Cris cajolingly wrote:
>Miles and Tim are just gagging to join this discussion. I just know it.

Alright, alright!--you've prompted me out from under my stone (it's a couple
down from Alaric's).  Hello all.

Yes, Tim Atkins and I have started to organise occasional readings/events in
London.  I'd like to say a little about this.  In the summer, we arranged
what we then thought would be a one-off reading when we heard that the New
York poet, Tim Davis (also contributing editor of the excellent _Arras_
magazine), was going to be in London at the beginning of August.  I
approached Gavin Everall and Ben Hillwood-Harris at the Serpentine Gallery's
second bookshop on Warren Street, they were interested, and that was that (I
think there had been five or so readings previously at one or other of the
Serpentine's locations--Wilkinson/Milne being the one that listlings here
will no doubt remember).  Tim advertised the reading on this list, and we
sent out some fliers.  I have nothing really to contribute to the "Do people
follow poetry, poets, or venues?" discussion, but I would like to record
here the fact that, of the sixty people who turned up on a sweltering Friday
night to hear two *younger* (that'll be a tenner next time, Tim!) poets,
only five or so were either regular or occasional attendees of SVP or other
readings/series.  The readings were excellent, and, yes, people--architects,
artists, film-makers, quiche-bakers, whatever (quite a few women,
even)--were engaged with the work.  There was dialogue.  It felt exciting.

Cris made this point a couple of days ago--there *is* a (potentially very
large) potential audience out there.  It wasn't just exciting for the
performers to be confronted by so many unfamiliar faces at the Catling/
Cheek/Williamson reading at the Voice Box.  It was certainly
galvanising for this particular audience member.  (I was beginning to wonder
where I'd gone wrong, and hadn't the faintest idea as to what other
youngsters were doing with their evenings.  Drum 'n' bass?  Sport drinks? 
No thanks, I'm happy with a half oz. of Golden Virginia and my slightly worn
Derek Bailey LPs...)

I don't mean to be glib.

Cris also wrote:
>What we really need is a blooming diversity of approaches  -  more space,
>more series, more hybrids.

As Lawrence replied:
>Absolutely.

As I've said, the Tim Davis reading was thrown together more or less at the
last minute--time was tight, and it seemed that if we didn't do anything, no
one else was going to.  I can't speak for Tim (Atkins), but I feel a little
differently about things now.  For more or less the first time since I
started going to SVP, Poets Writers, &c., in '92, there are quite a few
writers broadly of my own age here in London whose work I'm very interested
in; organising readings/performances/talks seems a good way of attempting to
create a different context (not better, not worse, just different) for some
of this work.  Yes, one's motivation isn't always entirely divorced from
self-interest--I do want to help create part of the context into which the
work (and my work, too) falls.  Too often, for me, readings work as negative
catalysts--I go home feeling glum, and some of that despondency seeps into
the poems (this is *my* problem, I realise--often the work I'm hearing is
very good, but something just isn't working for me--something about the
*reading situation*--somewhere along the line).  Well, now I want to write
happy poems.  *A full collaboration between writer and reader can only be
achieved by the deliberate location and cultivation of an audience*, if I
can (mis)quote Jed Rasula.  Of course, Lawrence, Ken, Cris, Ric, and many
others on this list have been involved in this process for years, and I
don't mean to suggest otherwise.

Tim and I will continue to put on occasional events at The Serpentine (see
my other post), altho it now looks as if most events will take place at an
independent art space near Liverpool Street called One in the Other.  We'll
post the dates and info as and when.  Gary Winters and other recent
graduates from the Performance Writing course at Dartington College also
have a (short-term) shop space in Kilburn, which they'll be using for
performance-related work.  There are things happening.  Lawrence continues
to put a huge amount of time and effort into SV.  Elsewhere, Karlien, Lucy
and others have exciting things going on. The SPELT event will be taking
place at Dartington College again next year.  Andy Brown has been putting
readings on in Exeter... I feel reasonably optimistic.

Anyway, it's certainly time for me to shut up.  (Thanks for the review of
the Voice Box evening, John.)

--Miles

Oh, before anyone picks me up on it: I know Derek Bailey made a (great)
record with drum 'n' bass D.J. Ninj last year...









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