Books by Frank Moore
What A Life!: The (auto)Biography of Shaman/Performance Artist Frank Moore
Over the years, Frank Moore had attempted to find someone to write his biography but it never worked out. In 2010, he decided to start working on it himself.
This book is the working document Frank created that he was working on, when he had time, up until his death in 2013. It covers his life up until around 1989.
Frank constructed it primarily with the conversations he had with anthropologist Russell Shuttleworth from 1997 through 2009. The complete transcripts of those interviews are available in the book How to Handle an Anthropologist published in 2019 by Inter-Relations. He also used excerpts from his mother, Constance (Connie) Moore’s autobiography, excerpts from his own writing, in particular from Art of a Shaman, and an interview by Sheri Falco for a film, “Sex and Spirituality,” that never was made.
No attempt has been made to organize this material. It is presented in its raw form, as Frank left it, in the hope it will be valuable for future researchers interested in Moore’s life.
Includes two large photo galleries!
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LAVAPEN - THE ART OF LABASH
If you lived in Berkeley, California from 1990 through 2013, you were likely exposed to the artwork of LaBash through the posters of shaman/performance artist Frank Moore. LaBash was Moore’s live-in graphic designer and all-around ”tech guy”. Most of the work in this book was created for Moore’s performance work and books, and for the zine, The Cherotic (r)Evolutionary, that they published from 1991-1999. It also includes work LaBash created for other artists like Barb Golden and the band, Mutant Press.
“Michael LaBash has become known in the zine subculture for his complex drawings of a liquid melting erotic world of multi-gender dream creatures existing beyond taboo, morals and good taste.” —Frank Moore
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THE UNCOMFORTABLE ZONES OF FUN: THE TEMESCAL PERIOD 2009-2013
If you wandered the streets of Oakland or Berkeley, California from the mid-1970s through 2013, you likely saw one of Frank Moore’s performance flyers on a telephone pole.
The ‘Temescal Period’ is so named because of the ongoing performance series Moore did at the Temescal Art Center in Oakland, California from February 2009 until his death in October 2013. At the Temescal Art Center, he found a long-term home for his performance work. He called these performances “experiments in experience / participation performance”. Each performance was a 3-hour improv happening with the audience as the cast. Anyone attending one of these events witnessed a master performer at the peak of his skills. Frank could quickly assess the audience, draw them into the performance, and create an intimate space where everyone felt safe and connected in a way they were not accustomed to, but that felt “normal” and that also exposed the isolation many feel in our current culture.
This book presents any available written documentation, paraphernalia along with a selection of photographs from this performance series.
Also included are the other various performances by Moore during this period, including the POW!POW!POW! Festivals and four performances at the Center for Sex & Culture in San Francisco.
This volume closes with, “What A Life! A Frank Moore Biography”. It features a collection of writings by people who knew Frank that were requested by the editors for use in a possible biography.
Available as full-color, 716-page hardcover or PDF.
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THE CHEROTIC (r)EVOLUTIONARY
COMPLETE 1991-1999
Includes all nine issues of the zine that were published during the 1990s featuring articles and poetry by Frank Moore, Annie Sprinkle, Veronica Vera, Carol Queen, Karen Finley, Noni Howard, Jack Foley, Ana Christy, Lob, Robert W. Howington, Dorothy Jesse Beagle, Linda Montano and many more. The zine also included lots of artwork and photos by the likes of H.R. Giger, Annie Sprinkle, John Seabury, Tony Ryan, Brian Viveros, T.R. Miller, Sean Bieri, Claudio Parentela, LaBash and many others.
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HOW TO HANDLE AN ANTHROPOLOGIST
Russell Shuttleworth, PhD interviews shaman/performance artist Frank Moore
In 1997, shaman/performance artist Frank Moore was contacted by Russell Shuttleworth, a then University of California, Berkeley graduate student, working on his doctoral dissertation. The thesis was a research study to help understand how men with moderate to severe cerebral palsy experience and interpret their search for intimacy and sexual relationships in the face of significant social and cultural barriers, or as Frank called it, “The Sexual Practices of Bay Area Men with Cerebral Palsy.” He wanted to interview Frank for this thesis. That interview quickly segued into 12 years of Russell interviewing Frank about Frank's life. Meanwhile, Frank encouraged Russell to live his dreams, which resulted in the discovery of Russell’s alter-ego Dr. Gruve, who dj'd a show on Frank’s LUVeR internet radio station, and played the harmonica in Frank's Cherotic All-Star Band. They did 88 interviews in all, even continuing via Skype when Russell moved to Australia to teach there. Russell is now a Medical Anthropologist PhD and a member of the faculty at Deakin University in Geelong, Victoria Australia.
