A Hot Weekend: Performance Poetry Conference

REPORT ON THE CONFERENCE ON PERFORMANCE POETRY (JULY 2003) - AND THE PERFORMANCE POETRY MODULE AT BATH SPA UNIVERSITY

On a hot weekend in July 2003 seventy eight delegates arrived at the Newton Park Campus at Bath Spa University College for the first International Conference on Performance Poetry.

The aim of the conference was to bring together academics and practitioners in the field of performance poetry. In my role as a lecturer in creative studies I had noticed that whenever I had mentioned ‘performance poetry’ my fellow academics had either responded with blank gazes or they said ‘Ah yes, Linton Kwesi Johnson’.
I became aware that the whole notion of performance poetry as a serious art form needed up-dating.

It was my intention to show the academic community that performance poetry was not just ‘people shouting’ or ‘an off-shoot of stand-up comedy’ but was a subject worth serious debate and study.

Now, I had never organised a conference before… . The first piece of advice was ‘to get some seriously good speakers.’ I knew that in the US the whole subject has been debated for some time so that was the first place I looked. After many enquiries I managed to locate Charles Bernstein, a poet and academic and one of the leading theorists on the link between poetry and performance. At the time of the conference he was the Professor of Poetry at The State University of New York. I did not think for one moment he would agree to come to the conference but I thought he might like to endorse it. Surprisingly, he agreed to be the main speaker. This was a mighty step in the right direction.
Feeling more confident now the shape of the conference began to form in my mind. My plan was to bring together theorists and practitioners and also to close the gap between the US and the UK. What I envisaged was a melting pot of ideas and the beginnings of an international community of performance poets. Start Big. That was my second piece of advice.

The second speaker I secured was Bob Holman, one of the originators of the US slam scene, and still an active participant and promoter in The Bowery Poetry Club. In the UK Professor Tony Lopez from the University of Plymouth had published many articles on the subject of performance and poetry and I asked him to open the conference.

I didn’t just want the conference to be a weekend of lectures and debates, after all if we were discussing performance poetry we should be experiancing some as well. So I incorporated three evenings of performance. The first, on Friday was an open mic night for delegates to share their work. The second was a public performance at The Bristol Arnolfini with Bob Holman, Patience Agbabi, Steve Tasane and Nicole Blackman, and the third was in the Green Park Brasserie in Bath showcasing local and new talent, with Tod Swift, Tim Gibbard and Annie McGann.

The call for papers produced an overwhelming response and by May 2003 I had to make the final selection. Bardic Poetry, Language Poetry, Poetry in Schools, Political Poetry, Afro Carribean Poetry, Internet poetry and Comic Poetry were some of the topics to be discussed.
Hopefully I had drawn up a varied and interesting programme.

I won’t mention here the logistical difficulties of trying to organise seventy eight poets but I will mention the excellent support I received from volunteers and the university. We also received an Arts Council grant to help pay for the main speakers. By July there was a feeling that although this conference wasn’t huge it was important.

I must say I was terrified. What would the poets think of the academics who write about performance poetry and have only seen Ginsberg? What would the academics think about the poets who are at best passionate and at the worst bonkers? The few days running up to the conference was like waiting for two armies to slaughter each other on the battlefield.

The result wasn’t a clash at all. On three glorious sunny days in the idyllic surrounds of Newton Park both parties sat down and started talking to each other. It was an outcome that exceeded all my expectations. Charles Bernstein and Bob Holman delivered two lectures and they certainly stretched the definition of ‘lecture’. Professor Bernstein read statements on poetics from a series of cards picked at random and Bob showed a short film about the griot poets he had worked with in South Africa.

The other speakers all had some valid contribution to make. The evening performances were of an exceptionally high standard and the open mic night showed how talented some of the delegates were. It also threw up the usual open mic surprises. Is singing ‘Moonraker’ performance? Was that another poem about a cat?

I found out that, yes, performance poetry is being debated seriously. In Bolton, Birbeck and Southampton poetry and performance is being analysed, catalogued and even recorded. Over this weekend contacts were made and networks formed that had not existed before. Peter Khans lecture on his work with disadvantaged inner city children was inspiring and heartbreaking. Yes, performance poetry can be the key that unlocks a person’s creativity.

I think that everybody who attended the conference came away inspired and also reassured. Yes, what I do makes a difference.

For my own part the conference enabled me to run an entire module in the subject. Bath Spa University now has the first assessed Performance Poetry module in the UK. It feels like performance poetry has now come of age. I have twenty two eager students wanting to get up there and do their poems. Watch out world here they come.

And before anybody else asks me. Am I going to organise another conference? Yes, but not just yet, I’m still recovering from the last one.

Lucy English March 2005

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