“A parenthesis is a transplant, like a window.” -Lyn Hejinian (03.01.14 Woosley Heights)
I first heard rumblings of Timeless, Infinite Light during the 2013 JKS Summer Writing Program; Emji Spero was wearing a shirt that read: POEM SWAG with an infinity symbol below the words. Needless to say, I needed to know this human writer and also where I could get a shirt like that.
Fast forward: Mountain Poetry Bonfire Naked River; Cecilia Vicuña’s week-long workshop: this is where I hear Emji read from Any Shit Will Do the manuscript that would become their first (incredible) book, Almost Any Shit Will Do (Timeless, Infinite Light 2014), a book described as:
MYCELIUM IS THE LARGEST ORGANISM ON THE PLANET. It is the collective root structure from which all mushrooms emerge. It lives three inches under the ground and can span for thousands of acres. Any of its threads can connect to the collective body at any point. Almost Any Shit Will Do pulls language from mycelium studies to investigate the underground of political unrest, from its emergence as riots to the single moment of impact: a body in protest thrown to the ground by the cop. How can we mark the shifting boundary between the individual and the movement in the midst of a riot? It is in the continuous attempt to define these terms that we begin to articulate the utopia that is always already happening, three inches below the surface.
In other words, Almost Any Shit Will Do is just me, twenty-two years old, laying on the floor of my lover’s bedroom, flattened by painkilers, attempting to trace the lines back to ward one moment in 2009 when an officer of the law damaged a part of my body forever.
When I first met Joel, it was on a rust lit Oakland street or a street outside of Oakland; getting off the BART with Emji who told me about Joel: the other half of TIL; we walked to the liquor store to get beer before entering a home where Lyn Hejinian would be reading. Joel has been working on a series of “night selfies” which continue to accumulate during the course of the tour -they’re not to be missed.
We sat on a magical golden rock on our walk to the Speakeasy house where we got to talking: they showed me The Journal of Albion Moonlight by Kenneth Patchen; we talked deep into the night, long after the liquor stores closed until the moon was low enough to sip from.
The morning after left notes all over my arms; my notebook was covered in words and free marks–I retrieved these notes the morning after:
I made Dark Matter today – JG
But, it’s starting to smudge off, so there is no idea. -ES
It’s just your friendly cumshot from a fairytale – JG
Emji and Joel and are two rays of light from a far off star; they are Timeless, Infinite Light.
Timeless, Infinite Light is a pack of wild suddenlings spilling out of the west coast as much a press as they are a poetry cult, TIL is more than shaking things up. They’re changing the fucking game. in their own words:
Timeless, Infinite Light is an Oakland small press focused on contemporary poetry and critical theory with a heavy, West Coast lean towards the experimental / political / mystical. They are a member of the Omni Collective. timelessinfinitelight.com
TIL is a window on tour connecting the rhizome community of writers that are the organism: Timeless, Infinite Light.
Emji and Joel are barreling towards Boulder with words and moon soaked photons. Come bathe in the light.
Come see them read, perform and exist in Boulder Colorado November 9th at 303 Vodka for Bouldering Poets.
At SUNDOWN (approx. 5pm) on November 10th, there will be a special reading at the Columbia Cemetery featuring TIL. Hannah Kezema, Domingo Cannizales III, and Myself. Bring: wine (or coffee), a candle or 3 or 7, your howling lungs and your
At Innisfree Poetry Bookstore November 11th with TractTrace: an investigative journal
TIMELESS, INFINITE LIGHT
Emji Spero is an Oakland-based artist exploring the intersections of writing, installation, and performance. Their writing has been featured in Tripwire, Dusie, Jupiter88, Jacket2, Tract/Trace, Wheelhouse Magazine,The Vulgate, and Not Enough Data. Spero’s new book, almost any shit will do, uses found language, word-replacement and erasure to strange the familiar and map the boundaries of collective engagement.
Joel Gregory is a dropout of the New School MFA program and a co-founder of Timeless, Infinite Light. He is a poet and visual artist living in Oakland, California
THE AUTHOR
Angel Dominguez is a coyote that writes, lives, performs and produces art on the Front Range. Black Lavender Milk [a failed novel] is his first book, forthcoming from Timeless, Infinite Light.
TIMELESS, INFINITE LIGHT TOUR SCHEDULE
Denver, CO
Nov 8
with Mountain to Sound at The Savoy, 8pm
with Spirits of the Red City and Patrick Dethlefs
2700 Arapahoe Street, Denver
https://www.facebook.com/events/825211727529673/
Boulder, CO
Nov 9
Bouldering Poets at 303 Vodka Distillery
Joel Gregory and Emji Spero
2500 47th Street Unit 10, Boulder
http://boulderingpoets.wordpress.com/
Nov 10
Tract/Trace at Columbia Cemetery
Angel Dominguez, Joel Gregory, and Emji Spero
1201 9th Street, Boulder
https://www.facebook.com/events/1118220824905107/
Nov 11
Tract/Trace at Innisfree Poetry Bookstore and Cafe, 5:30-7pm
Angel Dominguez, Joel Gregory, JH Phrydas, and Emji Spero
1203 13th Street, Suite A, Boulder
https://www.facebook.com/events/1118220824905107/
Salt Lake City, UT
Nov 13
The Republican, Doors at 6:30pm reading at 7pm
Joel Gregory, Emji Spero, Jessica Bergamino,and a collaborative reading by Jess Alexander and Rachel Levy, Hosted by Adam Atkinson
917 S State St, Salt Lake City
Reno, NV
Nov 14
TBA
Oakland, CA
Nov 15
E.M. Wolfman General Interest Small Bookstore, 8-10pm
Joel Gregory, Ivy Johnson, Emji Spero
410 13th Street, Oakland
Los Angeles, CA
Nov 17
Studio 64, 8pm
Release Party for Ghost Box by Emerson Whitney
with CAConrad and Maggie Nelson
1103 N Avenue 64, Los Angeles