Nicole Blackman
I’ve been sitting here for hours listening to Nicole Blackman tracks. What ever happened to her? She came out of the NY chapbook & spoken word scene and then there was that Golden Palominos album, then her poetry book, then she did those tracks on the Recoil album, then there was the Courtesan Tales thing, and then nothing for a long time….
Anyway, a bunch of the stuff I’ve been listening to pre-dates the Palominos stuff: Poemfone tracks, Nyuorican tracks, etc. I keep listening to her read her poem ‘Daughter’ over and over, and it’s a whole new thing for me these days. (Do a Google for daughter “Nicole Blackman” “one day I’ll give birth” and you can find the text–I don’t feel right quoting the whole thing here, but I don’t seem to mind indirectly pointing you to people who do.)
Bits keep standing out as I listen:
i’ll tell her to light things on fire and keep them burning
i’ll teach her that the fire will not consume her, that she must take it and use it…
i’ll teach her to develop all of herself
the courageous ones, the smart ones, the dreaming ones, the fast ones
i’ll teach her she has an army inside her that can save her life…
i’ll help her to see that she will not find god or salvation in a dark brick building built by dead men
i’ll explain to her that it is better to regret the things she has done than the things she hasn’t
i’ll teach her to write her manifestos on cocktail napkins…
i’ll tell her that people must earn the right to use her nick name
that forced intimacy is an ugly thing
i’ll make her understand that she is worth more with her clothes on
The poems read well enough on their own, but to listen to her read them… oh, that voice.
If you want to have a legal listen to some Nicole, pop over to the ancient Salon page that has free DLs of three different tracks.
Kira
March 17th, 2005 at 1:41 am
hey there, a fan fwded this URL to me and I had to laugh. I know what happened to me!!! I’ve taken the Courtesan Tales around the world, next at the Andy Warhol Museum in April, then back to England where I’m teaching and performing three shows, more planned soon. Did a surprise vocal on the last Firewater album, wrote and published my first (daaaaaaaaaaaark) short story in the Brooklyn Noir compilation from Akashic, pitched a non fiction book idea to Random House, and have stayed really busy with my day job: which is doing voiceovers for commercials and tv channels. You’ve heard me a thousand times and never knew it….. Oh yeah. And I fell in love almost three years ago. Love really fucks up the muse, but I’m working on it. cheers, Nicole
June 15th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
Love does screw up the muse. I always told myself it’d be true love when I was still writing the usual amount whilst saying her name in my sleep. Odd criteria.
Anyway, just wanted to say that “Blood Sugar” is an awesome collection. Finding it in NYC felt like finding an old friend. Helped externalise alot of my own internals at that point - kept me sane in all the shit beds I stayed in.
In case anyone cares, here’s my little response to the collection, written in Logan International Airport after about 36 hours awake, lugging twice my body weight in luggage left right and centre up and down the damn East coast - http://www.blurty.com/talkread.bml?journal=drownedinwords&itemid=49289#cutid1
Cheers for everything - hope you enjoyed england, and that all of you who read this (none of you) enjoy life.
Matt.
October 8th, 2005 at 1:30 am
Thank you so very much for this post. I have been wondering myself what happened to this lovely lady. No doubt she was cooking up something spectacular. I have not had the opportunity to see her perform but I am very familiar with her audio. Like a velvet fire softly burning. I once wrote her a letter because she inspired a poem, but I never sent it. It still served it’s cathartic purpose though. Don’t know if I still have it really. Those Brits are lucky to have her. I’ll be looking for that short story and her new work, If you get a hold of where I can get them PUHLEASE let me know. Ms. Blackman: You are such an inspiration and a personal heroine of mind and mine. Thank you.
