The Infoxicated Corner and its regulars love few things in life more than a good arts party (a good arts party, I said). For this reason, I wanted to let all my nearest & dearest Northeastern friends know (if they didn’t already) about the really fun time that’s about to go down in Pittsburgh, PA, this January 31st. Filmmaker Rachael Deacon and Poet-Editrix Margaret Bashaar have created an annual event, titled FREE _____ POEMS ABOUT _____. What fills in those blanks changes every year: last year’s event was FREE SNAKE POEMS ABOUT SNAKES, and this year’s is FREE MONSTER POEMS ABOUT MONSTERS.
Here’s what makes it cool: it’s a party for the people. Really. It’s a completely DIY, no-budget event. When they say it’s free, they mean just that. Performers, writers, artists, and other vendors contribute time and work in order to create a festive gathering that brings together artists (of various media) and people who enjoy celebrating creativity. There is also a new book published in association with this event every year; the book bears the same title as the event.
Possibly predictably, I’m jazzed about this yearly event for many reasons, and I already know that when I move back East, it’ll be marked down on my calendar. I wanted to talk to the two gals who invented this superfun, inclusive celebration of creativity, and talk to them a little bit about what goes into it all.
1. My understanding is that you two consider this event to be just that — primarily an event, a celebratory gathering — and the book is sort of an appendage to that, a secondary consideration. That’s interesting to me, because usually in this industry there will be a book and then launch events — readings, book parties, etc. — will be scheduled around the book. Can you guys talk a little bit about how you came to the idea that the event itself should be the primary focus?
MARGARET: We planned the event long before we actually decided to make the book. We honestly thought the whole thing was going to be held in someone’s living room with maybe 10 people in attendance. But then Nina Sauer offered her gallery, Most Wanted Fine Art, to us, and that helped the event get a whole lot bigger and seemed to get FREE SNAKE POEMS a lot more interest. After about 25 different people had sent us snake poems, we started joking about making a snake book. And then somewhere along the line it stopped being a joke, I guess? So the book is incredibly secondary to the event, and almost didn’t even happen. I mean, Rachael and I were folding and stapling the FREE SNAKE POEMS book the day of the event itself.
RACHAEL: Pretty much. Eventually it seemed like we just had so many poems that we may as well slap a book together. Margaret having and running a press already made it real easy.
2. How did you come to SNAKES and MONSTERS as the subject matter for these first two years? Any idea what content anchors might be in the running for year three? (Will it always be a noun? Will there ever be, like FREE FLYING POEMS ABOUT FLYING?)
R: SOOOOO, the impetus for the entire thing, really, was the image we used for the cover, which was randomly found somewhere in the annals of the internet by our special snake friend Jessica, who randomly shared it with both of us on facebook, probably thinking we’d just giggle and call it a day. We didn’t pick snakes, snakes picked us. We just answered the snakey call.
M: We went back and forth a lot when selecting this year’s theme, and monsters was really the one topic we kept coming back to and actually being excited about. It wasn’t a particularly involved process, just a lot of “Hey, you wanna do monsters?” “Okay.” After a lot of “Hey, how about toilets or cats?” “Nah.” (and for the record, we will probably never do cats. Maybe toilets.) We’re not married to nouns, but it’s really just a matter of what mood we’re in the week we realize we need the next year’s theme.
3. I’d like to mention a few of the things I’ve heard you two say in the past about this event — for example, that it’s intended to bridge certain divides. It seems to me that it’s a very unifying program you’re putting on — say, between “well-known” and “emerging” writers, or between writers and other types of artists/creatives. There’s also the fact that it’s free, which to my mind speaks to divides of access — usually, at least in our culture, a certain amount of money is needed to attain an arts education or (a more than a nominal/topical) exposure to the arts.
Can you talk a bit about your perceptions of these existing divisions? How would you characterize them? Do you see them as interrelated? How do you think this program addresses those types of divides in a unifying way? Are there any other, additional types of inclusion you’d like to focus on promoting in future years?
