I finally found them... The Chatham Writing MFAs. Couched in a little house behind a school in Wilkinsburg, over on Hay Street, the coincidentally named Whitney Hayes (along with Kelsey Leach) hosts the Hay Street Reading series, a summer substitute for Chatham's Word Circus, a monthly event which hosts mostly Chatham writers. The Hay Street Reading Series is open to non-MFAs: when I got there, Amanda Collins, a local singer-songwriter, was performing. Hayes also stated that she wanted the event to be "more open to the community". I'll be reading next month, probably, and in any case, I read at the open mic this month, along with my twin and six other readers; it was a nice crowd of around twenty people, BYOB, etc. Featured readers included Ben Gwin who I sadly missed because I was over at East End Book Exchange, listening to Jason Baldinger, Cee Williams, and Chuck Joy at Chuck Joy's new book release, the book being: "Said The Growling Dog."
Jason Baldinger as usual talked about local Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania haunts including a long poem about a shitty diner called "Hagerstown Sometimes." As usual Jason was notable for his clear, local, and fatal eye: "When you're in Hagerstown, you have to ask if the sun hasn't already set." He also talked about a UPMC commerical location scout visiting, and being told to fuck off out of, Jason's record store.
Cee Williams was next, and I've heard Cee's name a few times before, although I hadn't seen him previously. He started with something memorized that seemed like slam, but then broke out the print-outs and had a few less end-rhmey poems... "You Picked a Fine Time To Spank Me, Lucille" recounted, in not particularly humorous terms, Cee's painful time in Catholic school (fraught with racial inequality). He also had a poem about Ronald Reagan... "only poverty trickles down."
Jason and Cee both had affected eading voices. Jason seems to have a kind of arch, romantic, and revelationary tone: his speech is always rising and falling in long arcs, even when he's talking about hangovers, and his poems tend to end with a defiant and concessionary exclamation from the self: 'I don't have health insurance but I told the UPMC guy to fuck off' (not a quote). Cee, as I said, is close to a traditional slam poet's voice in a lot of ways, but what I saw from him Saturday was more muted. Chuck Joy, however, the poet that everyone had gathered to see, was kind of a powerhouse when it came to affect. He had a sort of nasal blast that would accentuate his meter... the effect I thought was "Newyorkian"... He even recited a poem in series about his trip to New York. Moments from this poem: goes to a NY restaurant, repeats "house beer!" in disbelief... uses the book he is reading from as a prop: "sign here on the contract." --poetryburgh@gmail.com
now to find the CMU MFAs, please contact me if you are out there and here in PGH this summer xoxo
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