WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.160 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.160 --> 00:00:02.430 align:middle line:90% All right, who has a question? 00:00:02.430 --> 00:00:04.136 align:middle line:90% I'm going to drink water. 00:00:04.136 --> 00:00:11.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:13.300 align:middle line:84% So I was really fascinated to hear 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:15.970 align:middle line:90% how you read from Non Sequitur. 00:00:15.970 --> 00:00:17.890 align:middle line:84% And I was curious about that already. 00:00:17.890 --> 00:00:22.750 align:middle line:84% And I'm just curious now how you made the decisions of how 00:00:22.750 --> 00:00:23.440 align:middle line:90% to stage it. 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:25.360 align:middle line:84% And then, if that's separate from or related 00:00:25.360 --> 00:00:28.250 align:middle line:84% to how you read it at poetry readings, when it's just you. 00:00:28.250 --> 00:00:31.210 align:middle line:84% I had no say in how it was staged. 00:00:31.210 --> 00:00:33.580 align:middle line:84% That is purely Fiona Templeton, who 00:00:33.580 --> 00:00:37.180 align:middle line:84% is a brilliant director and a poet and playwright, 00:00:37.180 --> 00:00:40.840 align:middle line:84% and her theater company, The Relationship. 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:44.080 align:middle line:84% And it was her idea to do it the way they did, 00:00:44.080 --> 00:00:47.290 align:middle line:84% with the narrator saying the names. 00:00:47.290 --> 00:00:53.260 align:middle line:84% The way I read it, I just found it fun to read that way. 00:00:53.260 --> 00:00:54.700 align:middle line:90% And I also am not a performer. 00:00:54.700 --> 00:00:57.970 align:middle line:84% [LAUGHS] So I couldn't act out the characters, 00:00:57.970 --> 00:00:59.740 align:middle line:90% but I can read it. 00:00:59.740 --> 00:01:03.670 align:middle line:84% But the way that they staged it was really well done. 00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:06.820 align:middle line:84% And the way that they had the characters 00:01:06.820 --> 00:01:08.470 align:middle line:84% speak to one another, like, I think, 00:01:08.470 --> 00:01:10.840 align:middle line:84% the brown vagina and the internal monologue 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:12.430 align:middle line:90% were played by the same actor. 00:01:12.430 --> 00:01:15.760 align:middle line:84% So the way that they did that on the stage 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:18.190 align:middle line:90% was an interesting conversation. 00:01:18.190 --> 00:01:21.490 align:middle line:84% I think the ghost of Audubon and the Blunt Institution 00:01:21.490 --> 00:01:23.080 align:middle line:90% was the same actor. 00:01:23.080 --> 00:01:25.420 align:middle line:84% And so they're like-- the cool thing 00:01:25.420 --> 00:01:27.340 align:middle line:84% about that play is that there are 00:01:27.340 --> 00:01:29.900 align:middle line:84% kind of infinite possibilities, but also infinite 00:01:29.900 --> 00:01:31.960 align:middle line:90% impossibilities. 00:01:31.960 --> 00:01:34.750 align:middle line:84% And I did have a really hard time trying to get it staged, 00:01:34.750 --> 00:01:36.790 align:middle line:90% initially. 00:01:36.790 --> 00:01:39.760 align:middle line:84% When I saw that prize, I almost missed it. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:42.280 align:middle line:84% I got it in right under deadline. 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:45.290 align:middle line:90% I was just like, might as well. 00:01:45.290 --> 00:01:47.590 align:middle line:84% So it was cool to win that and to see them staging. 00:01:47.590 --> 00:01:51.010 align:middle line:90% 00:01:51.010 --> 00:01:52.081 align:middle line:90% Other questions. 00:01:52.081 --> 00:01:57.740 align:middle line:90% 00:01:57.740 --> 00:02:01.310 align:middle line:84% You shared a lot of poetry about your encounters 00:02:01.310 --> 00:02:02.120 align:middle line:90% with celebrities. 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:04.550 align:middle line:84% And I was wondering, what do you think 00:02:04.550 --> 00:02:07.040 align:middle line:84% is so spectacular about encountering a celebrity 00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:10.430 align:middle line:84% and do you think it grows more mundane as it occurs 00:02:10.430 --> 00:02:11.540 align:middle line:90% more often? 