| MUSELETTER #63 | |
Those of you who've been waiting for poetry news from the Midwest or the Pacific Northwest will finally be satisfied this week. This edition of Museletter brings our two newest correspondents to your e-boxes:
Dip your toes in the mighty river Po & sample these currents from its tributaries! We'll be back next week with more.
Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Danika is a performance poet, arts administrator and educator. She is co-founder/former director of Northwest SPokenword LAB (SPLAB) in Auburn, Washington and in 2000, assisted in organizing an international poetry festival in Prague, CZ. She has been facilitating a collaborative experimental writing project, 3:15 Experiment, since 1993, portions of which will be published in 2001 by Owl Press. She is currently executive director of Eleventh Hour Productions / Seattle Poetry Festival.
Texas native Benjamin Ortiz created the San Antonio slam whose team took 2nd at Nationals 2000, and he now hosts Chicago's Mad Bar Wam Bam Poetry Slam. More poetry-pundit that poet-proper, he plays the part of journalist/critic when it can be used to his advantage; his latest contribution to the slam canon can be perused at Britannica.com.
Poetry Guides
POETRY IS EVERYWHERE AT ABOUT
- Verse by Verse
Austin, Texas Guides Jacci Howard Bear & Judy Litt have scoped out the poetry scene in their city & put together these truly comprehensive local listings of poets, poems & poetry readings:
- Poetry Slams, Open Mics & Poetry Events
- Poets & Poems of Austin
CHICAGO/MIDWEST
A FEW WORDS OF INTRODUCTION: SWEET HOME CHICAGO, OR THE VICISSITUDES OF GUTTER GRAVY
Waves dredging up sand and then crashing back onto the frozen shores of Lake Michigan always seem to carry my mind out into deep waters where I imagine all the places I could be instead of Chicago, only to have my face slapped with icy spray waking me up from the idea that there is any other home for me than Chi-Town. This is the town that taught me poetry -- from the sounds of El-train preachers to the swagger and bop of the streets -- where I learned about all the famous dead poets in college and then felt the Word come alive at such places as Lit-X, the Chopin Theater, or at homes and backyards of my poetic mentors and heroes breaking Word with the next generation of Chicago poets.
It was with some sadness that I left Chicago three or so years ago to pursue poetry and punditry in Texas, my feared and beloved home state, only to be dragged back in by the tide once again to the Midwest after a whirlwind of poetic endeavors in San Antonio. Ironically, though Chicago introduced me to the wonders of poetry as a dynamic force of community and spirit, I never set foot near that dread event known as “slam” because I simply did not “get” the idea. What’s the deal with scorecards, heckling, and competitive art? Why bother? If Chicago is the birthplace of slam, then it is also most certainly ground zero for slam’s critics and naysayers, and I had heard enough about the infamous Green Mill and the even more infamous Marc Smith to avoid both. Slam was my last poetic frontier, and it wasn’t until I returned to my frontier homestead in Texas that I attended the National Poetry Slam 1998 in Austin, mainly so I could see some old Chicago compadres and find out what all the fuss was about.
Experiencing my first national slam as a hired geek (aka “journalist”) was a good way to get inside all the competition, intrigue, and art to see exactly what slam can do for the local venue and the slam nation that continues to grow into a global community. To cut to the chase, I took the idea and ran with it, founding and hosting the San Antonio slam that not only made for a huge, well-attended weekly show but also produced the first Team SanAnto that took 2nd at Nationals 2000 (missing a championship our first year out by 0.1 points!). Along the way, I learned the full import of Bob Holman’s quip: “Slam causes pain and is a good thing.” For more details about my adventures in slam and the ensuing punditry, check out the following sites:
- My coverage of 1998 Nationals in the Dallas/Fort Worth Word
- “Slam Nation or Damnation?,” a slam-related book review for Britannica.com
MENTAL GRAFFITI: THE WRITING ON MY CEREBRAL WALL
Hosting the now-weekly Wam Bam Poetry Slam at the Mad Bar was literally the first thing I did upon arriving, and it was exciting to be so sweetly welcomed by old and new friends in a Chicago poetry scene that is familiar but constantly evolving. DJ, rapper, and wordsmith-extraordinaire Anacron once, “back in the day” as they say, had this poetry joint in a café basement that drew standing-room-only crowds for beats and rhymes, but that place has long since become a Starbucks. Some years back, he teamed up with SlamMaster Krystal Ashe to produce the Monday night “Mental Graffiti” open mic that spawned the monthly Wam Bam Poetry Slam (WBPS) as an offshoot in May 1999.
