Writing

My own Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction, and occasional commentary on all of the above.

A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

I'm still awake when I should damn well be in bed. It's a rare opportunity that I can go to sleep before 11pm and I let it slip, anxious about this war we've finally begun. The bombs have started to fall - a target of opportunity, apparently - and from here on out, the world has changed again. We are walking down a new road in unfamiliar terrain and I suspect there are landmines ahead of us that we have severely underestimated. I found myself hoping the "opportunity" was Hussein himself and that this insanity might come to a quick…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Selected Squares of Concrete

SELECTED SQUARES OF CONCRETE. That's the name of my new chapbook that I just finished putting together last night. I'm going to release it at Acentos on Tuesday if I can get it turned around quick enough. "But, Guy..." you're probably saying, "You've written one new poem in three years! How in the world do you come out with a new chapbook?" I call it the Dave Matthews approach: a mix of new, revised, never-before-released and old favorites. Some of the oldies have never appeared in one book together or, in the case of Sunday Mornings, never in a chapbook.…

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

A Curatorial Rant

Back when I was single and just starting out on the poetry scene, I quickly learned one rule of thumb: no matter how attractive, never introduce yourself to a poet until AFTER you’ve heard them read. There’s nothing more awkward than the moment they finish their poem, you realize they’re absolutely terrible – or, even worse, some sad variation on mediocre – and you’ve lost all desire to continue the conversation!

Curating a reading series that includes a slam, I’m always on the lookout for new voices on the scene to invite to read at 13. Whether a potential feature or a new slammer, whenever I’m at a show, I’m careful about who I’m introduced to and, more importantly, WHEN. It’s no longer about attraction but the logic is the same. If anything, it’s even worse.

The absolute worst is people who have established something of a name for themselves – not terribly difficult in these days of DIY PR, the internet and the overall spoken word bandwagon. Recently, I was at a show where one such person was reading. I’d seen her name around and was curious. Thankfully, I waited to hear a couple of pieces before being introduced. She wasn’t terrible, but she wasn’t very good, either. Great performance and stage presence but not nearly enough attention to crafting the words. Most annoying was her identity piece – everyone’s got at least one! – that ranted about the stereotyping of her people while simultaneously indulging in the stereotypes of another. Lacking any sense of irony, it just came off as ignorant.

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A guillotine, a Sister of Battle, and a scrapbook picture from the 2001 National Poetry Slam.

Charging the choir for a sermon

Call me cynical – you wouldn’t be the first! – but I’ve got some issues with this Lincoln Center Anti-War reading next Monday. And no, it’s got nothing to do with it being ON a Monday. I’ve encouraged people to check it out and even sent it out to our mailing list. It was actually a response to that mailing from a friend in Seattle that got me thinking, though.

The CONCEPT is wonderful. A bunch of poets covering the spectrum from establishment to street coming together to speak out against the war is a good thing. A VERY good thing. But what’s with the $10-100 ticket charge? I’ve looked around the Not in Our Name and Lincoln Center web sites and read through the promotional emails I’ve been sent and there’s no mention of this being a fundraiser. Who’s this money going to?

My wife – former event planner that she is – says Lincoln Center is an expensive place to hold an event. I don’t doubt it and that’s what confuses me even more. It makes no sense to me that you’d hold an event like THIS somewhere that isn’t donating the space, much less an expensive one. Who are they trying to reach out to? Why isn’t this a free event held somewhere that could ensure maximum exposure? Even @ $10/ticket, it’s a POETRY show, and all you’re doing is preaching to the choir if that’s your audience.

Don’t accuse me of pulling a post-9/11 O’Reilly on a good cause, either. Seriously. If it’s a fundraiser, it should say that SOMEWHERE. If it’s not, then it’s nothing more than capitalistic opportunism. If the poets themselves are being paid for reading at this thing, shame on them. There’s several names on the lineup that I know personally, some of whom I respect greatly. There’s at least one whose politics have proven rather convenient over the years, aka if there’s cameras, he’ll be there.

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Guy LeCharles Gonzalez Slam Poetry

The Revolution Will Be

NOTE: This article was originally published in POETRY IN AMERICA, Poets & Writers Magazine Special Issue, April 1999, and republished in The Spoken Word Revolution, Redux (Sourcebooks MediaFusion, 2007). It was posted to my old GeoCities site in 1999 and was recovered from the Wayback Machine on 10/29/21. Links to Amazon were replaced, everything else is as originally published. the Academics have much to fear and they will not die without a dirty fight. -Charles Bukowski Faced with the surging popularity of spoken-word and the poetry slam, The Academy of American Poets, long known for its gala reading series, was forced…

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