I like this one! It just needs someone with time and bottle to do it,
Tilla
On 21/8/05 11:50 pm, "Geraldine Monk" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> First you find the right face ( cute but a teensy bit exotic &
>> threatening, to make the WMA suits feel they're feasting with panthers).
>> Hang out on the club/DJ scene and see who gets bounced. Find some lairy
>> kid.
>> Give him/her the right name. Then do a good fashion shoot. What's the
>> next big bling after hoodies? Get a celeb angle, with a hint of
>> subversion,
>> something you can leak to the broadsheets. "X sewed hrs first poem on
>> Tracey Emin's underware" Create a buzz about the milieu - e.g "Hereford
>> is
>> the new Hoxton." Make a music/rap connection "x also fronts the
>> Exploding Hamsters and/or the Electro Death Posse ". Try different
>> angles
>> e.g "x is the first post-literate poet". Maybe invent a new ethnic
>> minority - try out "Transcaucasian-British" or "Sumerian-British"
>>
>> Then, when the PR is bubbling nicely - and only then - write the poems.
>> All X has to do is turn up and read them. Take the money and run. When the
>> fuss has died down, X can get a presneter's gig on afternoon TV.
>>
>> I have a horrible queasy feeling that this might actually work.
>
>
>
>
> Yes, it might well work Paul - they should be asking you do to it - you seem
> to know what you're talking about!
>
> And that's the ludicrous thing about it: they're not asking you (well
> they're not asking at all, they're forcing) but a white middle-aged granddad
> (ah let's fact it - that's what Glenn is! - bless his Zimmer frame) to
> suddenly be the champion of ethnic yoof culture. It all so disrespectful of
> Glenn's work and ultimately an empty, lazy and dishonest gesture on behalf
> of WMA because they can't even be arsed to target presses which MAY be able
> to deliver such a thing. And if you turn the tables how would some young
> funky black press in Brum react if they were forced to publish the likes of
> Glenn. Throw a hissy-fit I should imagine. And if there ain't a black
> young funky press in Brum why the hell should Glenn be punished. Grrrrr.
> And maybe there isn't one because they don't want one - poor sods - do they
> know WMA is gonna force them all to write and be published whether they want
> to or not. An updating of 'publish and be damned'.
>
>
>
> At the back of my mind in all this has been the trials and tribulations of
> women poets and their long fought and fraught battle-axing to get their
> stuff represented. But it's not really comparable. Women were/are not a
> minority so the lack of representation was always evident to see. The
> impetus to rectify this came from women (with the backing of a lot of men
> and the resistance of a lot of men). Women formed their own presses. Had
> women only events. This was the high and low point. While I thought the
> presses like Women Only and Virago where necessary and uplifting - an all
> out attack and some brilliant retrievals of past women writers who had been
> 'written out of history' I always though Women Only events were a
> catastrophe, I never attended one and turned down any venue that wouldn't
> let all my mates in - they were the biggest cop out ever and so retro it
> scored the ultimate own goal. Yuck. Anyway I could go on....!!!!
>
> No, it's not comparable.
>
> But these ninnies at WMA have really got my goat and I nominate Paul to sort
> them out. Good on you lad.
>
> G.
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