2008 Woodie Awards
Poetry: what gets lost in translation
Natalie Danna
Issue date: 10/23/02 Section: Arts & Entertainment
- Page 1 of 3 next >
by Natalie Danna
For those who mourn Georgetown's neglect of the arts, there is cause for celebration. The Lannan Poetry series has worked to bring poets to Georgetown for periodic seminars and readings of their work. On Oct. 17, the series kicked off with Charles Bernstein and Erica Hunt.
About 75 people converged on the ICC Auditorium for the 8 p.m. reading by Bernstein and Hunt. The circulating rumor was that a lavish dinner would be served, though the flyers advertising the event noticeably skirted the topic. Let it now be known that those wishing literal as well as figurative sustenance must show up for the seminar preceding the reading or else hold their peace until the wine and cheese reception after the reading.
Each poetic evening begins with a seminar on an alluring, if obscure, topic. Undoubtedly, the poets' reflections on the issue expound, propound, astound, and confound, but in the event that they fail to satiate, a buffet dinner is also served. Appropriate dress is required. In this week's seminar, Bernstein and Hunt featured "Oppositionality as Social Value." Others include "Talking Poetics, Naming Identities," "Dissenting Practices," "Vanguards in American Letters" and "Language Erotics."
Hunt began the reading with poems from her book Arcade. The poems she selected were succinct and generally lighthearted narratives or reflections. Witty lines and asides peppered her reading. Audience participation emerged as a clique in the front section offered feedback in the form of a chorus of chuckles. Hunt began prefacing the humorous parts with a quick heavenward glance before shifting her gaze to the "in" crowd and delivering the punch line.
While there was a pretty clear line of demarcation in the audience — front rows: professors in tweed and glasses, arms crossed, appreciating the art, body language and audible responses appropriate to the poetry because they "got" it right off the bat; versus the back rows of students, solemnly dressed in black or dark gray, looking poetic (though hungry) but staid as they scribbled notes for reaction papers and the impending class discussions.
For those who mourn Georgetown's neglect of the arts, there is cause for celebration. The Lannan Poetry series has worked to bring poets to Georgetown for periodic seminars and readings of their work. On Oct. 17, the series kicked off with Charles Bernstein and Erica Hunt.
About 75 people converged on the ICC Auditorium for the 8 p.m. reading by Bernstein and Hunt. The circulating rumor was that a lavish dinner would be served, though the flyers advertising the event noticeably skirted the topic. Let it now be known that those wishing literal as well as figurative sustenance must show up for the seminar preceding the reading or else hold their peace until the wine and cheese reception after the reading.
Each poetic evening begins with a seminar on an alluring, if obscure, topic. Undoubtedly, the poets' reflections on the issue expound, propound, astound, and confound, but in the event that they fail to satiate, a buffet dinner is also served. Appropriate dress is required. In this week's seminar, Bernstein and Hunt featured "Oppositionality as Social Value." Others include "Talking Poetics, Naming Identities," "Dissenting Practices," "Vanguards in American Letters" and "Language Erotics."
Hunt began the reading with poems from her book Arcade. The poems she selected were succinct and generally lighthearted narratives or reflections. Witty lines and asides peppered her reading. Audience participation emerged as a clique in the front section offered feedback in the form of a chorus of chuckles. Hunt began prefacing the humorous parts with a quick heavenward glance before shifting her gaze to the "in" crowd and delivering the punch line.
While there was a pretty clear line of demarcation in the audience — front rows: professors in tweed and glasses, arms crossed, appreciating the art, body language and audible responses appropriate to the poetry because they "got" it right off the bat; versus the back rows of students, solemnly dressed in black or dark gray, looking poetic (though hungry) but staid as they scribbled notes for reaction papers and the impending class discussions.