Poetry Buzz in KS: Standing Room Only!

Lyn Hejinian certainly brought on a poetry buzz in Kansas this past week. She gave a reading in the Spencer Art Museum’s modern art gallery. I was running later than I should have been (as usual) and ran into the museum fifteen minutes before the reading was to commence. As soon as I entered the museum (with lovely new blimp-like red balloons outside in honor of the reading and the museum’s new exhibit) I ran into a hoard of people crowded around the elevator. With no other way to get upstairs to the modern gallery, everyone had to wait patiently for the elevator, which meant that there was a long line of people waiting to get to the reading. The museum had only set out about 50 chairs (most of which were taken), but I happily found one near front and center. After it was all said and done, about 200 people came to the reading. Lots of people plopped down on the cold hard museum floor to hear Hejinian read, while there was standing room only for everyone else. The incredible turnout for Hejinian, one of my favorite poets, made me very very happy. It was exactly how poetry readings should be! I am very grateful to live (by chance) in a community that supports the arts (avant-garde art!) with this kind of enthusiasm.

I, myself, have had a poetry buzz for several weeks now. Meeting Nate Mackey, seeing Barrett Watten, and attending a late-night poetry party that turned into a reading at Alan Golding’s house in Louisville was both energizing and motivating. (A short note on the 20th-Century Conference: I was grateful to run into B. Watten and spend time with the poetry crowd because, in part, this made up for having to miss Susan Gubar’s lecture. The university (stupidly) cancelled the first day of the conference based on a prediction that an ice storm would hit L’ville. The storm went north and affected L’ville very minimally. I flew in early to hear and meet Dr. Gubar (as others did) so I was particularly bummed. I was worried about her driving down from Bloomington in inclement weather anyway (because I worry about these sorts of things); she certainly would have been stuck in L’ville for at least a day had she come, but I was upset that I had to miss her all the same. Because of the cancellation I got a full extra day to focus on my writing. This sort of time is always a gift, so that was nice. And, I’m grateful that there was an active group of poets and scholars of poetry at the conference. Not to mention the fact that my undergrad advisor (whom I adore) came to hear me give my paper; I got to visit with her and another undergrad prof, which was divine. The party / reading I attended at Golding’s home later that evening was also lovely. A house full of people huddled together in a living room listening to poetry until 1:30am is always good for the soul.) The week after I got back from L’ville Paul Muldoon was in town and then Hejinian came the week after him. The poetry buzz continues.

It would take too long to describe or summarize Hejinian’s career and I don’t want to be reductive. I came to know and love her work last year after reading Language of Inquiry and My Life, which are probably her two most popular works. My interest in female authorship and autobiography has got me thinking that I need to include a chapter on her work in my dissertation (which is a ways off; don’t hold your breath). In addition to the turnout of 200 plus people, her reading was just lovely. Ken Irby, who we learned attended her 21st birthday party and is a long-time friend, introduced her. She read from a variety of her works: The Fatalist, Slowly, and others. I could have sat there, happily, for several more hours just listening to her read her work. (Though, I had a chair to sit in; that would probably have been fairly uncomfortable for those sitting on the floor.) After the reading one of my profs introduced me to her and I got to have dinner with her later as well. Hejinian gave a lively talk later that night entitled “Outside Poetry.” Her lecture focused on genre and how we can see it as an “expanding field,” a “terrain,” where meaning and plots can proliferate, combine, and conjoin. Genre is more than simply a “crossing point,” she noted, where modes of writing and thinking, like roads, intersect. During her talk she played several pieces of music that demonstrated some of the non-linear narrative methods of creative expression that she and her langpo colleagues still continue to engage with to this day.

(I lifted this picture of Lyn at her reading from Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate.)

In addition to just being awe-struck by the intellectually stimulating poetry and ideas about poetic art that Hejinian put forth, I truly found her to be one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met. I had actually heard this about her, so I was expecting to like her, but was pleased to experience this myself. I drove her to airport early the next morning and found myself very sad to see her go. I haven’t met many women involved in poetic discourses (as far as I can tell this seems to be a conversation still dominated by men; partly due, I suspect, to the legacy of the Black Mountain poets) and, of course, few write the kind of language-centered, thought-provoking, innovative poetry that Hejinian does. As exciting as Hejinian’s reading and lecture was, I was equally delighted at the opportunity to be around such a wonderful human spirit. A breath of fresh air! I now find myself longing to visit the Bay area, to see the ocean once again, and attend more readings offered by Hejinian, et al.

I don’t have a video clip of either Hejinian’s reading or lecture at KU, but for your enjoyment here’s clip from the 2007 Holloway Reading Series at UC Berkley, Hejinian’s university home. It really is nice to have access to videos of readings like this one. Enjoy! Celebrate avant-garde art! Celebrate Hejinian! A wonderful woman, writer, poet, artist, theorist, conversationalist, intellectual, human being, and spirit.