Getting Naked with the Poets at Pineapple Arts

Poets filled the room, and the night was young.

Monday night I attended an open mic event for poets in Downtown Duluth. I was not only impressed at how many there were who gathered but also at the quantity of readers who shared, many for the first time. A special nod to Kathleen Roberts of the PRØVE Collective for the invite.

Poetry is one of the great gifts from somewhere beyond ourselves. Even during the Exodus of ancient times, after the Israelites successfully escaped the travesty of being slaughtered at the Red Sea by the pursuing Egyptian armies it’s no surprise that among the first acts of Moses, so moved by this incredible experience, was to record his deep emotions poetically. For some reason, ordinary prose feels inadequate at times.

And so it is that humanity marks its moments in time by recording lines that aspire to connect with something internal and meaningful and vast.

The open mic poetry reading at Pineapple Arts attracted both local poets and friends of the poetic arts. The evening began with host Kathleen Roberts reading an amusing short short poem by James Tate titled Teaching the Ape to Write Poems.

I was impressed by the number of poets who brought material to share, many of them for the first time, all of them impressing me with both the candor and wit their shared lines revealed. The first two, in fact, were first timers. A young man named Chris read a poem called A Rap. Upon completion the respectful and attentive audience endorsed the reader with a mix of applause and snapping of fingers, which I found interesting. These were young people, and like every generation the young have to put their own fingerprints on the traditions they have received.  Ben then shared a poem he'd written called Precipice with a lot of nice images and a second, Tomorrow Almost Never Comes.

A few of the many who shared were Dorothy, Faith, Jessica, Tommy, River, Ben, myself and Bob Monohan. Themes included a poem written as a result of our lousy spring (Faith), the universe outside and within (Jessica), loss (Kate Monson), echoes (River), the "summer my eyes opened" (River), white privilege (Chris the DJ) and a stereotypical graduation speech (Ben Butter).

What I liked was the sense of total acceptance as people shared some very personal things. Bob Monohan stated "poetry is like stripping" before he launched into some humorous but pointed pieces titled, "Look At Me, I've Got a Girl Friend", "101 Love Poems" and "You're Rich."

River Maria Urke, who grew up in Duluth, is a serious poet and author who is also a publisher in Stillwater. Urke produces an arts and literary journal aptly called The River, as well as The Book Den (Twowolvz Press). Urke, who is more frail now then when she was young due to MS, described herself as "39, with a cane in one hand, dreaming of a midnight waltz through main street." You can find her handiwork at TheRiverMuse.com.

For a nice encapsulation of the event see this overview by David Beard, professor of rhetoric at UMD.

Whether your a serious poet or simply a dabbler who occasionally has a desire to share and get feedback, there's a strong supportive community here. By means of sharing we not only learn the value of our own voices, we enrich others.

Spotlight on Ennyman: Part V

David Beard is associate professor of rhetoric in the department of writing studies at the University of MN-Duluth. Our mutual interests in writing, teaching and Steampunk have resulted in number of positive outcomes including a joint lecture at Duluth's Steampunk Spectacular titled Utopoian Memories: Steampunk 101 in which David presented the literary and cultural roots of steampunk culture and I shared its contemporary rust belt iterations. 

At some point along the way he asked if he could interview me and I consented. What follows here is the fifth section of this interview as it pertains to my publishing-related collaborations.

DB: You've recently stepped into life as a freelance publisher -- an intergenerational project, as you've worked with interns and with a partner much younger than you. How has this collaboration brought your work into a new phase?

EN: In recent years I began to see the power of collaboration. John Heino’s 3N6D in 2010 -- with Chani Becker, Jill Ellen Hall and Alan Sparhawk -- blew me away. After that weekend John and I made an unspoken but intentional decision to do some kind of collaborative project ourselves, and when the time was right we assembled the Red Interactive show for Phantom Galleries Superior. It was exhilarating for me and I think for many others.

The success of Red Interactive, and the subsequent Red Interactive Facebook community was personally rewarding and taught me a number of lessons which were reinforced by my involvement in a pair of Artist Kamikaze events assembled by Limbo Gallery.

