Poetry and the Public Sphere: A Report
Dateline: 5/13/97
Why can't |
Tired of being dictated to by the poobahs of tenure and the macchas of corporate greed, impatient with the moving spotlight of trendiness that settled soullessly upon the art of poetry a few short years ago, poets are now stepping up for themselves, speaking out, taking back the poem, and setting the art loose in ways powerful and unusual. . . |
| . . .the rise of a new generation of performance poets, from the Brooklyn crew of Jessica Care Moore, Saul Williams, the Vibe Chameleons and Kymbali. . . | |
. . .pockets of high school poetry slams, from the sensational Connecticut crew of statewide mock competitions to the fresh New York City hip hop teens, from the It Plays in Peoria antics in the Pacific Northwest, to the slammin’ in the reservations, 'round Taos that PoHeRo Annie MacNaughton of the World Heavyweight Poetry Bout runs. . .
. . .Sister Spit, eleven lesbian poets in two vans, will hit the road from San Francisco on July 1 for a 5-week transcontinental poetry tour. . .
. . .two slams in Washington DC, one at the Smithsonian hosted by Slam Pappy Marc Smith and YT Bob Holman, another at Borders Books including Nikki Giovanni and Robert Hass. . .
. . .and, at the recent "Poetry and the Public Sphere Conference" at Rutgers, it seemed that the kitschy acpocrypha of John Ashbery, oft quoted by Ted Berrigan,
The Academy of the Future is opening its doormight actually be creaking into existence.
The conference, quickly dubbed "Poetry and the Public’s Fear" by participants, had many highlights:
An opening night reading by Nuyorican Poets Cafe Poets following an on-stage battle between Cafe founder Miguel Algarin and his old buddy Amiri Baraka, who used to teach at Rutgers. Baraka was bemoaning the lack of theory in the poets of the 90s, Algarin retorted that the 60s theory was communist cant and today’s poets had their own cultural theory underpinning their poetry. All dissolved into poetry.
A major reading (over 500 in attendance) that featured Robert Hass (who dedicated the conference to the memory of Allen Ginsberg) reading his recent stuttering pastoral meditative angst epics and the first-person opera of Sonia Sanchez, a family history book-length poem about her brother’s life with and death from AIDS.
Adrienne Rich at a feminist panel urging everyone to read the April 28, 1997, The Nation, "Revolutionary Poetry" by June Jordan, which details an extraordinary poem-into-political-action move that her Poetry for the People collective engaged in to oppose the California anti-affirmative action Proposition 209. Accompanying the essay are three moving, innovative poems by members of the collective.
"Well," continued Ms. Rich, "flip the page (31 to 32) and be confronted by the Discovery/The Nation ‘97 prizewinners," three of the dullest, most middle-of-the-road examples of proficient writer’s workshop poetry she had ever come across. Why can’t the progressive agenda of The Nation extend to its poetry section? She continued by stating that she found more commonality between the political poetry of June Jordan’s collective and language writing than between either of those "extremes" and the "poetry in the middle" as exemplified by The Nation’s poetry.
Adrienne Rich, Citizen of Poetry, took this moment at an academic conference with the subtext of breaking down walls to actually break down a wall! Encouraging, to say the least. And to the conference organizers -- Harriet Davidson, Kathleen Crown, and Nick Yasinski, poets all -- who set the sphere to spinning in new directions, this screen is applause.
--Bob Holman
See our account of Eavan Boland & Adrienne Rich reading at DIA Center for the Arts, New York City, May 9, 1997. Boland's poem "A Woman Painted On A Leaf" & Rich's "In a Nutshell" from Calle Visión are posted at DIA's site.
Looking for a good thumbnail of Adrienne Rich, First Citizen of Poetry?
A few segments of her poetry, s'il vous plait. . . These highly personalized choices are perfect size for a tombstone!
A good selection of Adrienne Rich poems is at the site for Bill Moyers' PBS series, The Language of Life.
The entire poem "Calle Visión" appears in the first web issue of Agni.
From Poems from the Planet Earth, here's a gathering of poems by Adrienne Rich.
"Diving Into the Wreck" is on her page at the Academy of American Poets site.
Book Stacks Unlimited has "Miracle Ice Cream" (with a RealAudio recording).
Now here's one for ye. This astute human, name of Raphael, has tossed you a poem, sounds like Adrienne Rich (well, at least to Mr. Raphael!). Your job -- name that poet!
