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cheapbag214s · Posted: Thu 8:13, 19 Sep 2013 Post subject: The Return Of The Troubadours

The Return Of The Troubadours,[url=http://authenticrogerviviershoes.halod.com/][b]sell discount authentic roger vivier shoes for sale[/b][/url]
It's closer to vaudeville than to epic Greek. But Derrick Brown and his traveling carnival of poets, the Elephant Engine High Dive Revival, are packing houses with their performances--at a Long Beach, Calif. bookstore, an opera house in Traverse City, Mich., a cafe in Manhattan, a hall at the Sorbonne in Paris. Often dressed like the ringleader of a Depression-era circus, with shabby, wide-lapelled, long-tailed coats, or donning the urban poet's standard uniform of a blazer, a fedora,[url=http://2013rogerviviershoessaks.blogspot.com/][b]Cheap Roger Vivier Boots Sale Online[/b][/url], jeans and black Converse sneakers, Brown carries himself with a cool, deadpan insouciance onstage, making jokes and encouraging the audience's loud response. He and his troupe--poets, actors and singers from around the country--create impromptu verse on dry-erase whiteboards or read aloud poems, serious and not, sometimes to guitar accompaniment.
Poetry has always been a tough racket in which to make a buck, Shakespeare and Bob Dylan being among the few success stories. Yet Brown has done pretty well. Elephant Engine has booked 42 engagements for its September to November tour, which will take it from Anchorage to New York City. Brown, 36,[url=http://giuseppezanottioutletonline.webmium.com/][b]giuseppe zanotti outlet online Sale[/b][/url], was a paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne, a gondolier and a television weatherman before becoming a full-time poet 12 years ago. His latest idea: the Poetry Olympics, a contest between groups of versifiers. "There will be judges scoring their poems, while poets have to complete things like onstage obstacle courses," says Brown. "It'll be chaos."
reTwitterThe notion of such a metrics fest,[url=http://2013rogerviviershoessaks.blogspot.com/][b]http://2013rogerviviershoessaks.blogspot.com/[/b][/url], as well as performance groups like Brown's, is a knock on so-called slam poetry. Emerging from Chicago in the mid-1980s and brought mainstream in 2002 with Def Poetry Jam (a Broadway show and hbo series of the same name), slam draws individuals from all walks--published poets, investment bankers, police officers--who recite their works and subject themselves to numeric scoring by judges and members of the audience. Now an international phenomenon,[url=http://woolrichoutletdeutschland.olimx.com/][b]Woolrich Blizzard Parka Deutschland Woolrich Arctic Parka Outlet Deutschland[/b][/url], slam has plenty of detractors aside from Brown: Yale's high priest of culture,[url=http://monclerwesteherrendaunenjackebillig.albirank.net/][b]Moncler Jacken Online Shop österreich Moncler Weste Herren Daunenjacke Billig[/b][/url], Harold Bloom, once called it "rant and nonsense."
How does Brown's performance poetry differ from slam poetry? For one thing it's often more lucrative. Browne's troupe gets $4,[url=http://woolrichjacketstore.blogspot.com/][b]http://woolrichjacketstore.blogspot.com/[/b][/url],000 a night. For another, acts like Elephant Engine, the SpillJoy Ensemble and Salt Lines rely less on pitting individuals against one another in verbal combat than on getting individual poets to cooperate in groups. Brown, for example, has corralled former National Poetry Slam champions Michael (Mighty Mike) McGee, 33, Jeffrey (Shappy) Seasholtz, 40, and Buddy Wakefield, 35, to perform with him. To stretch a historical contrast, consider two very different strains of poetic presentation 800 or so years ago. An Old Norse skald (yes, "scold" as well as "poet") might as easily trade formal insults with a fellow poet as recite lines about heroic battles; that's medieval slam poetry for you. By contrast, French troubadours might band together with performers (jongleurs) to give lyric performances, backed by a rich patron,[url=http://duveticajacketsoutlet.olimx.com/][b]http://duveticajacketsoutlet.olimx.com/[/b][/url], about knights' adventures, courtly love and bawdy bedroom antics.
The kinder, gentler approach has drawn folks like John S. Hall, 40, a mergers-and-acquisitions analyst for Sullivan Cromwell in New York City. A recent father and a lifelong poet, he performs maybe once a month these days. He, too,[url=http://peutereyjackenherrenoutlet.albirank.net/][b]Peuterey Jacken Herren Outlet Peuterey Jacke Damen Sale Online[/b][/url], is a refugee from slam, which he calls "a very macho approach to poetry." He likens non-cutthroat productions to musicians putting out albums with varied offerings--some popular, some not--instead of singles that aim for the top of the charts. Wakefield, a onetime mortgage broker who now performs with Brown, has thrown over slam, too (he's a former world champ). "As with any art, 80% of it is terrible," he notes. "In poetry that climbs to 95% because it's overly self-confessional."
Some poets with normal day jobs find it more lucrative to perform than to publish. "Stage poetry is a lot easier to monetize than page poetry,[url=http://duveticacanadashop.halod.com/][b]duvetica jackets canada outlet[/b][/url]," says Aptowicz, founder of the Urbana Poetry Series on Manhattan's Lower East Side. "You have to sell a lot of books at readings to get the $700 you'll get from splitting a performance fee."
If anything, the popularity of written verse seems to be on a downward spiral. Last year 3,716 titles, ranging from collections to individual poems, were published. company that tracks and offers data on the publishing industry. Brown also runs a small publishing house,[url=http://merrellshoesusaonline.blogspot.com/][b]http://merrellshoesusaonline.blogspot.com/[/b][/url], Write Bloody Publishing, that aims to put out 16 titles this year. Maybe he can sell books at the theater, along with T-shirts.
When it comes to performance poetry, what works onstage doesn't always translate well onto the page. Sometimes it's like stripping away lyrics from music: Try reciting the words to "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" or "I Want Hold Your Hand" without the melody. Even a successful performance poet like Taylor Mali has a tough time selling books. A four-time National Poetry Slam champ,[url=http://duveticapiuminiitalia.webmium.com/][b]Duvetica Piumini Italia Outlet Shop Duvetica Down Jackets Uomo[/b][/url], Mali, 44, tours on his own now and collects $3,500 a night delivering such acts as "What Teachers Make." But his delivery relies heavily on emotion,[url=http://authenticrogerviviershoes.halod.com/][b]http://authenticrogerviviershoes.halod.com/[/b][/url], rhythm, gestures and physical presence.
For those who still find that poetry, both oral and written, embodies everything important about civilization, there's something both uplifting and unremittingly sad about the mini-revival. "We've proved that performance poetry has value,[url=http://duveticaoutletcanada.albirank.net/][b]http://duveticaoutletcanada.albirank.net/[/b][/url]," muses Victor D. Infante,[url=http://monclerjackenoutletonlineshop.albirank.net/][b]Moncler Jacke Günstig Moncler Jacken Outlet Online Shop Kaufen 88%Off[/b][/url], 37, editor of November 3rd Club, a poetry quarterly. "Now the challenge is to just be poets."
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