Topic: readings
The ShapeShift reading at Collected Works yesterday was awesome. Small - I counted about 14 people attending - but a really magical space. I've already said, I think, that I'd travel some decent distances and give up more than a few other activities to see Paula Belina read. She does a lot of what I think a spoken word artist should - she shapes the language, she juxtaposes startling ideas, she loves the sound of things, she breaks with what you expect syntax to do, she free-associates from one word to another based on sound or concepts. Most importantly, I think, she operates under the idea that a poet is both actor and vocalist. A singer shapes a phrase very deliberately, considers volume and pitch and where the fullness of a vowel is, and so does Paula. She talked later about how she'd been working lately with pauses; leaving the audience waiting. Staging things.
And to add to Paula's performance, there were the other performers, Kyra Shaughnessy and Lisa Hoffman. These three are travelling together with this tour, and they're clearly friends and co-conspirators, so having the reading in this small and intimate a space worked really well - you could feel the participation of all three even if only one was performing. I was really glad that Paula and Lisa had apparently won a bet forcing Kyra to do one particular piece at every venue on the tour - I thought it was her most powerful. It had a sung chorus that surprised me with how sweet her voice was - it sounded like a cross between Billie Holiday and a native chant. As well, her entire voice changed for the spoken sections, and became much more musical. It was quite beautiful.
Lisa Hoffman is a musician, who performed in the middle between the two poets. She also had a lovely sound (the voices of these three women, spoken and sung, all share a sort of vowel-bending, jazzy, smoky quality that really carries through all three performances - I wonder if they've ever performed together as a trio, or if they'd consider it? The results could be fascinating.)
Anyway, I was glad I could be there. I noticed Mackenzie MacBride there with a tape recorder, but didn't find out where or when she would be broadcasting if she was recording for broadcast. If I find out, I'll post it - I think she was planning on recording at least one poem per person and doing some interviews after the show.
And last but not least - Capital Slam is back in the saddle for the season as of this Thursday! Sept. 14th, 7:00, at The Thirsty Scholar.
