I agree with Piers - to try to make some sort of vague gender judgement based on Mark's summaries is a step too far. I thoroughly enjoyed Andrea's paper on early Raworth, and not just because I love early Raworth. I also enjoyed Mairead's 'talk' but, like Piers says, it seemed to have nothing to do with Talk Poetry or David Antin - except as markers showing what Mairead's 'talk' was not. Which is fine I suppose, especially as it worked - it was v. funny - a kind of outsiding the in of self indulgence into a celebration.. It told us a lot about Mairead, but nothing about Talk Poetry and I found that quite charming - a talk as poetry or poetry as talk in which Talk Poetry itself is negated. The problem is that if someone was there specifically to find out about Talk Poetry - and not a lot of people this side of the water have much conception of it - then such a personage just might have wished they'd gone to a different talk.
Tim A.