Mental Graffiti continues to draw a huge list of open mic superstars plus touring and local feature poets every Monday starting at 7 pm. Thursday night’s WBPS went weekly with the new year, and thankfully co-hosts Krystal Ashe and Shappy have forgiven me for the thrashing SanAnto gave Team Mad Bar. (NOTE: I have not forgotten the 0.4-margin semi-finals loss Team S.A. suffered at the hands of the Green Mill, and so I’m ready to coach Team Mad Bar with my patented “quadrangle strategy” so we can get our respective revenge!) But seriously, Chicago poetry is always a family kinda’ thing, no matter the competitive aspect, and so WBPS is gearing up to put together a tight team for 2001 that very well might include some former Green Mill opponents. Regardless of what the future holds, every week seems to grow in turnout, vibe, and sporting energy, with feature poets from around the country injecting some Word juice (like this past week’s sizzling performance by New Jersey poet Talaam Acey). For more info on Mad Bar happenings, plus pics and audio flavor, check out www.mentalgraffiti.org.
Stay tuned also for news on the yearly SlamMaster’s meeting to be held at the Mad Bar, which will feature a week of open mic action and feature poets starting March 26 through the 31st.
MOMMA’S DAY COMES EARLY
While you’re at the Mental Graffiti Web site, drop a line or two c/o krystalashe@freshpoetry.com to Momma Maria McCray, who has learned that her sister has cancer. We don’t call her Momma for nothing, because Maria has indeed nurtured and encouraged countless Chicago poets, been on numerous slam teams, and generally been a force of familial ties on the Chicago scene. Maria also, unfortunately, has to move into a new apartment at the same time that she must attend to her sister, and so a collection is being taken to help Maria out with logistics. Hit Krystal’s email for details on how you can help, and remember, poets: Without family, we’re just talkin’ a whole lotta nonsense!
TWO-TONGUE TWO-STEP
San Antonio rocker Sir Douglas Sahm once said, “You just cain’t live in Texas if you don’t gotta lot o’ soul.” I say, you just can’t live in Chicago if you don’t got two tongues. Korean-American wunderkind Dennis Kim first rearranged my mind and poetic palate at a Korean Baptist Church reading that also included Martin Sorrondeguy (poet and lead singer of the disbanded Los Crudos hardcore punks). Dennis has since gone on to become a Chicago poetry giant in his own right and co-founder of the Pan-Asian performance troupe “I Was Born With 2 Tongues” (which includes, among other talented performers, Marlon Esguerra aka DJ YellowFist, another Mad Bar compatriot). It was with joy and wonder at the brief passing of time that I met up again with Dennis at a Guild Complex fundraiser recently to see how he has grown into a celebrated slam poet (with Team Mad Bar 1999) and touring bard.
As timing would have it, Dennis has produced a chapbook that was released two weeks ago with Chicago’s GAD Publishing, an endeavor helmed by poet-and-sometime-slammer Jason Pettus. Since 1996, GAD has produced about 25 different titles and is now shifting to chapbooks, with 20 in the works, to include Shappy’s Book of Gay-Ass Love Poems and titles by Chicago poets Lucy Anderton, Stephanie Costello, and Greg Gillam.
Dennis Kim’s Color of Memory: New and Old Poems is a great start for GAD. Though the book runs lite on graphics and design flair, it contains 16 excellent pieces that chart the transformation of this poet from Dennis to “Denizen Kane,” giving a good idea of what it’s like to experience Kim’s spoken peregrinations in and around Chicago with hiphop and the Buddha on the brain. For more information about this title (and to hit Jason Pettus with ideas on who to publish next), email jpettus@hotmail.com.
THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE OF DEPARTURE
Where oh where has my Love Jones gone? No sooner do I arrive than I hear about the imminent departure of rhythmystical sensation Regie Gibson. Dang! And I haven’t even gotten to the bottom of what happened to that other “g” in his first name! He has poetically streamlined his moniker and prepped himself not only for upcoming marriage (congratulations!) but also a move to Boston.
