MUSELETTER #54
10/26/2000
Hi everybody,
The very first member of our Museletter correspondent team, Jason Pettus, said goodbye last month, moving on to devote his writing time to other projects after a year spent helping to build the network of spoken-word artists, touring performers, and publishing poets that is Museletter. We thank you & wish you well, Jason!
And we hope you all, dear readers, will join us in welcoming Jason's successor as Midwest Museletter correspondent -- Greg Gillam. Greg is the poetron behind fengi.com & has been involved in the Chicago poetry scene for over a decade as a spoken word producer, much valued for his stint as coordinator of all 25 day events at the 10th anniversary 1999 National Poetry Slam. His first report in this issue focusses on Chicago, but with help from those of you who live elsewhere in the Midwest, his column will expand to cover the entire region. Send your Midwestern poetry news to Greg at poetron@fengi.com.
Also in this issue, Robyn Su Millerz brings a last-minute dilemma to those of you in New England who want to see a poetry show tonight, and Ian Ferrier tells us where the fires are burning brightest as winter approaches in Canada, “where only the heat of poetry keeps us from freezing.” Tend your poetic sparks, stay warm & enjoy!
Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Poetry Guides
POETRY IS EVERYWHERE AT ABOUT
Shakespeare on the Seven Deadly Sins
Shakespeare Guide Amanda Mabillard has assembled Shakespeare's comments in his plays & poems on each of the seven deadly sins -- a cavalcade of apt & lively quotes.
Our Poetry Forum has been discussing the sins & virtues in the course of trying to identify this oft-quoted poem:
Patience is a virtue,If anyone knows about the poet who wrote this, please come tell us!
Possess it if you can.
It is seldom found in women,
And never in a man.
BOSTON/NEW ENGLAND
A NEW ENGLAND DILEMMA ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26!
Where is the cloning technology we really need on nights like these? In the outermost corner of New England, Eastham on Cape Cod, to be exact, we have The Shane performing at the Chapel-in-the-Pines. In the uppermost corner, namely, Burlington VT, we have Patricia Smith at the grand opening of Live Nude Words, VT's newest open mic for poetry, at Club Metronome.
Since there is no way to compare the inspiring work or presence of these national champions against each other, poetry-lovers will have to weigh other factors in making their decision which event to attend. On Cape Cod, the bonus is the to-die-for whoopie pies made by slam master extraordinaire Kristin Knowles. In Burlington, well, there's the to-die-for sweet face of the sweet boy-host, Adam Stone. Cupcakes you can eat vs. a cupcake you can only... there are no wrong choices here, folks, except to stay home because of high gas prices. This is a night to hit the road.
Chapel-in-the-Pines is at 220 Samoset Road off Route 6A in Eastham. Sign up by 7:30 for the open mike and 8:00 for the poetry slam. For more info, please contact Kristin at 508.240.0785 or waitress@cape.com.
Metronome is on the 2nd floor at 188 Main Street in Burlington, VT. Get there early: the event is from 7 pm to around 9:30. Feature and open mic. Telephone the club for directions, 802.865.4563.
CHICAGO/MIDWEST
POET ON THE STREET IN CHICAGO
Hello from Greg Gillam, poet on the street in Chicago. This dispatch will concentrate on my hometown, but research by car, computer (and helpful emails) will expand future notes. It's been both excellent and difficult for poetry in Chicago at the start of the zips.
THE DIFFICULT
To paraphrase Algren, Chicago is a drafty way station where artists hustle their trade for a while and then move on. It may be the second city syndrome -- the talent here exceeds actual support for arts, so as artists grow they often go. Joining the ranks of former Chicagoans is Quraysh Ali Lansana, one of the driving forces behind the Guild Complex. Lisa Hemminger, the robust host of the long running Yammer at JoyBlue, has moved to the suburbs to teach and may stop hosting in December. One of the poets who inspired Love Jones is rumored to be heading east.
Chicago's rather short-sighted attitude towards small businesses has hurt places open to poetry. Some Like It Black, a vital place for words and coffee on the South Side, was chased from one location to another, and several venues and bookstores have closed permanently.
THE EXCELLENT
Though Chicagoans grouse about the ever-changing fortunes of local poetry, we've still got it pretty damn good. The boom in Slam poetry, including coverage of the '99 Nationals on 60 Minutes, was a boon for Chicago. Touring poets both slam and academic made the Slam's birthplace a key stop.
