Post by lawrencemullen on Feb 5, 2018 16:21:45 GMT
The reading I went to was on Thursday, February 1st at Tattooed Moms (a bar). The reading doubled as the launch party for Amy Saul-Zerby’s new collection Deep Camouflage, published by Civil Coping Mechanisms. The reading was set up so that there were three poets that read before her, Zach Blackwood, Prairie Faul, and Raena Shirali. These three poets read previously published work from their respective books, and then also read newer work that was on their phones. Generally speaking, all four of the poets read their work directly, so I wouldn’t see that the reading was a performance per say. I really enjoyed the fact that Amy had three poets read before her, who’s work was distinctly different from her own, but shared some similar themes and therefore complimented her work well.
Prairie Faul’s work focused a lot on Louisiana and Philadelphia, as she moved to Philly from Louisiana about a year or so ago. She also spoke a lot about matriarchy and maternal lineage, and her place within that as a trans woman. Some of her work also dealt with men being shitty and she finds herself oriented in regards to those situations—or rather how presentation and appearance works in social situations when you’re trans. When reading her work, she tended to emphasize lines breaks with more dramatic pauses which was sometimes distracting because I would forget what the poem was saying previously and then had a hard time connecting it to what was currently being said.
Zach Blackwood’s work focused heavily on sexuality and pop culture; a lot of his poems talked about men he’d met on tinder, grindr, etc, and how dating and dating apps work in his life. Because of this, relationships were also a large part of what he spoke about—sexual, romantic, platonic, and familial. His work had a lot of humor in it as well, which I thought complimented the topics he spoke about well. Of all the poets performing, he was probably the one I enjoyed the most. Besides the content being engaging, I think the humor is what really won me over because a lot of the other poets were talking about much heavier things and his work was a nice relief from that.
Raena Shirali’s work focused primarily on three different things: relationships with men, family and identity, and thinking about one’s position. Some of her poems were about romantic and sexual relationships with men that went well, went poorly, were brief, etc. Her work that focused on identity and family, still often times had men as negative influences—for example, one of her poems was about a high school boyfriend who wanted her to fit the mold of thin, white, attractive girl, and how she couldn’t do that/her body was harmed in an attempt to do that. Her poems about generally navigating and thinking about oneself were I think most relatable to me because the self-improvement progress wasn’t necessarily linear. She also worked in sarcasm into a few of the poems about dating app-based relationships, which I thought was effective.
Amy Saul-Zerby’s work focused a lot on romantic and sexual relationships with men, but each poem seemed to deal with this subject slightly differently. Some of the poems had a strong feminist component of women in opposition or defiance of men, whereas some focused on the speaker engaging with another person or romantic/sexual interest. Working in tandem with this was an undercurrent of improving oneself or focusing on oneself as a way to further understand your body, emotions, etc. She read the quickest of any of the poets and sounded exasperated, but I’m assuming that’s mostly due to the reading being her collection launch party.
I found all of the poets to be engaging and there was never a time where I felt like I was checking my phone to see how much time had passed by/how much time was left. I thought Prairie was the least engaging, but that’s mostly because of the way in which she read her work; I often times couldn’t remember where the poem had started from. The rest were fairly engaging and hearing them read their work definitely helped me understand things I probably wouldn’t have picked up so quickly if I were reading the poems straight—such as Zach’s humor, or Raena’s sarcasm.
Prairie Faul’s work focused a lot on Louisiana and Philadelphia, as she moved to Philly from Louisiana about a year or so ago. She also spoke a lot about matriarchy and maternal lineage, and her place within that as a trans woman. Some of her work also dealt with men being shitty and she finds herself oriented in regards to those situations—or rather how presentation and appearance works in social situations when you’re trans. When reading her work, she tended to emphasize lines breaks with more dramatic pauses which was sometimes distracting because I would forget what the poem was saying previously and then had a hard time connecting it to what was currently being said.
Zach Blackwood’s work focused heavily on sexuality and pop culture; a lot of his poems talked about men he’d met on tinder, grindr, etc, and how dating and dating apps work in his life. Because of this, relationships were also a large part of what he spoke about—sexual, romantic, platonic, and familial. His work had a lot of humor in it as well, which I thought complimented the topics he spoke about well. Of all the poets performing, he was probably the one I enjoyed the most. Besides the content being engaging, I think the humor is what really won me over because a lot of the other poets were talking about much heavier things and his work was a nice relief from that.
Raena Shirali’s work focused primarily on three different things: relationships with men, family and identity, and thinking about one’s position. Some of her poems were about romantic and sexual relationships with men that went well, went poorly, were brief, etc. Her work that focused on identity and family, still often times had men as negative influences—for example, one of her poems was about a high school boyfriend who wanted her to fit the mold of thin, white, attractive girl, and how she couldn’t do that/her body was harmed in an attempt to do that. Her poems about generally navigating and thinking about oneself were I think most relatable to me because the self-improvement progress wasn’t necessarily linear. She also worked in sarcasm into a few of the poems about dating app-based relationships, which I thought was effective.
Amy Saul-Zerby’s work focused a lot on romantic and sexual relationships with men, but each poem seemed to deal with this subject slightly differently. Some of the poems had a strong feminist component of women in opposition or defiance of men, whereas some focused on the speaker engaging with another person or romantic/sexual interest. Working in tandem with this was an undercurrent of improving oneself or focusing on oneself as a way to further understand your body, emotions, etc. She read the quickest of any of the poets and sounded exasperated, but I’m assuming that’s mostly due to the reading being her collection launch party.
I found all of the poets to be engaging and there was never a time where I felt like I was checking my phone to see how much time had passed by/how much time was left. I thought Prairie was the least engaging, but that’s mostly because of the way in which she read her work; I often times couldn’t remember where the poem had started from. The rest were fairly engaging and hearing them read their work definitely helped me understand things I probably wouldn’t have picked up so quickly if I were reading the poems straight—such as Zach’s humor, or Raena’s sarcasm.