WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.240 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.240 --> 00:00:04.500 align:middle line:84% I think I'm going to end up echoing a couple of things 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:07.050 align:middle line:90% that me and Loren said. 00:00:07.050 --> 00:00:11.220 align:middle line:84% I want to start off with a quote from someone 00:00:11.220 --> 00:00:14.190 align:middle line:84% who I think is more articulate on this subject than me. 00:00:14.190 --> 00:00:19.320 align:middle line:84% Bob Holman, the poet, plays the Bowery Poetry Club in New York, 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:22.860 align:middle line:84% and is a great poet and poet impresario. 00:00:22.860 --> 00:00:26.160 align:middle line:84% And Holman says, "In the United States, in this century, 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:30.390 align:middle line:84% the idea that poetry could exist in or as performance 00:00:30.390 --> 00:00:32.460 align:middle line:84% was so heretical that a whole genre-- 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:34.650 align:middle line:84% the performance art movement of the 1980s-- 00:00:34.650 --> 00:00:37.620 align:middle line:84% occurred with no acknowledgment of the poets who had begun it." 00:00:37.620 --> 00:00:40.230 align:middle line:90% 00:00:40.230 --> 00:00:45.750 align:middle line:84% It seems that there might be three areas that 00:00:45.750 --> 00:00:52.020 align:middle line:84% seem to be dominant or prominent today in poetry. 00:00:52.020 --> 00:00:56.160 align:middle line:84% One is the fascination with spoken word in our country. 00:00:56.160 --> 00:01:00.300 align:middle line:84% I think it's a relationship with music. 00:01:00.300 --> 00:01:03.150 align:middle line:84% And it's not a new trend, either, 00:01:03.150 --> 00:01:05.340 align:middle line:90% as Holman was pointing out. 00:01:05.340 --> 00:01:10.080 align:middle line:84% When we look at music and poetry-- he has a list here-- 00:01:10.080 --> 00:01:14.620 align:middle line:84% the Last Poets, one of the members 00:01:14.620 --> 00:01:18.510 align:middle line:84% of which is from our hometown back in Ohio, Gil Scott-Heron 00:01:18.510 --> 00:01:21.090 align:middle line:84% and the Watts Prophets were all years ago, 00:01:21.090 --> 00:01:24.090 align:middle line:84% in the '60s, doing the same thing a lot of groups 00:01:24.090 --> 00:01:26.220 align:middle line:90% are doing today. 00:01:26.220 --> 00:01:28.410 align:middle line:84% Really doing what hip-hop is doing today, 00:01:28.410 --> 00:01:32.830 align:middle line:84% they were doing with spoken word and music at the time. 00:01:32.830 --> 00:01:37.980 align:middle line:84% And then we're having subsets of music and poetry. 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:41.055 align:middle line:84% In jazz, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Sekou Sundiata, 00:01:41.055 --> 00:01:42.810 align:middle line:90% and Quincy Troupe. 00:01:42.810 --> 00:01:47.520 align:middle line:84% Some poets out of DC are Kenneth Carroll, DJ Renegade, 00:01:47.520 --> 00:01:50.400 align:middle line:84% Peter Harris, who's from DC but actually lives in California 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:51.960 align:middle line:90% now. 00:01:51.960 --> 00:01:59.280 align:middle line:84% And then he sort of goes into talking about different poets-- 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:02.430 align:middle line:84% quasi-poets-- that are using rock-- 00:02:02.430 --> 00:02:06.330 align:middle line:84% Captain Beefheart, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, David Thomas, 00:02:06.330 --> 00:02:10.060 align:middle line:84% Tom Waits, John Trudell, Maggie Estep. 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:13.015 align:middle line:84% And he puts Regie Gibson, the former National Poetry Slam 00:02:13.015 --> 00:02:14.140 align:middle line:90% champion, in this category. 00:02:14.140 --> 00:02:18.750 align:middle line:84% I don't think Regie would go with that, though, under rock. 00:02:18.750 --> 00:02:21.840 align:middle line:84% And then he also puts Carl Hancock Rux 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:25.410 align:middle line:84% under gospel, which I'm sure he wouldn't go for that, either. 