Allison Cobb, Paul Mazier, John Shipley, Mary Sutton 


Saturday, December 7, 6-9pm

Dear Friend,
Join the "Light Club" celebration of artist Josiah McElheny's season at the lumber room. Story, music and poetry will accompany fine beverages. Dress however you would like, but "Light" clothing is certainly welcome. Yours truly,
Zena Zezza

This celebration of a fictional event enacts McElheny's own theatrical gathering for the "Centenary of the Light Club of Batavia." In Paul Scheerbart's novella, "The Light Club of Batavia: A Ladies Novelette," the fabulous creation of the light spa at the bottom of a mineshaft is noted just so: "The five gathered again in Batavia in July 1910. And Mr. Hartung confirmed that everything was bright."


“The Light Club: On Paul Scheerbart’s The Light Club of Batavia” Josiah McElheny

7pm Reading: John Shipley
“The Light Club of Batavia: A Ladies’ Novelette” by Paul Scheerbart, as originally written in German, 1912

7:10 Reading: Paul Maziar
“The Light Club of Batavia: A Ladies’ Novelette” by Paul Scheerbart, first English translation by Wilhelm Werthern, 2010

7:20 Music: Mary Sutton
Arnold Schoenberg’s “Sechs kleine Klavierstücke,” Opus 19 (1911)

7:30 Reading: Allison Cobb and Jen Coleman
“From the Shadows: A Poem by Gregg Bordowitz and Ulrike Müller”

7:45 Music: Mary Sutton
Arnold Schoenberg’s “Drei Klavierstücke,” Opus 11 (1909)

John Shipley was born in Berlin. A native German speaker, he immigrated to the U.S. as a child, adopting the English language and living in Portland where he is a businessman and supporter of the arts and education. He is dedicated to the contemporary as well as the classical across the arts including music, performance, visual arts, ceramics and film.

Paul Maziar's first book of experimental prose came out in 2008 as a collaborative work with the artist Maust. His book of poems, Last Light of Day, was printed by Portland’s Publication Studio, and his new chapbook, Little Advantages, will be released by Couch Press. Paul co-curates a monthly reading series called The Switch. More at andsotobegin.tumblr.com.

Allison Cobb is the author of Born Two about her hometown of Los Alamos, NM, and Green-Wood about a nineteenth century cemetery in Brooklyn, a book The New York Times called "a gorgeous, subtle, idiosyncratic gem." She is at work now on a book called Plastic: an autobiography. More at allisoncobb.net.

Pianist Mary Sutton specializes in 20th and 21st century music. A leading interpreter of composer Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, and founder of the “Emahoy Sheet Music Project,” Mary traveled to Guebrou's convent in Jerusalem to transcribe and edit manuscripts in preparation for a 2014 publication.