Reviews of the Ephemeral

Posts Tagged ‘Elizabeth Darcy Jones’

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Sage and Time’s First Birthday @ The Charterhouse Bar 27/07/11

In End of year round-up, Performance Poetry on August 23, 2011 at 12:11 am

-Reviewed by James Webster and Dana Bubulj-

I haven’t exactly been reticent on my love of Sage and Time. It’s a fantastic night run by Anna Le and the consistently jaw-dropping Dirty Hands collective.

And it was a charming celebration. Poets were welcomed individually, always with a smile and often with a hug, reminding me what makes S&T such a nurturing environment. Included in the ticket price was a glass of wine and a slice of cake, so we could all toast S&T’s first year in style, and the evening featured a smorgasboard of poetic talent with 29 poets performing in total. It was an extravaganza of poetry; a night filled with verse, love and the supportive atmosphere that makes Sage and Time so special.

The Host

  • Kat Francois was, um, wow. She brought this brazen energy and engaging off-the-cuff comedy to the evening. Some of her quips could’ve been horrendous if done by someone with less charisma, but, boy, does she make it work.
  • And her poem where she asserted ‘I’m a poetry whore’ was an insightful take on performing, with great rhythm to her sing-song delivery. She summed up how the microphone is a portal into you, but also a shield between you and the audience; how performing makes you the centre of attention, but also so nakedly vulnerable. In her capable voice, simply repetitions became repeated gasps leading up to the final ‘just so I can breath.’ Like many poets, she dedicated her poem to Anna Le. ‘Cos Anna’s lovely.

Odes to Sage and Time

A goodly number of poets performed pieces inspired by S&T itself. With excellent result.

  • Will Stopha: A former host of S&T, his beautiful phrasing was a loving and clever look back, referencing so many of the poets who helped make S&T the success it is. He’s giving up hosting duties for now and it was a touching goodbye.
  • Anna Le: Anna’s poem ‘Beautiful People’ again referenced a lot of the S&T regulars, and it summed itself up sumptuously. Anna, like the people she referenced, made ‘verbs do things verbs don’t usually do’. I was tempted to just ask her for a copy of the poem and post that instead of this review.
  • Richard Marsh: His repeated rhyme on Anna Le’s name was an amazing embrace of a poem for Anna, the S&T poets and poetry itself. Joy.

