On Our Laurels (or "Why Kentucky Needs an Anti-Laureate”)

I realized today (or this morning) that I have had three writing teachers in my lifetime that were Laureates – and one Anti-Laureate!

Sena jeter Naslund, 2005-2006 Poet Laureate of Kentucky, Amiri Baraka, 2001 Poet Laureate of New Jersey (asked to step down because of his 9.11 poem, “Somebody Blew Up America”), Lawrence Ferlingehtti, Poet Laurate of San Franscisco, and the BEST ONE, my primary poetics teacher and my advisor/mentor at Naropa – Ansem Hollo, Anti-Laureate of the United States 2003-infinity!

In each case, I have a history. I’ll dis-include Mr. Ferlingehtti here for continum’s sake.
Sena Naslund was the writing teacher, at my tender age of 18, that instead of going over a peice of writing I turned into her somewhat lack-luster “workshop” decided to waltz me down to the University of Louisville’s Psychologist. He was on his way to a conference, and had little to say to me, except to argue the importance of Mapplethorpe (the conference was in Cinci, and that was the only thing I could think of at the time to discuss). Sena also wrote my letter of recomendation to my final educational resting place Naropa’s famed Jack Keroauc School of Disembodied Poetics, saying I was “showed promise, but too wild for UofL.” When I returned to the UofL campus to read at the 200th Bicentenial celebration in 1998, and the few times I was asked to chair a symposium during the last century’s 20th Century Literary Conference over a period of ten years, I thought of that statement. I have to admit, I tend to play into that role.

Baraka and I have been friends in letters since 1991, and during the 1994 20th Anniversary of Naropa and tribute to AG, we publically debated on whiether or not I was a “middle class poet.” The audio of those debates are now saved for prosperity at the Keroauc School Audio portion of archive.org. Baraka himself is still under controversy, his laureateship was taken from him by the State of New Jersey after his poem “Somebody Blew Up America” was considered anti-semetic. Even today, Cherry Lane in New York produced his “Dutchman”, which evidently was first to run on his stage so it is part of thier heritage series, the play seems dated, racist – maybe mysoginistic, having a white woman be the downfall and eventual murderer of an intellectual black man – but still draws enough controversy to get an article for the 72 year old poet, tenured professor (SUNY Stony Brook) and activist.

Ansem Hollo, in 2001 was named by the POETICS listserv at SUNY Buffalo as Anti-Laureate of the United States of America, in protest of the appointment by the Bush administration of Billy Collins to the position of Poet Laureate Consultant to the Library of Congress. In the online version of Andre Codrescu’s venerable rag, Exquisite Corpse, Anselm gave quite a acceptence speech:

(“from the desk of the anti-laureate”)
“With all the ironies and contradictions appertaining thereunto” (High Commissioner Robert Archambeau of the United States Anti-Laureate Commission), I am delighted to accept my appointment as US Anti-Laureate for the year 2001.

While I agree with several of Barrett Watten’s points regarding the “Iowa exclusion” and the “system of representation on which the [US] Poet Laureate[ship] is based,” I prefer to read the title as simply representing a “Big No” (as in George Grosz’s remarkable autobiography, Ein kleines Ja und ein grosses Nein — A Small Yes and a Big No) to the “laurels” bestowed by some librarian and his cronies in the (increasingly) provincial capital of the world.

A “No,” as well, to the tiresome hype (put out by publishers, arrangers of literary events, etc.) of all the “award-winning” So-and-sos — a hype to which perhaps only “arts administration” bureaucrats still pay any attention.

As for the Iowa Exclusion, and the Exclusion of the Great Dead, I may, upon further Pataphysical Reflection and Discussion with The High Commissioner and other interested parties, decide to suggest waiving these in years to come. The Anti- and Alternative Laureates are legion, and include many more than those nominated this time around. I agree with Watten that Robert Grenier’s indomitable US American lyricism deserves recognition, as does the dynamic, visionary, linguistically and philosophically innovative work of Alice Notley (my nominee).

Since the Anti-Laureateship is not funded by taxpayers, I cannot invite Notley, or Grenier, or Watten, or any of you, to come and read at the Library of Congress. I have, however, acted as an advisor to the illustrious Left Hand Reading Series in Boulder, Colorado, for the past couple of years, and intend to continue to do so. The organizers of the series, poets Laura E. Wright and Mark DuCharme, pass a Venerable Hat for Honorarium, which thus varies according to the number of solvent persons in the audience. In its modest way, this series has been, is, and will be working toward “undoing the system of representation on which the [US] Poet Laureate[ship] is based” (Watten).

The acceptence speech points out a few things that my aquaintences and friendships have truthfuly pointed towards that I did not plan to participate in or realize, but have been brought into it by karmic extention.

Sena Jeter Naslund holds a PHd in English from Iowa. The relationship she has with literature in the state of my birth, and my current residence is profound. Credentials maybe, maybe something more. Baraka was dealing with this at Rutgers, where he could not get tenure because of his standing in the political arena, these hold a certain fare in the literary arena – and how creatives are able to make a living (the US Poet Laureateship is a nice lump some for a writer to base living expenses off of).

