It depends alright Dave. It's Luke Wright by the way. A talented lad
who has made it big straight into media land from the performance
scene - baby faced, the girls loved him - Aisle 16 were the boy Band
of performance poetry and they actually had one very good poet, a
Liverpool kid, can't remember his name. anyway, Luke Wright - Great
performer, lousy poet, really lousy. Now this lousy poet is being
asked questions alongside Armitage etc - why doesn't Armitage blink?
Why doesn't anybody blink? The poetry establishment in this country as
so weird, so afraid of not appearing cool. They're all idiots.
Tim A.
On 20 Jun 2009, at 08:13, David Bircumshaw wrote:
> I like the idea of Keston as a Slam poet. Perhaps he'll bring Jeremy
> Prynne
> along to have a go next time.
> I do think it's difficult to extrapolate much from performance poetry
> events. In Britain, the one's I see do, do tend to reflect the
> influence of
> TV stand-up comedy a lot, as well as suggesting that the
> effectiveness of
> poetry as an aid to regaining mental health, as used in the NHS, is
> doubtful. For all the radical rhetoric the scene seems to be very
> much about
> making it, becoming someone, as if identity were conferred by
> others' eyes.
> I heard a poem by Luke Knight, a star of the circuit in England, on
> the
> radio yesterday. It was called 'Loughborough' and it sucked (technical
> litcrit term that)
> But having rambled on there, extrapolating, I can recall going to
> gigs in
> Birmingham in the 90s, or in Melbourne a few years back, that were
> really
> bright. So it depends, dunnit?
>
> 2009/6/19 Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]>
>
>> Can't say I've ever extrapolated from or designated for later
>> critical
>> study any slam
>> performances I've witnessed other than the work of DJ Spooky.
>> Perhaps he
>> could have
>> been seen in competitive slams when he began, but I've caught his
>> collaborations with the
>> architect Bernard Tschumi, re-editing of D.W. Griffith's film
>> Intolerance,
>> and VJ mash-
>> ups. Here's information about a multi-performative event I'm going
>> out of
>> my way to
>> attend, largely to sample for the first time the presentational
>> style of 3
>> younger British
>> poets whom I've never had a chance to witness. Justin Katko
>> intrigues me
>> as well and I
>> have hopes that others whose names I'm encountering for the first
>> time may
>> stimulate.
>>
>> "PRAXIS DUDES FEST
>> an international gathering of contemporary
>> performance art, poetry, and music
>>
>> Saturday 06.20.09,$8, doors at 7pm, sets start at 8pm, 18+
>>
>> THE VELVET LOUNGE 915 U Street NW, Washington, DC
>>
>> Haley Dolan (Providence/DC)
>> Justin Katko (Providence)
>> Jow Lindsay (England)
>> Nour Mobarak (Portland)
>> Andrew Bucket (DC)
>> Ryan Dobran (NYC)
>> Joshua Strauss (Buffalo)
>> Keston Sutherland (England)
>> Mike Wallace-Hadrill (England)
>> Adrian Parsons (DC)
>> Chris Grier (DC)
>>
>> Advantageous guardians of historical data-shreds."
>>
>>
>> Barry Alpert
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:55:58 -0600, Douglas Barbour <
>> [log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Ah, you are cross, Tim.
>>>
>>> It's interesting that, that slams work thus (a bit like our CBC
>>> poetry
>>> contests, in which people also write to a theme).
>>>
>>> On the other hand, this brilliant PhD student wrote a thesis on
>>> Spoken
>>> Word performance, in which she made a strong argument for the way
>>> many
>>> in that field do challenge stereotypes, play a lot of queer
>>> cabarets,
>>> &, for their intended audiences, really do important cultural work
>>> (even if I still find a lot of the work she told us about boring in
>>> terms of what I seek in poetry).
>>>
>>> But this, yeah, I'm with you....
>>>
>>> Doug
>>> On 17-Jun-09, at 4:55 AM, Tim Allen wrote:
>>>
>>>>> "A poetry SLAM competition in two rounds.
>>>>
>>>> First Round: 4 Competing Categories:
>>>>
>>>> DARK poem - a sad poem wearing all black
>>>> GLAD poem - a happy poem in colourful clothes
>>>> SHAG poem - sexy words in lingerie, fetish, flesh
>>>> DRAG poem - gender-bending words in drag"< etc
>>>>
>>>> Probably a bit of fun but sooooo cliched it makes you cry. Why is
>>>> it
>>>> that all this performance stuff is so predictable and conventional
>>>> and does everything to reinforce stereotypes (aesthetic and
>>>> otherwise)? The whole thing goes against the grain of challenge and
>>>> questioning, weather of genre, language or identity, that
>>>> innovative
>>>> and experimental poetry are known for. This is why the performance
>>>> scene, despite all its rhetoric about being about youth and energy
>>>> etc, is ultimately so conservative and harmless and safe, and hence
>>>> why it is so acceptable to the literary establishment.
>>>>
>>>> Tim A.
>>>> excuse cross posting - by which I mean cross posting, not cross
>>>> posting
>>
>
>
>
> --
> David Bircumshaw
> "Nothing can be done in the face
> of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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