00:02:25.410 --> 00:02:27.600 align:middle line:84% But there are these poets who are 00:02:27.600 --> 00:02:31.095 align:middle line:84% able to infuse the music and spoken word, and sort 00:02:31.095 --> 00:02:32.390 align:middle line:90% of bring a marriage to that. 00:02:32.390 --> 00:02:34.530 align:middle line:84% And I think that's been quite attractive 00:02:34.530 --> 00:02:37.110 align:middle line:84% to the American public, and especially 00:02:37.110 --> 00:02:42.240 align:middle line:84% with the advent of hip-hop and its popularity in America 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.790 align:middle line:90% right now. 00:02:44.790 --> 00:02:47.700 align:middle line:84% The other area I would point to would 00:02:47.700 --> 00:02:50.500 align:middle line:84% be the diversity of voices that are showing up 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:52.630 align:middle line:90% in print nowadays. 00:02:52.630 --> 00:02:55.990 align:middle line:84% I don't think 20 years ago you had 00:02:55.990 --> 00:03:01.120 align:middle line:84% as many African-American, Asian, Latino, Native American, gay, 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:04.690 align:middle line:84% lesbian poets out there on the bookshelves. 00:03:04.690 --> 00:03:06.190 align:middle line:84% The only problem with that sometimes 00:03:06.190 --> 00:03:10.090 align:middle line:84% is if you go to one of the larger bookstores, 00:03:10.090 --> 00:03:12.280 align:middle line:84% like Borders or Barnes and Noble, 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:14.080 align:middle line:84% they sort of have this way of ghettoizing 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:16.090 align:middle line:84% these different genres in the bookstore. 00:03:16.090 --> 00:03:20.290 align:middle line:84% So if you're looking for a specific poet, 00:03:20.290 --> 00:03:21.325 align:middle line:90% what you end up-- 00:03:21.325 --> 00:03:23.740 align:middle line:84% you might be looking for me one day-- 00:03:23.740 --> 00:03:27.220 align:middle line:84% and I end up in African-American studies or something 00:03:27.220 --> 00:03:29.870 align:middle line:84% next to a book by Shaquille O'Neal or something. 00:03:29.870 --> 00:03:30.370 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:30.970 align:middle line:90% You know. 00:03:30.970 --> 00:03:34.540 align:middle line:84% And that's just what usually happens. 00:03:34.540 --> 00:03:37.570 align:middle line:84% I've actually seen that happen before. 00:03:37.570 --> 00:03:46.450 align:middle line:84% So that's the one thing that's been the bizarre sort of nature 00:03:46.450 --> 00:03:49.680 align:middle line:84% of the rise of these new voices coming 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:55.420 align:middle line:84% into the American contemporary poetic scene. 00:03:55.420 --> 00:03:58.090 align:middle line:84% And another thing would be that there's a lot more poetry being 00:03:58.090 --> 00:03:59.520 align:middle line:90% published now. 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:03.100 align:middle line:90% Poets and Writers about-- 00:04:03.100 --> 00:04:04.720 align:middle line:84% I guess it was a few months ago, they 00:04:04.720 --> 00:04:09.130 align:middle line:84% had an article about the number of poetry prizes 00:04:09.130 --> 00:04:10.720 align:middle line:90% that are popping up now. 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:15.070 align:middle line:84% They said that there are over 1,340 books 00:04:15.070 --> 00:04:17.079 align:middle line:84% published through contests last year. 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:19.149 align:middle line:84% That's just the ones through contests. 00:04:19.149 --> 00:04:22.483 align:middle line:84% And the bottom line is, as much as I love poetry, 00:04:22.483 --> 00:04:24.775 align:middle line:84% I know that there's not that much good poetry out there 00:04:24.775 --> 00:04:25.720 align:middle line:90% being published. 00:04:25.720 --> 00:04:29.680 align:middle line:84% And so there's probably too much poetry 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:34.990 align:middle line:84% being published right now, which is 00:04:34.990 --> 00:04:38.650 align:middle line:84% something that, getting into this, I never thought I'd say. 00:04:38.650 --> 00:04:43.960 align:middle line:84% But in the scheme of things, I think that it sort of dilutes 00:04:43.960 --> 00:04:47.620 align:middle line:84% the public appeal or the importance of poetry that's 00:04:47.620 --> 00:04:54.010 align:middle line:84% actually out there that's sort of extending these traditions, 00:04:54.010 --> 00:05:00.280 align:middle line:84% interpreting poetry from other eras. 00:05:00.280 --> 00:05:05.950 align:middle line:84% Getting back to the point one, talking about spoken word-- 00:05:05.950 --> 00:05:09.445 align:middle line:84% spoken word is about as new as Homer and Dante. 