A Spoken Word Event Produced by Rex Weiner, Michael C. Ford and Eve Brandstein

O Poets! Shamans of the word! When will you recover the trance-like rhythms, the subliminal imagery, the haunting sense of possession, the powerful inflection and enunciation to effect the vision? Throw off this malaise, this evasion, this attitudinizing and sickliness of urbanity. Penetrate to the discord in yourself, the rootlessness, and induce the trance that will heal the rift within. Shamanize! Shamanize! The American destiny is in your hands.  --William Everson, (Brother Antoninus) Birth of a Poet

In a loose re-creation of the historic 1955 Six Gallery poetry reading, a group of local LA poets read favorite poems by Beat Era icons. As they read, they take on the personae of the various poets. A dramatic situation takes shape as they comment on poetry, political issues of the day, drink wine, joke around and take swipes at one another, all the while awaiting the arrival of “Jack” (Kerouac), who is always late, and may not show up. Finally, he appears—but not quite in the way anyone expects—bringing the evening to an emotional climax.

This 90-minute piece is partly scripted, partly improvised, not unlike a jazz performance.

Two casual observers—Michael C. Ford and Rex Weiner— seated at a café table with a bottle of wine, introduce the poets in turn, and interject commentary as the reality of the present shifts back and forth to the past, adding dramatic tension as the evening progresses.

The effect is a shamanistic evocation of the Beat Era, and homage to its heroes, as well as an entertaining night of live poetry.

Scheduled to Appear on December 7: 

• SA Griffin as Lawrence Ferlinghetti
• Lisa Thayer as Ann Waldman
• Theida Salazar as Bob Kaufman
• Richard Modiano as Gregory Corso
• Dani Roter as Joyce Johnson
• Peter Harris as Ted Joans
• Mark Boone Jr. as Bukowski
• Herb Schmidt as Patchen
• Eve Brandstein as Diane Di Prima
• Ric Overton as Kenneth Rexroth
• Mark Olmsted as Allen Ginsberg