Tim,
I have to make a quick excursion to town if I'm to eat today, but
thought your mail a good opportunity to mention the latest volume in
the Documents series from Nate Dorward's Gig Publications in Toronto.
(Website at http://www.geocities.com/ndorward/ doesn't have this new
vol yet.)
There's a longish paper there by cris cheek, "From a
Performant", which, from a quick flick-through, appears to give a
pretty interesting account of his own approach to Performance, and his
ideas about how it can, does, and perhaps should, work. Have you seen
it yet?
Best,
T
(Disclosure of interest: there's a few bit and pieces from myself
in there also, including one howler, but it's an interesting
publication in general, I think. I expect Peter Riley will have a few
copies in stock.)
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.
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