Assorted Poets

  • Mr G’s poem on the Olympics, on Jesse Owen ‘the Running Man’ was flowing, strong, and used the Olympics as an effective metaphor for political unrest.
  • The Wizard of Skill’s my radio was typical of his style. Loudly and confidently performed, lots of repetition, and I’m sure there’s a point hidden there somewhere.
  • James Webster’s ‘That’s Why the Lady is a Cunt’ was delivered with passion and earnestness, but his delivery was stilted and would’ve been better if he’d learnt the poem.
  • Kai Kamikaze’s ‘Heroin Diaries’ was very evocative of his time ‘living on bastard street’, but I feel there could’ve been more to it.
  • Did I mention that I love Donall Dempsey and Janice Windle? Because I do. They’re fast building a reputation as the first couple ofLondonpoetry. And their combined set really showed off their interplaying verse and personalities. From Donall’s ‘Kiss Kiss and Cuddles Man’ (as all the good superheroes are taken) to Janice’s joyously near-explicit poem on the sex you shouldn’t have above the age of 40, they are riotously lovable.
  • Vanessa’s emotive ‘lunchtime playground romance’ was a thought-provoking poem on childhood serenity and bullying; it had a great flow and fiery delivery.
  • Richard Marsh’s second poem (see above) made one thing clear: he likes fools. It was an empowering and charmingly clever rallying call for the fools of this world. ‘Rejoice, you mucky-faced adventurers’ indeed.
  • JazzMan John is part of the S&T fixtures. His ‘July Poem’ was spat out with driving momentum, an ode to anyone in need of an ode. Frankly I was disappointed that we didn’t all run out and commit immediate acts of civil disobedience.
  • Jethro’s piece about an audition from the POV of a pretentious director deftly combined a plethora of meaningless theatrical jargon, but didn’t quite come alive for me.
  • Peter Hayhoe was one of many to spank, sorry, thank Anna Le for putting S&T together. ‘Pinch’ was a poem for fighting for your place and finding it. It did make me want to ‘grab [my] pen and paper and go to war’.
  • Mark Thompson’s ‘Dance for Dancing’s Sake’ was at once both beautifully awkward and at one with its own rhythm. He hosts Bang Said the Gun, by the way.
  • Katy Bonna’s ‘Organs’ was a highlight, on the idea of two peoples’ hearts and minds sneaking off together. Its irregular beat beats in compliment to the theme, backed up by some choice words.
  • Lionheart was odd. Some truly original imagery was coupled with hyperbolic bitterness and it seemed his poem could be summed up as ‘other guys don’t respect you, but I respect you, so why aren’t you sleeping with me?’ Also see: Nice Guy TM.
  • Anna Le claimed not to be very good with words. She lied. She performed “I am Many Rivers’, the first poem I ever heard her perform and the reason I came to Sage & Time in the first place. I loved it then and I love it now. Her language, her delivery, it’s delectable, personal and personable. You can feel the rivers of culture and history that she speaks of flowing through her voice.
  • Lisa Handy managed to fake an orgasm onstage and have it not be embarrassing. Her poem was sexual and explicit, without being sleazy, her words were loaded, dripping with tension, and felt like she was caressing you with poetry (and I don’t think I know her well enough to be comfortable with that).
  • While Amy Acre was performing, a bottle of champagne spontaneously erupted. I’m not even exaggerating, that happened. Her first poem where she affirmed ‘this, poetry, this is mine’ was a poem ingrained in the bone, a shout of joy for having a voice. I’m surprised all the champagne didn’t pop.
  • Will Stopha was armed only with his own beat-boxing and a ‘key-chordian’ and performed some layered poetry/music/audience interaction hybrid, recording the audience and playing them back as his own chorus. Amazing rhythm, wording and content; he made me believe London is indeed a city that’s ‘got more ideas than pigeons’. Top drawer.

In the end

I wish I could fit all the poets into this review. Sadly, I can’t, so what you’ve read is a brief summary of the highlights of S&T’s first birthday. It was a magically inclusive night. While I can’t say all of the poets wowed me, most of them did.

And that’s all I really hope for. Plus a little bit more.

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Poetry Jam @ The Tea Box 13/05/11

In Performance Poetry on June 1, 2011 at 11:06 pm

-Reviewed by James Webster and Dana Bubulj-

The Night

The Tea Box is a charming, genteel and tea-filled place during the day, but at night it dons a mask and cape and transforms into a vibrant local arts venue. With tea.

Last month I commented that while a great night, the Jam@TheBox lacked polish, not so this time. Polish was plentiful; the event gleamed so much you could see my face in it.

The Host

And the clearest reason I can see for this month’s smooth, polished, professional Jam was Anna Le’s superb hosting. Previously seen at Sage and Time, her hosting was (as always) slick and affable, quick to joke and quicker to banter with her audience, who were all too happy to engage with her warm and open hosting.

Oh, and her poetry:

  • Her 1st, ‘Case of Sera Sera’, dedicated to a friend Sarah, was powerful and filled with a knowing love for its inspiration that was beautiful, hurt, but finally in control of her stormy past. Anna’s delivery gets more focused as it progresses, reflecting the sentiment that ‘you can steer destiny.’
  • Her 2nd called ‘The Crown Forsaking Me’ deftly mixed her own feelings for her hair with a running newscast providing some political commentary. While she did forget the words, she did so quite endearingly.
  • ‘Vowel-Play’ and its sweet wordplay makes me happy. Dedicated and read to an audience volunteer. ‘I can’t help thinking of the last vowel in the alphabet’ she tells us; managing to say the words without having to use them.

