Poetry New York

    Yesterday’s spoken word reading by Rodrigo Toscano and Kristen Prevallet at the Bowery Poetry Club left much to be said after the fact. If the amount of discussion generated by a performance can be taken as a measure of its worth, then it is apparent that both Toscano and Prevallet scored a resounding triumph in the minds of their audience. The only problem with this picture is that much of the post-event expression was far from glowing and more critically dismantling than what could have been expected based on both poets’ aged reputations.

    Toscano began with selections from To Leveling Swerve, his latest published compilation. Ripping through the dim lit haze of the stage with a variety of violent articulations and blurred discords, his first piece entitled Subject Line Subscribe (Society) addressed the growing cyberspace world of impersonal communication. Originally written at the dawn of the twenty first century’s budding generation of online bloggers, Toscano, through skillful poetic manipulation, exposes and reflects upon the mechanical existence of internet cafes and consumer gossip circles. In this piece and those that followed, he places less emphasis on the literal (or symbolic) meaning of the words used and more on the musical weave of imagery found in their strategic fragmentation. With an infusion of many clever turns of phrase, academic wordplay, and multilingual slang (of which Pound would most certainly approve) To Leveling Swerve vividly demonstrates a poetics centered in unstructured and revolutionary independence. Toscano chose to close his portion of the program with some of his latest explorations, which served only to further accent the conceptual foundation of his evolving expertise.

    In contrast to her predecessor’s vibrant energy, Prevallet delivered an emotionally dry however inspired rendition of one of her latest experimental works. The lengthy piece, written during a time of intense grieving in wake of her father’s suicide, hit close to home for all of us who have ever experienced a profound loss. By haphazardly switching form between intellectual theory, narrative prose, and poetic free-flow, she seeks to embody the many overlapping and chaotic states of numb confusion and torn abandonment characteristic of the grieving process. How well or effectual such a method succeeded in its purpose remains debatable, but, if nothing else, the idea alone is worthy of significant interest and applause.

    So what was the problem in all of this you might ask? Well for starters, both artists are not of your common variety surface dwelling folk who depend upon a trellis of straightforward logic and easy-to-understand meaning in order to enjoy themselves. Hence their work hardly reflects such an overpopulated demand. This would be more than acceptable within their private sphere of enthusiasts, if it were not for their publicly stated desire to be all inclusive or as Toscano himself phrased it, “poetics theater means to cut off no one.” But when one relies heavily on melodic gibberish or obscure symbolism as a primary means to communicate, the large majority of listeners will be left listless in their thirst for something tangible. Prevallet, on the other hand, while slightly more lucid in her word choice, can often slide into an overly formulaic realm. She has interspersed moments of brilliance, “as a political position I hold onto grief,” but often maintains a bland suspense with no building climax. It did not help any when they combined their handicapped efforts in a duet interpretation of Prevallet’s translation of a famous African playwright. Their hostile take over of the diverse range of characters with their own self-contained personalities was humorously entertaining yet insufficient in conveying the plot or beauty of the written language.

    All in all, it seemed as if both Toscano and Prevallet were a little out of their element amidst those in attendance (with few exceptions noted), which brought about some minor frictions between poet and spectator. Hopefully, they’ll find a more familiar and friendly reception wherever their future finds them.