We enjoyed a wonderful evening last night at the Phoenix Arts: the event was a performance of poems by 'survivors' of the local mental health system. It was hosted by a local comedian/performance poet Rob Gee and the poets read to a full house of approx. 220 people. It was a collective effort and the poets, many of whom had no previous of stage or mic work, had rehearsed assiduously for a month before, as well as spending all afternoon acccustoming themselves to a 'proper' theatre stage : the sight of those banked seats, the lights, etc. As well the group had produced a small colourful free booklet to accompany the reading.
Now I wouldn't pretend that as poetry their work was of a high standard, indeed, some poems were touching more for the inadequacies of their language, but it was a moving experience to see people, some by 'normal' standards inarticulate, and people who certainly count among life's victims, having the confidence to stand before all those serried ranks.
And they did so with such good humour.
One is familiar with the duality of poetry as art and poetry as therapy - I don't feel there is an argument in this matter - poetry can have a therapeutic effect which is distinct from poetry as an art and neither category invalidates the other. Art poetry of course can be therapeutic (or not!!) for its practitioners.
But we also have the duality (war at times) between poetry as performance and poetry as literature of the page and it was interesting to reflect that these poets' performances were just as good as you often get at performance events, if anything, rather than raising questions about literary poetry they raised queries at the claims of performance poetry.
Best
Dave
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