The Open Mic

  • Elizabeth Darcy Jones (whose book ‘Distinguished Leaves: Poetry for Tea-Lovers’ is out in September) is perfect for this venue, like a person steeped in The Tea Box itself. Her poems are full of both life and tea, and in one case, bottoms. Her adorable poem ‘Beloved Bottom’ left us ‘bum-founded’ and sparked an ongoing discussion of bottoms throughout the evening.
  • Donall Dempsey, was full of charm, his poems are funny, smart and sometimes sadly beautiful. My favourite was ‘Homepage’ a precisely brilliant and bleak poem. The poem ‘If Mice were the Size of Kangaroos’, written with a class of children, was whimsically amusing (‘Just take the cheese, please!’).
  • Julie Mullen sexes up vegetables (which I believe is illegal inTexas). It’s certainly not my cup of tea, but I can’t fault her delivery, which makes the best of her poetry’s charms. But her ‘She said, she said’ melded two voices into one sensual whole rather effectively. Interestingly, a copy of her collection ‘Erotic Poetry for Vegans and Vegetarians’ rode on the campaign bus with David Cameron during the last general election.
  • James Webster the whiplash poet for the evening went from a bemused poem about the Royal Wedding’s coverage to the harrowing ‘Pain Poem’, which had the audience rapt. His flowing and passionate delivery spoke of the desperate search for pain both on the streets of London and at the edge of a razor.
  • Sh’mya’s ‘Hong Kong in a Jazz Breeze’ was a superb breathless and nostalgic look back at his time in Hong Kong. The language was lush and intense with a chaotic and increasingly frantic delivery. Though it had a slight ring of ‘what I did on my gap year’, it was frenetically entertaining.
  • Peter Hayhoe, a previous feature at Sage and Time, was described by Anna as a ‘poetic surgeon, he grabs your funnybone and plucks your heartstrings’. His poem/short story ‘100 Ways to Die’ asked if media fear-mongering and the advent of social media devalue human experience (‘humans have sex drives, not hard drives!’). His ‘Broken on the Pillar’ was harsh and violent, but beautiful. And his poem on Sainsbury’s check-out machines not approving of his hair, poetry and mum made you feel sorry for the machines’ lonely, thankless existence.
  • Janice Winddle A nice mixture of poems, from her own naughty youth, and the failure of words and their traitorous tendency to mean different things being overcome by touch, to a poem on the past of the Rome washing over her. Evocative and eloquent.
  • Amy Acre promised us she wouldn’t fuck with our heads (as she has a wont to do). Instead she touched us (not literally) with her ‘Erasing the Dictionary’, where she symbolises rewriting her own romantic past and outlook with going through the OED with a marker pen. In the end she proposes to ‘just lie back on the blank pages’, completing her longing for a relationship not defined by, well, definitions.
  • Kevin Reinhart had a shy indie-charm. His poems had magic, musical references and shyness and got more confident as he went on. His characters carry ‘shyness like a sick-note’.
  • The Brothers Grimm His ‘This Boy’ on a boxer (probably Mohammed Ali) ‘misconceived in the mighty melting pot of the mono-culture’ made his words into punches. The room craned their necks towards ‘Ganz Vorbei’ (Quite Finished) a quiet and forlorn poem, and ‘Art for Fuck’s Sake’ had the balls to begin ‘All black people look the same to me’ and then leaving a slightly too-long pause before ‘All white people look the same to me’ building up into a rousing poem on the unifying power and importance of art.
  • Anna Mae’s first two poems, about pro-anexoria and obesity seemed to convey the same message: look at the starving people in the third world and stop being so self-obsessed. It was well expressed, but a little preachy. She contrasted this with the lure of a past lover through the metaphor of a directionless bus route: suitably meandering while maintaining its poignancy.
  • Donald a moving poem on the 7/7 bombing, a clash natural and architectural beauty with a city’s industrial past, and a superbly sweet poem to a lost cat. But he didn’t seem to offer any new perspectives.
  • Anna Matiu‘s performance perfectly matched the tone of her poems. Her ‘Moving Experience’ sounded unsure of its own place, all intricate and pretty questioning. And ‘To Insomnia’ mixed its thoughts and phrases all up in a tired run to the sad and tired beauty of daylight.
  • Andrew Flower ‘Conversations with a Friend’ was nicely questioning, tongue slightly kissing cheek. ‘Fate not Heard’ did what many are afraid to do, and used hyperbole seriously, questioned the point of life without passion.

