From the Ground Up: Poetry Communities Outside Academia
1. What is Karaoke + Poetry = Fun?
Karaoke + Poetry = Fun, or KPF, is a reading series in which poets read poems and sing a karaoke song. The format has evolved generally to a poet walking on stage, having already selected the song they are going to sing (pass out songbook). They read their poem, and the song begins. The poet might say something before the song begins, perhaps relating the song to either their own life or the poem the poet has just read. Then they sing the song.
I started the series when I realized a venue I was setting up a reading at had a full-fledged karaoke setup. The idea of combining karaoke and poetry came from my own nervousness before poetry readings. When I noticed that I had that same energy when I would go to a karaoke bar before my turn came to sing a song, I thought what would it be like to combine the two, lighten up the poetry proceedings and see what it would be like if poets released a nervous energy or had some other performance to worry about when they were also reading their poetry.
Of course it was also meant to be a joke. Of course the idea that it would be ridiculous to combine poetry and karaoke would be preposterous, low-brow, idiotic, nuts. All those things. Part of my intention was also to loosen up non-performance-oriented poets, show them in a different light. Jenny Boully, for instance, read a love poem, and then brought down the house with “Me and Bobby McGee.” And it was great to hear her make those connections.
2. Why Do I Do KPF?
Because it’s fun. Because I like to be with other poets and see them sing. Because karaoke is the great equalizer. Because it’s an icebreaker. Because I personally like to see what poets pick for their songs – I get to know them better, and so does the audience, when we see what song they sing, how they sing it. Because poetry is regarded as a superserious formal diction speech thing that this is perhaps a more in-your-face defiance of the establishment than even writing critical articles shunning big bad academia. Because poetry gets boring and the short format is better in these trying times. Because, as Yeats writes in “Sailing to Byzantium,” “Nor is there singing school but studying monuments of its own significance.” Because poems are closer to song. Because I think poets should address the world around them, and what better way than singing Britney Spears or Elvis Presley?
3. KPF’s Value to the Community
Wherever there are poets drinking, there is a community. Wherever poets drink and read poems, there is a community. Wherever poets drink and read poems and sing karaoke, there is a community.
Seriously, when KPF first started, I didn’t know what would happen. I know that part of my motiviation was to basically have a karaoke party, which means everyone gets embarrassed and runk.
What I didn’t expect, however, was that poets would be cheering other poets on when they sang, helping them along with their songs. Maybe these poets were in different niches in their poety lives – a slam poet, an academic poet, a experimental poet, narrative-lyrical poet – but in their KPF singing lives, they were all part of the same event.
I suppose I should say that my curator job for KPF is far more eclectic then most reading series – in part because I’m an eclectic guy, and in part because, even now, it is hard to find poets who are willing to put themselves up on stage and not be afraid to make fun of themselves. But the first night we did KPF, I didn’t expect the support and hootin’ and hollerin’ poets would give other poets. And it was a way for poets to meet each other from the various camps. In New York City, there are just so many poets, you could live within a fairly vibrant community of like-minded poets. I think what KPF does on a community level is expand that with the notion of fun and song.
4. Definition of the KPF Audience and Participants
KPF has taken place at three venues. It began at an old bathhouse in Brooklyn, that has been converted to a theater space. The black box theater setting was spare, and we brought our own food and liquor. The curating of that place was very much ad hoc, even moreso than recently – it was a group email in which a poet was offered a reading. Now, if anyone knows anything about poets, is that they rarely turn down a gig. This was the first time poets begged out of the reading – they were too nervous or they wanted to know who else was reading.
The second venue was a one-off gig in Williamsburg, hosted and curated my current co-host, slam poet Regie Cabico. The third and most recent venue is the Bowery Poetry Club, and in its current incarnation, the setting is very much showbiz: theirs is a professional PA system, a full bar, and more performance poets sign up right on the sport. For me, it’s been a challenge to balance between the needs of the perhaps more karaoke-shy non-performance poets and the unshy and often scenery-chewing performance poets. This is a new challenge, and it’s on the hosting level where there’s a figuring out the order.
I guess I should say too that it’s at BoPo where the format has evolved into the “one poem, one song” format. The first two times, it was like a 5-minute reading – anywhere from 1-5 poems. I think it worked better that way, allowing for some silence to fill the room before and after the songs. At BoPo, the needs are different: the show has to move, there’s lighting and mixing, and there has to be lots of breaks so people can get drinks. Some things have been lost, but others gained – we’ve lost the cabaret intimacy of the first two shows, which is better for the poetry, and we’ve gained the showbiz flash and rapid-fire reading, which I think is better as a party and for the community.
5. Being Under the Wire
KPF is something that’s fun, and academia is not about fun. It’s a business. People who are better at explaining this can do so, but I don’t think it’s an accident that I can count the teaching poets – tenure-track or adjunct – who have participated in KPF can be counted on one hand. And I’m including myself. The poetry community, I think, has expanded way beyond academia in the years I’ve been around, thanks to the internet and the present horrible state of the academic job Market. Poets are now more than OK with not being academics, since it is impossible to find jobs and if they were found you would lose a community like at KPF.
6. The Value of Disassociation
I love the fact there’s no affiliations to speak about when I speak about KPF. The series is in many ways the exact opposite of academia – there’s no shame, there’s fun, and there’s no money to be made. Rarely is the poet who does KPF who makes diva-like demands, as in other reading series. No one has asked to be paid. I make sure they have discounted drinks. There’s a value there of not being part of an institution, although if I may speak freely, the twice-a-month format of recent months has sort of institutionalized KPF to the point where I feel uncomfortable with it. Part of the initial appeal of KPF was that it happened in an infrequent and disorganized way. Making the series a regular occurrence, to put it in advertising terms, dilutes the brand. And I am sure if this was part of some writing program it would be worse.
Having said that, some of the best readings for KPF have been the ones in which creative writing departments have participated. Recently we had an NYU versus City College night. It was a competition in which poets from both programs represented their teams. There was judging and cheering. We introduced the teams with an anthem, specifying their height and hometown. My guess is that because the event is so un-academic--and because, frankly, graduate students know how to drink—the poets love and appreciate it even more. Plus, there’s that sense of community in a grad writing program, which is inarguably the best part of going to writing school.
7. Last Words
Combining Karaoke and Poetry is an aesthetic statement for me. In my own work, I write about music and pop culture, and I’ve always thought that it is crucial that this kind of subject matter be placed into poems. That poems are fun. KPF works from the same premise.
