Observable Readings
Missouri Poet Laureate David Clewell and Chris King, Poet-Journalist-Musician-Ethnographer, Will Be Observable Readers On Monday, May 9
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 12:13 PM
Attention: This Observable Readings event will take place at 8 p.m. on Monday, May 9, at the Regional Arts Commission at 6128 Delmar Blvd. in the U City Loop. Admission is free.
David Clewell, Missouri's presiding poet laureate, is famous for writing "Clewellian" poems, a wondrously unique concoction that only he can brew: long, musical lines; exuberant narratives; charming particulars; and big, mysterious subjects, from conspiracy theories to the persistent, largely nutty passions of human beings. His obsession with kooks, kitsch, and cover-ups is infectious. Considering his impressive collection of Charlie the Tuna iconography and all things UFO (from plastic saucers to alien abduction narratives), it's no wonder that Clewell writes poetry with a remarkable eye for detail, a meticulous amount of research, and a lot of whimsy.
The author of eight collections of poetry, Clewell has received many honors and awards, including the National Poetry Series selection for Blessings in Disguise (1989), the Felix Pollak Poetry Prize for Now We're Getting Somewhere (1994), and the Four Lakes Poetry Prize for Taken Somehow by Surprise (2011). His work has been represented in over 60 anthologies and published regularly in a variety of magazines and journals.
He is a professor of English at Webster University who directs its creative writing program and runs the English department's Visiting Writers Series. His office on campus--a jam-packed museum of pop and subculture artifacts, doodads, pictures, and prints, in addition to a library of every genre imaginable--is a beloved resource for students, a delight for visitors, and a paradise for collectors. He has been teaching at Webster for more than 25 years. His poetry has been inspiring readers for more than 35. To read his poem "Albert Einstein Held Me in His Arms," click here.
For some 20 years, Chris King has been a fixture of the St. Louis literary scene, first as a Washington University student, then graduate student in
African-American Studies, exploring its musical margins and participating in a range of activities that have culminated in a journalism, music, and poetics of social practice. Blogger at Confluence City, editor of the St. Louis American, former columnist at the Riverfront Times, book reviewer at The Nation, bandleader (his group Enormous Richard was a leader in the alt-Americana movement in the early 1990s), ethnographer of the North Carolina folklorist/banjo player/singer Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and impresario of St. Louis' own Poetry Scores, a kind of floating crap game of an artists' collective dedicated to translating poetry into other media, King is a Midwestern pastoralist of the first order. He writes songs, memoirs, and novels, but with us, we suspect, he'll let his poems do the talking.
To hear an interview about his work at Poetry Scores, click here.