The Feature

Keith Jarrett was a great focal point to the night. So much so that he will soon be receiving an article here all of his own. To summarise, his poetry was flowing, intelligent, reflective, political and affecting. It was poetry of homes, of belief, of life. Joyous.

This month the Tea Box had a great deal of wonderful poetry, was well run and showed that you can squeeze a lot of poets into one night and still bring the awesome all night long.

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Poetry Jam @ The Tea Box 08/04/11

In Performance Poetry on April 14, 2011 at 11:45 pm

-Reviewed by Dana Bubulj and James Webster-

The Venue
The Tea Box has a particular kind of energy: that of bergamot and old ladies. Based in Richmond, it’s atypical of the London poetry scene, with scones and tea lending a genteel and reserved air to proceedings. There was a good ratio of performers to audience and they were not afraid to show their appreciation and call for more verse.

The Night
The Tea Box has been hosting poetry for two years now and shows no signs of stopping. From the beginning it’s had the tagline ‘Where Innocence meets Experience’ and welcomed poets of all experience levels and what’s really encouraging is to see so many poets coming back event after event, their poetry stronger and their eyes just as bright and wide as the first time they read. The event is now hosted by a series of guest hosts, this month local poet and rapper (and a man I went to primary school with) Ed Parshotam.

The Host
And speaking of Ed, it was his first time hosting a poetry event, but he quickly settled into his role and into the room (the layout split the audience with the stage and was initially awkward). He also aided the flow of the night with several of his own poem-cum-raps.

  • His rap on a disgusting roommate (previously seen at Sage and Time) is a great use of rap to let loose some lyrical put-downs.
  • Innovations, a poem listing innovative inventions, flexed Ed’s impressive imagination. The audience were most amused. (I liked the bottle with attached bottle-opener.)

The Jam

  • Jack Kelly’s poetry had a rhythm that flowed well between his lines. They all had a surreal feel to them, playfully subverting common idiom, working best when he let the rhythm take us through his internal narrative, without trying to impose a background on the poem’s creation. Bag Full of Shrapnel was a highlight creating a man stumbling through life, his “bag full of shrapnel” at the “remains of the day” a quietly confident refrain.
  • Harriet Cramer’s tried to capture a memory with her poems. Of course she was drunk at the time (of the memory and of the writing) so her meaning’s a little muddied. When she was on form her poem Meeting Friends not Falling Baby was held together with strong rhyme and opened the parlance of her friends to the audience, but on occasion her repetition and sentimentalising of evenings out made her own words sound a little cliché.
  • June Mason’s “middle aged rap” wasn’t. A rap that is. That said, she posed a valid question as to why certain styles and themes were closed to her. I did like the idea that some themes, such as death, were more prescient for her as it was “not just faraway but nearer”.
  • Jason Why does improvised poems based on audience interaction. It’s an interesting act, but more suited to Music Hall than to a poetry Jam, particularly if the audience are not biting. His first improv was laudable, combining the words he was given into a comprehensible poem. His second required a volunteer (in name only) who was more bemused than excited.
  • Yvonne Mallett read two contrasting poems. One, a ponderous narrative entitled Working From Home was supposedly directed at the transport minister who wants more people to work at home, was amusing in a Flanders and Swann kind of a way, but I felt would have been more powerful if it’d addressed said minister more directly. The second, Rene’s in His Heaven and All is Well gave short but fitting thanks to the painter whose blue skies the day had emulated.
  • James Webster also juxtaposed two very different poems. The first was dedicated to Franita, a co-worker who had sadly passed away, and questioned what happens after death, beginning, “I have a dead girl’s number on my phone”. The second, Baggage, is more personal, discussing his past with an engaging openness. These poems, both new, were delivered with passion that will make them strong pieces once they have become more polished.
  • Anne Humphry introduced her work as ‘thoughts on times we live in’. Anne’s been coming to this event since it started and her poetry has gotten stronger as it’s become more contemporary. More Than Enough on the ubiquity of advertising; Against the Clock a poignant comment on the pressure time puts on you; Lists and Tasks demonstrating an aged vulnerability; A Force For Good had a simple beauty to it, while A Force For Evil was a poem of regret for beliefs that become more important than lives. Her poems are elegant, rich and full of feeling.

