Tonight's show is now a double feature!  Get there early to get a good seat. :)

 

I've been attending a monthly songwriter open mic at the Octopus in Cedar Falls for a while now, and it's become one of my favorite things about my new home in the Cedar Valley.  On April 1st, I will be the featured artist, which makes me beyond happy.  

You coming?

 

North Tama Telegraph--an unflagging supporter of the arts in North Tama County--put out an article this week about my recent award, with a really kind mention of one of my recent songs.  You can find the article here.

Just took a little trip through Internet history, looking for the date one of my plays was first performed.  Along the way, I found a lot of good memories, and this review from 2010.  I'm leaving it here, so it will never be lost again. :)

___________
 

“Visceral, oblique theatre emanates from DM Social Club”

by John Busbee (The Culture Buzz, 5/3/2010)

Des Moines, Iowa
April 22, 2010 

The Des Moines Social Club continues honoring an important part of its mission: to present experimental, ethics-challenging productions. It also provides independent producers the opportunity to gain more experience as they indulge personal proclivities for works they may otherwise not have the chance to produce. The challenge for independent producers in Greater Des Moines is in finding a performing space with an established identity so energy and resources can focus on the production. Thankfully, the Des Moines Social Club now serves this special role in Central Iowa, making it much easier for the adventurous performing arts patron to find edgier works for cultural consumption.

Frank Burnette Productions is behind this current double-header of controversy. Dutchman by Amiri Baraka harkens to the playwright/poet's early 1960s radical roots, while Manhattan Beatitude gives Iowa-connected playwright/poet Jim Coppoc an excellent venue for gaining greater exposure to his 2009 work. The almost 50-year difference between the publishing of these two works creates interesting comparative reflections.

Considering the New York City connections for both plays, the rough, black-box setting suits the material. One can imagine some gritty, Manhattan found-space site for guerrilla style performances. However, it will be nice when the Des Moines Social Club finds a way to control the sound problems in this open, converted garage space. The echo effect distracts from the presentation, forcing patrons often to strain to catch the language of a show. Also, offering some back story for these pieces through the DMSC web site would better prepare patrons to delve into their thick, creative stuff.

Amiri Baraka has built an almost fabled career. Born as LeRoi Jones in 1934, this often controversial figure hit a creative proficiency following his 1960 visit to Cuba which initiated his transformation into a politically active artist. He published Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961) and Blues People: Negro Music in White America (1963), which is still considered one of the most influential volumes of jazz ever published. Dutchman emerged in 1964, the same year it earned an Obie Award. The assassination of Malcolm X in 1965 triggered his break from the Beat Poets. He left his wife and children and immersed himself in bolder expressions, using his poetry more as a weapon of action rather than an escapist mechanism. The roots for these feelings are manifest in the taut, comfort-challenging action of Dutchman. Ken-Matt Martin as Clay and Kt Marie Scarcello as Lula give impassioned performances in this ploy-counterploy psychological chess match where each character brings various aspects of his/her race, religion and social background into this chilling microcosm of conflict. Mental games quickly escalate to an explosive conclusion, with foreboding message about the future.

Jim Coppoc, Manhattan Beatitude playwright, brings an eclectic background of literary success into this piece. With historic echoes from a bygone beat poetry era, this hybrid performance captures the essence of the story's main theme: the impact of Allen Ginsberg's death on his creatively attuned followers. Kyle Chizek cloaks himself in the ragged persona of Geezer, who has been dealing drugs in Central Park a long time - he even "sold drugs to the Indians." His domain is invaded by the primal, ceremonial entourage honoring the passing of their iconic hero, Ginsberg. Coppoc, an award-winning writer, teacher and performer, pulls heavily from his life for this piece, making this a curiously personal piece. This New York chapter in his life is rife with raw perspectives. Scott Siepker (Saul) and Iris Seaman (Kay) are joined by the Chorus of Heidi Germann and Yvette Zaród Hermann. Siepker and Seaman bring an open intensity as their relationship pivots and twists through the overshadowing loss of their poetic great. As a most minimalist Greek chorus, Germann and Hermann bring exaggerations and enhancements that sometimes drift off into the darkness surrounding the performing space. A favorite element in this play is Linda Foster's artistry on the drum and singing bowl. The pulsing, pushing beat imbue important stretches of the action with soul-piercing clarity. The drumming is replaced offstage during one section by the haunting ebb and flow of her mastery with the singing bowl, adding an ephemeral quality which saturates the unfolding tension. The combination of this performing sextet brings Coppoc's work to eclectic, eccentric life.

This was an engaging juxtaposition of two works by divergent playwrights who seem to draw from a similar pool of creativity. The complex Baraka, with a worldly, decades-long richness, and emerging Coppoc, who just a few years ago performed at the Iowa Fringe Festival and continues to expand his work. These are the kinds of cultural adventures more frequently appearing in our region, to be sought after by any true collector of creative experiences. Adhere to a philosophical invitation of The Culture Buzz: indulge your imagination, enhance your life. The Des Moines Social Club is one source for such adventures, so be sure to keep connected!

Things have been so crazy lately that I haven't been able to really pay attention to social media.  But I did have a little time to check in this afternoon, and at the top of my inbox was my friend Jesse Cotton, congratulating me on winning “Poet of the Year.”  This is easily one of my favorite surprises ever.

Thanks to Nicole Salis for producing the winning performance, to Matthew Anderson and Jardéz Hollingsworth for accompanying, and the Cedar Falls Community Theater for giving poetry a stage.

 

Late breaking news!  

I'll be playing this Friday at 6 pm at Newton's Paradise Cafe in Waterloo.

Who's coming?

 

I've been doing a terrible job posting all the latest here, but just in case you catch this, here's the next place to catch me. :)

Hope to see you there.

 

A friend of mine connected me with a new bar in Reinbeck (Surly Steve's, formerly the 405) looking to start an open mic night.  Of course, I jumped right in. :)

So, you coming?

 

Cup of Joe in Cedar Falls is launching a new poetry open mic series, and last night was the first installment.  I wish I had pics and video of all the poets, but to be honest I was too much in awe of the wordsmithing that was going on to even think about pulling out my phone.

Lindsey did manage to get some pics of me, though.  So for posterity…

 

That's me!  I'm “live entertainment!”  

12-3 both days.  Bring your mother.