The City of Chicago held its first official Book Week in October. Though this year the program was basically biting events scheduled by other groups, it does show the greatest interest interest in our literary heritage in some time. The upcoming Humanities Festival is the most ambitious ever with lots of big brain poetry, including Beowulf. Local sensitive poetry boy Shappy Seasholz was one of three slammers picked to represent American slam in Denmark (with Beau Sia and 2000 individual champ Shane Koyczan). It is chronicled at David Huang's Poetic Dream site.
A TRIO OF SLAMS IN THE BIRTHPLACE OF SLAM
Chicago venues which do exist are going strong. For the first time ever, Chicago has three active slams, including the first regular slam on the South Side, a boon to this oft racially divided city. (I'd argue that slam is one of the few cultural activities that tries to mix up ages, races and classes just as so much stuff is being balkanized into narrow target markets, but hey, that's just me.) The three slams are:
- The Uptown Poetry Slam (every Sunday at 7 pm at the Green Mill in Uptown, 4802 N. Broadway W. Lawrence, $5) -- The daddy of all Slam, nuff said. More info on the show and host Marc Smith is at www.slampapi.com.
- Words on Tap (every Monday at 7 pm, Woodlawn Tap, 1172 E. 55th Street, free) -- The new kid on the slam block and, as mentioned above, the first South Chicago venue. Host Ra Amen has been working the room for about three months, and the mix of University of Chicago, Bronzeville and a historical bar makes for a diverse, smart, lively night. The crowd grows every week so show up early to get a seat. You can get the Words on Tap newsletter by emailing wordsontap@onebox.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line.
- The Wam Bam Mad Bar Slam (first Tuesday of every month at 7 pm, Mad Bar, 1640 N. Damen, in $5) -- Hosted by Krystal and Shappy, this two years young slam sparked a new generation of Slam fans. In addition to the ongoing slampionship, they've got wrestling style grudge matches. See mentalgraffiti.org for trash talk and info.
CHICAGO INFO
Chicago has several good resources for info about live poetry. Top cat is E-poets.net, a slick, tight site devoted to poets online that has a highly reliable calendar of Chicago spoken word events, the Word Circuit section (click the rightmost green button at the top of the page when you get to the site). It's also home to a great chronicle of the Slam revival (in the Library, second green button from the left). The whole thing is run for no profit by the salaciously saintly Kurt Heintz.
Next in line is a less slick hipster-hopster ezine, FreshPoets, which is attempting to list every hot mic and slam in the world (the World Wide Open Mic directory -- click on “Open Mics”). It's run by the Hardest Working Woman in Chicago Poetry: Krystal Ashe, who produces three events, several Web sites, and manages a bar.
The Chicago Reader now has a Readings and Lectures listings which is extensive, covering every type of literary event arranged by author and show title. This is not in the Reader's online edition by reason of sheer inertia. Write to webmaster@chireader.com to get them to change this!
MONTREAL/CANADA
SIX WEEKS OF WORD FESTIVALS
This has been a busy six weeks of word festivals here in Canada with HOWL in Montreal, Canzine in Toronto, the PanCanadian WordFest in Banff and Calgary, and coming up in November, the great Vancouver Videopoem Festival.
see or be seen, the Vancouver Videopoem Festival
This year’s festival is a huge jump from the last, as witness some excerpts from their current press release:
“On Friday and Saturday, November 3 and 4, 2000, the Edgewise ElectroLit Centre is hosting the second annual Vancouver Videopoem Festival at Pacific Cinémathèque, Canada's first and only poetry film festival. Emceed by ecstatic oral improv poet, Kedrick James, the festival will present videopoems from across Canada and around the world.
“Some of the featured videopoems in this year's festival: In My Car by Mike Hoolboom (Toronto), Buffalo Roaming by Kirk Miles and Fred Hollis (Calgary), Exquisite Corpse by Una Knox (Vancouver), Poesia Visual by Arias & Aragon (Lima, Peru), Tag© by Steve Savage (Montreal), The Voice of God by Joel Baird (Portland, Oregon), Physic Defense Training for Ex-Lovers by Doug Knott (Los Angeles), Hundred Block Rock by Bud Osborn (Vancouver), Ebonic Plague by Ian Moore and James Cagney, Jr. and Borderstasis by Guillermo Gomez-Pena (both from San Francisco), Dragonfly by Kristiina Szabo (Toronto), Visions by Annie Frazier-Henry (Vancouver), White Walls and Self-Doubt by Charles-Eric Billard, The Bather by Cameron Esler and David Bateman, This Is a Photograph of Me, a treatment of the Margaret Atwood poem by Ericka MacPherson, Sleeping Car by Monique Moumblow and A Smell by Donna Szoke (both from Vancouver).
