‘Words Collide’ Has Unifying Purpose

Chase Frank describes herself as a musician and writer, but she says her greatest work of art was putting together “When Words Collide,” a musician-driven spoken-word festival that will run tonight through Sept. 30 at more than a dozen venues in the Long Beach area.

“I’m just using a city as a canvas,” says the Long Beach-bred Frank, who has produced several smaller-scale festivals and concerts in her hometown during the last two years. “My art is to bring people together.”

Among those she has assembled for the ambitious festival are an eclectic mix of artists ranging from punk pioneer Patti Smith, who tonight makes her first L.A. area appearance in more than a decade, to avant-garde performance artist Laurie Anderson (Sept. 23) to Woodstock veterans and ‘60s icons Richie Havens (Sept. 29) and Country Joe McDonald (Sept. 22).

Others scheduled to appear include roots rocker Dave Alvin (Sept. 15), Native American poet-activist John Trudell (Sept. 29), contemporary blues man G. Love (Sept. 15), word jazz artist Ken Nordine (Sept. 30) and writer Jim Carroll (Saturday), whose teen-journal novel “Basketball Diaries” was the basis for the recent movie of the same name.

Most of the major shows in the 24-event series, which will also include panel discussions and children’s poetry readings, will be staged at the 1,000-seat Downtown Promenade Amphitheater or the 860-seat Center Theater.

“Although we could have booked larger venues with some of these names, we wanted to keep it an intimate experience,” Frank says. “This isn’t about money.”

What it’s about, she says, is casting new light on these artists.

“A lot of it’s motivated by education,” she says. “The reason I started this whole thing is, there are a lot of pioneers in the spoken-word and music fields that maybe haven’t been recognized enough for their work. . . .

“The festival theme is ‘Listen with your ears and not your fears,’ and the reason we’ve chosen that is because [the artists scheduled to appear] choose to pioneer and aren’t afraid of what comes out.”

Frank, 28, says the festival has been in the works for about 18 months. A year ago, she brought Allen Ginsberg to the Promenade Amphitheater and, with little advertising, the special appearance by the seminal Beat poet drew a crowd of about 700.

“It was overwhelming,” she says. “And the people who came were ages 18 to 80. It was a huge cross-section of people. It was really inspiring, mainly because I saw it as a real peacemaking experience in a lot of ways.

“There were a lot of people that maybe were sitting in the same forum that wouldn’t be in that forum together listening if it weren’t for that particular artist.”

Frank is confident that her festival will have the same effect.

“These artists we’ve chosen tend to unify people in a strange and magical way,” she says.

* “When Words Collide” runs tonight through Sept. 30 at various venues in the Long Beach area. Call (213) 466-1767 for tickets, or (310) 438-3224 for information.