Michael Gravel Edmonton Writer

Teen Writing Workshop

On Sunday March 22, 2009 I took part in a teen writing workshop / class facilitated by my colleague Alexis Kienlen at the Milner Library in downtown Edmonton. I was joined by the inimitable duo of Jeffrey Carpenter and Glenn Robson, formally know in poetic circles as the sound poetry duo Tonguebath. The idea behind this was to introduce young writers to some different, or “edgier” forms of poetry¹. Despite the shitass weather outside, there were about 8 kids present, all of them around the 16 to 17 mark. It was really awesome and inspiring to hang around with cool and talented youth, and as always, it was great to collaborate with Jeffrey and Glenn and hear some of the beautiful, arcane madness that is sound poetry.

I’d like to say that I gave a lesson, but the truth is I basically gave a reading and let the kids take from it what they wanted to. For somebody not familiar with more performance-type poetry, it’s kind of hard to explain without hearing it and seeing it, so a few examples seemed appropriate. After I talked a bit about what I did / do with the Raving Poets, and some talk about “slam” poetry, I got them do some writing. More “beat” oriented material; stuff that was heavy on the rhythm and flow and easy on the literal meaning. I wasn’t sure if they were liking what I was doing, but man, when it came time for them to write and share their work I was pretty blown away. Keeping in mind that this wasn’t really a poetry class per se, and they likely hadn’t heard much of this stuff before, these cats really knocked it out of the park with their beats and rhythms. I just kinda sat there with a big stupid grin on my face, digging what they were doing. I looked over at Alexis once in a while and she was smiling wide. I’d love to see them down at the Raving Poets, but alas, and fake IDs notwithsatanding, we’re rated R.

Jeff and Glenn then took the podium to introduce the kids to the wondrous and amazing world of sound poetry. For those not familiar with sound poetry, maybe have a look at the Wikipedia page for a bit of a primer, and then check out Tonguebath’s blog for a few recorded examples. I’m not sure I can explain it…it’s such a avante garde artform that you have to hear it. This workshop took place in a public area of the library (reserved for this type of thing, but the general public was milling about). When Jeff and Glenn started doing their thing, the reaction of library patrons was priceless. Incredulous shock with a mixture of disgust is probably the best way to put it, and one gentleman left in a conspicuous and disgruntled manner. I laughed my ass off, but the library patrons were non-plussed. Despite the overall weirdness of all of this, the kids did pick it up and run with it, each bravely composing their own sound poem with prompts from Jeff and Glenn. It was great to see young artists negotiating new territory. They were a pretty fearless lot.

Gotta say that I love doing this sort of thing, and as predicted I ended up learning more from them than they likely got from me. Damn inspiring.

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¹ I hate the word “edgy”, but for lack of a better descriptor, it’ll have to work.

Entry #102 · March 24, 2009 in