This is a question for both Craig and Yona.
You both have beautiful styles of performance
that I think also other poets might want to emulate
but might be intimidated or not confident enough to pursue.
So for those in the audience who may, I'm sure,
have this attitude like, I wish I could do that,
could you say a little bit about how
your style of performing your poems has evolved,
and how you developed your idea of what you want to say
and also how you want to say it?
That's a great question.
My reading style developed over time and part of it
was that it came out of, I don't know,
what I felt was a prejudice against what people call
performance poetry or slam poetry sometimes,
that there had to be this huge distance between poetry
for the page and poetry that was supposedly performed.
And I kind of think it's all a performance in a way,
even the kind of elbow patches on the blazer
type of a reading.
[LAUGHING]
So I was just working through that question
over a long period of time.
And then I also was influenced by Thomas Sayers Ellis
and Tracie Morris like more specifically,
just thinking about the ways that they read their work
and just kind of I had to grow into it
to become more confident about it.
But that's the short version.
I should probably say I'm not always like this.
[LAUGHING]
But those-- the rest of my book is very different.
But for those few poems, I think food
is something that we should celebrate
and that we should have fun with.
And so I tried to write those poems
and I tried to perform those poems in a way that's fun.
Yeah.
And my dad always says too, if you're
eating Vienna sausage alone you're doing it wrong.
[LAUGHING]
Partly because food practices in the Pacific
are always communal, yeah, they're
meant to bring people together.
So usually I have like my poetry entourage.
We're called Ruined Appetites.
That's our band name.
But obviously I couldn't bring them all here.
So I'm grateful for the volunteers
and just to find fun ways to get the audience involved.
In Hawaii and the Pacific too there's
a lot of multimedia performances,
so there are poets who may also be like hula dancers,
or they're chanters who collaborate with musicians,
and so on.
So I obviously can't sing.
Usually my wife is the one who does the singing for our songs.
And so, you know, it's just trying
to find a fun way where you do something different.
Try to see what happens.
Doesn't have to be perfect.
You don't have to be a great singer or a great performer.
And you just have to have fun, I think.
Thank you both so much and thank you everyone for coming.
I would bet, nod your agreement, or shake your head no,
but I'll bet that they would be willing to continue question
and answer period informally.
I know for a fact that Kurt and Marc
would love to sell you a book.
And feel free to come up for a signing.
And we'll see you all next time.
Thank you.