One of my fantasies of late is to create a podcast or other online journal or venue that pairs musical performance with poetry readings. The idea would not necessarily be to have music composed specifically to accompany the verse, (or vice versa, ha!) but rather just to lighten and enliven the reading of poetry with musical accompaniment or companionship, which helps to make readings less stuffy, in my opinion. Of course, many people have done this before, but it still seems to me like too often poetry is too divorced from musical performance. I'm not a musician, but I'm astute enough to appreciate musical lyrics as literature.
Which reminds me, of course, that Bob Dylan was formally awarded the Nobel Prize for literature this week. I watched Patti Smith's vulnerable and beautiful rendition of 'A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall' online, and once again felt giddy about Dylan's work and recognition. I guess he's supposed to formally give a Nobel lecture, and I read a rumor online that perhaps he'd show up in Sweden next spring to fulfill that requirement with a concert, which I think would be the most fitting way for Dylan to end the ambiguity about Dylan's reaction to winning the award.
And further intimidating me in my quest to create a music and poetry publishing or performance space was the huge success of a recent concert and performance reading I attended at National Sawdust, the new original music incubator and performance venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Poet Roger Bonair-Agard teamed up with musicians, including Jeffrey Ziegler, Sean Dixon, Ian Rosebaum, Abena Koomson and the band Miyamoto is Black Enough, to bring his muscular, assertive work to life. The reading was a celebration of his most recent book, Where Brooklyn At? I felt like such an amateur, seeing this acclaimed poet and professional musicians keeping a crowd in rapt attention. Suffice it to say if I do proceed with my vision of creating a music and poetry performance enterprise, I'd be lucky to create performances a fraction as attention grabbing as what's happening on stage at National Sawdust.
