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December 14 | Saturday | 20:00: “Songs of Mountains and Cities” | Art-center “MITKI”

Marat Street, 36/38, apt. 120, code 4318B

1 – Host Mitya Shagin and James before the Mitki concert

2 – Audience at the Mitki concert

3 – During the Mitki concert

4 – During the Mitki concert

5 – After the Mitki concert

6 – James on Marat Street after the Mitki concert

7 – Tatyana Apraksina on Marat Street after the Mitki concert

Concert review by Frau Koroleva (Telegram: @fraukorolevaa):

We visited the Mitki on Saturday and met a poet, musician and translator from friendly America, James Manteith. (https://m.vk.com/wall-79098291_8913)

Near James’s house in California grow grapes, and sitting under grape leaves, he sings about what he skillfully fishes out of space.

The occasion for literary and musical reflection can be a meeting with a friend, a loved one’s new dress, neglected Chinese books or, say, Borodinsky bread (https://jamesmanteith.bandcamp.com/track/baker-an-order-for-borodinsky)! To be honest, I don’t eat Borodinsky bread very much, but Americans eat even less. Yet James liked this bread so much in Russia that now he orders it from Brooklyn and even dedicated a song to it. And the song turns out to be not just about bread and a touching attachment to strange Russian habits. If in the States the bread is puffy and “lightweight,” then Borodinsky embodies a stronghold, a robust, unbreakable core. The song even contains these lyrics:

Tell the miller,

Mill the kernels whole,

Heavy pillars

Will uplift our souls.

I especially liked the part about heavy pillars uplifting our souls.

December 18 | Wednesday | 19:00: “Under Grape Leaves” | Art-space mArs

Field of Mars 3

Tickets: https://litsa-event.timepad.ru/event/3159246/

#Mars_квартирник #Заповедник_андеграунда

From the mArs Art Space concert announcement:

James Manteith is a musician, writer and expert on Russian culture. He studied Russian at Middlebury College and St. Petersburg State University. For over 25 years, James has collaborated with the interdisciplinary magazine Apraksin Blues and its editor, the artist and writer Tatyana Apraksina, which has allowed him to delve deeper into the Leningrad underground.

James translates songs by Russian authors such as Mike Naumenko into English. He is also a translator of Tatyana Apraksina’s poetry and prose, composes music based on her poems, and dedicates songs to her and her work. A week ago, mArs hosted Apraksina’s exhibition “Preamble” (https://t.me/artspacemars/4670) and her performance of the poetry cycle “California Psalms” (https://t.me/artspacemars/4739), which Manteith has also translated into English.

In his songs, James combines the influence of such legends as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and the Beatles with the spirit of informal Leningrad. His work is a melodic, poetic immersion in images and moods associated with life in nature and with an understanding of urban realities.

We invite you to a creative evening filled with music, poetry and deep reflections on human connections.

Video from the concert: Encore performance of James’s translation of Mike Naumenko’s “Call Me Early in the Morning”

Songs and lyrics by James Manteith: https://jamesmanteith.bandcamp.com/

“California Psalms” | a poetry house concert with writer and artist Tatyana Apraksina at mArs Art Space

Recording from the reading: https://vkvideo.ru/video-79098291_456239601

On the sidelines of Tatyana Apraksina’s art exhibit “Preamble” (https://t.me/artspacemars/4641) as part of the joint project “Underground Reserve” with the Etalon group, mArs Art Space will host an evening of poetry, representing the most complete presentation of the artist’s cycle California Psalms in Russia to date.

Apraksina’s Psalms were published in the magazine Neva in 2005 and 2007, then as a separate book in the United States in 2013. Spoken-word performances of the cycle in the USA, Germany, Israel and Russia have contributed to its reputation.

In 2023, Apraksina received the Babel Prize for Literature, including for this work. Recently, a new edition of California Psalms was published in the U.S., dedicated to the cycle’s 25th anniversary and including its updated translation.

The evening’s guests will have an opportunity to get acquainted with the book and purchase copies.

December 5 | Thu | 7 p.m.
Field of Mars (Marsovo Polye) 3
Tickets (https://litsa-event.timepad.ru/event/3140568/)

mArs Art Space announces:

“Preamble,” an exhibit of art by Tatyana Apraksina, opens on Monday, December 2, at 6:00 pm in the mArs Art Space gallery in St. Petersburg.

The artist’s first hometown exhibit after twenty-five-year pause will present works from the 80s and 90s — art with roots in a bygone era and which forms a preamble to a new search, a foundation for further discoveries.

