Residencies

• 05.05 > 09.05.2026

New Narrative is an expe­ri­men­tal wri­ting move­ment that emer­ged in the San Francisco poe­try sce­ne in the late 1970s around the wri­tings of Bruce Boone and Robert Glück and their wri­ting work­shops held at the Small Press Traffic book­sto­re. The term was coi­n­ed by fel­low poet Steve Abbott to descri­be the­se expe­ri­ments that used gos­sip, pro­mis­cuity, fax, lists, non-nar­ra­ti­ve ele­ments, pie­ces of news and slan­ders as vehi­cles to wri­te narratives.

Emerging from the con­text of the civil rights, the black move­ment and the sexu­al libe­ra­ti­on in the US, New Narrative appe­ars as a mot­ley crew of poets, wri­ters and acti­vists who exa­mi­ned poe­tic forms that could address their lives. Through per­so­nal, rela­ti­o­nal and trans­gres­si­ve wri­tings, New Narrative expe­ri­ments gene­ra­ted an acti­ve and eman­ci­pa­to­ry appro­ach to language.

In the after­math of the first Reagan elec­ti­on, mem­bers of the move­ment envi­si­o­ned a con­fe­ren­ce to gather grass­roots poe­try groups and to reflect about the poli­tics of their life and work. The Left/​Write con­fe­ren­ce, held in 1981 at the Noe Valley Ministry, SF, was an attempt to ela­bo­ra­te poli­ti­cal soli­da­ri­ty through litera­ry prac­ti­ces. Partly artis­tic, edu­ca­ti­o­nal and poli­ti­cal, the con­fe­ren­ce con­ve­ned 300 wri­ters over two days through work­shops, dis­cus­si­ons, exhi­bi­ti­ons and events. The con­fe­ren­ce took pla­ce once and was never repeated.

May The Bridges I Burn Light The Way is a per­for­ma­ti­ve stu­dy situ­a­ti­on that exa­mi­nes the con­di­ti­ons of emer­gen­ce of such event, through the method of reen­act­ment. Using the trans­cript of the con­fe­ren­ce as a sco­re for con­ver­sa­ti­on, rea­ding and orga­ni­zing, the per­for­man­ce looks into ways of learning from the­re and then in order to exa­mi­ne our com­mit­ments to here(s) and now(s)