3/5/2010 11:10:00 AM Columbia City finds poetry in the spoken word Poet Michael McClure to present lecture, workshop
■ Award-winning poet, playwright and novelist Michael McClure will conduct a workshop and present a lecture at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center on March 12 and 13. photo/GLORIA GRAHAM
Columbia City is becoming a poetry mecca of the Pacific Northwest. Why? Because the mecca moved here from Auburn. That’s right. Auburn-based SPLAB is sponsoring Guggenheim Fellowship Award-winning poet, playwright and novelist Michael McClure as he conducts a lecture and poetry workshop called Poetry, Imagination, Inspiration: The Facets of Projective Verse at the Rainier Valley Cultural Center, 3515 S. Alaska St., on March 12 and 13. Then on April 3, beginning at 8 p.m. and running into the wee morning hours, SPLAB will sponsor an Allen Ginsberg Poetry Marathon at Empire Espresso, 3829 S. Edmunds St. These events are expected to draw poetry enthusiasts from all over Seattle, as well as from afar. (To register for McClure’s workshop, go to splab.org.) To some, it may seem puzzling that Southeast Seattle — instead of Pioneer Square or the University District — has won so much attention from poets and poetry lovers. The answer is simple: SPLAB moved here.
Spreading the word SPLAB director Paul Nelson said SPLAB (which stands for “Spoken Word LABoratory”) was conceived in 1997 during a conversation he had with poet Danika Dinsmore in front of a vacant storefront in Auburn. They soon rented the storefront to serve as SPLAB’s home. A communications graduate of Columbia College in Chicago, Nelson also worked as a radio announcer locally for KPLU-FM and KZOK-FM. Nelson even had his own small radio studio in Auburn, from which he broadcasted an interview show that lasted 11 years. Nelson interviewed practitioners of “holistic approaches” to solving life and global problems for his “Global Voices Radio” show. Poet Allen Ginsberg was among the many holistic professionals who appeared on the show.
A long night ahead During its years in Auburn, SPLAB held poetry readings, open mics and spoken-word competitions. Besides featuring local talent, especially youths, poets traveled to Auburn from Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., and beyond. Nelson said SPLAB events welcome anyone of any level who is serious about writing and/or appreciating poetry. Michael McClure and his friend, the celebrated Ginsberg, were some of many famous poets who performed in the Auburn storefront over the years. In 1998, one year after Ginsberg’s death, SPLAB held its first of many poetry marathons to commemorate Ginsberg’s life and work. The marathons traditionally begin in the evening and keep going into the morning hours. Besides poetry readings, the program includes special guests, writing exercises and films. Nelson said he expects the marathon’s record duration of 10 1/2 hours will be exceeded this year in its new Columbia City location. Featured performers will include Band of Poets reading Ginsberg’s famous work “Witchita Vortex Sutra.” Independent studies Over the years SPLAB has done a lot of work with young people to enable them to express themselves in the spoken word. In 2000 the organization held a Teen Poetry Slam contest, in which the winners went on to a national poetry competition. Although he realized that “SPLAB might have found more fertile cultural ground” in Seattle, Nelson stayed in Auburn until his daughter graduated from high school and went off to college. Through many of those years, Nelson was himself attending school. At the same time, Nelson was busy with an array of other interests. For a time, he attended the Center for World Indigenous Studies to learn about the Salish peoples. He also studied Auburn’s history as a Native American homeland and later as a pioneer settlement. His book of poems, “A Time Before Slaughter,” reflects Nelson’s insights into Auburn (originally named Slaughter after its founder) as a microcosm of wider social issues. Long before moving to Seattle, Nelson had become a well-known figure in Seattle’s literary community. For years, Nelson commuted to the city to participate in poetry readings, classes and events, as well as to serve on the board of Red Sky Poetry Theatre. “I have a very high-carbon footprint,” Nelson admitted.
Conscious writing From his home in Oakland, Calif., McClure said via telephone that the purpose of his workshop in Columbia City will be to show participants how to “find their own handle on discovering vividness and consciousness in poetry,” and, if they want to write poetry, “show them how to discover their own consciousness.” McClure said of his lecture: “The secrets of poetry speak to us clearly in imagination and inspiration. Writing is alive. It is always vividly present. This talk centers on how to engage that vividness in the act of composition.” Nelson considers McClure “the greatest living poet.… Now, at age 77, McClure is writing the best work of his life,” imbued as it is now with greater “energy, wisdom and perception.” McClure disagrees, but he said, “It’s deeper and more vivid,” qualities he attributes to knowledge and experience hard-won with age. He advises aspiring poets to “look for imagination and inspiration in the work of others from all times and places, and use your discovery to verify and help you believe in your own imagination and inspiration.”