The exhibit brings together works from various cycles by the artist. For instance, there are views of architecture’s casual side, the back lanes of St. Petersburg, from a series of drawings of courtyard scenes called “Gaze from Within.” Many spots depicted in the cycle no longer look the same or have even disappeared.

Another direction presented in the exhibit relates to the world of classical music, whose imagery offered Apraksina an ideal metaphor for spiritual development and realization. The paintings highlight the profound meaning of the human spirit seeking higher awareness.

Co-organized with the Etalon group as part of the joint project “Underground Reserve,” which focuses on the legacy of underground cultural movements in Leningrad-St. Peterburg, the exhibit will last one week.

December 2 to 7

Daily 12 p.m.-7 p.m.

Free admission

Field of Mars 3

Tatyana Apraksina began her career as an artist and connoisseur of culture in 1974, opening her home for participants in Leningrad’s underground cultural movements to communicate freely in an environment of mutual inspiration and support.

Classical music

In it, Apraksina found an ideal metaphor for spiritual development and realization. Her theme is always implicitly the evolutionary development of consciousness. “Model of the Mass,” “Time of Fruits,” “Weather Forecasts” and “The Quill of Aquinas” — paintings that seem to lead beyond the existing material context into the realm of abstract imagery — show the human spirit seeking higher awareness.

Tatyana Apraksina

started as an artist and connoisseur of culture in 1974, was part of the Leningrad underground;
in 1984 decided to live as an independent artist, devoting her attention for many years to the topic of classical music;
has exhibited in Leningrad-Petersburg, Moscow and abroad;
since the early 90s has written a range of works of literature and philosophy;
since 1995 has been editor-in-chief of the magazine Apraksin Blues;
since 1999 has developed bases for creative activity in America;
in 2023 received the Babel Prize for Literature.

mArs Art Space reports:

The mArs gallery was filled yesterday with warmth and light from the paintings of Tatyana Apraksina at the opening of an exhibit of her works from the 80-90s, “Preamble,” part of “Underground Reserve,” a project jointly supported by the Etalon group.

Tatyana began her creative path in Leningrad during the heyday of underground rock culture. Her immediate circle included musicians from the groups Aquarium and Zoopark. The girl from Apraksin Lane served as a muse and co-author for the future rock idols of the 80s.

For just one week in St. Petersburg, you can see where it all began, how the preamble was written for Tatyana Apraksina’s artistic and creative development. First of all, there are paintings from her early series of monochrome city landscapes — abandoned buildings and courtyards, the view from the window of her studio at the Philharmonic.

Another significant part of the exhibit represents the creative period when the artist’s attention shifted from alternative aesthetics to classical music. The images of musicians, instruments, and notes combine an abstract style and a background of cosmic landscapes. The brushstrokes and dynamics of the figures resemble the movement of sound waves you can “hear” their oscillation when immersed in the painting.

For Tatyana, this is an important and long-awaited exhibit, when she can finally show her works in her hometown without censorship and oppression. Find time to visit and see this vibrant piece of the heritage of the Leningrad underground.

“Preamble”

December 2-7 | daily 12 p.m.-7 p.m.

Field of Mars 3 | free admission

On Thursday, December 5, we invite you to get to know Tatyana as a poet and listen to her poetry cycle “California Psalms.”

Биографический:

“И мы это чувствуем.

Бывает, что в цирк приходит человек нетрезвый. Выпил, настроение поднялось, и он решает пойти в цирк, покуражиться. Подвыпивший человек, наблюдая, как прыгают акробаты, падают в опилки клоуны, считает, что и он может кое-что показать. Такие люди, спотыкаясь, лезут на манеж. подают на весь зал реплики, мешая и публике, и артистам.
У коверного Павла Боровикова был свой способ поставить на место пьяного. Он подходил к нему и на весь зал проникновенно говорил:
– Дорогой товарищ! Большое вам спасибо за то, что вы помогаете мне в работе. Как говорится: «Ум хорошо, а… полтора лучше».
Публика смеялась. Пьяный, как правило, замолкал. В юности я прочел рассказ о том, как один человек ежедневно ходил в цирк и ждал, что кто-нибудь упадет и разобьется или кого-нибудь разорвут львы. Причем не просто ждал, а мечтал о таком зрелище. Может быть, такие люди и есть, но я их не встречал…”

Юрий Никулин. “Почти серьёзно”
///

Духовный:

“Душевный человек не принимает того, что от Духа Божия, потому что он почитает это безумием; и не может разуметь, потому что о сем [надобно] судить духовно. Но духовный судит о всем, а о нем судить никто не может».

