"In This Way," a poetry score by Alan Semerdjian and Three Fried Men

Chloe Day's chalk improvisation, no longer extant,
on the concrete floor of The Skuntry Museum.

Poetry Scores will premiere a new work "Grandchildren of Genocide" at The Schlafly Tap Room at 10 p.m. on Saturday, November 21. Old Time favorites Dugout Canoe will open at 9 p.m., and indie rockers Accelerando will close at 11 p.m. It is a free show.

"Grandchildren of Genocide" is a new score of modern poetry from Armenia co-produced by Robert Goetz and Chris King to bear witness to the centennial of the 1915 onset of the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire.

Here is one demo from the project: Three Fried Men's score of Alan Semerdjian's poem "In This Way."

It is a cell phone voice app demo recorded in The Skuntry Museum with Chris King on vocal, David Melson on bass, and Elijah "Lij" Shaw on acoustic guitar. At 0:16 there is a text message squirble.




IN THIS WAY
By Alan Semerdjian

One wraps a hand around it
before sleep, one likes
to play forget, one casts
for forgiveness, a bible for his head.
One lies to children,
one doesn’t speak at all,
a morning upsets one,
another then another
and another night
without call, or hate
or enemy or in-
visibility or cash or voice enough
to yell into dissolve, and that
which won’t go away
is still a mountain
in a story on the other side
of a map with one line
separating the throat from
the neck, and the heart
that follows is one last
sad geography of evidence,
one that won’t go away,
and in this way,
they pass the time.
In this way, genocide
blows past the family’s eyes.

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Poetry (c) Alan Semerdjian, who reserves all rights
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Other composers of the scores for "Grandchildren of Genocide" include Nick Barbieri, Steve Carosello, Marc Chechik, Robert Goetz, Ann Hirschfeld, Tony Pupillo, Sherman S Sherman and Mark Stephens. The composers will perform the scores live at the Tap Room with a little help from their friends.

Other poets scored include Christopher Atamian, Peter Balakian, Gregory Djanikian, Adrian Oproiu and Marine Petrossian (self-translated from the Armenian). The poets have all endorsed the project, including co-publication of the resulting songs through Hollywood Recording Studio.

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