It’s been great in years past to see Regie perform and to run into him on the train and share a ride around town while talking poetics and aesthetics. Regie has impressed so many with his powerful art and his down-to-earth approachability, his graciousness. It was surely something else for me to see him perform his “Jimi Christ” poem first at the Museum of Contemporary Art, then at Nationals 1998 where he won the individual title, and finally as the opening salvo of Team Green Mill versus Team SanAnto! I’ve learned a lot from Reggie, mostly from his example of how to be right in the thick of the art and intrigue while having class and style enough to be kind, generous, and in top poetic form.
We’ll surely miss him, and fashion sense among Chicago poets is sure to flounder now that we don’t have Regie showing us how to place our poetic packages into tight formal fits.
SLAM GETS A MAKEOVER
Speaking of poetic fashion sense, word has it that an all-nude slam is in the works for this summer in Chicago. From what I’ve heard, the idea is to cut right through all the rules and protests surrounding the “no costumes, no props” slam legislation and to liberate the event from such quibbling. Methinks other motives might be the prime movers in the call for a nude slam. Imagine a final round “head-to-head” pitting Shappy versus… well, Shappy versus anyone -- yikes! More news as it develops....
UNTIL NEXT TIME: PLEASE HARASS ME
OK, so I did not quite get around in this installment to my full charge of covering not only Chicago but also “the Midwest.” Wow, I got a bit of ground to cover, so I ask you, dear reader, to let me know about happenings in your corner of this paradise of a region, especially since I love to travel and meet new poets and pundits in your natural habitat. Please, feel free to harass me with emails galore about what I should be covering. It’s great to be back!
SEATTLE/PACIFIC NORTHWEST
FOR SYLLABLE MUNCHERS WANDERING NORTHWESTWARD
Greetings from unseasonably warm and sunny Seattle. I should probably be worried about ozone depletion, but for now I'm sucking up the sunshine and fantastic views of Mt. Rainier and the Olympics while I can. As your new Seattle/Pacific Northwest correspondent, I've been checking in with the regional literary scene to see what's available for the poet who
might wander our way. And many of you will, if the numerous emails I've been receiving in regard to the annual Seattle Poetry Festival and the 2001 National Slam finals being hosted by Seattle this year are any indication. Word artists wanting to expand their Northwest experience will find a plethora of literary activities bound to satisfy the hungriest of syllable munchers. I couldn't list everyone and everything, but delve into these sites and you will discover a catacomb of literary links:
- Beautiful House Gallery Lounge
A bi-monthly venue in the Marpole area of southern Vancouver, BC for local multi-disciplinary artists. Special event evenings of live music, art, spoken word, performance, and cocktails build community and promote the arts -- it's a beautiful thing.
- Downtown Seattle YMCA
Contact: Dan Hintz. This guy's got it going on for poetry and has the energy of three Tasmanian devils. He hosts a weekly series for his YMCA youth called “The Fusion Cafe,” and is always looking for features and workshop leaders. (The Berkeley Slam team made a recent appearance -- see the item below.) If you like working with/performing for young folk, this is a great stop on your journey.
- Eleventh Hour Productions
Fall Literary Arts series, annual Seattle Poetry Festival, upcoming Poetry Factory, miscellaneous events throughout the year including a killer 2001festival fundraiser that will burn you up (more about this below).
- Elliott Bay Books
Great independent bookstore that consistently features interesting nationally known, regional, and up-and-coming authors. Portland's Dan Rafael and Laura Winter will be featuring there on February 4th at 4 pm.
- Northwest Spokenword LAB (SPLAB)
King County's southend literary scene is the SPLAB. Weekly open living room, visiting poets series, workshops, special literary events like the Superbowl of Poetry (see article below) and the annual Allen Ginsberg Memorial Marathon!
- Olympia Poetry Network
Monthly poetry readings with featured poet and open mike on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. Lots of links to relevant literary sites.
- Open Books: A Poem Emporium
One of only two bookstores in the U.S. entirely dedicated to poetry. 2414 N. 45th Street under The Bungalow Wine Bar in Seattle. If you get to the Erotic Bakery, you've gone too far. Or maybe not.
- PoetsWest
A fountain of information on Pacific Northwest writers, reading series, open mics, reviews.
- Powell's Books
If you pass within 50 miles of Portland and don't visit Powell's Books, shame on you!
- Puget Sound Poetry Connection
Out of Tacoma, WA. Open mics, distinguished writer's series, workshops, contests.
- Red Sky Poetry Theatre
The longest running open mic in Seattle. Sunday nights at the Globe Cafe, a funky vegan eatery on Capitol Hill. A cross between home and Cheers.