Ап. Павел. (1 в.)

Исторический:

“Гаагская мирная конференция 1899 года, созванная по инициативе Петербурга, продолжила работу в 1907 году, нам, будущим генштабистам, следовало знать, о чем рассуждают в «Рыцарском зале» гаагского замка Бинненгоф. Надо сказать, что Германия старалась не связывать себя международными правилами военной морали, нежно лелея главную формулу своей военной доктрины: «Война есть акт насилия, цель которого принудить противника исполнить нашу волю». Если в Гааге говорили о том, как «гуманизировать» войну, чтобы от нее никак не страдало мирное население, то немецкий генштаб доказывал немцам обратное: «Цивилизованная война – это абсурдное противоречие… бойтесь добрых поступков – старайтесь быть жестоки, безжалостны, хищны и немилосердны! Гражданские лица не должны быть пощажены от ужасов и бедствий войны».

Человечество слишком уповало на мирное разрешение всех спорных вопросов, но кайзер Вильгельм II увидел в Гаагских конференциях лишь заговор врагов, желавших ослабить его железную империю. В мае 1908 года он произнес знаменитую речь перед офицерами своей гвардейской кавалерии:

– Похоже, нас хотят окружить. Ну что ж! Германец всегда сражался храбрее при нападении на него со всех сторон. Пусть они посмеют сунуться. Мы готовы! Уже давно пора, чтобы дерзкая банда врагов испытала на себе гнев нашего гренадера…

Никто не думал «окружать» кайзера, никто не собирался «сунуться» в Германию, но кровью все же запахло. Европа ощутила ее запах в «боснийском кризисе».”

Валентин Пикуль. “Честь имею”.
///

Духовный:

“Мрак исчезает при свете, и особенно при великом свете; неведение прогоняют познания, и особенно великие познания.”

Свщмч. Дионисий Ареопагит (2 в.)

The past year has given many reasons for gratitude and hope in various areas of the Apraksin Blues Translation Department’s engagement with literature and literary translation. Some events I’m pleased to share word of include:

– Taking part in publishing issue 33 of Apraksin Blues, including both Russian and English-speaking authors. Familiar authors got even better, and new ones came through perfectly. We celebrated the latest issue’s release in St. Petersburg. While there, we also organized three philosophy seminars on the topic of time, beginning a cycle that may continue. And we were glad to host the literary seminar Modeling Historical Processes. Thank you, friends of AB!

– The award of the Babel Prize for Literature by Mundus Artium Press to my mentor Tatyana Apraksina, an author whom I’m lucky enough to translate. The publisher also appointed me as an associate editor for Mundus Artium: A Journal of International Letters and the Arts. I supported the publication of the first issue of the second series of the magazine, which was previously published from 1967 to 1986. The issue includes my article about Mike Naumenko’s song “Sweet N,” as well as my reviews of books by Rosalba Fantastico di Kastron (Italy) and Kooseul Kim (South Korea). The issue also features an article by Apraksina about music, as well as poetry by my longtime friend from Bosnia, Emira Tufo (whose war memoirs are soon to appear in The Iowa Review). In 2023, I also served as literary editor for books by three more Mundus Artium authors: Khosiat Rustam (Uzbekistan), Angela De Leo (Italy) and Rita Dee (India; this one, including my introduction, is forthcoming in 2024).

– Being named translation editor for the philosophical and cultural almanac Paradigma (St. Petersburg), along with articles in its summer and winter issues: an English-language version of an article about my apparent distant relatives Jacob and Roman Bruce, associates of Peter the Great, as well as a Russian-language version of reflections on aspects of my experience translating Tatyana Apraksina’s book Lessons for Orly.

– Presenting papers at two conferences of the International Association of Historical Psychology and at the conference of the Russian Association of Teachers of English Literature, and publication of all the related articles: on Mundus Artium Press, on reading Jules Verne’s novel Michael Strogoff, and on translating Lessons for ‘Orly. Here, here and here are those papers in Russian; may chances for English publication follow.

– Participation in the organizing committee of the conference “Metaphysics of Music” (St. Petersburg, Vaganova Academy of the Russian Ballet), along with presenting a conference paper on music translation.

– Collaboration with Tatyana Apraksina and Igor Petrovsky to prepare translations of Mike Naumenko for Mike’s collected works, forthcoming in a new edition from the AST publishing house in Moscow.

