Alex Caldiero

Alissandru Francesco "Alex" Caldiero is a poet, polyartist, sonosopher, and scholar of humanities and intermedia.

Alex Caldiero performing (image by Don LaVange)

Life

He was born in the ancient town of Licodia Eubea, near Catania, Sicily, in 1949, Caldiero immigrated to the United States at age nine and was raised in Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York. He attended Queens College in Flushing, New York, and was apprenticed to the sculptor Michael Lekakis and the poet-bard Ignazio Buttitta. Caldiero has traveled through Sicily, Sardinia, Turkey, and Greece collecting proverbs, tales, and folk instruments. He is co-founder of Arba Sicula, the society for the preservation of the Sicilian language and traditions, and is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Utah Performing Arts Tour, and the Best Poetry Award from the Association for Mormon Letters.

Caldiero has lived in Utah since 1980 with his wife and children shortly after converting to Mormonism,[1] and is Poet/Artist in Residence at Utah Valley University.[2] Caldiero's work has been reviewed by Village Voice and The New York Times and he is included in "A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes" on page 104 .

Publications

Books Anthologies

  • Text-Sound Texts, Richard Kostelanetz, ed., Morrow, NY, 1980. ISBN 0-688-03616-3 pp. 412–417

Exhibitions

  • PERFORMING THE BOOK: Caldiero's The Food that Fits the Hunger. SLC, UT.1995.
  • AFTER THE TREE HAD FALLEN: Recent works and collaborations. Alex Caldiero & Frank McIntyre. Limited edition catalog. Marshall Studios.2003.

Performances

Alex Caldiero has performed at the Utah Arts Festival, several times on National Public Radio ,, on the Poetry Bus Tour in 2006, at The New School for Social Research, the Pritchard Art Gallery, the Salt Lake Art Center, Utah Valley University, the Kiva Koffeehouse in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and on Brazilian TV.

His notable performance of Ginsberg's Howl on the 50th Anniversary its first reading drew a record poetry crowd at a local book store.

Recently, Caldiero has performed together with various members of Theta Naught , an ensemble that describes their music as "Psychodelicious Music". Alex intones his poetry while the band plays.

Films and Documentaries

Audio/Video

Videotapes
  • SANDSCYCLES, Meditation video (sound track/performance). With choreography and Earth Spirit Process by Maida Rust Withers. Produced by Verabel Cluff, 1992.
  • THE JOURNEY TWO STEPS LONG: Language Performance Works. Produced by Brandon Kiggins, University of Utah, 1993.
  • WORDS: EXTERIOR/INTERIOR. Language Acts. Produced by Steve W. Olpin. 1999.

Audio Tapes / CDs
  • DREAM TRACTS: A Transenvironmental performance. Audiotape. Produced by Scott Carrier, 1992.
  • ENSPHERED: transenvironment1. Audiotape. Produced by Scott Carrier. 1993.
  • ILLEGIBLE TATTOOS. Words/voice/drum. CD. Produced and performed by Alex Caldiero. 1998.
  • SPHOTA PROBE. Sonosophical/text works. CD. Produced by Mike Collins. 1999.
  • PIECES IN PLACES: Transenvironmental performances. CD. 2002.
  • From SOUND MIND: Acts of Language. CD. 2003.
  • SOUND WEAVE. Word-music album w/ music by Theta Nought. CD. Differential Records. 2006.
  • NA LACRIMA: Audiofile - https://web.archive.org/web/20111004070359/http://www.csssstrinakria.org/Nalacrima.mp3

References
  1. PBS, Why I Am Mormon
  2. "Poet's reading elicits laughs and scoffs from UVU crowd," Deseret News, December 7, 2008
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