The folks from PBS Newshour were down last week to film me for their Poetry Series. It should air very soon — follow me on Twitter or Facebook and I’ll post there when I get the word that it’s about to run.

Mike Melia blogged this poem from Newspaper Blackout yesterday on the Newshour Art Beat blog.

Here’s what I said to Drew Dernavich about the poem:

It’s funny you mention “Foreclosure,” because that’s my least favorite poem in the whole damned book. My wife liked that one and made me keep it in!

Moral: listen to your wife.

I was pretty thrilled when The Austin Museum of Art asked me if I wanted to do a Newspaper Blackout event. We got to display a mini-exhibit of originals and prints, and I led a 90 minute blackout poetry workshop. It was a great time, and we had a terrific turnout.

see it bigger

More photos on my Flickr and AMOA’s Facebook page.

Here’s some video Anne Heller (@annevid) shot of the talk:

Big thanks to AMOA and everyone who showed!

Newspaper Blackout is still just $10 on Amazon.

Three items of note:

• TONIGHT: Newspaper Blackout at the Austin Museum of Art!
• INTERVIEW: The Daily Texan interviewed me in anticipation of tonight’s event
• CONTEST: Win a free copy of Newspaper Blackout over at Slaughterhouse 90210

See this one in-context and in-progress. If you’re not following me yet, sometimes I post poems as I make them on Twitter.

School and I have a love/hate relationship…

(In context.)

I’ll be at the Austin Museum of Art next Thursday, July 8th. More info on my events page.

Drew Dernavich sent me the link to Michael G. Powell’s great article on the history of redacting government documents, “Blacked Out,” in this month’s issue of The Believer. The full text isn’t available online, but it’s worth seeking out in print.

Much to my surprise, it turns out government redactors don’t use black markers!

[T]hey take a red or brown marker and, more or less, highlight the segments unfit for access. Running this red marker redacted document through a photocopy machine set for high contrast produces a new document with black marks. The FOIA officer can then store the red marker document in the agency’s files, allowing other bureaucrats to see exactly what has been redacted. If a black marker was used, then anyone needing to revisit the document would be unable to see what has been redacted without arduously comparing the document with the original, side by side. Above all, this felt like one of those informal practical tips that bureaucrats probably learn while huddled around the water cooler or sitting at a coffee break.

Whoa.

There are two things people often ask me for: the original article so they can see the original text, and original article that they can buy.

Suddenly, I’m thinking I might have the solution to both queries.

What if for some limited editions I abandoned my beloved black markers, and switched to red?

The original artwork—that is, the actual marker on newsprint—would look like the above image. The poem as posted online and printed on paper would look like this:

Everyone would still get to see the poems, and maybe even buy a print, but the collector of the original artwork would not only get a one-of-a-kind work, he or she would also get to see what’s underneath the redaction in the original article…a kind of secret knowledge…

You can find out when the originals are for sale by signing up for my mailing list.

Buy Newspaper Blackout for ten bucks.

Done yesterday at lunch.

Follow me on Twitter for first peeks at poems.