 |
 |
Performance poetry, by which I mean the Apples and Snakes, Poetry-Can type, not the Dartington type, has fascinated me since I got involved on its margins around 10 years ago. The whole slam thing was well under way then, on both sides of the Atlantic. My experiences with it were not good and I distanced myself from it; especially following an awful experience in a slam around 98 that severely damaged my confidence and stopped me ever wanting to 'read' in that context again - carelessness and too much whisky were to blame but I was also trying to take them on at their own game and the bloody mike kept slipping - but the issues it raises do not go away. Recently the Language Club, which i help run in Plymouth, got itself involved with the Apples and Snakes launch in the south-west. We knew this was always going to be problematic, but nevertheless we did it, and thankfully it was not a disaster, but it brought all the issues back into consciousness. I would be very interested in what other list members out there who are involved in performance poetry think about what follows... Performance poetry deals essentially with clichés and stereotypes, bouncing between the sentimental and the streetwise. At its best it can do this in a thoroughly entertaining way while at its worst, well, no comment. Performance poetry is not limited to one type, for example there is light verse, often funny and sometimes topical; there is a performance poetry that is no different to non-performance poetry but it becomes performance poetry because it fits some idea of writer and subject stance connected with colour and gender; there is hard-edged fast delivery for which the subject doesn't really matter as long as it is something the audience can identify with and is delivered with emotional conviction, usually anger; there is a hybrid form of stand-up comedy and poetry, basically stand-up that uses rhyme and a strong beat. There is also a performance poetry that resembles drama in that it can be a polished performance of a script and can be enhanced with music and lighting etc. There are others but the majority I have come across fit one or more of the above types. I must say that I am only interested in this because I really like good performance poetry. I have seen performance poetry that has been able to break its own rules and be excellent but very rarely have I witnessed performance poetry that has been excellent while remaining in formula - and performance poetry is as formulaic and predictable as modern poetry gets. Nevertheless I love the energy and the sound of the human voice as it pushes it out. So what is the problem then? Performance poetry, especially in the slam context, tends to move towards the lowest common denominator. Funniest wins, or sexiest wins, or loudest wins, or the most consensual idea wins, etc. The long-term affect this has had on performance poetry is very bad. And the problems go right from the top all the way down. Zephania is a lovely man but a good deal of his poetry is trite, and this trite seems to be OK, acceptable, not a problem, not a problem because he - not the poetry, but he - he fits some notion of right-on style. Performance poetry can get away with murder - loose lines and filler are perfectly OK as long as the performer is displaying the right attitude. What you do not get with performance poetry is trickle-up: the whole project feeds on and reinforces the anti-intellectual and the complacent. Tim A.