00:05:09.445 --> 00:05:12.190 align:middle line:90% That was spoken word poetry. 00:05:12.190 --> 00:05:17.535 align:middle line:84% And the idea of meter and rhyme, the musicality of the poem, 00:05:17.535 --> 00:05:19.520 align:middle line:90% was strictly a mnemonic device. 00:05:19.520 --> 00:05:22.600 align:middle line:84% And we're sort of looking at it now 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:24.820 align:middle line:84% as being something that's new and hip. 00:05:24.820 --> 00:05:27.550 align:middle line:84% Because I guess we've gone through phases where we've gone 00:05:27.550 --> 00:05:30.100 align:middle line:90% away from that with reverse. 00:05:30.100 --> 00:05:31.780 align:middle line:84% And now that we're coming back to it, 00:05:31.780 --> 00:05:33.220 align:middle line:84% it seems like it's something new, 00:05:33.220 --> 00:05:38.260 align:middle line:84% but it's really a very traditional approach to poetry. 00:05:38.260 --> 00:05:41.290 align:middle line:84% And in looking at the musicality of it, 00:05:41.290 --> 00:05:44.890 align:middle line:84% I think it also deals with, in this day and age, 00:05:44.890 --> 00:05:46.480 align:middle line:90% the commercialism of it-- 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:52.540 align:middle line:84% the ability for it to become commercialized in a way that-- 00:05:52.540 --> 00:05:54.590 align:middle line:90% in some ways, it could be good. 00:05:54.590 --> 00:05:56.360 align:middle line:84% In other ways, I think it's not so good. 00:05:56.360 --> 00:06:01.990 align:middle line:84% I mean, I think that the public gets a whiff of what poetry is, 00:06:01.990 --> 00:06:03.988 align:middle line:84% and sometimes it's a bad example. 00:06:03.988 --> 00:06:06.280 align:middle line:84% And for them, that's what they're-- this is what poetry 00:06:06.280 --> 00:06:06.780 align:middle line:90% is. 00:06:06.780 --> 00:06:10.316 align:middle line:84% And then if someone who is a real poet comes along-- poets, 00:06:10.316 --> 00:06:12.340 align:middle line:90% yeah, real poet, I'll say that-- 00:06:12.340 --> 00:06:17.320 align:middle line:84% comes along, then they'll be considered-- they don't get it. 00:06:17.320 --> 00:06:18.980 align:middle line:90% They're not hip enough for me. 00:06:18.980 --> 00:06:23.050 align:middle line:84% And so when we look at transferring that 00:06:23.050 --> 00:06:25.150 align:middle line:84% from the spoken word down to the page-- 00:06:25.150 --> 00:06:27.580 align:middle line:84% we look at somebody like your man, 00:06:27.580 --> 00:06:30.290 align:middle line:84% Kenneth Koch he's been writing forever. 00:06:30.290 --> 00:06:34.480 align:middle line:84% And he's been doing a lot of innovative things 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:36.610 align:middle line:90% on the page for years. 00:06:36.610 --> 00:06:38.647 align:middle line:84% But if someone came along writing poems 00:06:38.647 --> 00:06:40.480 align:middle line:84% that look like Ken Koch's poems on the page, 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:42.830 align:middle line:84% and those poems would be considered new. 00:06:42.830 --> 00:06:45.250 align:middle line:84% It'd be like a new trend setting to occur. 00:06:45.250 --> 00:06:48.550 align:middle line:84% And I think there's a lot of that that's going around-- 00:06:48.550 --> 00:06:55.690 align:middle line:84% just people who haven't read Mina Loy or Sterling Brown, 00:06:55.690 --> 00:06:59.437 align:middle line:84% or certain people who came decades before, who 00:06:59.437 --> 00:07:01.650 align:middle line:90% were writing innovative work. 00:07:01.650 --> 00:07:06.930 align:middle line:84% They haven't read that, and they come across someone that has-- 00:07:06.930 --> 00:07:12.360 align:middle line:84% I love Doris' book about that-- but it's not 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:15.060 align:middle line:84% necessarily something we haven't seen before. 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:17.240 align:middle line:90% But it's a fresh approach to it. 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:20.040 align:middle line:84% I think that's the thing-- we haven't necessarily honored 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:21.850 align:middle line:90% the extension of traditions. 00:07:21.850 --> 00:07:25.350 align:middle line:84% And I think when we see these works, a lot of them 00:07:25.350 --> 00:07:28.510 align:middle line:84% are extending traditions that have come before. 00:07:28.510 --> 00:07:32.090 align:middle line:84% And I just think those traditions need to be honored. 00:07:32.090 --> 00:07:34.000 align:middle line:90%