The Peoples' Poetry Gathering:
Get close. Listen up. Dig in. Take notes. Stay smart. Eat Poetry.

Dateline: 3/30/99

As bombs drop on Kosovo, the Balkans again gyrating violence spasms as the center which will not hold (World War III rumored). . . As Africa fissures from pressure of international greed with internal systems, especially health, belly up. . . As US population becomes stock-crazed consumers, no longer citizens. . . .

Take a long pull off the poem, Folks, the only alternative. And why not celebrate today, a week before NatPoMo, so named, as Richard Howard says, because poetry ain’t national and it don’t last a month, either. The doors to the Academy of the Future are creaking open -- the Academy of American Poets has doubled its Chancellors' numbers, adding Creeley, Clifton, Rich, Komunyakaa, Palmer.

And literally, the Peoples' Poetry Gathering is coming to town! Where town is New York City, where the weekend is April 9-11, where sweet poetry the lingua franca that separates the People from, well, does not separate, gathers together!

You can talk about how the poetry fad’s done in, or you can get hold of a PPG brochure (800-333-5982 x5) and CHECK IT OUT:

• Two events with Ani DiFranco -- a reading with her mentor, Sekou Sundiata, and another with her protégé U. Utah Phillips and the hobo Poets.
• The invasion of the Cowboy Poets (upon whose Gathering this Fest is modeled), including superstars Wally McRae, Don Edwards, Paul Zarzyski, and Hal Cannon.
• Youth Speaks Poetry Slam, open to all of high school age.
• NY’s first sanctioned Heavyweight Poetry Bout: Sherman Alexie vs. Patricia Smith, hosted by Bout Founders Peter Rabbit and Annie MacNaughton.

Makes you hungry, eh? Then why not try our:

• Bobby Burns supper, poems pipin’ in the haggis.
• Renga Party, no sake till the 6th verse.
• Blues Poetry Barbecue in Washington Square Park, with Sterling Plumpp, Eugene Redmond, Raymond Patterson, ‘nuff said!

• Robert Pinsky. Robert Bly. Galway Kinnell. Eileen Myles. Ed Hirsch. Ntozake Shange. Victor Hernandez Cruz. Quincy Troupe. Linda Hasselstrom. Tracie Morris. Sandra Maria Esteves.
• Constant Open Mics with Pedro Pietri, Don Lev, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Lee Ann Brown, and a mega Open House at Prof. Steve Cannon’s A Gathering of the Tribes.
• The amazing Talking Book Festival, Sekou Sundiata, Director, and Is Charlie Chan Really Dead?, Asian/Pacific/American Festival, Jessica Hagedorn, Director.
• A Decima Concurso (improv poetry competition from Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico).
• A Jali (griot) Praise Day Celebration.
• The Braggin’ Rights freestyle competition with music from the Nuyorican.
• Lois-Ann Yamanaka. John Trudell. Martin Espada.
• Somehow, Godfather Jerry Rothenberg managed to find the pick-up band of the ages, aka The Klezmatics.
• Masters of Recitation: viva Kipling!

If you’ve read this far and you need more, you are hopeless. But that’s cool, because there’s more, lots more, including:

• Cordel poets from Brazil, where distribution is hanging your poem on a string.
• Jayne Cortez, the greatest live performer on the block, I mean world.
• Irene Klepfisz on women Yiddish poets.
• Head to Head Haiku, a slamarama hosted by the inventor, Daniel Ferri.
• Utah’s Poet Laureate, David Lee.
• Sapphire.

OK, those are the highlights, or headlights. Will the people show up for the People’s Poetry Gathering? Remains of the day to be seen. For me, it’s a sign that poetry’s dug in and creating its own Future, to hell with the media. Get close. Listen up. Dig in. Take notes. Stay smart. Eat Poetry.

The Gathering is a project of City Lore, the urban folklore center, Steve Zeitlin, Director, and Poets House, which is hosting the annual Poetry Publication Showcase during the Gathering -- every book of poetry published last year in the US is on display (unless you forgot to send it in), Lee Briccetti, Director.

--Bob Holman
(PPG Project Consultant/Curator)

Previous Features