so, back in the day--i'm thinking it must have been THE YEAR 2000--i met tim carmody and gavin craig; they were the sharks (the renegade duo behind the offbeat, and alternative MSU literary magazine which generated much buzz with campus fliers reading "are you my angel?", "maman died today", etc.) and i as part of the jets (working with the red cedar review, the nation's only undergraduate-run university-sponsored literary magazine). instead of going to war, however, and singing about it, we ran into one another at poetry readings, events put on by gavin and tim, and even one late-night party at my place during the debacle of the 2000 elections. tim was the first person i ever heard who claimed frank o'hara as "his" poet, in much the same way as i have claimed mark rothko as "my" painter. gavin was running the ship, and writing great stuff (his reading list for radicals, i believe it was titled, blew my 20-year old mind!)
gavin is one of the big cogs in revelator press, and tim has just posted a really great (and not at all kiss-ass) write-up of my chapbook. the link can be found in the comments to the last post, or, for those of you as lazy as i, here.
endnote: living in a place like lansing, which is not famous for its art, music, poetry, architecture, which is just plan not known for anything but being the capitol of the state--it is difficult to feel like you, as an artist, maker, whatever aren't shortchanging yourself by staying. thankfully, with a great network of old poetry pals and baseball fans (some of whom aren't even in the state) i've been able to stay, and maybe make things better.
so, for all you old offbeat and rcr folks, know that i am now singing "tonight, tonight" out of my window!
1 comment:
One day, Gavin should collect and write an oral history of the lit scene in East Lansing. It would be a great read, and he would be well-suited to write it.
1) I remember hearing that the quote ads started a stir. It was my idea -- I came up with most of our flyers. I typed "Mother died today" (I know it was "Mother," not "Maman," because I was a fan of the Gilbert translation) in a big font, and Gavin got excited and typed out the "Supermarket in California" quotes. I don't remember everything we used -- something from Prufrock, maybe, Dubois, other stuff.
2) I remember that party -- wasn't it the same night as the poetry slam where we both were "featured readers"? I know Meg brought me over, and I'd never met you before. We all wound up in an upstairs room, and you said "This is where all the Anglos are hanging out!" in a cheerful voice, and I knew I was going to be glad that I met you.
Post a Comment