west coast poetry festival
just returned from the west coast poetry festival in vancouver/bc where jack mcCarthy, karen finneyfrock and i were invited to read on the foreign exchange stage...karen, who is one of my all time favorite poets, gave an amazing reading of mostly new work, and jack was, as usual, in top form. it was organized by sean mcgarragle of vancouver and it was magnificently done!
one poet who really stood out for me was a man named christian bok (last name pronounced "book") who is a sound poet, a style i hadn't heard of but will very shortly be experimenting with in my own work...based on what i experienced, sound poetry is performance poetry that is composed of made-up words and syllables or real words read in random order with certain emotionl and/or rythymic inflection.
christian writes it all down, and reads from the page but it seems like it could be done just as well as improv. i suppose that writing it down contextualizes it as literary.
what i like about it is it's potential to tell stories and express emotion without using words. for instance, he dedicated one piece to rumsfeld and used a series of nonsensical words mixed with made-up syllables and delivered in a grunting german accent that was immediately evocative of the nazi's.
it reminded me of speaking in tongues, of spirituals and gospel songs composed entirely of runs. it reminded me of imani uzuri's haunting, if vocally spastic, interpretation of "strange fruit" by billy holiday. it also reminded me of a song that i heard jazz legend etta james do once that was about five minutes of moaning and wailing and grunting and crying and then at the end the verse, "i'm feeling uneasy" added to interpret the song for the listener.
i spoke with christian after his reading and he told me that sound poetry is a 100 year-old tradition and i thought, but didn't say, that it is probably older than that on this continent and it probably has indigenous and/0r black african roots...but then, i think colored folk invented everything...more later...cbell
one poet who really stood out for me was a man named christian bok (last name pronounced "book") who is a sound poet, a style i hadn't heard of but will very shortly be experimenting with in my own work...based on what i experienced, sound poetry is performance poetry that is composed of made-up words and syllables or real words read in random order with certain emotionl and/or rythymic inflection.
christian writes it all down, and reads from the page but it seems like it could be done just as well as improv. i suppose that writing it down contextualizes it as literary.
what i like about it is it's potential to tell stories and express emotion without using words. for instance, he dedicated one piece to rumsfeld and used a series of nonsensical words mixed with made-up syllables and delivered in a grunting german accent that was immediately evocative of the nazi's.
it reminded me of speaking in tongues, of spirituals and gospel songs composed entirely of runs. it reminded me of imani uzuri's haunting, if vocally spastic, interpretation of "strange fruit" by billy holiday. it also reminded me of a song that i heard jazz legend etta james do once that was about five minutes of moaning and wailing and grunting and crying and then at the end the verse, "i'm feeling uneasy" added to interpret the song for the listener.
i spoke with christian after his reading and he told me that sound poetry is a 100 year-old tradition and i thought, but didn't say, that it is probably older than that on this continent and it probably has indigenous and/0r black african roots...but then, i think colored folk invented everything...more later...cbell
posted by Christa Bell @ 5:48 PM
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