The Feature
Elizabeth Darcy Jones, the nation’s unofficial ‘tea poet’ is a perfect fit for The Tea Box. Tonight she was celebrating the birth of ‘poet-tea’ (say it quickly), unveiling the news that her book Distinguished Leaves: Poems for Tea Lovers will be out this September from Quiller Publishing.

She was glorious (she usually is). Her poems personified different kinds of teas into a colourful cast of alluring and seductive characters, each steeped in the personality of the tea they represent. From Pinhead Gunpowder, a tea that ‘speaks to sinners’ and inspires the drinker, to Golden Oolong, a dashing gentleman of a tea, inspiring a ‘second flush’ (a pun for tea enthusiasts there) in its ‘memory of a teenage crush’ and on to Earl Grey ‘a Nigel Havers of a tea’. Her poems point out what’s special and extraordinary about tea, whilst also reminding us of its everyday power to bring people together.

And her final poem, Fortune Favours the Tea certainly brought the audience together, a history of tea and a rousing anthem for all tea drinkers, complete with a chorus you can chant.

Ed finished an entertaining and varied evening with an improv based on objects held up by the audience. He showed a quick tongue and quick feet as some more esoteric items came into play (“I don’t know what obsidian is but I’ll say it anyway”), even referencing the police siren that threatened to drown him out to finish the poem.

Overview: A great night at The Tea Box. Not the most polished poetry event, but a very warm one, the poets and audience all seemed comfortable and it’s this kind of sharing and caring event that helps poets grow.

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Sage and Time 23/03/11 (The Charterhouse Bar)

In Performance Poetry on March 29, 2011 at 11:12 pm

-Reviewed by James Webster-

The Night
Sage and Time is quickly becoming my favourite poetry event in London. Run every fourth Wednesday of the month at the Charterhouse bar in the Barbican, it’s organised by the incomparable Anna LeDoesPoetry and features some truly accomplished poets. The format is fun and not too heavy, mixing the open mic slots in with the featured poets punctuated each of the three halves, which, while mathematically dodgy, gives a very laid back and enjoyable atmosphere. The atmosphere is truly lovely, the featured performers seem so happy to be there and provide much encouragement for the open mic’ers. You get the impression that most of the poets know each other and after attending only two of the events I’ve started to feel like I’m getting to know them too, and they are a welcoming bunch, making Sage and Time a really nurturing environment for aspiring poets.

The Hosts
• Host duties were split this month between Anna LeDoesPoetry and Will Stopha and they struck a neat balance, Will’s warmth and occasionally bumbling charm, and Anna’s poise, humour and wit, both were quick with a joke and even quicker with words of encouragement for their poets.
• Anna LeDoesPoetry’s poem ‘My Poetic Blend’, in the form of a recipe for her own brand of verse, teemed with lush language, its tone exotic, sultry and comforting. Her performance was a joy, all teasing and inviting at the same time, occasionally sizzling with energy. Together the two hosts set the tone for a hugely enjoyable evening.

