Vivek Narayanan and Performance Poetry

I've never seen Vivek perform his poetry, but since he posted this on a list, and since I found it lucid, I asked him very nicely to put it up on his blog (which seems to have become rather dark since I saw it last, and Vivek, what's with the third millenium post?!)

I especially liked the Caveat:

Caveat

First lesson: do away with the term “performance poetry”. Poetry can
travel back and forth between the page and oral performance; that’s one of the
things that almost all poems do, that is the transaction that poems are very
often born out of. When you read a poem on the page, it carries the ghost of a
sound, a voice, a music; and in that longing lies its mystery. It is a longing
that is opened up, but never quite fulfilled by performance.

I also liked the distinction he makes between a theatrical, or 'dramatic' performance that draws from the theatre, and recitation, which belongs uniquely to poetry in all its manifestations, whether epic or balladic, Western or Eastern.

Read the rest of it here.

Also, since the 22nd is not very far away, those of you who are in Bombay, do try and make it to Vivek's reading at the Theosophy Hall, Marine Lines.

THE PEN ALL-INDIA CENTRE
invites you, with your friends, to
A Poetry Reading by VIVEK NARAYANAN

Date: Thursday, 22 March 2007
Time: 6.15 pm
Place: Theosophy Hall (3rd floor),
40 New Marine Lines,
Churchgate,
Bombay 400 020

ALL ARE WELCOME: ENTRY FREE

Vivek Narayanan will read from his new collection of poems, Universal Beach (2006), his reading conducted in the mode of performance withwhich he has come to be associated in literary circles. His presentation will weave together three elements: his own reading/performance; a reflection on the practice of performance in the context of poetry; and recordings from other poets, which Narayanan will annotate.

Vivek Narayanan was born in Ranchi in 1972, grew up in Zambia, studied in the USA, and is currently based in New Delhi, where he works with SARAI, a new-media initiative of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). His poems have appeared in Indian and international journals and anthologies since 1994. Universal Beach is his first collection.