March 30: push the bounds of intellectualized sexuality with Nin Andrews and Brady's Leap

When: Thursday March 30 7:30 PM

Where: IUPUI University Library, Lilly Auditorium

IndyBuzz tries not to be prudish, but IndyBuzz does have a mother who sometimes checks in to the blog ... so let's start with IUPUI's description of this event, with hyperlinks added so you can check veracity for yourself:

"Acclaimed author of "The Book of Orgasms", "Spontaneous Breasts", and "Midlife Crisis with Dick and Jane", Nin Andrews has been called “a mixture of Green Acres and Carson McCullers.” She is also the editor of a book of translations of the French poet, Henri Michaux, entitled "Someone Wants to Steal My Name". About "The Book of Orgasms", David Wojahn has written “There is no other young writer — at least on these shores — whose work even remotely resembes that of Nin Andrews. To find her predecessors one has to look to Europe, to the sly and sometimes erotic zaniness of Luis Buñuel.” Nin’s work has appeared widely in such journals as Paris Review and Denver Quarterly and in Best American Poetry 1997, 2001 and 2003.

Brady’s Leap is a band of four award-winning poets and a physicist. Gathering inspiration from new and ancient sources, they play a creative blend of folk, Celtic, rock and blues. Their songs and ballads include layered a cappella, instrumentals, and haunting harmonies, reflecting the history of Ireland, Britain and America.

I like some of the Andrew's poems, some of them are thought-provoking and arresting. Some seem naughty for the sake of being naughty, or maybe to prove that it's possible to be naughty and well-read. Consider the opening of her poem "Black Magic":

According to William James, there are laws in psychology. If you form a picture in your mind of what you would like or wish, and you hold that picture long enough, you produce what you are thinking.

In this way monks in certain Himalayan monasteries manifest women out of thin air while balancing cups of steaming gooseberry tea on their cocks.

Sorry about that, Mom. I'll probably read James's "Varieties of Religious Experience" differently next time around ... read it better? That's another question. At the same time, I do like the efforts of the cool kids at Big Car to push the boundaries of how we view the so-called real world, so I'll give Nin Andrews a try.

The 2005-06 Rufus Reiberg Reading Series is presented by the School of Liberal Arts, University College, and the University Library. Contact: Karen Kovacik, (317) 274-9831

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