“To speak at the festival on the origins of the genre, its forms, and on the artistic and cultural context in which it can flourish, are Alma Lee, Artistic Director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival, renowned poet and author, Michael Turner, award-winning poetry film producers and media artists, Jill Battson of Toronto, ON and Kurt Heintz of Chicago, Il, and British-born Director of the Cin(E)-Poem Festival, Ian Moore. Kicking off the screenings will be dynamic performance poetry by Hilary Peach on Friday, and Adeena Karasick on Saturday. One of Montreal's core poet/performers, Exploding Head Man, Ian Ferrier, will be featured at the Awards Gala on Saturday night.
“The Edgewise ElectroLit Centre is a nonprofit society whose mandate is to make poetry and new media accessible to all members of society through educational programs and electronic forums. We employ communications technology to widen the audience of Canadian poetry and give poets, multimedia artists and youth the opportunity to use, learn, and create with technology. Our electronic magazine, The Edgewise Cafe, can be viewed and heard at www.edgewisecafe.org. Poets featured with audio include Wayde Compton, bill bissett, Sheri-D Wilson, Hilary Peach, Alexandra Oliver, Miranda Pearson and Judy MacInnes Jr. Videopoems can be viewed in the Multimedia section.
“WIRED ON WORDS & MUSIC”
Meanwhile back in Montreal, I just started a new word series called “Wired on Words & Music.” This series takes place at the Casa, 4873 St. Laurent, and will feature two top spoken word acts per month, along with a music act and shorter sets by special guests and newcomers to the scene. It runs on the third Sunday of every month, and for this month that meant the 15th of October. To kick it off with a bang came Ken Cormier, whose new book Balance Act has just been released by Toronto’s Insomniac Press. If you haven’t seen Cormier before, you have to, as his is a precision piece of work, using wonderful sounds he mixes on a four-track, conveyed by boom box to mix with his live voice on stage. That may sound lo-fi, but the effect isn’t. Cormier uses repetition, movement, lovely voice work and masterful timing to present one of the best acts we’ve seen here.
He was followed the same night by Alexis O’Hara, whose performance onstage was highlighted by two shining (battery-powered) half spheres at breast height in her dress -- lights that went on and off whenever the turquoise fabric she was wearing stretched against them. I have to admit that I didn't catch every word here, as the suspense of wondering when a particular breast would light up again was sometimes too much for me. She works with music man Rob Stephens on samples and mix, and the whole act was her usual excellence.
Next month the series will be back on November 19th with Corey Frost, Todd Swift (returning from Hungary), Bryan Highbloom and myself. In the meantime you can catch Alexis O'Hara again, along with the Rhythmic Missionaries and a number of others at Eat the Street III, a benefit for Streeteaters magazine at Jailhouse Rock on October 22nd at 9 pm. Admission is $6.
That’s all for this month, and if the oncoming winter isn’t doing it for you, come up here where only the heat of poetry keeps us from freezing.
READER-SUBMITTED POETRY NEWS BRIEFS
From Dale Harris:
A Halloween Fireside Poetry Party will be held Saturday, October 28th at the Press Club, Albuquerque, NM, 6-10 pm, limited tickets $7, a benefit for the Albuquerque Slam Team and Willow Street, a bimonthly poetry magazine. Hosted by Danny Solis, featuring the Albuquerque Slam Team and open mic, music. Come as your favorite dead poet, prizes for best costumes. Contact Dale for more info at daleharrisnetmail@netscape.net.
From Athina Publishing:
We are celebrating a rave review from Blue Iris Journal for our amazing poet Patrick P. Stafford and his new poetry book Homage To a Princess -- “...passionate intensity...a spark of genius here...” We are currently offering a special on Patrick's e-book at www.athinapublishing.com -- if you'd like to read the full review, visit the Blue Iris Journal.
From kim c:
Tongue, a literary/visual arts magazine, celebrates its 2nd birthday and the recent “Best Poetry Magazine in Houston” award by the Houston Press (Best of 2000) -- October 28 at The Next Door, 2010 Waugh Drive (next to Rudyards), 8 pm - midnight -- featuring the team that kicked ass at the National Slam Championship 2000, from San Antonio, Texas, “Poets of Verbal Insurrection” (Amalia Ortiz, Jason Gossard, T-Bone & Rich Perin) plus more special guests throughout the night! $5 donation requested. For info, call Kim Cotton 713.529.1672 or email tongue_magazine@yahoo.com.