Martha
October 22nd, 2005 at 1:33 am
yeah, site is still Under Development. Have gone through four web designers in the last year, everyone says they can do it, then gets too busy. Have someone new lined up, so be patient, I promise it will be worth it. Sigh. I need a personal assistant. Taking the Courtesan Tales back to Lljubjana Slovenia in August, and probably doing a reading in Italy for this festival. Might contribute another story to the next “Noir” series from Akashic, good response to the first one I did! Exes are useful for material….(everything you do or say can be used against you…) Meanwhile, getting my masters in performance studies, and planning to teach in LA again soon. Maybe I’ll book a reading…. And hey, Matt: nice going. cheers, Nicole
November 8th, 2005 at 1:38 am
Hi Nicole. Funny thing happenned on the Recoil list lately. Every time a DM record comes out, the freaks on Shunt get nostalgic. Your name came up and I think that there was a sense of embarrasment over what went down a few years ago. Anyway, as a longtime benign observer, I just wanted to say that I really liked your work on Liquid and I decided to look you up. Good luck with your new stuff! If ever you’re signing books in MONTREAL,Canada, let me know! Jason
December 9th, 2005 at 4:35 am
Yes, if you’re in Montreal let me know. While most of your subject matter is anonymous, I sometimes feel like you’ve managed to pen me. You’ve managed to pen the modern woman, or what some of us are unfortunate enough to understand it as such. I cannot describe how wonderful it is to be able to put on an album and hear such dark, sensual, and analytical poetry put to music. It’s soothing in a way that all the medications can never be. Liquid was beautiful, as was your work with The Golden Palominos. Bought myself a copy of Blood Sugar as soon as I could. Thank-you. If you’re ever in Montreal, or Canada for that matter, although Montreal’s such an enriched place, reading or signing, please let us know.
-Chloe
January 3rd, 2006 at 7:36 pm
hello!
i noticed this site after a google search on nicole blackman, and i have seen that chris (right?)
noticed her “absence” from the same period of courtesan tales. well nicole explained…
i would be very happy to know if nicole is planning a reading in italy (since i am located there, sardinia precisely…).
thanks in advance!
michele
January 12th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Just wanted to say thanks for asking where Nicole went because I’ve been wondering the same thing. “Daughter” is my favourite. I actually stumbled here after a Google search for the poem so I can read it again.
January 24th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
so, i typed in nicole blackman, and i got this link to your site. first of all, chris, its wonderful to say hi to another nicole fan. i live in a rather small,uncultured town. nobody knows any poet by name here. let alone nicole blackman. i feel thats a shame. so i show people and promote her as much as possible. im a lil one man street PR guy. so i was reading through all the replies and i flipped when i saw Nicole replies here sometimes. i was honored to be a part of the courtesan performance at the andy warhol she was speaking of. i gave her this giant letter and ended up getting 3 different stories. i had to come back. so anyway, yeah, you have my email i assume now. so say hi. its good to know smart people! :0D. and i hope you dont mind me doin this on your site, but i figured id give it a shot….
Nicole…..
Its Patric (if you remember……im sure you have a couple other fans too.). I was the guy at The Warhol that gave you that big letter, thanking you for everything. Ive been looking for a way to contact you further….i gave you my info if you still have the letter. theres a couple of things id love to tell/ask you. contact me on here or from my info if you want to or can.it was an honor to be a part of your performance and sorta kinda meet you. you change my life for the second time. even thought weve never exchanged a sentence, youve been one of my best friends for a long time.Thank you again.
And thanks Chris, for making an awesome page and letting me gush for a minute. ;0)
February 21st, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Nicole — I have been looking for you for so long. It all went so badly in the end — it should not have. We were much better than that. If you would ever talk to me again, I am here.
Denmark
April 24th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Hello.Im not you’re number one fan,but i really like your poetry.Our favorite poem is She’s in the movie now,Iris,and Missing Natalie. By the way,we really admire you and hope you keep on writing more.We’ll write back soon. (age:14)
July 19th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
[...] you remember way back when I was lamenting my lack of knowledge of what Nicole Blackman was up to? And then she replied [...]
April 27th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
[...] readers can take good works and move them to a whole other level (Nicole Blackman springs to mind–her poems take a quantum leap when you hear them read by her), and sometimes [...]
May 1st, 2008 at 11:38 pm
[...] course the all time best example of this is still the quotation Nicole Blackman chose as the epigraph for her collection of poetry, Blood Sugar, the Ingeborg Bachmann line [...]
May 25th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Hey all, another massive Nicole Blackman fan here, feeling very deprived in recent years.
I am going to take Nicole’s “In the Movie Now” to my next philosophy class and see if I can play it during the break, following a very lively discussion on whether porn is inherently dubios.
Nocole, I hope your muse gains new life and you bring out some more spoken word CDs, they are darkly brilliant and unique.