POETRY FESTIVAL SANTA CRUZ: passion and figurative fire without alarm
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[ Feb 12 12 ]
Maybe all you need to kiss history on the cheek is to wage an epic gathering and introduce yourself continuously. Hello, I’m Evan Karp. Hello. Evan Karp. I don’t know who… that is, but I say it every time to find out. I picked up some language from those people, obscurely speaking. I picked up language from you. If there are an infinite number of things to do, and an infinite number of speakings… Usually it takes more than a large number of people to make something epic, in this case a spectrum of time segments with various degrees of overlap and a displacement that could swallow the average American lifespan (choose your gender). Daniel Yaryan Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Coconaut Grove performers, though not all, below. That’s just my handle.
- Introduction by MCs Ginger Murray + Marc Kockinos
- Floyd Salas
- Gerard Nicosia
- Claire Ortalda
- Jennifer Barone
- Mike the Poet
- Cara Vida
- Jeanne Marie Spicuzza
- Jerry Kamstra
- Geordie Van Der Bosch
- Ginger Murray
- The Ellyn Maybe Band
- Alan Sitar Brown
- Lorna Dee Cervantes
- Avotcja
- Reubi Lynn Juminez + Steven Gray
- S.A. Griffin
- T. Mike Walker
- Rich Ferguson w/Bo Blount
- Jack Hirschman
- Wanda Coleman
- Lauren Eggert-Crowe (start: Quiet Lightning)
- Timothy Walker
- Steven Gray
- Cassie J. Sneider
- Keely Hyslop
- SB Stokes
- Max Tomlinson
- Arisa White
- Jason Scheinheit
- Tristen Chang (end: Quiet Lightning)
- A.D. Winans
My second camera died toward the end of A.D.’s reading. The next 1:45:00 coming soon on Litpod—some incredibly good stuff.
That Yaryan was able to put this thing together is nothing short of heroic. It was like whole branches of Wikipedia come to life meeting in the same grand ballroom, sharing a mic and some beverages, and then walking out onto the Santa Cruz boardwalk—drizzllng gray frisco nature claps onto our indifferent but otherwise shocked cabezas and a genuine surprise that 7 hours of recitation was still somehow inspiring (usually not mthing). I couldn’t stop talking (ask Charles, who also wanted to).
“There were sparks but no explosions,” said Yaryan. “There was passion and figurative fire without alarm. It was exactly what I had wanted it to be. It was beautiful. Art, expression, communication and inspiration all prevailed over the dark consuming ego storm that has hit the poetry world for so long.” Search for Quiet Lightning.
[…] [ Sun Feb 12 12 ] Poetry Festival Santa Cruz, presented for the first time in 30 years, was hosted by Daniel Yaryan and his Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts at the beachside Cocoanut Grove ballroom. People were there from every walk of poetry, some from music and visual arts and lit journal backgrounds and some from their own particular hybrid thereof. Generations of poets, we’re talking. Over 40 performers and 200 in attendance. A marathon reading that began at 3:30pm and ran until 10:30 without any breaks, it was a rewarding endurance test and an epic occasion. Much like I was after I left the Guerilla Opera at BAM—singing (louder than usual) in the streets and making eye contact with my vocals—I couldn’t stop talking when we left the Cocoanut Grove, as worn out and overwhelmed as I was. It was really something special [more here]. […]
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