00:02:11.540 --> 00:02:15.920 align:middle line:84% It's definitely mundane when you live in Los Angeles. 00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:20.360 align:middle line:84% Because you get to see them almost every day when 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:25.840 align:middle line:84% you're going out, especially in Westwood area. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:28.580 align:middle line:84% But at least in our area, that's like a hotspot. 00:02:28.580 --> 00:02:30.185 align:middle line:84% I saw-- like, half the people that I 00:02:30.185 --> 00:02:32.310 align:middle line:84% talk about in the book that would be out next year, 00:02:32.310 --> 00:02:33.518 align:middle line:90% I saw at the Barclays Center. 00:02:33.518 --> 00:02:37.190 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS] They shop a lot. 00:02:37.190 --> 00:02:38.420 align:middle line:90% Yeah, it's super mundane. 00:02:38.420 --> 00:02:39.920 align:middle line:84% And I think the spectacular part is 00:02:39.920 --> 00:02:44.090 align:middle line:84% what you learn about yourself in relation to celebrity. 00:02:44.090 --> 00:02:45.728 align:middle line:90% Is it really that big a deal? 00:02:45.728 --> 00:02:47.270 align:middle line:84% They're just regular people like you. 00:02:47.270 --> 00:02:52.880 align:middle line:84% But they just do extraordinary things that are made public. 00:02:52.880 --> 00:02:55.160 align:middle line:90% But I think my hero is my mom. 00:02:55.160 --> 00:02:57.140 align:middle line:84% She doesn't do anything in public. 00:02:57.140 --> 00:03:00.380 align:middle line:84% She makes really awesome food and made 00:03:00.380 --> 00:03:05.810 align:middle line:84% a lot of sacrifices that made it possible for us to live. 00:03:05.810 --> 00:03:08.780 align:middle line:84% And I appreciate her for that, much more than I would 00:03:08.780 --> 00:03:09.470 align:middle line:90% a celebrity. 00:03:09.470 --> 00:03:12.260 align:middle line:84% Somebody, some people would say being a mom is mundane. 00:03:12.260 --> 00:03:13.040 align:middle line:90% And it kind of is. 00:03:13.040 --> 00:03:13.830 align:middle line:90% I am a mom. 00:03:13.830 --> 00:03:18.740 align:middle line:84% I have a 15-year-old who is hiding, playing video games. 00:03:18.740 --> 00:03:22.477 align:middle line:84% And he doesn't care about people listen to me read poems. 00:03:22.477 --> 00:03:23.810 align:middle line:90% He just wants me to make dinner. 00:03:23.810 --> 00:03:26.520 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:28.490 align:middle line:84% So that goes back to what I was saying earlier 00:03:28.490 --> 00:03:30.410 align:middle line:84% about the spectacular and the mundane 00:03:30.410 --> 00:03:32.960 align:middle line:84% and switching those things around in poetry. 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:35.060 align:middle line:90% And it's all connected. 00:03:35.060 --> 00:03:38.990 align:middle line:84% Not to sound New Agey, but it kind of is. 00:03:38.990 --> 00:03:40.810 align:middle line:90% Did I answer that question? 00:03:40.810 --> 00:03:43.135 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:43.135 --> 00:03:43.940 align:middle line:90% Anybody else? 00:03:43.940 --> 00:03:49.100 align:middle line:90% 00:03:49.100 --> 00:03:51.320 align:middle line:84% I forgot to read from Black Peculiar, sorry. 00:03:51.320 --> 00:03:54.380 align:middle line:90% 00:03:54.380 --> 00:03:56.160 align:middle line:84% I have a really general question. 00:03:56.160 --> 00:04:00.240 align:middle line:84% I was just wondering what got you started in poetry? 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:04.160 align:middle line:90% Oh, I was always a reader. 00:04:04.160 --> 00:04:06.800 align:middle line:84% My dad taught me to read when I was three, 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:08.960 align:middle line:90% used to read the newspaper. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:14.010 align:middle line:84% And I used to memorize nursery rhymes and things like that. 00:04:14.010 --> 00:04:16.370 align:middle line:84% So I think it was always in my head, 00:04:16.370 --> 00:04:17.850 align:middle line:84% like the music and the sound of it. 00:04:17.850 --> 00:04:21.360 align:middle line:84% And my mother was a jazz singer before she had us. 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:22.610 align:middle line:90% My dad used to play the drums. 