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Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian

Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian
Christopher Luna by Alisha Jucevic for the Columbian

Monday, November 16, 2009

Vox: A Spoken Word Chorus at the Waterbrook Studio (Portland, OR) Nov. 20-22

Vox: A Spoken-Word Chorus

2127 N. Albina #108, Portland, OR 97227
503.901.5101
waterbrook@gmail.com


Vox: A Spoken-Word Chorus Presents
Portland's Actors Reading America's Poetry


When: 7:30 p.m., Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, November 20-22
Where: The Waterbrook Studio
2109 N. Albina #108
Portland, OR 97227 (Directions below.)


Poets: Allen Ginsberg, Gertrude Stein, Robert Burns, William Shakespeare, Michele Glazer, William Stafford, Li-Young Lee, Jorie Graham, Donald Hall, Jane Kenyon, Marvin Bell, Kamau Daaood, Mary Szybist, Thomas Lux and more.


Readers: Gary Brickner-Schulz, Adrienne Flagg, Eric Hull, Theresa Koon, Quigley Provost-Landrum, Kerry Ryan, and John Vergin.


Poem Arrangements: Eric Hull


Poeturge: Michele Glazer


Tickets are available at the door on a sliding scale, $10-15.


For Information Contact: Eric Hull
503.901.5101
waterbrook@gmail.com
www.voxpdx.com

In November, some of Portland's finest actors will present poems - both familiar and less known - in readings that experiment with form and expression.

The performers in this spoken-word chorus will present poems as a group: some phrases will be spoken in unison, others will be solo, and some will be divided among the members of the chorus in rolling waves or staccato fragments or languid, elegant expression. The poem makes the demands and the readers respond.

The poems have been arranged for the chorus by actor and director Eric Hull, and selected with the guidance of writer and PSU professor Michele Glazer. Hull has, for instance, taken Allen Ginsberg's "Footnote to Howl" and given it the kind of ecstatic beat-energy that it requires. You can find a recording at www.voxpdx.com

In an arrangement of three works about grief and the recovery from grief, we present a moving medley of poems by husband and wife poets Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon. Kenyon's poem about attending a funeral is blended with two of Hall's poems that trace the trajectory of his grief at Kenyon's death.

In "Liberator of the Spirit" by Kamau Daaood, the poet calls the great saxophonist John Coltrane a "freedom fighter/Liberator of the spirit from the shackles of formÅ ." VOX uses the words of this poem to explore the choral possibilities of reading the words as if Coltrane was performing them, complete with his thrilling arpeggios spoken rather than played.

We will also, of course, present love poems, as well as light-hearted verse, and an excerpt from Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

Visit www.voxpdx.com or call Eric Hull at 503.901.5101 for more information.

Directions: Take N. Interstate Avenue to N. Tillamook. Turn west. Follow Tillamook as it curves around and down to Lewis. Turn right. Go one block. Turn right on Loring and park in the lot on the right. Enter on the corner of Loring and Albina.

VOX is funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and Work for Art

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