All this to say that when I made up my mind to publish my novel and some of my short fiction, the collaborator for this venture entered my life, a student whom I met through the Proctor DECA program, TJ Lind. In spring 2011 as he finished his sophomore year in high school we made a plan to publish four books by the end of the year, a goal which we achieved in November. After that we entered a marketing phase, which we subsequently processed and evaluated. TJ is an exceptional young man who probably overextends himself (like me.) At the beginning of 2013 we have been working on a plan to bring several new books to market.

DB: What are three projects by N&L we haven't mentioned that you'd like to mention?

EN: I’ll mention four. The first is a book on how to teach writing to home schoolers tentatively titled Writing Exercises: How to Teach Writing and Prepare Your Favorite Students for College, Life and Everything Else. I developed the exercises while teaching my own home-schooled kids. Currently I have a UMD writing student, Grace Moores, helping me to move the original manuscript to a higher level. TJ and I are discussing publishing this in a print version as well as making it available as an eBook.

The second is a picture book titled A Remarkable Tale from the Land of Podd. Like the first it, too, involves a collaboration. Twenty years ago I had a work experience which led me to create an imaginary tale, in the form of a poem, that depicted a lesson from that event. Last fall I met a recent grad from the UMD fine arts program whose work fascinated me and felt perfectly suited to my story. He agreed to partner with me and we’ll see where it takes us.

The third is another picture book of sorts called Intergalactica. This is yet another collaboration involving a steampunk fashion artist, a photographer, a model from the Twin Cities and myself. It proved to be an incredibly rewarding project for me personally and this eBook is an attempt to share some of that experience with a wider audience. We’re planning to give the eBook away free simply to share the fruit of that experience.

The fourth will be a box set of my first three volumes of short stories with a few additional stories added in for a value-added experience. After this TJ and I have several other book ideas lined up, but we learned in 2011 not to rush and to allow each to get birthed in its own time and not to force it.

DB: If I wanted to work with N&L, as a young writer, what would that experience be like? Is this a technical service, a copy editing service, a mentoring service for manuscript development?

EN: Each situation is different. Currently Grace, who’s assisting on my book on how to teach writing, was simply helping to complete the book. Before long, I found myself wanting to teach her everything I’ve learned about the writing industry, from how to write in a more engaging manner to how to prepare a book proposal and make publishing decisions. The experience brought back memories of my home schooling experience. There’s a thing called “learning rage” and you can see when the fire is burning inside students. That’s the time to throw more logs on the fire, not when it’s almost out. My natural desire is to make the experience count for them as much as possible.

A Dialogue on Writing with David Beard

David Beard received his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Communication in 2002 from the University of Minnesota, Department of Rhetoric. He has written extensively on this topic of his interest and was editor, with Richard Enos, of the book Advances in the History of Rhetoric: The First Six Years. Late this fall we met for the first time at an art opening in downtown Duluth. He is currently an assistant professor of writing studies at UMD.

Ennyman: Whom would you consider the most significant American writers of the past 100 years? And which authors have been your personal favorites or biggest influences?

David Beard: The most significant writers in the last 100 years in our nation? I don't think anyone has surpassed Fitzgerald as an expression of the flaws of the American dream. I love teaching The Great Gatsby. (We are lucky to have a Gatsby expert at UW Superior, Deborah Schlacks.)

But when I was starting out, I dreamt of being Vonnegut for at least three reasons. First, Slaughterhouse Five is one of the most important books about WWII and life after WWII that is accessible to people ages twelve to eighty. Second, Palm Sunday (his first book of essays) helped me understand the relationship between conscience and literary or rhetorical style. Vonnegut, for me, I'd say is all about conscience expressed on the page. Third, and most important, Vonnegut was a writer by sheer force of effort and sheer force of will; he was an engineer by training, not an English major; he was a soldier, not a poet. But he was a writer.

