I walked into the elevator with a group of new acquaintances after a class. As we briefly introduced ourselves to each other I told them I was a poet. “Really!” One lady exclaimed, “I didn’t know they exist.”
Even in San Francisco poets are an obscure breed. Unlike musicians who can generate an audience, there is a general lack of interest in listening to words. Few of my relatives have come to my readings. My sister went to one and would not go again. In cafes and restaurants poets read to their own kind. Once in a while we capture a few accidental listeners but we just can’t get people hooked.
Four years ago H.D.Moe and three other poets went to France and Italy to promote the Baby Beat Generation Anthology (published in France). Moe was heartened to find a real audience in the places he read. They came to hear the poets, not to read their own poems. He sold all his books before coming home. A musician friend once said we must go to where the audience is. I don’t think he meant France.
Photo by Steve Wilson.
An Audience in England too. When I read at the Poetry Cafe near Covent Garden more than half the audience was there to hear poetry not to read, and there were a lot of readers there that night. England is still a hot bed of poetry.
Quite so. I love the Poetry Cafe in London.
Jazz Musicians have always gone to Europe where they are appreciated.Perhaps it says something about the United States-more so than the art form presented.
The attitude of a government makes a difference in how its citizens perceive what is important. The US has a long way to go in terms of valuing the arts and the well being they bring to the psyche of the nation.
Also,I can see that “going where the audience is” works in the specific case of the U.S. where people for the most part do not value art highly(perhaps they value material things more). But then, aren’t they the very ones that can benefit from exposure to it?
But if we are talking about making money at it then “going where the audience is” is pretty much mandatory.