IndieFeed - food for your ears

Below is a press release from the Indiefeed Performance Poetry Channel - you may find links to their podcasts over in our right sidebar.

*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

The IndieFeed Performance Poetry Channel Celebrates 500 Shows
Releases Original Recording of “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg

(South Royalton, VT)

The IndieFeed Performance Poetry Podcast, a member of the IndieFeed Podcast Network (http://indiefeed.com), is proud to announce its milestone 500th Episode. To mark the occasion, a special anniversary podcast will begin airing on Friday, January 30th 2009, showcasing the earliest full recording of “Howl (for Carl Solomon)” by Allen Ginsberg.

IndieFeed worked closely with the estate of the late poet in order to bring this historic recording to its podcast audience. As founder and host Wess “Mongo” Jolley says during the show, “What is really critical to understand about Ginsberg is how his work signaled a cultural shift, a moment in time when suddenly poetry in performance became something totally new, and would never be the same again. I contend that without Ginsberg, and specifically without Howl, the poetry slam would be unrecognizable. In fact, we would probably never have had anything even remotely resembling today’s modern performance poetry movement. This poet, and indeed this poem, is that important.”

The IndieFeed Poetry Performance Podcast series was founded in 2006 to celebrate the diverse artists of the spoken word community. The independently produced show is consistently one of the top three poetry podcasts on iTunes, drawing 100,000 downloads every month, and over two million downloads overall.

Since its founding, the podcast has exposed its audience to works by over 200 diverse poets, including poetry slam powerhouses such as Patricia Smith, Beau Sia, Taylor Mali, and Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz; cowboy poets such as Linda Hasselstrom, John Dofflemyer and Paul Zarzyski; contemporary greats such as Mark Doty and Kim Addonizio; and even historical recordings of legendary icons such Sylvia Plath, Gregory Corso and Jack Kerouac.

The series typically releases three new tracks every week featuring one poem per show, followed by commentary and resources to learn more about the poet. All the works featured on the show are written and performed by the poets themselves, and are available for download free of charge at the IndieFeed site (http://performancepoetry.indiefeed.com) and on iTunes.

The 500th episode, showcasing Ginsberg reading his legendary epic poem, "Howl," has special meaning for host Mongo, who also founded “Ginzy.com,” an extensive Ginsberg website, in 1995. The site, which was the first comprehensive directory of Ginsberg information on the web, became a major resource for news organizations at Ginsberg’s death in 1997. The “Clearinghouse for all things Ginsberg” continued for several more years, until search engines such as Google made the site obsolete, and Mongo closed it in 2002. It was his relationship with the Ginsberg Estate that allowed him to use Ginsberg’s recording of his poem “America” in 2006, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original 1956 recording. Mongo is thrilled to be able broadcast another Ginsberg work, from that same amazing evening of poetry over a half century ago, to celebrate the show’s 500th episode.

“IndieFeed provides a unique opportunity for poetry lovers to look both backwards, to the greats like Allen Ginsberg, as well as forward, to the amazing young talent that continues to step onto stages for the first time, every day,” Mongo says. “We look forward to producing our next 500 shows, and continuing to bring great poetry to our audience.”

Beginning at 3:00 am on Friday, January 30, the 500th show can be downloaded directly at:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/poetry/indiefeed_allenginsberg_howlforcarlsolomon.mp3

New listeners are invited to explore to the complete archive of shows as well as subscribe to all new releases, at the main IndieFeed Performance Poetry website:

http://performancepoetry.indiefeed.com

Or by finding the podcast in the listings at the iTunes music store.

If you have any questions, or need any additional information, please feel free to reach out to Mongo directly at mongo@indiefeed.com

...And They'll Take Care Of You?

Growing up,

I was ingrained with an idea of familial responsibility. Every party, every wedding, every funeral, every sports event, every bat mitsvah, every bar mitsvah, every graduation required the attendance of at least one member of, if not my entire, immediate family. The reason was simple--"We're family." This attendance was returned in kind, and so the lesson became truth. When my great uncle died, I was righteously angry that none of my cousins were there, partially because I was taken out of a poetry class to make sure that I made it to the two gate, one runway Westchester Airport with plenty of time to spare, but partially because so few branches of the "northern contingent" of my family were represented. I felt that we, in some way, were not just letting my aunt and my cousins down, but letting down entire generations of our family.

What does this have to do with poetry? Recently, I nominated a poem of mine for a Preditors and Editors Award, a fairly democratic contest in which anybody with an e-mail is allowed one vote per category. I sent e-mails to all of my friends and family, asking for their support and then, when I realized I actually had a chance of winning, sent out a second round of e-mails, begging anyone who hadn't voted to take the three minutes to vote.

The reaction I received was, in some ways, inspiring, but in others, depressing. Many, many people voted for my poem. Friends, family members, even people--editors and fellow poets--with whom I've only had contact via e-mail. Some very generous people even sent out mass e-mails in my support, asking all of THEIR friends to support me. However, there were some reactions that puzzled and deeply hurt me. A few people wrote back, angry that I promoted my poems in such a way. One friend accused me of spamming, while another refused to vote because they felt the contest was rigged in some way.

I think my gut reaction returns to the idea that, somehow, if you take care of and support your family, they'll take care of you. I realize we're all financially strapped right now (or at least I am...), so I feel it falls upon us to support each other more creatively. In what ways can one support another poet? In what ways can one support the poetry community? One obvious answer is presence--attend readings, host readings, support readings, promote readings, etc. I would have no problem reading to a group of 20-30 people, even if none of them purchased my book that evening. At least I would know that 20-30 people took the time out of their evening to sit and listen to my work for a while. This is especially true in this weather. I recently did a reading in Brunswick where fellow poets battled some fairly nasty weather, job hours, and other heinous conditions to listen and support me. I didn't sell one book at that reading, but the huge hug that I received from those poets who came out to listen made it worth it.

However, I feel that presence cannot be the only answer. There has to be something more, some greater support that one can give. Perhaps it's through contests like P&E, where a community rallies around their writers. Instead of seeing it as a poet desperately trying to beat the bushes for every available vote possible, perhaps we should see it as a way to say that this poet is OURS, this poet is a member of our family and deserves our alliegence. Perhaps it's through organizations like The-Lit. Perhaps it's through an even greater sacrifice, financial or otherwise. In many religions, there is an idea of setting aside a certain percentage of one's income and life for the Divine. Often called tithing or tything, one should set aside 10% of everything for God. Why not do the same for poetry? Or even half of that--5%? At $7/hour, 40 hours/week, 50 weeks a year, one makes $14,000. 5% of that is $700--a LOT of chapbooks, poetry books, etc. Adding up every book sold at a Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour in the past year, I think one could spend between $200-250, which isn't even half of that 5%. If ten people did this each week, or even every other week--2.5% of their income for poetry, many poets would have the financial support they need, and possibly have money to spend on OTHER poets, who in turn would spend THEIR money on poets, etc. What if that 2.5-5% were translated into time? Many record labels have "street teams"--volunteers that go around, promoting concerts, distributing flyers, mailing postcards, etc. to support the bands coming to their town. What if presses had teams like that, promoting readings and events?

What responsibility do you have to the NEOH poetry scene?

What does that responsibility translate into?