Poetry Scores hosts 8th art invitational Nov. 9 at Mad Art

"A most thunderous storm covered the country"
by Robin Street-Morris
after Andreas Embirikos/ Nikos Stabakis

Event includes live collaborative drawing experience and live poetry scoring

 

From 7-10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 9, Poetry Scores will host its 8^th art invitational where some 50 visual artists make new work based on the same long poem at Mad Art Gallery, 2727 So. 12^th St. in Soulard. This invitational responds to Phantom of the Dreams’ Origin, an excerpt of the first masterpiece of Greek Surrealism, Blast Furnace (1935) by Andreas Embirikos, translated into English by Nikos Stabakis.

 

The event is free and open to the public; Mad Art will run a cash bar and there will be some free food. The art work will be for sale, with proceeds split evenly between artist, gallery and Poetry Scores, a St. Louis-based non-profit arts organization that translates poetry into other media. Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate in Literature from Nigeria, describes Poetry Scores as “a very special celebration of creative collaboration.”

 

Confirmed artists for the invitational include many of St. Louis' most beloved and accomplished working artists, plus Julie Evanoff of Brooklyn, Ipek Tuna of Istanbul and a trio of London artists associated with inc. magazine: Hannah Bailey, MSTR Gringo and Lorna Scobie. The complete list - which includes a chocolatier, a florist and a balloon sculptor -- below.

(Note to parents and anyone offended by human nudity: some of the art work includes adult themes and graphic depictions of human anatomy.)

In addition to some 50 works of art based on the poem, the November 9 event also will feature a live collaborative drawing experience, open to the public – Exquisite Corpse, conducted by John Pruitt – and a live musical score experience, where six local songwriters are each randomly assigned one of six Embirikos poems to score musically and record their composition that night. Their completed recordings will be played at the end of the show.

The songwriters composing and recording poetry scores at the event are Nick Barbieri (Heebie Jeebies), Mike Burgette (Lettuceheads), Amy and John Camie, Ann Hirschfeld (The Deciders), Tim McAvin (Karate Bikini) and Tim Rakel (Union Electric, May Day Orchestra). They will be recorded at the old sergeant's desk at Mad Art by multiply Grammy-nominated Adam Long, whose production credits range from Nelly's first recordings to Broadway original cast show extravaganzas.

The St. Louis Curio Shoppe (2301 Cherokee), which sells only things made by someone from St. Louis or connected to St. Louis, will have a booth selling all Poetry Scores releases and many projects by artists in various media who have worked with Poetry Scores. St. Louis Curio Shoppe will be accepting inventory on consignment at the event, so local artists with a record, movie, book, whatever, to sell, are welcome to bring a few copies to put on consignment at the shop.

Poetry Scores’ work with Andreas Embirikos' poem will continue 7:30 p.m. Friday, January 11, 2013 with a live performance of composer Barbara Harbach’s poetry score to Phantom of the Dreams’ Origin featuring a dance interpretation of the poem by MADCO at the Touhill Center for the Performing Arts.
 
Info? Contact: Chris King, brodog@hotmail.com.

CONFIRMED ARTISTS


Hannah Bailey
Kevin Belford
James Blackwood
Jeff Brawn
Hunter Brumfield III
Dail Chambers
Bill Christman
Jen Collins
Jon Cournoyer
Heather Corley
Mikey Davidson
Deb Douglas
Dr. Andrew Dykeman
Jennifer Saenz Dykeman
Julie Evanoff
Thom Fletcher
Flowers to the People
Marth Rose Green
Paul Hartman
Sue Hartman
JoAnn Houle
Alexa Hoyer
Rick Jordan
Chris King
Leyla Fern King
Julie Malone
Tim McAvin
MSTR Gringo
Carmelita Nunez
Mike Pagano
Hap Phillips
Thomas Plunk
John Pruitt
Jeremy Rabus
Tony Renner
Kim Keek Richardson
Cindy Royal
Stefene Russell
Lorna Scobie
C. Scott
Janiece Senn
Derek Simmons
Dana Smith
Robin Street-Morris
Brian Styles
Mark Swain
Andrew Torch
Ipek Tuna
Wayne St. Wayne
Jess Witte