Today, I visited "American Literature: The Jazz Age and the Lost Generation: 1920s America", one of several American Literature menu options offered by Punahou's Academy English Department. The course lends itself to interdisciplinary studies, as students examine 1920s literature in historical and cultural context; readings are accompanied by a study of jazz music, modern art, and clips from period cinema. "Jazz Age" also studies the enduring influence of the Twenties and its cultural hallmarks in American culture today, hence forays into jazz literature of the Fifties and Sixties. Since I'd been interested in observing the class for a while and have personal interests in Beat literature and jazz, when my colleague Pete Barazza mentioned he'd be doing something experimental in class involving student-generated music, recitations, and a guest poet, I jumped at the opportunity.
Currently, Pete's students have just started Jack Kerouac's On the Road, a Beat Generation memoir influenced by the jazz scene. Kerouac, of French-Canadian origin, made his home in Lowell, Massachusetts. The guest speaker for the class, George Wallace, author of Poppin' Johnny and Pace University performance poet and professor, gave a short talk to contextualize Kerouac's work. Wallace noted that the Beat Generation emerged from the 1950s Jazz Scene, and Beat Poetry featured bop prosody and an emphasis on spontaneous, improvisational writing. Wallace traced the genesis of Jazz to the folk music of New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans' Afro-French-Creole dominant culture migrated north, beginning at the time of the Spanish-American War, and flourished in Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City, a "furnace of creative energy in collaborative activity," was the home of famed saxophonist Charlie Parker, a.k.a. "Bird", who heard jazz in clubs as kid, and subsequently became bebop jazz master. Music and literature cross-pollinated, giving rise to "bop prosody", a poetic formcharacterized by collaborative, improvisational, transcendental gymnastics and guided by the philosophy "let it roll. In visual art, jazz influenced the work of painter Jackson Pollock, an abstract expressionist and disciple of Kansas City native son and famed muralist, Thomas Hart Benton, who painted raw, realistic representations of American life. Though master and student had vastly different artistic styles, noted Wallace, both artists' work exhibits strong rhythm and energy.
Student performances comprised a major component of this particular class, though the presenters were all guests, as opposed to "Jazz Age" students--was delighted to see several familiar faces. Travis '13, alto saxophonist, did a performance poetry piece with Wallace; reminiscent of a 1960s Happening, George read poetry to the background of Travis' improvisational riffs, words mingling with music.
Then Emma '16, shared a Allen Ginsberg poem--Ginsberg being, of course, a friend of Jack Kerouac.
Wallace then did a poetry reading, sharing the work of various American writers and artists: Walt Whitman's poem "Miracles", the "Skid Row" section of musician and social activist,Woody Guthrie, a memoir excerpt written by jazz musician, Count Basie, which shared parallels to the next excerpt, from Kerouac's On the Road. Then, Wallace read Allen Ginsberg's "Sunflower Sutra", a poem documenting a epiphanal moment shared with Kerouac in San Francisco. Finally, Wallace closed with three of his own works, which reflected jazz and musical elements: "A Bass Player", "Subway", and "Belt Buckles and Bibles."
A question-answer session with Wallace concluded the class. Wallace advised t aspiring poets to "start with the music and the energy--this is what drives the poem. Gotta have rhythm and music to
communicate--a poem is mediation with music." Someone wondered if poetry deliberately created for presentation with music changed the poem any. Wallace responded, "If you know you're solo, then music needs to be in your poem. But if it's an actual collaboration with a musician, you gotta know where you're going w/ it." My favorite moment, however, was Wallace's response as to whether he deliberately incorporates music in his compositional process or just in the spoken delivery. Wallace cited a Washington poet who suggested that writing a poem is like leading a fish upstream--you don't know where it'll take ya. Yet he personally enjoys that sense of spontaneity and serendipity, getting "a buzz out of the process", discovering where he's headed as he goes. Wallace noted, "Words are like fresco painting--they're live material. You don't want them to dry out and be brittle. Use the material while it's alive." |
Monday, May 13, 2013
5-13-13 Visit to Pete Barazza's "American Literature: The Jazz Age and the Lost Generation" class
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