17 Poets has a special guest this week: ruth weiss, returning to the city for the first time in 61 years. The details, from the organizers:

Jazz Beat Poet — ruth weiss — is one of the last living significant poets of the Beat Generation. Born to a Jewish family during the rise of Nazism, she eventually made her way to the United States where she became friends with, and a contemporary of, the likes of Jack Kerouac and many other artists of the 1950s American counter-culture movement of San Francisco (specifically in North Beach). In the 1960s she began spelling her name in lowercase letters in a symbolic protest against “law and order” since in her birthplace of Germany all nouns are capitalized. She continues to perform live in North Beach and at many jazz and poetry festivals around the world. In this age of high-speed information exchange, she still uses her “Loyal Royal” metal typewriter, and lives deep in the Northern California forests of Mendocino County, USA.

With readings, music, a reception with complimentary food, and the regular open-mic, it’s going to be a fantastic night. Thursday, April 5th, at the Gold Mine Saloon, 701 Dauphine Street in the French Quarter. More information available here.

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A short essay and proposal for a constitutional amendment is up on Nowhereisland today; I’m honored to be one of their 2012 Resident Thinkers, alongside such inspiring minds as Charlie Kronick, Marcus du Sautoy, and Tamsin Osmond. The Island will be arriving in the South West of England this coming summer, along with its land-based embassy led by Alex Hartley and Claire Doherty — as a proud citizen of the Island, it’ll be exciting to finally stamp this passport in person.

More details on the Island, and information about citizenship, are available here.

Translation: the Oxford American is throwing not one but two parties tomorrow night (Thursday) at the Ogden Museum of Art here in New Orleans.

Details are here.

For any in the Jackson area who need a shot of poetry in the arm, the Mississippi state Poetry Out Loud competition for high school students will be held tomorrow at noon at the Mississippi Public Broadcasting building. I’m honored to serve again as one of the judges for the competition, and if it’s anywhere near as good as it was last year, it’s sure to be an electric afternoon. Best wishes to all the contestants!

Update, May 15th, 2012: Mississippi’s own Kristen Dupard was the 2012 POL National Champion! More details here.

All the talk around town is of the Tennessee Williams Festival next week, one of the highlights of the city’s literary calendar each year. On Saturday afternoon, the 24th, I’m honored to sit on a panel with Ava Leavell Haymon, Alison Pelegrin, and Julie Kane, moderated by Darrell Bourque (the latter two participants being the current, and former, Poets Laureate of Louisiana), and can’t wait to hear more of their wonderful work.

Perhaps most intriguing, however, is what’s happening the night before — the Lafcadio Hearn Late Night Revue organized by the People Say Project, a cabaret-style event at the New Orleans Healing Center that certainly promises to be one of the more eclectic events of the festival. Hearn, a prolific writer and journalist based in New Orleans in the late 1800s, is perhaps best known as the author of the famous quote that “…it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio,” an observation that rings as true today as it did over a century ago. More details about the event are available here.