R: Poetry is very far from my primary medium, but over the years I seem to have found myself balls deep in poets. Like, to an alarming degree. So, I have been to a lot of readings, and immediately noticed that I was almost always the only not-poet in attendance. And also they were boring. I really love poetry though, and FREE POEMS seemed like a great chance to sort of remove the veil of poet-y mystery. The rest of the arts community, especially in Pittsburgh, sees the literary world as inaccessible and I think both communities suffer because of that mentality. When we first put together the event, it only made sense to try to pull artists from every medium we could find, ask everybody to step outside of their comfort zones, and just sort of see what happened.
M: Poetry is not one of the most popular art forms in the world, and as a poet and an editor/publisher of poetry that makes me a tiny bit sad and really is something I want to see change, and FREE POEMS is, in part, an attempt to shift people’s ideas of poetry away from poetry readings/events as boring. So by bringing all these other art forms and artists into the event, we show that poetry can stand next to those art forms as an equal. In terms of accessibility, I do think that sometimes arts education and events and the participation in those events – not just the attending of them – is perceived as limited to more affluent members of society. Like, to be a “poet” anymore, most people (who want to be poets at least) believe you need not only a BA in Creative Writing but also an MFA, and, increasingly, a PhD in the subject. And those degrees, to one extent or another, require a certain privilege of money and time. FREE POEMS seeks, in its own small way, to break down that idea of the poet as ensconced in the academy.
4. I’m curious to know: what’s your favorite and your least favorite aspect, respectively, of organizing, promoting, and executing this kind of event?
M: Favorite: watching people freak the fuck out about poetry and send us absurd/amazing poems about a really stupid topic. Least favorite: Trying to keep everyone involved in the logistics of the event on the same page. We have a lot of people who do work on this event in various ways, and sometimes wires get crossed.
R: Favorite: penis painting. Last year, I asked Cherri Baum, the crankiest queen in the city, to realize one of my lifelong desires: to see a dick get painted into something that’s not a dick, and in a place other than my bedroom. And it’s happening again this year. Hooray.
Least Favorite: trying to navigate the egos of so many artists, and just generally organizing anything. I hate that shit.
5. I think it’s a laudable thing that you’ve created a free, inclusive event that both celebrates and promotes creativity and the arts. Are there any challenges to keeping it a free event? Do you guys ever encounter any (individual or institutional) resistance to the concept of this remaining a free event? If so, how do you respond to those influences?
R: There is constant resistance. On every front. The furthest any of those efforts have gotten though, are a conversation between us that goes, “It’s called FREE POEMS.” “YEP.”
Ultimately we just chose to ignore any and all efforts that opportunists might make to tilt the event in their favor. So far not giving a fuck has gone well.
M: I think any time an event is as well-attended and successful as FREE SNAKE POEMS was, people are going to look at that and ask themselves if there is a way they can benefit from it somehow. And I don’t say that to throw anyone under the bus – I think it’s a pretty standard and natural response. I think a lot of the people who want to monetize FREE POEMS genuinely want to help us. I think the thought is that we did it as a free event out of necessity, but that’s simply not the case. We made the very conscious choice to make FREE POEMS what it is when it comes to money, and most of the time when we explain that philosophy, people do understand even if they don’t agree.
6. What would you like to see happen with this event in coming years? How do you see it changing or evolving? What would you ideally want the event to look/feel/sound/be like in, say, 2021?
M: I’d like to get greater diversity in our poet lineup, honestly. If I could have anything I wanted, regardless of realism, I’d like to see us take FREE POEMS to another city (though I have no earthly idea how that would work or who would donate whole kegs of beer and trays of cupcakes).
R: More penis painting. Really there’s not much I would change. I just want the event to expand and for more artists to be inspired and pulled in. In 2021, we’ll have jetpacks. FREE JETPACKS. We’ve already grown hugely from where we started, we have filmmakers screening shorts, out of town writers and performers, more music and more kinds of performance art happening at MONSTERS than we had at SNAKES. A continuation of that would be ideal, but really, if this is as big as we get, it’s still pretty fuckin’ big, and very satisfying.
Margaret Bashaar writes poems and edits Hyacinth Girl Press and makes an ass of herself on stage when given the chance.
Rachael Deacon is a piece of shit.