Inside this book are the full transcripts of these interviews.
DEEP CONVERSATIONS IN THE SHAMAN'S DEN, VOLUME 1
Frank Moore's Shaman's Den streamed live on the internet almost every Sunday night from 1998 until Frank's death in 2013. The Shaman's Den was a 21/2-hour variety show featuring in-studio concerts by bands from around the world and in-depth conversations about politics, art, music, and life.
In this volume, the first in a series, Frank and his guests explore a wide-open field of topics and present new, alternative ways of looking at everything from current economic and political situations to personal relationships.
Order InformationFeatured in this volume are conversations with:
- Paul Krassner, comedian/satirist and co-founder of the Yippies
- Stephen Emanuel, musician, nurse and long-time friend
- Louise Scott, “International bag lady” and long-time friend
- Dr. Richard Kerbavaz, ENT doctor and surgeon
- David Johnson, one of the San Quentin Six, and Elder Freeman, Catholic priest and founding member of the L.A. Black Panther Party for Self-Defense
- Sasha Cagen, Quirkyalone creator and author
- Penny Arcade, New York performance artist
- Gerald Smith and Tracy James, political activists and pirate radio DJs
- Michael Peppe, San Francisco anti-performance artist and composer
- Kevin Danaher, co-founder of the human rights and social/economic/environmental justice organization, Global Exchange
- John the Baker, singer, songwriter, punk musician and community organizer
FRANKLY SPEAKING
In this 300-page, B&W collection of prose by “one of the U.S.'s most controversial performance artists” (P-Form Magazine), Frank Moore explores his deep and uncompromising vision of human liberation and art as a “battle against fragmentation”. Published 2014.
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CHEROTIC MAGIC REVISED
A major attempt to introduce a powerful system of magic into our modern western everyday life, thereby explosively expanding such concepts as sex, human relationships. The clear, down-to-earth text is amplified by the non-linear trance illustrations by LaBash.
Published 2015.
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ART OF A SHAMAN
Originally a lecture presented at N.Y.U., Frank Moore explores performance and art in general terms of them being a magical way to effect change in the world. He looks at performance as an art of melting action, ritualistic shamanistic doings/playings. By using his career and life as a "baseline", Moore explains the dynamic playing within the context of reality shaping....Published 2011.
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Read it online >
SKIN PASSION
Full-color, 114-page paperback book of Frank Moore's poetry and paintings. Published 2012.
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CHAPPED LAP
Chapped Lap is Frank Moore's first slim book of poetry, featuring poetry from the 1990s and 2000 (published in 2000). Originally a xeroxed and stapled "chapbook", as the title suggests, this small collection is dense with pieces that have become classics. Not only did Frank perform these poems for years, but they were also often used in his interactive performances, read by audience members, and read by fellow poets, always adding new levels to the frame in which they were performed. Published 2014.
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ART OF LIVING
A guide to down-to-earth spirituality as channeled by Frank Moore. Xerox. Published 1987.
Suggested donation $15
To Order, send check made payable to INTER-RELATIONS to:
INTER-RELATIONS
PO BOX 1931
EAGLE, ID 83616
International orders add $2.50 for shipping
VISION THEATER
by James D. Audlin & Frank Moore
No Tongue Will Live to Speak/No Ears Will Yearn to Hear is a play written by James D. Audlin (Chief Distant Eagle) and directed in 1994 by Frank Moore in Berkeley, California. Vision Theater is a book made up of the daily e-mail conversations between Frank and Jim...both as director and playwright and as two shamans...over the year-plus that it took Frank to produce/direct the play. It is an in-depth examination of the backstage process of doing a shamanistic drama (or any drama for that matter)...the tricks, the pitfalls, the dynamics...and how everyday life and the magically framed theater effect each other. Xerox. Published 1994.
Suggested donation $5
To Order, send check made payable to INTER-RELATIONS to:
INTER-RELATIONS
PO BOX 1931
EAGLE, ID 83616
International orders add $2.50 for shipping
ALL OF FRANK MOORE’S BOOKS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE TO READ ON THE INTERNET ARCHIVE.
YOU CAN VIEW ALL OF THEM FROM THIS PAGE.
