Spoken, Sung or Danced, Poetry Makes a Comeback

What is poetry? That slippery question, as answered by a host of, generally, young poets in Los Angeles, is being redefined in various ways.

Some call their poetry the “spoken word,” enhancing it with music, costumes, props or special effects. Others seem content with the more traditional stand-up-and-deliver concept. Whatever the case, poetry readings have come into their own as popular entertainment.

Consider one recent Saturday night. It was hard to choose between two competing readings. There was Allen Ginsberg, the darling and dean of Beat verse, whose two performances at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica sold out well in advance. Genial Ginsberg, in his early 60s, was accompanied by a bass player and sang and recited such frequently anthologized poems as “C.I.A. Blues,” “A California Supermarket” and parts of “Kaddish,” his well-known unsentimental memorial poem to his mother.

At the same time, in a fifth-floor loft at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Tommy Swerdlow and La Loca shared a program that introduced a spring poetry/literary festival.

Dressed in dusty work jeans, a rumpled yellow sweat shirt and run-down tennis shoes, Swerdlow read from his anthology “On This Train.” He lamented crowded freeways, mean streets, bag ladies and the generation gap: “My father is still alive, but it’s his ghost I live with.” In the poem “If I Can Pick Fresh Nectarines,” Swerdlow ended with: “Lord praise the clock I never punch.”

La Loca (nee Pamala Karol), thought by admirers to be the “hottest ticket” in town, read her signature poem, “Adventures on the Isle of Adolescence,” which won her a place with Lawrence Ferlinghetti at the ’88 Winter Olympics Arts Festival in Calgary and serves as the title of her forthcoming book, published by City Lights Books.

For this performance, La Loca, brilliantly blond hair pulled off her face, devoid of makeup, approached the microphone in tight, black hip-huggers and boots. The 22-minute dramatic monologue, written, the poet said, in two weeks of concentrated effort, describes a 38-year-old woman’s “date” with an adolescent given to fast food and 10th-grade manners. In ascending spirals of contempt, the poet attacks this “juggernaut of testosterone” who “has run out of tin soldiers and baseball cards.”

About two years ago, Eric Lyden and Kevin Bartnof, both in their late 20s, began publishing “The Moment,” a useful guide to the poetry scene. The “randomly published” booklet lists readings throughout the Southland in coffeehouses, bars, restaurants, theaters and cultural centers. It also prints brief poems, advertises book stores and lists radio programs, including “The Poetry Connection,” which airs every first, third and fifth Saturday on KPFK (90.7 FM) from 6-7 p.m.

The purpose of “The Moment,” said Lyden, who also pays for a poetry hot line ((818) 992-POEM), is “to get the word out. We want others to understand that poets aren’t lunatics or maudlin. Poetry can be entertaining and understandable to a lot of people.”

Not Only Newcomers

That philosophy has been evident for decades in the life of 72-year-old Lawrence Spingarn. A retired English professor, he recently brought out a short anthology, “Going Like Seventy,” through his own Perivale Press. His first book, “Rococo Summer,” published in 1947, was recommended for a Book-of-the-Month Club selection.

Spingarn currently is conducting a chapbook contest. “A chapbook consists of about 20 pages of representative work,” he explained. “I’m charging a $7 reading fee, and the winner of this worldwide contest will receive $50 and 50 copies of the book.”

Spingarn is active on the poetry- reading circuits, pointing out that he likes the social aspect of a live audience and the benefit of receiving reactions from others.

Obviously, many other poets also like the sharing experience of poetry reading. Joyce Schwartz, coordinator of readings at the Sculpture Gardens--a combined restaurant, art gallery and theater in Venice-- sees an increasingly active poetry scene.

“Poets fly in from Berkeley or San Francisco in numbers that were unimaginable just five years ago,” she said.

The group has scheduled a publication party April 23 from 3 to 5 p.m. for “Sculpture Gardens Review,” its second journal. The $5 admission includes refreshments. Winning poems, judged by Jean Burden, will be read. Scheduled readers include Robert Peters, Florence Weinberger, Mima Pereira, Mark Henke, Scott Wannberg, Amy Uyematsu, Lee Rossi and others.

Literary Landmark

For 21 years, Venice’s Beyond Baroque has stood as a landmark on the shifting literary scene. The art-literary center offers an unusual small-press library of 24,000 volumes, a bookstore for poetry and other literature and information services, including help with obtaining grants, said D. J. Finnigan, the center’s director.

Beyond Baroque has trained “a number of quite wonderful writers and performers,” commented Bob Flanagan, who co-directed the weekly poetry workshops for 13 years. “We used to call them ‘insensitivity sessions’ because a lot of people couldn’t take the criticism,” he said, adding that an average of 20 neophytes show up each week, many emerging as important new voices.

Elsewhere, at Bebop, a record store/art gallery in Reseda, owner Richard Bruland reported that “open readings have become so popular that I have to conduct them by lottery and limit each person to five minutes.”