E: Did I mention to you that I interviewed Vonnegut for an article once? I was a Vonnegut fan when young. Here's the short tribute piece I wrote about Vonnegut shortly after he died.

DB: In the same way that I love Vonnegut, I admire Tim O'Brien. The Things They Carried changed how I teach literature. But I've never fallen for his later work. In that same vein, Art Spiegelman's Maus changed how I teach visual communication.

But the biggest impact on students today? To be a writer, for so many young students, today, is to walk in the shadow of Hunter S. Thompson and William S. Burroughs. I admire them both, but I have mixed feelings about their legacies as "writers to emulate," or examples of the writing life. What do you think, Ed?

E: Regarding Hunter S. Thompson and Burroughs?

I come from the "belles lettres" school of thinking as regards writing. It’s the writing, not the lifestyle that matters most. Hunter Thompson became a pop icon of anti-establishment, but is that the embodiment of what a writer should be? If I recall correctly his first major story on the Kentucky Derby was just a mish mash of notes and not even a prepared manuscript. The editor of Esquire who gave him the assignment was going to print and needed the story but Thompson had done little but party. The editor asked for the scribblings and they were purportedly published as is. (I say purportedly because an Esquire editor famously altered even Raymond Carver’s writings around that time.) Any other editor would have called it rubbish but they celebrated it, printed it and donned Thompson a genius. Proof that the king had no clothes on.

I’d be curious to know how much of the interest in Thompson is due to his writings and how much due to the movies about him. And what does this say about being a role model for young writers?

What I’m saying is that it perpetuates the erroneous notion that to be a great artist (writer, musician, etc) one has to behave insanely. Burroughs and Thompson were one-percenters as regards over-the-top lifestyle. I would argue that it’s possible to write well and live a “normal” life… 

What’s your take on how the Internet has changed publishing?

DB: The Internet has made it possible for more people to be writers but for fewer of them to be paid for it.

The Internet has made it easier for writers to reach audiences, including marketing their own work, and I think, maybe, as a result, some authors become the product for sale.

Two of my favorite regional authors are Roy C. Booth and Aaron Brown. Both maintain blogs and Facebook pages. So when I buy their latest works, I'm extending my relationship with them as much as I am buying a product. Surely the same might be true of readers of Ennyman's Territory?

E: I certainly hope so. New topic... What do you mean by "the new rhetoric"? In what way is the new rhetoric different from the old rhetoric?

DB: When we talk about the Old Rhetoric, or when we talk about rhetoric in popular terms, we tend to talk about the ways that persuasive figures manipulate people. We think of emperors addressing their people ("Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears") or presidential candidates addressing their voters. We think about demagogues misleading the people to enter into power -- whether the power of politics or the power of the market (old school advertising set out to manipulate consumers the way politicians set out to control voters).

When we talk about the New Rhetoric, we're talking about the way that our society has the technologies, the social structures and increasingly the will to turn monologue into dialogue. As a teacher, that's the condition I foster, the skills I teach and the social change I want to enable.

E: Are there any universal truths about writing that you try to personally convey to your writing students?

DB: There are no universal truths for successful writing. Writing is, for me as a writer and in my classes, a local act, constrained by local forces. Each act of writing requires the writer to pull out the barometer to get the air pressure, the thermometer for temperature, the calendar, the compass for bearing, the map with protractors for location, the Farmer's Almanac for info on this date, historically, and the Ouija board for just a tiny peak into the future. Anytime any part of those writing conditions change, the strategies you'll use as a writer will change with them.

We are lucky to live in a place where writing is taught so well by so many: Heather Bastian at Scholastica, Jamie White-Farnham at UWS, John Hatcher, Chris Julin, Rachel Wolford and Craig Stroupe at UMD. The teaching of professional writers is part of the culture and climate of Duluth Higher Ed. And it's part of the climate of the town. I work with the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, who regularly fund work by established and up & coming writers, and who teach young writers and artists the grant-writing process. And every year, dozens of college students learn from professionals like you, Ed, in internships.

E: Thank you, David, for your thoughts and insights. Let's keep the dialogue going.