Now, the literary-left has definately created it’s own pantheon, The Keroauc School of which I hold a BFA and MFA was the equivalent of a literary playground for the disenfranchised every summer – both in the faculty and student body. But that is maybe another entry. Except that it is where Anselm Hollo, Amiri Baraka, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti can call a safe haven for their own literary ex-patrism. If not home, it is certainly a place where the responsivness of the community surrounding them creates enough momentum to address the doledrums of the rest of the nations impovershed, short-sighted, un-fun literary landscape.

But I know from expereince, there isn’t a great deal of money in that community (the occasional Soros or Guggenheim endowment, but only on occasion). And the opportunities of a Naropa grad are not the same as an Iowa grad. Harper Collins hasn’t come knocking at my door, for example, or for that matter anyone that I graduated with in the mid-Nineties. I know it is more literary agents responsibility. Maybe, but it seems that even the most banal “historical novel” can be run in a consumer’s paradise, but an African American notable writer like Baraka can be out of print – indefinately.

In the Commenwealth of Kentucky, the powers-that-be have initiated, as another teacher and friend Diane DiPrima would have put it, a “war on the imagination.” They have given the Laureateship of this land to a writer of worth, but hardly a poet. Her most reacent offering, a novel, a historical novel, and as well written as it is – not a bit of it verse. Is the “poet” in “poet laureate” a misnomer? What politricks of gender and gander gave this Iowa alumn, non-native daughter the post – however lackluster the title may be. However disparing the title may seem, it is one of our only awards of stature, and the highest a executive government can bestow upon an artist-of-worth. In defiance, and defense of all writers that cannot write a historical exegesis, start a school, or be a “writer-in-residence”, the Commenwealth needs an “Anti-Laureate” – and since I have no power at all except for the power-in-ideas, why not start the thing. As the inimitable Ansem Hollo so put in his 2001 acceptence above, although the “Anti and Alternative laureates are legion”, I initiate this title and give the first nom-de-plum, nomination to Ron Whitehead.

Why Ron Whitehead do you say? Why not anyone else, anyone…

First, and foremost, he is a native-son. Second, and equal if not moreso, he is a poet. Third, he is a incredibly versitile fuck-up that has gotten a great deal done for the writing community in Kentucky- moreso than I would say a chair at the University of Louisville or Spalding would allow. His presence on the cultural landscape of Louisville and Kentucky en-whole over the past 20 years is still applicable, if his references are a little late – the Beats are not the most relative culturally, but they do carry a bit of pop culture significance. Does he hold tenure anywhere, no, he has a tendency to actually get fired or asked to leave from whatever university that has had the pleasure of servicing his vision. He has had a run-in with every single writer in the commonwealth at some point, for good or naught. The noteable and not so much, young and old, he has brought writers of worth and of a particular “leftist brand” to the state and then exported our own brand of “Keeping Louisville Wierd” to the metropolises of the national and dare-I-say international poetics landscape. He is a ham, and a braggart. He is a laughable poetry fan-boy that is delusional and sometime believes his own PR, and puts himself in the thick of a life he is really only a part of in his own head. His non-profit (prophet) corporation, The Literary Renaissance, Inc. is a buffoonary, and antithesis to everything 301c in the state, but in that he must be applauded – he is doing something right if we all know his name. Tireless “brand me” before there was such a nomenclature in business 2.0. So yeah, Ron Whitehead – the perfect icon for all that is “Anti-Laureate”, anti-arts administration, in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I’m sure if you consider it hard, you will have to agree.

So, what would be the criteria of a Kentucky Anti-Laureate? Who would you choose, and why? Like the national Anti-Laureate post, I would suggest that they do not hold a degree from Iowa’s program. It would be nice to say that they do not hold a degree in tandem from anyone, anywhere that has anything to do with a Iowa grad – but that would limit the options. Oh, and lets omit The Great Dead.

I, like Anselm Hollo, don’t have the backing of arts funding or a literary trust (although, I have recieved NEA monies in the past, with the help of 13th Moon Productions in Seattle, for a festival in Prague, Czech Republic), but I DO have at my disposal a location for the anointment ceremony to take place. And no more fitting place for the paper crown of the accursed poet (poet maudit) to be placed but Comedy Caravan, Mid-City Mall, in the original arts and entertainment district in the largest city in the Commonwealth – The Highlands. Surely Tom Sobel won’t mind, he has seen his fare share of washed-up writers and lame-duck drunkards in the last 20 years, one poet won’t hurt his rep. And just so ya’ll know, I just happen to be the publicist for the place, and before you say, “well this is just a publicity stunt,” let me assure you – it ain’t that sophisticated around here. If this gets pushed at all, it’s up to you, the uninterested readership. Whitehead is the first nom, who will be next? Who’s around, who’s available, who is the working example of “The requirements of our lives is the shape of our art” (Diane DiPrima).

Carry on! Poetry needs you!!

Amiri Baraka
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/theater/14mcge.html?_r=1&ref=theater
Sena Jeter Naslund
http://www.senajeternaslund.com/
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
http://www.citylights.com/CLlf.html
Anselm Hollo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselm_Hollo
http://www.corpse.org/issue_10/broken_news/hollo.html
SUNY Buffalo POETICS listserv
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POETICS_list
NAROPA archives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac_School_of_Disembodied_Poetics
http://www.naropa.edu/writingandpoetics/index.html
http://www.naropa.edu/archive/index.cfm
http://www.archive.org/details/naropa