Karl Garson at the Pump House

The Pump House Reading Series--February 2011--"Poetry Lost and Found" with Karl Garson


Karl Garson kicked off the final season of the Pump House Reading Series last night with a meditation on poetry's relationship to song.  Joined by vocalist Katie Bakalars and pianist Larry Price, Garson's hour-long show offered an alternative to the Pump House's usual format of featured reading followed by open mic.  Garson, looking resplendant in a full-on tuxedo, sought the connection between contemporary poetry and "songs of the heart," lyrical jazz of the mid-twentieth century.  When that connection was tangible, the performance was more than enjoyable--it was an example of something poetry readings should do more often: explore an artistic vision, use the whole stage, incorporate visual media and song, and generally think outside the box.  As the script meandered through stories of war and romance, the evening's main thread sometimes vanished in Garson's personal memorabilia, and the pathos of a poet's own quest for meaning overwhelmed the artistry of his work.  But there were fine moments.  Bakalars and Price were featured successfully on vocals and piano, and Garson's best--the story of he and his wife falling in love, and his reading of his uncle's World War II journals--managed the warmth and emotional range of good memoir.  In short, it was an ambitious effort on Garson's part, and more poets could follow his lead.  If you missed it, keep an eye out: Garson marshalled A/V equipment for the evening, so the recording might show up online.


The Pump House Reading Series convenes again on St. Patrick's Day, featuring Dobby Gibson.  The final event in the seven-year series is April 21, featuring the series's founders/organizers, David Krump, Kelly Sexton, and me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Layli Long Soldier's "38"

I'm reading Whereas, by Layli Long Soldier, and in the poem "38," linked here , I learned some history about the Dakota 38 and the "Sioux Uprising" of 1862, also known as "The Dakota War of 1862" (as an aside, this is the same historical event involved in the controversy at the Walker Art Center over the sculpture, "Scaffold." Long Soldier's poem was published by Graywolf, out of Minneapolis. It wouldn't surprise me if the poem was part of what catalyzed the Walker's awareness of the issue, but... that's just me speculating). I learned many things in the poem: I learned about the 38 men who were executed. I learned about Lincoln's presidency and the historical record of his presidency. I learned about the commemorative horseback ride each winter, preserving the memory of the events and of the 38 who were executed. And I learned of Andrew Myrick, who was killed in that conflict. When asked about the condition of the s...
Read more

Beautiful Doom: Heizer's "City" and Scott's "Blade Runner"

Image
There’s a striking similarity between Douglas Trumbull and Ridley Scott’s pyramidal design for the “Tyrell Corporation” headquarters in Blade Runner (1982) and the photos I’ve seen of Michael Heizer’s monumental plaza, Complex City , which has been under construction in Garden Valley, Nevada since 1972.  I’ve not seen any evidence that Trumbull & Scott would’ve been influenced by Heizer. I think the resemblance is probably nothing more than some shared archaeological interests. Still, I love the fact of the resemblance, because it really opens up a web of thinking about art and architecture’s relationship to the future. Both works explicitly and implicitly imagine futures, and both works have monumental properties:  they commemorate the present for a viewer in distant time. I want to start by outlining the web of connections, here: Both City  and Tyrell Corporation are obviously pyramid st ructures, and the structures really are similar—it’s as if Heizer’...
Read more

10th Anniversary Poets & Artists

Image
Ten years ago, the inimitable publishing force of nature known to the world as Didi Menendez expanded her empire from MiPOesias  and MiPOradio  to include a new magazine known as Oranges & Sardines . That's right. After the Frank O'Hara poem, "Why I Am Not a Painter." You know the one:  ---- for instance, Mike Goldberg  is starting a painting. I drop in. ... "You have SARDINES in it." "Yes, it needed something there." ... But me? One day I am thinking of  a color: orange. I write a line about orange ...  There should be  so much more not of orange, of words, of how terrible orange is, and life. Days go by. ... My poem is finished and I haven't mentioned orange yet. It's twelve poems, I call it ORANGES. ---- Yeah okay it's better if you read the whole thing .  But Didi wanted to put painters and poets together in a magazine and when she wants to do something she does it. I had been w...
Read more