Guests joined us for cocktails and a who’s who of Bangkok poets performing their work at Ther Standard. We caught up with Lylu’s own Pablo S. to learn more about the medium and what’s next for Bangkok Lyrical Lunacy…
Tell us how Lyrical Lunacy got started.
Our founder is a poet name KJ Ink who found a need in the city for a space where spokenword poets can gather, practice, and perform so as to get better and improve upon their skills and refine their talent. At the time, there was one space dedicated to poets who would gather every 3 months but KJ and the crew of spokenword poets who he assembled were hungry for more frequent opportunities to engage in their artform. So on January 26, 2014 with a motley crew of poets from around the world, Bangkok Lyrical Lunacy held its Inaugural Open Mic at the legendary Overground Bar & Cafe where it would carry on until the venue closed. Now we organize multiple events every month as part of our mission to proliferate and document the art and culture of spokenword and slam poetry in Bangkok.
And the name—how did you decide on that?
We are crazy about our poems! When you step into our events you become a part of the Awesome Asylum of Lyrical Lunatics.
In the age of screens, slam poetry and spoken word are potentially threatened by our short attention spans! Why is it so important to you to keep these mediums alive?
Actually, spokenword poets are practitioners of maintaining engagement and attention. As you pointed out, many people have limited attention spans and the job of the poet is to use their voice, words, and physical expression to carry that attention through the length of their poem. It's important to keep this medium alive because this was THE first medium. As a species, humanity is roughly about 80,000-100,000 years old, of which we only have about 15,000 years of written recorded history. So before ever a word was written, it was the griots and poets of the world who memorized and preserved the stories, myths, and histories for tens of thousands of years, orally passing them down from generation to generation. All of the world’s cultures owe it to these masters of spokenword for preserving the stories all our cultures are rooted from.
Tell us about your favorite poem to perform and why.
Calling ALL Poets! Is the title of my favorite poem. It is a call to action for ALL people who are told they are poets by virtue of their beating heart and so it implores them to start making poems to preserve and pass down their own stories. We open every Lyrical Lunacy event with a recitation of this poem. Many poets in Bangkok also have their own version of this poem as well. The idea is that you shouldn’t be afraid to write or perform a poem as it's in all of our DNA and part of all of our histories.
Do you have any advice for someone who’s stepping up to an Open Mic for the first time?
Don’t be afraid. Nobody knows if you mess up unless you tell them. Breathe. Look at the audience. Be yourself. Everyone always applauds in the end because the real skill is not the perfection of the words you put together but the practice of flexing your courage to even share your message. Everyone really comes for the drama that plays out between each poet and their courage. Don’t let fear win, it's just a bar game!
What’s the difference between reciting a poem and really performing it?
Reciting and performing are the same thing. When one is “really performing” a spokenword poem what they are doing is layering more emotional data into their words. Like an artist can choose to paint with only charcoal, or they can use a more varied and specific color palette. In the case of the poet, the colors come in the form of vocal inflection, facial expression, posture, gestures, enunciation, eye contact. I guess you could say that the difference comes down to the degree to which you incorporate these into your recital to keep the audience engaged and to evoke in them the emotion you are communicating.
Do you suggest a cocktail before performing slam poetry, or afterwards?
This is a tricky question! Everyone has their own approach, me personally I wait until the very end till its all over, I’ve said what I said, and I can relax. If it's a poetry slam, which is a competition setting, I might recommend waiting until after just to keep the practicing and rehearsal unhindered. But generally, it wouldn’t hurt to have a cocktail before, especially for those of us who might get overly worked up about the thought of being before the mic.
If you could have dinner with three poets (living or dead) who would you choose and what’s on the menu?
1. Tupac Shakur
2. Mahmoud Darwish
3. Jose Martí
In all three cases, I’ll have whatever they're having for dinner!
What can guests expect from The Poet Parlor?
The Poet Parlor is meant to showcase the best of the city's poets. It is an open mic event which every month features a local or visiting poet who exemplifies the best of what the artform has to offer. Many of our featured poets are among those who have emerged as winners of the Bangkok Poetry Slam or who have consistently delivered gripping poetry performances throughout the years. More than a poetry show, it is also a social event where guests can come and meet locals and visitors alike. Our DJ, Sticky Keys, is always on deck to provide the right vibe for poets and poetry lovers to mix and mingle while we play social games to get the conversation flowing between poetry performances.
We can’t wait. What’s next for Lyrical Lunacy?
We have been diligently documenting every poet at every event in the past years and soon we will be publishing poetry compilations for the enjoyment of the city and the world!
