Tuesday, Nov. 19th: Poets Theater / Indigenous Poetics

In our last class before we take a day to catch-up on sleeper readings from the second half of the term, we're going to take a look at two very different poetic modes, largely for the sake of adding these styles to our ongoing discourse and giving students more diverse topics to choose from for their final projects.

First, given the great enjoyment we've all had collaboratively performing texts by Mac Low, Giorno, and Wieners, I thought that it would be worthwhile to spend a little time focusing on poets theater, which is a fascinating, if somewhat undefined genre. In one conception, it's simply dramatic, happening-like events written by authors who predominately work in the poetic mindset.  To others, the genre has certain aesthetic baggage, including simplicity in staging and props, low or non-existent budgets, embracing its amateur nature, and a certain spontaneity and occasional-ness. If you'd like to delve more deeply into this topic, you can read a few statements from poets involved with poets theater here.

We'll take a look at five very short plays taken from the excellent Kenning Anthology of Poets Theater 1945–1985, edited by Kevin Killian and David Brazil: [PDF]

• Lew Welch, "Abner Won't Be Home For Dinner" (1966)
• Joe Brainard, "The Gay Way" (1972)
• Rosmarie Waldrop, "Remember Gasoline?" (1975)
• Ted Greenwald, "The Coast" (1978)
• Leslie Scalapino, "leg, a play" (1985)

As well as a handful of microdramas taken from Kenneth Koch's 1988 volume, 1000 Avant Garde Plays [PDF]. You can watch a brief video of selections from a somewhat precious staging of Koch's plays below:

Next, in keeping with the original topic for today's class, I wanted to spend a little time looking at the pioneering work in the field of ethnopoetics done by Jerry Rothenberg. Specifically, I'd like to look at his work with Native American poetries and songs, both as an anthologist (via selections from 1972's Shaking the Pumpkin: Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas and later work with Navajo horse songs) as well as his own poetry influenced by his firsthand experience of these works and communities, including A Seneca Journal, based on his time living on the Allegheny Seneca Reservation in the 1970s.

Native American Poetries and Songs: [PDF] (MP3 selections below)

• 12 Songs to Welcome the Society of Mystic Animals [MP3]
• Shaking the Pumpkin [MP3] (includes "A Song of My Song, in Three Parts," "Caw Caw the Crows Caw Caw," "The Owl," "Three Ways to Screw Up on Your Way to the Doings Three Ways," among others)
• the Thirteenth Horse Song of Frank Mitchell [MP3]

from A Seneca Journal: [PDF]

• Seneca Journal 1: "A Poem of Beavers" [MP3]
• Old Man Beaver's Blessing Song [MP3][MP3]

If you're interested in learning more about Rothenberg's "total translations" of Navajo horse songs, here's an article on the Poetry Foundation's website: [link].