- Redmond Association of Spokenword (RASP)
The “Eastside” gathering for poets and writers. Monthly open mic, quarterly “Island Style” slams, annual festival, contests, workshops, chapbooks, and cool cats.
- Richard Hugo House
Creative writing classes, reading circles, book club, as well as venue for Subtext monthly literary series (see below) and the 2001 Seattle Poetry Festival.
- Seattle Slam
Weekly open mic, feature, musical guest and, uh, oh yeah, slam! Seattle is also hosting the 2001 National Slams. We'll be up to our eyeballs in poets this August.
- Subtext
Monthly experimental writers series. Two features each night. 1st Wednesday of every month. “Language” poetry links.
- West End Writer's Club (Vancouver)
Web links and events listings including the highly recommended weekly reading at Bukowski's, the Vancouver Slam Society, Black Sheep Books, and more.
THE 2001 SUPERBOWL, AND THE WINNER IS... POETRY!
Sunday, January 28th marked one of my favorite literary events of the year, the Northwest Spokenword LAB's annual Superbowl of Poetry. I won't knock anyone who has a hankering for football, but for those literary-minded folk looking for an alternative, the Superbowl of Poetry always pays off. Each year, Paul Nelson gathers six featured poets to discuss their poetics and share their work. Granted, sometimes the idea of discussing one's “poetics” sounds tedious to me, but due to the diverse nature of the poets Paul selects, the discussion actually winds me up until I'm ready to hear how these ideas transfer to their work. Listening to poetry wears me out; it takes a lot of energy to absorb so many images, so much word-play, so after a reading I'm not usually one to hang out afterwards and ask questions. I'm also not fond of too much explanation during a reading, as I like the work to speak for itself. With this format, all the discussion comes first and I feel like a linebacker prepared for the onslaught of poetry (had to get that football reference in there somewhere).
This year, the SBP featured poets Stephen Thomas, Consulting Poetry Editor of The Temple Magazine; Judith Roche, Literary Program Coordinator for Bumbershoot; George Quasha, Publisher of Station Hill Press from Barrytown, New York; Lissa Wolsak, from Vancouver, B.C.; Melissa Noelle Green, of the Seattle African-American Writers Alliance; Tim Sanders, Member of the 1999 Seattle Slam team. Each brought a different background, experience, and style to the table and each had an impact on particular members of the audience. I think I can safely say, that there was something for everyone as well as a glance into unfamiliar poetic territory.
Quasha and Thomas had quite the good-natured academic banter going, swapping lines from William Blake and at one point defining poetry as “pro-bono subversion.” They were the most verbal panelists, but the entire crew nodded their heads in unison when Green chimed in with “Poetry is freedom for the soul.” And Kudos to Tim Sanders, who definitely held his own as the youngest poet amongst some pretty heavy hitters. He's the only poet I know who has made a moving poetic connection between a Grandmother's death and moose blood splattered on the hood of a car.
ON THE ROAD WITH THE SF / BEZERKLEY SLAM TEAM
The Pacific Northwest recently had a taste of the San Francisco / Berkeley Slam Team, or I should say, they had a taste of us. Gabrielle Bouliane, their gracious hostess, spun this story for me:
Touring can be difficult. But even more difficult when you cross national borders. Such was the fate of the SF/Berkeley Slam Team 2000, Ariana Waynes, SeeKing, Aya de Leon, Rene Van, and their intrepid leader, Charles Ellik. After their long flight, car rental hassle and subsequent three-hour drive to the Canadian border, the rest of the story tested the troupe to the max. First, they were pulled over by immigration. Another case of “driving while black”? Or is it scruffy white boys they don¹t trust, as Charles jokingly wondered. Either way, after a grueling Q&A session, we have learned the following lessons when crossing the border:
Suffice to say, after a less than cozy welcome, our crew was forced to turn around & make the return trip to Seattle. “But it's Canada!” they cried. “How can they not let us in?”
The next day, they returned in a different rental car (procured by claiming it was the absolutely wrong color to greet sorority sisters in!), and met our Canadian friends on the American side of the border, where we split up the group. The Canadian car was let through just fine, the rental was once again stopped, but with a resident Canadian in tow, things proceeded more smoothly at the border. The party proceeded merrily, looking forward to a well-deserved glass of Sangria... but ten minutes into the remaining hour of the trip, we were visited by a crazed already twice-struck-by-automobiles beaver, who reared up in front of the rental car. Sure enough, in trying to avoid the damaged beast, the large car fishtailed, struck an embankment, throwing Aya de Leon against the glass where she was knocked unconscious. The car was totaled, although fortunately insured. Several hours later, once Aya was examined thoroughly at the hospital, they were released and finally made it to Vancouver, where the team performed to a huge standing ovation, after devoting their performance to Aya's well-being as she recuperates at Cass King's house.
