reading Nina Arsenault from OPHELIA/MACHINE

PHONE SEX

read by JLo

"PHONE SEX" is one of many pieces of Nina Arsenault's OPHELIA/MACHINE. I saw the three day installation with nightly performances of this workshopped in December of 2012 (13th —15th) at Videofag, in Toronto. I also had the good fortune to spend a fair amount of time with Nina as these days passed.

I wanted very much to include something from Nina in the Reading Other Poets project this year, and yet it has been very difficult for me to record anything of hers. The trouble is simple. I can't not hear her in my head and I can't even begin to call up her intensity and affective impact as I read her. Thus, I feel as if my reading suffers in comparison.

This poem is published on her Tumblr THE NINA MACHINA, but you can find out a lot more about her, look at many amazing photos, read her work, find links to videos and much else at her main site.

The photos and 1 composite image (top) are all ones that I shot during OPHELIA/MACHINE.