POW! – A Review The Palace of Wisdom Event, 28-30^th November 2003

William Blake’s birthday saw a unique experimental event this year, a 24 hour poetry and performance marathon celebrating the visionary bard and the tradition of anarchic mystical poetry he inspired. The influence of Blake was very much apparent at the event, held as part of a decadent house party in London’s Hoxton Square, with some of London’s top fringe performers paying their homage to Blake, as well as show casing their own original material. Star performers included John Constable, of Southwark Mysteries fame, who lent his sha-manic magick to the proceedings; the multi-talented poet-musician Niall McDevitt, who with his brother Roddy became the lynchpin of the event; the enigmatic Paradox, a relative newcomer to the fringe poetry scene, whose paradoxical mystical and radical verse was perhaps the closest to the spirit of Blake; the brilliant Spacegirl, one of the greatest unsung heroines of the fringe poetry community; and the incomparible Interferrence, the doyen of the alternative scene, who, while still refusing to be called a ‘poet’, energised the event supplying it’s cutting edge with his insightful and challenging verbal onslaughts.
The authentic synergy generated between these diverse performers has rarely been witnessed since the legendary happenings of the 60’s, creating a memorable experience for all those present.

The event certainly harked back to those earlier ‘happenings’ which had partially inspired it, such as the legendary Wholly Communion at the Royal Albert Hall in 1965, with the first night in particular being the kind of countercultural gathering seldom seen outside of a rave party these days. Despite the brilliant performances from the aforementioned artists, and others such as Salena Saliva, Yap, Moksha and Ernesto, the infamous Naked Poet, one of the most inspiring features of the night for many was it’s participatory element, with not only an ‘open mike’ in Spacegirl’s Salon, and opportunities in the main performance area, but spontaneous performance and improvisation, both poetic and musical, in every available space, including the toilet que! It was this spontaneity, together with the house party ambience and quality of the main performers, which largely prevented the event from degenerating into another pretentious poetry gathering. At times it was hard to distinguish the audience from the performers. Not for many years had such a concentration of conscious people been together in one place.

The only flaw in the event was perhaps its lack of adequate documentation and failure to sustain non stop performance longer than 14 hours (no mean achievement in itself of course), and the fact that by the Saturday afternoon the event had nearly fizzled out. But fortunately with more guests arriving for the evening’s finale it regained enough momentum to surpass the 24 hours originally scheduled and finally ended after an incredible 27 hours.

Other unforgetable aspects of this amazing event were the Psychedelic Chill Space, complete with entrancing, morphetic Blakean projections, from the digital video artist Zooph, and a small Exhibition Space featuring the inspired works of the painter Jocelyn Chaplin. Both from the Dionysian Underground counter cultural anarchist network, who facillitated (and crewed) the event along with the Palace of Wisdom poet’s collective. But perhaps the most magickal was a morning visit to Blake’s grave (serendipitously located near the venue) where more performances and songs culminated in a surreal ‘laughing rite’ inspired by Blake’s famous poem.

An impressive limited edition book was also produced for this event, featuring selected works of the main POW poets, and sold to raise money for the Bolivia Fund (with a unique signed edition raffled during the event). The Bolivia Fund was a major beneficiary from the money raised, and aims to provide food and medicine for those injured during the unarmed overthrow of the corrupt government of Bolivia this year. An historic event in itself, the aftermath of which being witnessed by Dionysian Underground associate Raga, who inspired the charitable aspect of the event.

More events by the POW crew are planned over the next few years.

The Road To Excess Leads To The Palace Of Wisdom. William Blake.