Wreck What Came Before ...

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manfredvijars

Wreck What Came Before ...

Post by manfredvijars » Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:28 am

Do we have to write and perform to the "Dead & Dying"
Has the flame of our passion gone out, or is it too slowly dying?
Or, are we content to sit back and wait till a story comes to us so we can put it into verse?
Are we, as 'Bush' poets, brave enough to push the borders?


I found this interesting, any comments, opinions?

John Waters Tells Young Artists to “Wreck What Came Before"
(John Waters giving his 2015 commencement speech at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD))

http://hyperallergic.com/214293/john-wa ... me-before/

Here are a couple of points from that speech .....

First, be an active citizen:
Remember, you must participate in the world you want to become a part of …. Keep up with what’s causing chaos in your own field. If you’re a visual artist go see the shows in the galleries that are frantically competing to find the one bad neighborhood left in Manhattan to open up in. Watch every movie that gets a negative review in the New York Times and figure out what they did wrong. Read, read, watch people on the street. Spy. Be nosy. Eavesdrop. And as you get older, you’ll need youth spies who will keep you abreast of new music that nobody your age has heard yet.

Be an insider, not an outsider:
These days everyone wants to be an outsider. Politically correct to a fault. That’s good. I hope you are working to end racism, sexism, agism, fat-ism — but is that enough? Isn’t being an outsider so 2014? …. Maybe it’s time to throw caution to the wind and really shake things up and reinvent yourself as a new version of your most dreaded enemy: the insider. Like I am! …. Think about it: I didn’t change. Society did. Who would’ve ever thought a top college like RISD would’ve invited a filthy elder to set an example to its students?

Listen to your enemies, and make them laugh:
Listen to your political enemies, especially the smart ones, and then figure out a way to make them laugh. Nobody likes a bore on a soapbox. Humor is always the best defense and weapon. If you can make an idiot laugh, they’ll at least pause and listen before they do something stupid, to you. Refuse to isolate yourself, separatism is for losers.

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keats
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Re: Wreck What Came Before ...

Post by keats » Tue Jun 16, 2015 8:39 am

Good stuff Manfred but I've been doing that for over twenty years! Much to the disgust of some older poets! lol :D

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Bob Pacey
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Re: Wreck What Came Before ...

Post by Bob Pacey » Tue Jun 16, 2015 4:36 pm

Yep Neil you do and very well at it you are .


I finish every performance with " it does not matter if you are laughing at me or laughing at my poetry the main thing is that you are laughing "



Get many older folk who come up with tears in their eyes who say I have not laughed so much in years so thank you very much.


Bob
The purpose in life is to have fun.
After you grasp that everything else seems insignificant !!!

Neville Briggs
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Re: Wreck What Came Before ...

Post by Neville Briggs » Tue Jun 16, 2015 5:05 pm

manfredvijars wrote:Read, read, watch people on the street. Spy. Be nosy. Eavesdrop
If we wish to be poets, I think that advice is true. It's the old requirement for artists to be observant of the contemporary scene.
manfredvijars wrote:Isn’t being an outsider so 2014?
I don't know what he means here. He seems to be making a reference to the myth of progress and then says that his strength is that he hasn't changed. As someone has said; the more things change, the more they stay the same. ( I think that was Jean-Baptiste Karr, not Bon Jovi )

We can't wreck what came before, that's nonsense, we build on what came before. Do those who come after us have to wreck what we have done. Hopefully not.
Neville
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.

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keats
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Re: Wreck What Came Before ...

Post by keats » Tue Jun 16, 2015 9:13 pm

But then of course there is the biggest form of flattery..............satire.

Terry
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Re: Wreck What Came Before ...

Post by Terry » Thu Jun 18, 2015 1:22 pm

Or do you write what you want to write - not what someone tells you to write.

Everyone has his or her own opinion and that's the way it ought to be I reckon.

Terry

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Re: Wreck What Came Before ...

Post by Terry » Thu Jun 18, 2015 3:03 pm

Thinking of what I've just said, I should have added that I'm just talking about people like me i suppose, who just write as a hobby and rarely recite.
If I was like Bob and Keats who are performing on a regular basis and no doubt really enjoy doing it, I'm sure I would think differently, because you're there to entertain and you have to give an audience what it wants.

I would also hazard a guess that they also have a far better idea of what sort of poetry The general public wants to-day, than people like me.

Cheers Terry

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