Structure of the World Compared to a Bubble

The Stupa of Borobudur in Java is one of the architectural wonders of the world, designed as both a mandala and as an aid for the Buddhist pilgrim that can be read as a holy book. It has inspired Anne Waldman to create a work which is at once a walking meditation, a cultural intervention,” a recovery” of a sacred site, and a take on contemporary reality and how the busy monkey brain” (as it is called in Buddhism) works and travels. Exploratory and meditative, even playful at times, it expands the sense of invocation and incantation that Waldman is celebrated for, while also reflecting an engaged political/cultural awareness.

Anne Waldman is a widely acclaimed poet, editor, performer, teacher, and activist. She is the author of more than thirty books including, most recently, In the Room of Never Grieve: New and Selected Poems. She is the co-founder with Allen Ginsberg of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute where she teaches.