“No, I’m not sure all of this is poetry,” he said, recalling a young woman who just read from a newspaper and another, whose anti-vivisection work received sharp criticism for its “crude graphic quality.”

Bruland added: “Maybe poetry isn’t the exact word, but I feel people must stretch its meaning.”

Poetry’s elasticity was exhibited in a recent Bebop performance, entitled “Wild Women of the Word.” Preceded by throbbing rock music, the reading featured six young women dressed in fringed leather jackets, theatrical hats and bearing unusual props. Robyn Ryan played “drums” on empty five-gallon water bottles and huge oil cans, while Ellyn Pinsker clutched a wooden dog (“my personality puppet”) to underscore points in her ironic poem “Fido.”

Poetry’s Job to Be Mischievous

Another faithful to the genre is Richard Weekly, a high school English teacher who, since 1980, has held three poetry festivals a year in his Newhall home. Called the Santa Clarita Valley Poets series, the events, each with a theme, often attract as many as 100 people.

The next one, “Spring Lotus and Champagne Festival: The Fat Crow,” is April 30.

Weekly believes poetry should be mischievous, innovative and exhilarating. “It enlivens life and brings in its many possibilities.”

The following is just a sample of the many places in the Southland where poetic souls can go to enjoy or participate in poetry programs:

Beyond Baroque, 681 Venice Blvd., Venice. (213) 822-3006. Featured poet every Friday at 8 p.m. (Victor Hernandez Cruz and Jimmy Santiago Baca, April 14); $5 members and students; $10 non-members. Free open readings first Sunday of month at 5 p.m.; workshops every Wednesday at 8 p.m. All-day workshop led by Kamau Daaood, April 8, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., $40.

Bebop Records and Fine Art, 18433 Sherman Way, Reseda. (818) 881-1654, after 1 p.m. Featured poets and musical performances throughout the week. Open readings third Wednesday of month. Donation.

Gasoline Alley, 7219 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, (213) 937-5177. Readings at this coffeehouse most Sundays at 3 p.m. Next reading April 9. Pass-the-hat donations. Bill Mohr, coordinator: (213) 399-1209.

Laguna Public Library, 363 Glenneyre St., Laguna Beach. (714) 494-8375. Scheduled and open readings every Friday at 8 p.m. Last Friday of month, all open readings. Book signings by Pat Cohee, editor and publisher of “Speak-Easy,” $5.

Lesbian Writers Series, A Different Light Books, 4014 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 668-0629. Free series third Saturday of month at 8 p.m. April 15, Robin Podolsky and Dorothy Allison; May 20, Michelle Cliff and Ayofemie Stowe.

Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St. Ticket information: (213) 627-5599. Spoken Word Series, “L.A. Sol” benefit reading on April 16 at 5 p.m. Georgianna Sanchez, Helena Maria Viramontes, Mira-Lani Oglesby, Rabia and Jimmy Santiago Baca. Admission: $4.

Midnight Special Bookstore, 1350 Santa Monica Mall, Santa Monica. (213) 393-2923. Coordinator Margie Ghiz. Open readings fourth Thursday of month at 8 p.m. Featured readers throughout the month.

Poetry by Candlelight at Celebrity Center, 5930 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Coordinator: Pamela Johnson, (213) 464-2036. Every Sunday at 9:30 p.m. Actors and poets perform; some open readings plus acoustic music and chamber ensembles. $2.

Poecentric Lounge, 660 Heliotrope Drive, Los Angeles; first Monday of the month. Open readings, 8-9 p.m. April 3, Joe Christiano and Ellyn Pinker; May 1, May Day Show with Antar the Raven, Linda Allortano and Lisa Rafel. $3. Information: (213) 394-8795.

Santa Clarita Valley Poets, 24721 Newhall Ave., Newhall, (805) 254-0851. Spring festival April 30 features Don McLeod, beginning at 1:30 p.m. $3. Back issues of “Vol. No.,” the group’s literary magazine, available.

Sculpture Gardens, 1031 W. Washington Blvd. Venice, third Sunday of each month, except April 23. Joyce Schwartz at (213) 472-2923. Donations.

Toltec Poetry Works. Every Tuesday except third Tuesday of month, 8 p.m. Douglas Park, 2439 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. Leo Guerra, workshop director: (818) 845-7768. Supportive workshop for beginners and experienced poets, with occasional videotaping. Free.

Valley Contemporary Poets, Glendale Federal Savings and Loan, 7119 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park. Call Leah Schweitzer (213) 476-4838. Third Sunday of month, open readings 6:30 p.m., featured poets, 7:30 p.m.; April 16, Eloise Klein Healy, Lydia Valez and Angela McEwan. May 21, Laurel Ann Bogen. Donation: $3.

Events at many of these locations are announced each week in the Book Calendar feature of The Times Book Review section.