– conversations.org’s publication of my memoirs of friendship with the poet Bill Yake. My thanks to publisher Richard Whittaker, Bill’s widow Jeannette Barecca, and friends Greg Darms, Nancy Cherry, and Devon Vose. Bill left us on 12/12/2022, and his memory became a big theme of the past year. Part of his literary archive is now housed by Apraksin Blues. Bill’s charming “Car Stories” can be read in AB No. 33.

– I wrote new songs in 2023 but haven’t yet done much new recording. Two exceptions: “Song for the Battle of Petersburg”; and “Made to Like Butter.”

– The main settings for all this were, in California, the AB Campus and Tatyana Apraksina’s Studio, and in St. Petersburg, the AB editorial office on Apraksin Lane. Here’s hoping that the same places, among others, will be blessed in the New Year and can become scenes of fresh turns for the bettter.

– And I hope 2024 will also bring many good things your way. Collaboration will be welcome.

With warm best wishes,

James Manteith

AB issue 33 – Transcription of Multitudes – see it here

* Tower (Blues Mondo). Tatyana Apraksina
“from the objectlessness of the inaudible”
* “Because They’re People.” Ella Molochkovetskaya, Olga Romanova
“Since it’s theater within theater, everyone is everyone there”
* Transcribers Anonymous. Tom Cobbe
“suites, sonatas and sets of variations. Oh dear. There go the holidays.”
* You Know Where They Are. John P. Rogers
“time will stop at nothing”
“something like a clock embryo in a shot glass”
* Chromatoplastics. On Color, Form and the Fundamentals of Fine Art. Olga Zemlyanikina
“A spot of color as a tool for conveying the type, character and direction of movement”
* Heeding the Calling. At the Black & Brown Comics Festival (Blues Report). James Manteith
“artists display comics with a blend of mysticism, prophecy and science fiction dubbed ‘Afrofuturism’“
* Eight Cemeteries. Sempa Dordzhe
“His head was in the southwest and his feet were in the northeast, and from them, eight great cemeteries arose in all the worlds”
* Wallace Stevens’ Thirteen Blackbirds. Vladimir Verov
“True poetry is not subject to decay”
* Spanish Rock. The Beginning. Olga Romanova
“too rocker for punks and too punk for rockers”
* The Art of Whispering. A New Poetry Collection by Gjekë Marinaj.
“the poet lives in both hemispheres, constantly cultivating literary relationships”
* The Mind Finds Russia…. Translated into Japanese, Persian, Rebrew, Arabic, French, Romanian and Turkish by Anton Kiselyov
* An Old Novel’s Insights and Predictions. Ekaterina Ovcharova “the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries in Germany was marked by the appearance of two fundamentally different concepts of the eternal image — Goethe, who crowned the tradition with his two-part play, and Bonaventure, who opened the way to its deconstruction.”
“The hero has no soul to sell, and there’s no one to sell it to.”
* Car Stories. Bill Yake
“then I could see dancing shadows on the asphalt beneath the engine”
* Mail

“Apraksin Blues” invites everyone to a seminar

5 December (Tuesday)

ANDREI PATKUL,
author of the book The Idea of Philosophy as a Science of Being in the Fundamental Ontology of Martin Heidegger. SPb: Nauka, 2020

TEMPORALITY AS THE MEANING OF EXISTENCE IN THE ONTOLOGY OF M. HEIDEGGER

The seminar begins at 7 pm
Doors open at 6:30 pm

The editorial office address is the same:
Apraksin per., d. 3, kv. 3

The editorial office phone is the same:
310-96-40
Also: +7-981-015-37-21

“Apraksin Blues” invites everyone to a seminar

CYCLE “HOW THE TEACHINGS SEE THINGS”
25 November (Saturday)

VAGID RAGIMOV

THE PATH OF SELF-AWARENESS IN TIBETAN BUDDHISM
The System of Mahamudra

The seminar begins at 7 pm
Doors open at 6:30 pm

The editorial office address is the same:
Apraksin per., d. 3, kv. 3

The editorial office phone is the same:
310-96-40
Also: +7-981-015-37-21

November 18 2023 (Saturday)

MARINA PAVLOVNA CHERNYSHEVA

THE NATURE OF TIME
Biological time

The author will try to answer the questions: What is TIME? Just a parameter characterizing the sequence and duration of events? Or something else — for instance, a type of energy that affects all living things, like light and mechanical energy, etc.? Is there evidence of this?

The seminar begins at 7 pm
Doors open at 6:30 pm

The editorial office address is the same:
Apraksin per., d. 3, kv. 3

The editorial office phone is the same:
310-96-40
Also: +7-981-015-37-21