aural heritages:
on publishing the voice

New media have changed the way we hear spoken word. It is no longer ephemeral and dismissable but a permanent part of the literary landscape. Spoken and written language happily live side by side on the web. Spoken word is emerging, albeit slowly, in radio. Homegrown audio chapbooks ("chap-CDs") are popping up everywhere at poetry open-mikes.

Tonight, we'll get some perspective on committing spoken word to electronic media. We'll take the long view of spoken word on records, CDs, radio, and the web, with a particular ear for performance poetry. Practicing artists will share their experiences in crossing the artistic divides, from page to stage to microphone.

Our featured artists come from performance and spoken word backgrounds, while maintaining a strong relationship to audiopoetry. We'll get to hear them as both performers and thinkers. And we'll cap the evening with a very special guest, the anthem-voice of contemporary performance poetry, Patricia Smith.

Patricia Smith

Patricia is a journalist, poet, and key artist in the evolution of performance poetry today. Smith has read her work at the Stockholm, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and on tour in Germany, Austria, Brazil, and Amsterdam. She has performed in a number of major American academic and performance venues including the Nuyorican Poets Café, St. Mark's Poetry Project, Bumbershoot, and South by Southwest Music Festival. Smith is four-time national individual champion of the National Poetry Slam. She can be heard on the spoken word CD compilations "Grand Slam," "A Snake in the Heart," "By Someone's Good Graces" and "Lip." See and audition Patricia in e-poets' own The Book of Voices.

Paul Nelson

Paul is a broadcast interview host, whole-systems journalist, teacher, award-winning poet, founder of the non-profit "It Plays in Peoria Productions" and co-founder of SPLAB! "The Northwest SPokenword LAB." Paul has two chap books and a CD - Twisting Runes. A broadcaster for 21 years, Paul hosts Satuday Jazz Matinee on KPLU-FM (NPR). He has interviewed hundreds of authors, poets, activists and whole-system theorists for his regionally-syndicated public affairs radio program, has performed his poetry in numerous venues in the Pacific Northwest and his hometown of Chicago and has conducted over 200 writing and performance workshops throughout the Puget Sound region through the SPLAB!-on-the-Road workshop troupe.

Michael Watson

Michael is a performance poet of a decade-long recognition in Chicago, and host of Wordslingers, a poetry radio program on WLUW, 88.7 FM, which takes listeners to poetry performances city-wide. He has organized poetry performances for Chicago's Around The Coyote arts festival since 1999.

Christopher Shillock

Christopher was active in various radical leftist groups from which he was eventually expelled under the false suspicion of personal integrity. He now believes creativity is itself a revolutionary act in a world dedicated to murder and exploitation. Christopher reads at open mikes in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. He has produced stage shows and a webcast program through Sursumcorda, a multi-arts organization the produces poetry webcasts, spoken word CDs, and live performances. He continues to work with Sursumcorda on a multimedia issue of his epic, "Millennium City".

Richard Fammereé and Ken Clarke

Richard and Ken co-host "Poetry and Its Music International" on WHPK-FM, Hyde Park, Chicago. It features artists drawn from Chicago's active spoken word community, and includes world music as well. Richard has recently published Lessons of Water and Thirst (Collage Press), and will be touring the Pacific as a poet shortly after Geoconference. Ken is director of the Poetry Center of Chicago and is the on-air co-host with Richard on WHPK.

Geoconference 2: home | events | videos | artists | reservations | lodging | net access | transport | sponsorship | links