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The Austin International Poetry Festival 1997Review by: Kevin McGimpseyFortnight, No. 362 (Jun., 1997), p. 40Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25559376 .

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0 ARSRES -

to an itemising of the events of O'Casey's life, without much sense of an authorial vision apart from a rather banal final speech about living life to the full. Neither, I'm sure, was he helped by the sound of crisp packets being opened and various other eating noises. These distractions were not so much in evidence in the second half, but unfortunately the show did not benefit from this reprieve; the episodic and undramatic nature of the narrative became more evi dent.

Biographies are usually more interesting in their early stages and this was no exception. O'Casey's life in Englandwas char acterised by a happy but uninter esting surprise at finding it a very comfortable place to live. The play

wright gets married, has children, finds it difficult to survive as a

writer and loses his son to leukae mia at the age of 21. The latter incident is lingered over, but the

writing does not do itjustice. The most interesting thing was a letter from G.B. Shaw supporting

O'Casey over The Silver Tassie, which had been rejected by the Abbey. This is typical of much of the show; when Shivaun O'Casey borrows good text, Buggy is able to bring out the inherent humour and poetry-otherwise it tends to fall flat.

I learned some interesting things about O'Casey's life, but not a lot. I particularly liked the evocation of his father with his cricket cap and bony hand roar ing at the young O'Casey to go away and shut the door: an image is created of a sick, pathetic man

who must have been very fright ening to the child. His eye prob lems, begun so early, were also nicely dealt with, and the origins of O'Casey's fierce socialism illu

minated in the incident of the

bullying schoolteacher beaten over the head by the child with an

ebony ruler. Also of some relief were the extracts from Shadow of a Gunman and Juno and the Paycock. Most funny of all was the

picture of Yeats storming onto

the stage of the Abbey to rant at the rioting audience about them having shamed themselves and how O'Casey had achieved his apotheosis, to be quickly followed by the voice of O'Casey wonder ing what apotheosis meant.

The lesson to be learned, if I can presume for a moment to teach-one-man shows about fa

mous writers should stick to the latter's texts.

John Barr

THE AUSTIN INTER NATIONAL POETRY

FESTIVAL 1997

Austin, Texas

The Austin International Poetry Festival (AIPF) took place in Aus tin, Texas, from the 4th to the 6th of April, 1997. The festival was initiated in 1993 by local poetry activists Sue Littleton and Thom the World Poet as a poetry festival run by poets themselves, and has been expanding on increasingly ambitious lines each year.

The AIPF is organised prima rily through the Internet by a team of hard-workingvolunteers in Aus tin who arrange venues, perform ances, slams and other events, as

well as co-ordinating accommo dation and assistance for out-of state and international poets. It is kept alive solely by the dedication and energy of the volunteers who help out in whatever way they can.

This year the festival began warming up several days before the scheduled start, with unoffi cial 'fringe' events and a pre-festi val 'poetry slam' competition on the 3rd of April. Arriving poets

were greeted with a festival pack age and an admission card to all the main events. Austin hosted over 375 poets representing 15 U.S. states, 10 countries and 4 continents. Poets read or per formed for over 90 hours at 8 different venues, the entire expe rience being filmed and recorded by the promoters. Poetry work shops were also organised.

Two 'open' anthologies were published, The WitchingHourPo etry Anthology II and Collected Conscience 1997. Spanish poetry from nearly every country in South

America and Mexico was read by 18 poets from Latin America, and hosted by Dr. Lino Garcia, Direc tor of the Institute for Interna

tional Studies in Edinburgh, Texas. A Festival Iberoamericano Anthology will also be published later this year.

The non-Latin American inter national contingent this year was represented by Canada, the UK, Ireland and Portugal. The two

UK poets, Tim Gibbard and Rupert Hopkins, from Bristol in England, were (undiplomatically but understandably) lumped with Irish poet Jerry Jigger from Bel fast (also resident in Bristol).

Thom the World Poet stated: 'Our UK (sic!) poets always draw the largest and most enthusiastic au diences and it is a tributV to Jerry Jigger, Tim Gibbard, and Rupert Hopkins, our headliners, that they held up their end of the show without a complaint!'

The above trio were well appre ciated in Texas, and also took an opportunity to be interviewed and recite poems on a local radio sta

tion.JerryJigger and Tim Gibbard reached the semi-finals of the two

poetry slams, and all three per formers were invited back for next year's festival.

The AIPF webpage is on the internet at http://www.hyperweb.com/poetry

Kevin McGimpsey

THE COLLECTIVE 4TET

Crescent Arts Centre May 15th

In the sleeve notes of The Ropedancer, the latest CD from New York's Collective 4tet, there is a compelling caveat: "If the

music reminds you of anything other than what it is, then you're probably not listening closely enough."

Too often when creative play

ers get together for some free

playing, the result is like an anger

workshop for the self indulgent. Butwith Moving on Music's latest

discovery, there is a telepathic co

ordination and cohesion which makes the listening easy.

Approaching each piece with a

blank mental state -a jazz tabula rasa-the quartet seems to gener ate both subject matter and inter

pretation out of thin air. Imagine

Seamus Heaney giving readings

where, rather than reciting set

poems he creates impromptu

ones. Clearly such a challenge is

40 F 0 R T N I G H T

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