The Open Mic
Open Mic’s are often hit and miss, but my experience of Sage and Time has been an overwhelming majority of hits. The quality of poetry is almost universally high and a huge variety of styles, subjects and forms are welcomed.
My highlights:
• Elizabeth Darcy Jones (the nation’s unofficial ‘Tea Poet’) and Lisa Handy were the highlight for me with a poetic exchange, starting with Lisa’s ‘Verbal Assault is Still a Form of Assault’, we then had Elizabeth’s response and Lisa’s response to said response. It was a dynamic dialogue between the two poets, Lisa’s raw and visceral language was fired out like a rattling machinegun. It gives you a sense of a natural disaster of an insult, the language fills you up and makes your skin itch at the sound of insults that we didn’t receive. It’s abuse dissected around verbal gymnastics and it’s fantastic and near-frightening.
• Elizabeth’s response blended well, referencing Lisa’s verbal violence, but mixing it into her warm and malty poem. It was a loving and caring offering, full of respect and empathy for Lisa’s work. It shared its co-feeling with the audience, as if we all were sharing our feelings over a cup of lyrical tea.
• Lisa’s poem closed the dialogue, again the words tumbled out, but this time they built on each other and on Elizabeth’s, reinforcing the respect and continuing creativity of the two of them. As Anna put it, being inspired by another poet is the ‘highest accolade’ and these two piled the accolades on each other.
• ‘Angry’ Sam Berkson was another highlight; his poems of urban sprawl blend streams of colloquialisms with a simple elegance. His poems push your perceptions of both places and people, doing what all truly excellent poetry should do: make you see the world in a different light. Plus he rhymed ‘metropolis’ with ‘oesophagus’, what’s not to like? Plus he’s one of the charming people who run Hammer and Tongue in Camden and Hackney.
• The Wizard of Skill was a strange, but enjoyable addition, his ‘freaky delivery’, as Will put it, was well received by most, though I found it a little smug and disengaging. It was funny, with confident delivery and a little social commentary, but was mostly a fluff piece.
• Mark ‘Mr T’ Thompson sums up one of the things that makes performance poetry great for me: political engagement. His inversion of Martin Niemöller’s “First They Came” was a statement of political intent, a powerful call to arms for the Saturday 26th demo in London. ‘When they came for the students, I stood up because I had an education/ When they came for those with disabilities, I stoop up because I could.” His other poems were equally strong and socially engaged, dealing with youth culture from different perspectives. He doesn’t pass judgment, but he does make you think.
• EP or Ed Parshotam was the last highlight I’ll mention, his improvised rap referenced most of the other poets in the room and summed up a truly inclusive and entertaining evening. He and Elizabeth Darcy Jones can both be seen at The Tea Box on the 8th of April by the way.

The Features
Amy Acre and Peter Hayhoe were our fabulous features this month.
• Peter Hayhoe mixes comedy and substance in his poetry in a way to be envied. He’s not content to just make people laugh, he crafts geekery and amusing imagery with a message. Sometimes the message is just ‘don’t spend what little money you have left eating a steak on your own’, in other poems it’s the dangers of over-thinking your relationship, where his pace and overlapping rhyme gave a sense of being bogged down in itself that really brought the point home.
• Amy Acre is such fun. She makes graceful, powerful performance seem effortless. Her poems mostly stuck to her musings on relationships, but those musings still had a range, going from slick double entendre that still manages to be sweet (and how apparently you should never trust a man with perfect teeth) to a sensual awakening of feelings for a waitress in a café (with a shot taken at Katy Perry that made me very happy). But the set piece of her set was a sexual fairytale set to a backing track from The Chemical Brothers. It was funny, rude, sweet and well phrased, a kind of BDSM love story. The backing track gave it an extra dimension, setting a dark rhythmical tone and adding a nice sense of urgency.

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