.

enter ST SUBMISSION into header to ensure the proper delivery of your entry for the competition.

Please contact Wendy at unshodquills.com with any inquiries or questions. Thank you! Good luck.

Joseph Taylor Golding is an American video artist. His recorded images and words, composed of found and original footage and sound, sometimes are like messages from an imagined future long gone cold, but they glimmer lightly with something that smells subtly of hope or perfect summer blackberries.  Joseph’s work is a thing of great discovery, beauty and endurance.

Joseph, in his own words:

We will let Joseph’s work, video poetry on the themes of fire, America, somewhere never traveled, gladly beyond and rapture, speak now. We can’t hold it back any longer. Seldom do I comment on work published by our journal, as I like to allow the art and literature to speak for itself, but I comment now.

Thank you, Joseph. Please continue to do this work.

Anyone who might see this and be interested in learning more about Joseph, or in hearing from him, will please email me at dena @ haliterature dot com.

Dena Rash Guzman
Editor
Unshod Quills

“My Name is Joseph”

on the theme of “Somewhere Never Traveled, Gladly Beyond”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWWKJqaGTnM]

Drunk On Empty Words

on the theme of Fire

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4a-7k-cBh8]

Visual Sculpture – The Sky Was Full of Snakes (part one)

on the theme of Rapture

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38zioorHgVg]

Visual Sculpture – The Sky Was Full of Clockwork Crows (part two)

on the theme of Rapture

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zyK_pcXJrI]

More of Joseph’s work can be found here:

Sacrificial Totem

Look for some great work utilizing the poetry of Richard Brautigan.

In May, Unshod Quills put forth a special call for submissions of video poetry. Here are our favorites. For more video poems, see also the work of this month’s featured artist – Joseph Taylor Golding, an autistic American filmmaker.

Zachary Schomburg
Your Limbs Will Be Torn Off In a Farm Accident –

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/4349536]

Cold

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/2969605]

Portland poet Zachary Schomburg illustrates Portland poet Emily Kendal Frey’s “Cold.”
Cello by Elinor Frey.

…

Mary Ann Sullivan
This Magisters Know –
A digital poem

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zghiPJxE8l0&feature=youtu.be]

…

Jillian Brall and Viv G
A Woman

 [vimeo  http://vimeo.com/27021986]

…

Viv G and Dena Rash Guzman
The Sky in Five Seasons –
(some field notes from a year in rural northwestern America)

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/27647394]

…

Artist Biographies

Zachary Schomburg

Zachary Schomburg is the author of The Man Suit (Black Ocean 2007), Scary, No Scary (Black Ocean 2009), a dvd of poem films, Little Blind Thing (Poor Claudia 2010), two forthcoming books, Fjords and The Book of Joshua, and several small press chapbooks. He co-edits Octopus Magazine and Octopus Books. He lives in Portland, Ore, where he co-curates the Bad Blood Reading Series.

Emily Kendal Frey

Emily Kendal Frey is the author of AIRPORT (Blue Hour 2009), FRANCES (Poor Claudia 2010), and THE NEW PLANET (Mindmade Books 2010) as well as four chapbook collaborations. Her first full-length collection, THE GRIEF PERFORMANCE, was published by Cleveland State University Poetry Center in 2011. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Mary Ann Sullivan

The New York Times called Mary Ann Sullivan first novel, Child of War, set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, “an earnest first novel,” and that book was named a Notable Book in Social Studies by the National Council of Social Studies and Children’s Book Council. Her poetry has been published online at the BBC Arts Online and BlazeVox, her literary interviews and commentaries at places such as Jacket and The Poetry Library, Southbank Centre, London.   Her digital poetry has been recently featured at Mezzo Cammin online. She edits The Tower Journal.

Jillian Brall

Jillian Brall is a poet, visual artist and musician, living in Brooklyn, NY. She co-edits the online journal, Lyre Lyre.

Viv G

Find out more about Viv at www.vivg.com. 

Dena Rash Guzman

Author and poet Dena Rash Guzman lives on a farm outside Portland, Oregon. She is the editor of Unshod Quills.