Defining The Scene
By David Gecic

Published in Tunnel Rat November 1997
Page 3

The poetry scene in Chicago has undergone many ups and downs over the years. Sometimes, there is a question of whether there actually is a scene in Chicago or just merely a group of diverse people doing their own thing.

What defines a scene is not people doing their own thing, but some dedication to something beyond themselves, whether it be an idea or a lifestyle. It requires a group of people working together and sharing something. So what so the poets making up the great diversity of Chicago's scene have in common? What connects rather than separates them?

When I first began reading poetry in Chicago, there was a group of factions widely spread through the area. People whould go to their own places for their poetic fix. It was primarily groups of people who got together to share their work. The problem with this situation is that you tend to write to satisfy the group instead of creating work which speaks to a wide audience. Poets in groups tend to write for the group around them. When Marc Smith began the Chicago Poetry Festival, he was aware of the fact and used the theme "Neutral Turf" to bring these diverse groups together in one place for one unified purpose: the performance of poetry.

I had a discussion with Pat Smith, four-time National Slam Champ, one night at a local pub and told her that I felt guilty about not attending the Green Mill as often anymore. I had been going to new venues at the time including the Bop Shop and the Borderline, and by the weekend I would be "Poetry'd Out". She told me not to worry about it and asked me if I was a poet or a Green Mill poet. Perhaps I was ready to leave the nest. I have always felt it was important for a poet to identify themselves with a venue in order to develop a style and have an audience who gets familiar with their work. It is a good sounding board and gives them a familiar place to get familiar with performing before an audience. Eventually, a poet must leave his safe haven and go to other places on the scene or they wil not expand their audience.

In order for this to happen, these must be a scene for a poet to go to.

In the late '80s and early '90s, there was a dramatic increase in the number of poetry venues and attention given to poetry in Chicago. Even the coverage given to poetry now is dramatically more than in the early or mid '80s. This is due to the development of a poerty scene that simply did not exist for many years.

There were several factors that influenced the growth of the poetry scene - and today's poetry scene in fact depends on their presence, too. When poets began traveling from venue to venue, there was a mixing of talent, performance styles and extremely fertile ground for the growth of a scene. The poets from Fitzgerald's, which had its readings on Tuesday night, would go to the Bop Shop and occassionally Weeds afterward. Many of these poets would be at the Green Mill on Sundays. The Borderline and Estelle's had readings that poeple would only have to cross the street to attend. This mixing of poetry venues added strength to the scene.

When poets travel from venue to venue, there is a vibrant mixung of talent. The audience is able to enjoy poets they may not ordinarily see. For a strong scene, this cross-fertilization must be encourgaed.

Consistency is very important to the poetry scene. When poets or audience members go to a reading it is important that they know what to expect. When the formats from venue to venue are extremely different both poets and audience do not feel welcome. Many a potential audience member has been lost because of one reading they attended that they felt was too weird or stupid. If they would have walked into a poetry reading down the street, they may have returned week after week.

There must be a consistancy in the poets who appear from venue to venue. Spectators have favorite performers or hosts and tend to folow them. Hosts who frequent other venues will bring poets from their venue and the two venues will feed one another back and forth.

Continuity is also very important. If a venue changes hosts or formats often, both audiences and performers are put off. It is not unusual when a venue changes from one host to another and the majority of the audience leaves, some to never return. The amount of people retained usually depends on the amount of changes the new host makes.

There must be a continuity of poets also. Poets must return to a venue, must remain active on the poetry scene and not become discouraged before they can find a style or voice or an audience to suit them. There have been many fine poets who were great writers and performers but have since disappeared off the face of the earth. There are poets who get on stage once and get no response from the audience or other poets and never show their pwrk top anyone again.

I read in Clevenland once at a poetry festival. There was a group of Cleveland poets and a surprising number of Chicago poets who had made their way there independently. All the poets were pleasantly surprised to see one another. When a poet read, no matter how good or bad they were, the Cleveland audience gave them polite applause. After the reading, I did not see one Cleveland poet tell another Cleveland poet they liked or hated their work. I saw a host ask a poet who had read for the first time if he would like to be featured. The poet was excellent, but when he heard the word "feature" he was scared to death. He may never have read again.

What was lacking there was a self-regulating device. In Chicago, poets talk about their work and criticize one each other. Some poets talk about their work or criticize far too much, but some of the most sucessful poets in Chicago not only communicate to the audiences but communicate to other poets ideas about composition or performance.

The Scene requires leadership. There must be people dedicated to poetry in Chicago and their fellow poets. Jealousies and divisions no not serve anyone well.

Too many places with occassional reading or too many with short-lived readings discourage poets from going to new readngs because a suspicion of new venues grows as readers discover that readings listed in calanders do not exist. If a venue or a host does not want to commit to a long run of something, they should not pretend to.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the scene is that the people involved must care about what they are doing and be supportive of one another. The poetry scene is a fragile animal, as can be seen by its waxing and waning over the years. There have been many rivalries between poets over the years and many have been destructive to the scene. The scene must be a something its members want to be be a part of.

The Scene is not made up of places, things, style or ideas. It is made up of people and relationships. In many ways a scene exists to support itself. But the scene should serve the audience. Often, parts of the Scene forget that there is someone out there who listens. Without the audience the scene serves no purpose.

It is a mistake to think of the poetry scene as something that exists and always will exist. It is something that is consistently evolving and could very quickly devolve. It must be fed and worked on or it will continue to experience the dramatic ups and downs it has suffered over the years. Left alone, it may suffer its final downturn.