- Poetry Press Week
Designing poetry readings that aren’t sleep-inducingly dry but also aren’t delivered in a hammy, annoying performance style is QUITE A TASK, but also a noble one, which is why Portland’s Poetry Press Week is a very good idea. The seasonal showcase features poetry, but not as you usually hear it—instead of simply watching a person read some words that they wrote, the work at Poetry Press Week is performed by “models,” with a rare level of care and attention structuring an audience experience of poetry that isn’t horribly dull or off-putting. It’s the same model as Fashion Week, basically, and submissions are now open for the Spring/Summer Poetry Press Week! It’s happening June 19 and 20 at Disjecta, and if you are an emerging, avant-leaning poet, you should probably apply here.
If you’ve never been to Poetry Press Week, last winter’s showcase was a memorable one, with a lineup including work from Carl Adamshick, Jessalyn Wakefield, Samiya Bashir, and more. And past shows have included writing from the always weird/great Zachary Schomburg, plus Ashley Toliver and Julia Clare Tillinghast. Performance art and writing are often shunted off into different corners of the art world, so it’s always interesting to see places where there’s willful overlap between the two. Seeing a poem performed by someone who did not write it inside a contemporary arts space is a very different experience from seeing someone unaccustomed to reading in front of others tentatively read highly personal work aloud. One is not better than the other. But I don’t think you can really say you hate poetry readings if you haven’t seen both in action.