Poets create makeshift movement in Underground space
By Liz Barry on Jan. 27, 2010
The stage was a patch of concrete floor lit by Christmas lights and a lamp without a shade.
Obscured by the shadows, a segment of Lynchburg’s young bohemians, twenty-somethings mostly, crammed into The Underground, a poetry reading in a rental home basement off Rivermont Avenue.
Cheap beer flowed, cigarettes burned on the back porch, but the focus was on spoken word.
About 14 readers took the stage, reading a mix of original works and poems by Whitman, Neruda, Poe and others.
“The idea is to share for catharsis and empathy,” said Glory Szabo, 23, a local college student from Hungary with raven-colored hair and red-painted lips.
The event grew from a simple connection between two friends. Last year, Szabo and 22-year-old Stacie Bergman — brokenhearted from failed relationships — read each other poems they had written about their ordeals. At the edge of loneliness, the friends realized they were not alone — they shared pain and poetry.
Last fall, Szabo and Bergman decided to organize a small reading for their friends. But word spread, through Facebook and word-of-mouth, to friends and friends of friends, and the intimate gathering ending up drawing a crowd up more than 60 people.
“It totally outgrew our expectations. It spread like wildfire,” said Szabo.
The Underground turns the solitary act of writing and reading poetry into a communal experience. The unconventional setting, outside of more established venues like coffeehouses or college campuses, provides a have for writers who might not otherwise dare to share their poems for an audience.
For the introverted writer, reading a poem can be a terrifying experience.
“It took a lot of courage at first because I didn’t think my stuff is good, it’s just stuff in my head,” said Szabo.
“I’m not a performance artist, I’m a writer. I’m standing up there with the paper shaking in my hand.”
For Bergman, who read two originals and a poem by Pablo Neruda, the readings allow her to give voice to thoughts she might otherwise internalize.
“It’s like a giant group therapy session,” she said.
She is no longer afraid to share her work.
“This is my poetry. Yeah it can be dark and grimy and dirty, but it’s a therapy, you know.”
Some readers, like local poet John Hawkins, 24, thrive in the spotlight. Upon first meeting, Hawkins can exude a hint of awkwardness and quiet mystery. On stage, he’s a silver-tongued dynamo.
The last act before the cigarette break (intermission), Hawkins gave an experimental performance that teetered on the edge of chaos.
“This poem is called John Henry and it’s about John Henry,” said Hawkins, with a hint of bravado.
For a moment, he breathed in the silence. Then he unleashed a torrent of words:
“They say Pecos Bill died of a laughing fit…Died mocking some Wonder Bread Philadelphia lawyer in alligator boots who thought he understood the West…”
As the poem intensified, so did the makeshift percussion orchestra behind him. Hawkins was backed by a group of friends playing metal objects: coffee cans clanged, the washboard scraped, chains rattled against the concrete floor.
When the poem ended, the room exploded into applause.
Hawkins, a native of Lynchburg, is a substitute teacher and server at Rivermont Pizza. As for his poetry, he recently emerged from the underground scene for a performance at Riverview Artspace.
“I’m really interested in how much tension live poetry can create and how intimate it can be,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins, who emceed at the reading, said that while there’s a place for “academic” poetry and literary journals, The Underground is meant to be freewheeling and inclusive.
“This is a place for people who are experimenting and wanting to try things out,” he says.
Organizers see The Underground as part of the larger movement in the arts community in Lynchburg. Events like the poetry reading feeds on the momentum of a growing community of artists, musicians and writers who are hungry for an audience.
“Lynchburg is just becoming ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ is,” Szabo said.
The fact that Lynchburg’s art scene is still emerging adds to the appeal, Hawkins said.
“The longer it stays that way, the better in my mind.”
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