Cahuenga Press is back at Beyond Baroque for an evening of poetry, celebrating the book launch of James Cushing’s new book Tangled Hologram with Phoebe MacAdams, Harry Northup, and Jeanette Clough.
James Cushing’s new collection from Cahuenga Press features poems that, as poet Marsha de la O said, ‘insist on a consciousness mediated by electronics and solitude, by dreams, by film noir, above all, by the rush of energy into Logos.’”
Poet and What Books co-founder Gail Wronsky described the work as “Antic, off-beat, but always also profound, the poems in this book speak about who we are now: people shaken to the core by our contemporary lives.”
Jeannete Cough writes, “The poems in Tangled Hologram pursue their subjects relentlessly with an outpouring of images and a wealth of language. They are vibrant, uncompromising, and travel with a relentless momentum that can barely be contained on the page”.
Thumbnail Photo Credits: Alexis Rhone Fancher (Harry Northup & Phoebe MacAdams portraits) Celeste Goyer (Jimm Cushing), and Emily C. Petrie (Jeanette Clough).
About the authors
Phoebe MacAdams was born and raised in New York City, but has lived in California most of her adult life, first in the poetry community of Bolinas in Northern California, and then in Ojai in Ventura County. She has been active in the Los Angeles literary community since her move here in 1986. She is a founding member of Cahuenga Press, the poets’ cooperative press (1989-present), with the poets James Cushing, the late Holly Prado and Harry Northup, and recently Jeanette Clough. Our goal “is to create fine books of poetry by poets whose work we admire and respect; to make poetry actual in the world in ways which honor both individual creative freedom and cooperative support.” For two years, Phoebe ran the Gasoline Alley reading series on Melrose Avenue with poet Bill Mohr. She taught English and Creative Writing at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights for twenty-six years until her retirement in 2011. She has published eight books of poetry: Sunday, Ever; and with Cahuenga Press, Ordinary Snake Dance, Livelihood, Strange Grace, Touching Stone, and her most recent Cahuenga title, The Large Economy of the Beautiful, New and Selected Poems. In 2017, Beyond Baroque Books published Every Bird Helps: A Cancer Journal. According to Amelie Frank, “What she reports back to us from her daily pilgrimages should give us hope: truth and beauty are at hand everywhere we look and always just as we need it most.” She lives in Pasadena with her husband, Ron Ozuna.
Harry E. Northup has had twelve books of poetry published, the last one is Love Poem To MPTF (Cahuenga Press, 2020). He received his B.A. in English from CSUN. where he studied verse with Ann Stanford. Northup has made a living as an actor for thirty-four years, acting in thirty-seven films, including “Taxi Driver,” Over the Edge,” and “The Silence of the Lambs.” He is the curator of Harry’s Poetry Hour, Creative Chaos MPTF.
James Cushing, born 1953 in Palo Alto CA, holds a doctorate in English from UC Irvine. In the early 1980s, he hosted a live poetry radio program on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles which gave early exposure to Dennis Cooper, David Trinidad, Amy Gerstler, Wanda Coleman, Leland Hickman, and many others. From 1989-2020, he taught literature and creative writing at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and served as the community’s Poet Laureate for 2008 – 2010. Cushing’s poems have appeared in many journals, and his books include The Magicians’ Union, Solace, and, most recently, Tangled Hologram — all from Cahuenga Press in Los Angeles. His daughter is the New York-based poet Iris Cushing. www.jamescushingpoetry.com
Jeanette Clough’s poetry collection, Flourish, was a finalist in the Otis College of Art and Design and Eastern Washington University Blue Lynx book competitions. She is author of two artist books, Stone and Rx. Awards include Pushcart nominations and a Commendation in the Aesthetica Creative Works competition (UK). She edited for Solo, A Journal of Poetry, and reviewed for Poetry International. Recent journal credits are Colorado Review, The Laurel Review, and Bellevue Literary Review. A native of Paterson, N.J., she earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago, Division of the Humanities, and was an art librarian at the Getty Research Institute. Clough co-directed the Los Angeles Barnes & Noble and Rose Café poetry series, and currently hosts Poetry at Bell Arts in Ventura. She was artist-in-residence at Joshua Tree National Park where for many years taught outdoor desert poetry workshops.
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