The team also performed for a wide-eyed and wide-mouthed Seattle Slam audience, complete with a rousing rendition of Aya's tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. Day (“I have a cream... I have a cream...”), and taught a workshop & performed at the Downtown YMCA's Fusion Cafe. Dan Hintz, poetry host extraordinaire, says of the event “[it] brought out a number of young people, also gathered adult first-time writers, visual artists and actors. Focused on the performance of poetry, the Berkeley group spoke of their own techniques for turning the written word into a dynamic oral interchange between poet and audience. The crowd was electrified by the fantastic display of poetic acrobatics. Ranging from the political to the sensual, the team offered a wonderful buffet of poems to feed the audience.”
TIME FOR LUNCH...
Lydia Lunch, that is. She is the headlining performer at Eleventh Hour Productions annual festival fundraiser, “Dante's Inferno,” on March 3rd at the I-Spy in Seattle. A punk ball, poetry explosion, and night of truly hot performances, Dante's Inferno will include fire breathers, experimental video, the Seventh Circle of Hell, a costume contest, and other unexpected phenomena. Contact eleven@poetryfestival.org for more information.
|
Lydia Lunch is a multimedia tour de force in spoken word, film, photography, and music, and has collaborated with the Birthday Party, Cabaret Voltaire, Sonic Youth, and Exene Cervenka. After recovering from an extensive European venture, she's now making her way up the West Coast on a book tour with recently published Paradoxia: A Predator's Diary (Creation Books: 1999). She will be performing in San Francisco and Portland (at the University of Portland) as well, so be on the lookout for information.
|
If you're new to Lunch, I recommend her CDs Widowspeak (Pilot: 1999) or Shotgun Wedding (Atavistic Records: 1999), which has a haunting rendition of Led Zeppelin's “In My Time Of Dying.” Her lyrics/songs are human, disturbing, razor-sharp, dreamy and authentic. Her voice cuts deep with ominous chill factors.
That's all for now. Please, all you PNW folk, keep me up to date on what's happening. I'm not omniscient yet, though I'm working on it.
Subversing with Verse,
Danika Dinsmore
READER-SUBMITTED POETRY NEWS BRIEFS
From Ralph Haselmann, Jr.:
Lucid Moon Poetry Magazine The Website
is now taking submissions for its March 2001, Your Poetry Page and Moon Beams sections. Send underground Beat poetry or heartfelt romantic poetry for Your Poetry Page and send many moon-themed poems for Moon Beams section. I am in need of moon poems; you stand a better chance of getting published if it's a moon poem. Make it majestic, make it sing, make it soar, make it dazzle me! Send your best by email, either MSWord document attachment or preferably in the body of the email. Please include full name and city/state.
New for the month of February on Ralph Haselmann Jr.'s Lucid Moon Poetry Magazine The Website is “A Conversation With Jack Powers On The Late Gregory Corso,” an interview by Doug Holder. Powers started the Stone Soup Poets Movement and knew Corso. Doug has been doing a fine series of interviews for Ibbetson St. Press and Lucid Moon. Other interviews conducted by Doug on the Archives section of Lucid Moon include Charles Coe, Lisanne D'Andrea-Winslow, Ed Galing, Michael Basinski and Lyn Lifshin. Other interviews are Hersch Silverman, Frank Moore and Gerald Locklin.
The Winter 2001 Book Reviews go out to several small press lists, after which they will be archived on Lucid Moon. Such poets as Kevin Hibshman, Frank Moore, Jack Philips Lowe, Lyn Lifshin, Charles Cowe, Arthur Rimbaud, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Charles Potts are reviewed, as well as a stunning new biography of Arthur Rimbaud by Graham Robb. Also a review of Drinking With Bukowski: Recollections of The Poet Laureate Of Skid Row, a quirky and fun new collection.
Calling For Poetry News Items from Our Readers!
Keep in touch with Museletter! If you have news or views, gossip or announcements that belong in the About Poetry Museletter, please send them to your nearest correspondent, or submit them on our Reader Submissions page.
MORE MUSELETTERS...
