Hank Lazer is available for talks, lectures, workshops and readings. Please write to him with the contact form for booking.
Lazer’s readings, talks and performances have taken place at Harvard, Penn, pH Balance Hair Salon, Talladega College, Moe’s Books, Manna Grocery, Cornell, the Alejo Carpentier Institute (Havana, Cuba), Maine, Georgia, Auburn, University of South Alabama, UAB, Princeton, UCSD, California College of the Arts, MLA, AWP, the New Orleans Poetry Festival, and many others…
Some of Hank Lazer’s most popular presentations include:
- Performances with musicians – inquire – currently, working with multi-instrumentalist Holland Hopson. A wide range of possibilities – from a video installation to live performances of poetry/music improvisations.
- Meditation and Poetry
An experiential talk/interaction exploring the relationship between Zen meditation (zazen, in the Soto Zen tradition) and the writing of poetry, with attention to the work of 13thcentury Zen priest & philosopher Dogen. - Thinking in Jewish – Poetry, Poetics, and the Complexities of Jewish Identity
An exploration of the instability of Jewish identity and spirituality. The role of questioning, prayer, chanting, and humor in poetry identified as Jewish. - Writing Poetry with an Eye Turned Away from the I
A workshop & talk on alternatives to an I-based personal poetry. - Poetry, Photography, & Place – Slowly Learning to See
Using years of photographs & poems from Duncan Farm (Carrollton, Alabama), we’ll explore the linkage between seeing with precision & depth in photography and poetry. - The Poem as Score for Performance
A discussion, with examples, of how to create music/poetry improvisations. Examples from my many years of shape writing. - Poetry Is Difficult / Poetry Is Not Difficult
An interactive talk on how to read & write experimental poetry. Fresh approaches on how to read and enjoy poetry. - Poetry & Aging
Writing poetry as we age. The poetry of “old age” – examples and a conversation about what becomes important in our writing as we age.
Other possibilities include:
- Thelonious Monk, Swerving, & the lyric poem
- Improvisation in Poetry, Free Jazz, and Calligraphy
- Poetry as Spiritual Journey
- In Praise of the Impracticality and Nonutility of Poetry and Meditation
- The Infinitely Malleable Nature of Aesthetic Experience – or, the Limitations of Approaching Poetry through Theme & Meaning