00:04:22.610 --> 00:04:23.630 align:middle line:90% It was always music. 00:04:23.630 --> 00:04:28.340 align:middle line:84% And I don't find the music and poetry that separate to me. 00:04:28.340 --> 00:04:30.140 align:middle line:84% But I didn't start writing seriously 00:04:30.140 --> 00:04:32.630 align:middle line:90% until my son was born, actually. 00:04:32.630 --> 00:04:35.480 align:middle line:84% I took a modern poetry class online 00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:37.910 align:middle line:90% when I was in the service. 00:04:37.910 --> 00:04:41.160 align:middle line:90% And I just fell in love with it. 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:42.440 align:middle line:90% And I got obsessed. 00:04:42.440 --> 00:04:45.230 align:middle line:84% And I had like a bookstore two blocks from me. 00:04:45.230 --> 00:04:47.360 align:middle line:90% And I would go and read. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:50.045 align:middle line:84% And I started with A and just started reading everything. 00:04:50.045 --> 00:04:52.520 align:middle line:84% And I would read whatever I could find online. 00:04:52.520 --> 00:04:56.510 align:middle line:84% And I'd say maybe six months after that class, 00:04:56.510 --> 00:04:58.040 align:middle line:90% I started to send work out. 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:00.710 align:middle line:90% This is like 2000. 00:05:00.710 --> 00:05:02.990 align:middle line:84% So that's how I got started with poetry, 00:05:02.990 --> 00:05:05.090 align:middle line:90% just kind of cycle obsession. 00:05:05.090 --> 00:05:10.370 align:middle line:90% 00:05:10.370 --> 00:05:12.050 align:middle line:84% So thinking about spectacle and thinking 00:05:12.050 --> 00:05:14.600 align:middle line:84% about what you were saying with Non Sequitur, 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:16.220 align:middle line:84% and that you wrote it, then it was 00:05:16.220 --> 00:05:18.500 align:middle line:90% performed kind of separately. 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:20.870 align:middle line:84% Once it was performed and had its own life, 00:05:20.870 --> 00:05:23.160 align:middle line:84% did that make you want to go back to change it at all? 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:25.720 align:middle line:84% Could it change what you were writing afterwards? 00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:28.010 align:middle line:84% And so what was the relationship between the public 00:05:28.010 --> 00:05:29.540 align:middle line:90% and the private? 00:05:29.540 --> 00:05:33.240 align:middle line:84% The first reaction I had was, I freaked out a little bit. 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:35.160 align:middle line:84% And I didn't tell anybody when I was there. 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:37.220 align:middle line:84% I was like, oh, yes, of course, it was awesome. 00:05:37.220 --> 00:05:40.430 align:middle line:84% But like, OK, so the part with the Faith Evans, 00:05:40.430 --> 00:05:43.820 align:middle line:84% like the girl that performed it didn't know the song. 00:05:43.820 --> 00:05:46.670 align:middle line:84% So she was, it was off-key a little. 00:05:46.670 --> 00:05:51.260 align:middle line:84% But I had to relax my control and realize that that 00:05:51.260 --> 00:05:52.610 align:middle line:90% could be part of it too. 00:05:52.610 --> 00:05:54.830 align:middle line:84% And the way that I wrote it was so that it could 00:05:54.830 --> 00:05:56.270 align:middle line:90% be interpreted in many ways. 00:05:56.270 --> 00:05:59.090 align:middle line:84% There are options, all in the stage directions, 00:05:59.090 --> 00:06:01.130 align:middle line:90% to give the director-- 00:06:01.130 --> 00:06:04.670 align:middle line:84% the director that chooses to stage it-- 00:06:04.670 --> 00:06:07.190 align:middle line:84% a lot of freedom to interpret the play. 00:06:07.190 --> 00:06:11.310 align:middle line:84% So I kind of had to put my money where my mouth was on that one. 00:06:11.310 --> 00:06:14.270 align:middle line:84% And once I did that, it was great. 00:06:14.270 --> 00:06:17.090 align:middle line:84% It was fantastic to see what was possible for it 00:06:17.090 --> 00:06:18.590 align:middle line:90% to do in real life. 00:06:18.590 --> 00:06:23.970 align:middle line:90% 00:06:23.970 --> 00:06:27.580 align:middle line:84% Well, that's a good place to stop, speaking of real life.