Austin Downtown Arts Magazine
Poetry
Springtime for Poets in Austin
by Stazja McFadyen
Poets love a festival. Poets love Austin. Austin is a festival-loving,
arts-friendly city if ever there was one, hosting such festivities
as the 1998 National Peotry Slam, Frontera Fest, and most
recently, three days of South by Southwest spoken word programming.
And now we have the 1999 Austin International Poetry Festival
[AIPF], which will attract over 200 poets from eleven states
and five countries. The festival runs from April 15 through
April 18.
AIPF readings begin Thursday, April 15, at 7:30pm at three
major bookstores: Book People, Borders Books and Records,
and Barnes and Noble on the Drag -- with the release of TrEs
Di-Verse-City, the 1999 anthology edited by Scott Wiggerman,
containing the works of 74 local, national and international
poets.
Unlike "juried" festivals, where participants must
be invited to participate, AIPF accepts anyone who pays the
nominal registration fee. Audiences will hear some mediocre
poems, some really amateurish reads, mostly good work, and
some truly great performances.
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Programmed readings are scheduled to include all registrants.
While offering some themes such as "I'm Every Woman,"
"Cornerstones -- Gay/Lesbian Poets," and "Poetics
with Music and the Avant Garde," programming emphasizes
diversity of style and cultural mix.
If the 50 hours of programming isn't enough for the poets,
they will prop their eyes open with coffee and sign up for
one of the midnight-to-dawn open mikes.
Last year, both nights of "cutting edge performance
poetry" at Waterloo Ice House on Lamar drew standing
room only audiences. Hoping this year proves twice as successful,
the organizers expanded the festival to include four performance
cutting edge venues: Friday, April 16 at Ruta Maya Coffee
House at 8pm, hosted by Clebo Rainey; and Waterloo Ice House
on Lamar at 10pm, co-hosted by Larry Jaffe and Tim Gibbard;
Saturday, April 17 at Movements Gallery at 9pm, hosted by
Rich Perin and Waterloo Ice House at 26 Doors at 9:30pm, hosted
by Larry Cordle. General admission is $5 per venue. All other
AIPF readings are free.
Now in its seventh year, AIPF began as a grassroots volunteer
festival welcoming anyone, with or without publishing credentials.
The only qualification was a willingness to pitch in, run
a venue, house a guest, provide transportation around town,
whatever it took to create a gathering where all voices would
be heard. It was a success. After incorporation as Austin
Poets International, Inc. in 1995, the festival became eligible
for funding through grants from the City of Austin.
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The spirit of community has not been lost. Volunteers still
work the venues, provide transportation, and house visiting
national and international poets. Support from local businesses,
such as City Grill, which donated over 200 gift certificates,
creates a welcoming environment for visiting artists.
"I think the festival is an artwork in itself,"
said Australian poet Jayne Fenton Keane. "I have been
amazed at the level of generosity amongst poets and can't
wait to meet everyone concerned."
Jayne is among the handful of featured poets who will receive
a small fee from AIPF, in exchange for hosting venues, conducting
workshops, and participating in community outreach programs.
Edward Reilly, a Celtic bard from Geelong, Australia, will
do presentations at Anderson High School and at a nursing
home. San Francisco poet Alan Kaufman will visit Austin Children's
Hospital. Keane, Reilly, Alexandra Krysinki of Yorkshire,
L.A. poet Larry Jaffe, Ruth Solomon of Fairhope, Alabama,
and Guy LeCharles Gonzales of New York will host venues. Kaufman,
Reilly, Jaffe and Virginian Dean Blehert will conduct free
workshops.
What inspires poets to travel from Australia, England, Canada,
Israel, and both U.S. coasts, largely at their own expense?
College professors, street poets, seasoned professionals,
housewives, first time readers, published and non-published
-- all come to hear and be heard. Their expectations are rarely
commercial. Claiborne Walsh from Montrose, Alabama expects
"a long drive with friends, junk food, pit stops, etc.
People who are wanting to see, meet and hear new and friendly
faces. I expect to meet friends whom I have never seen face
to face. I expect to hear quality poetry from quality poets."
Walsh will travel with Robin Travis, editor of Poetic Voices,
a monthly online publication. Travis has "met" many
of the attending poets, but not yet face-to-face. She said,
"Whenever poets get together there is a magic, a bonding
that goes on that affects our craft and performance. I am
looking forward to the magic and to meeting friends I know
but have not yet met."
Moshe Benarroch from Jerusalem heard about AIPF only a few
months ago, through email. "When I heard the word Austin,
I said: I have to go! I have been listening to music from
Austin -- from Townes Van Zandt to David Rodriguez -- 25 years
now."
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Springtime in Austin is an attraction. Returning guest Alex
Krysinski said, "There is one other reason that I like
coming to Austin. You have sunshine and there isn't a lot
of that in Yorkshire."
"Austin is just one of the greatest towns in America
and I haven't had a chance to visit for many years. I'm driving
from northwest Indiana, which is currently covered with an
icy blanket of snow. No matter what T.S. Eliot says about
April, I can't wait for it this year," said John Billings.
Guy LeCharles Gonzales, membership coordinator for Academy
of American Poets, first heard of AIPF last August when he
competed as a member of the winning Nuyorican slam team in
the 1998 National Poetry Slam. "At the Nationals, I barely
got to see any of Austin. The little bit I saw impressed me
and I'm looking forward to soaking in both the community and
the poetry this time. I'm expecting to hear a wide range of
voices, not only from Texas, but from all over the country
and overseas. It is this apparent commitment to diversity
that I find most attractive about the Festival."
Alan Kaufman said, "The fee I'm getting to come is roughly
ten times lower then the lowest fee I've ever received to
travel such a distance, but for some reason, I feel ten times
as excited." Kaufman is an veteran of the Spoken Word
movement in America and Europe. In 1994 he headlined in Berlin
along with Allen Ginsberg. What is so exciting about AIPF?
Kaufman said, "The prospect of meeting and hanging out
with many poets from different countries. It's an experience
that, as a poet, I have often enjoyed in Europe, but have
never known in my own country. In the U.S., I've performed
with poets from many different regions but never with both
regional and international poets! That's pretty wonderful."
Although the gathering of poets is not about fees, many hope
to sell their books and CD's while they are here. Thom the
World Poet produces "fringefest," booking over a
dozen readings in Austin, San Antonio and Temple to promote
the score of English and Australian poets arriving in the
week preceding AIPF.
Sue Littleton and Dr. Miriam Balboa de Echevarria produce
the Hispanic festival in conjunction with AIPF. Book People
will host the four-hour Spanish language segment on Saturday,
April 17, 7pm to 11pm.
The Austin Younger Poets Award Anthology, edited by festival
chairman Frank Pool, will be released on Sunday, April 18,
at the LCRA Meeting Hall on Lake Austin Boulevard, followed
by AIPF board members reading, then closing ceremonies and
awards.
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