The din of voices and laughter on Preservation Pub’s second floor Sunday night quieted as the bar’s owner, Scott West, approached the stage, beer in hand.
“Before we start, let’s get some shots ready, what do you say?” West asked the group of about 50 gathered before him. “You would probably enjoy my poetry more if you were drinking.”
West was one of several local poets to share their work at Kickin’ it Old School: Southern Fried Performance Poetry. The atmosphere was warm, festive and, as some audience members voiced, perfectly suited to the pub.
“That late afternoon, crisp fall sunlight spilling into the room through a cloud of smoke and dust—that’s what I think of when I think of a poetry reading in Market Square,” Josh Edmiston, senior in English, said. “It was nice getting to hear people’s inner thoughts, sitting at a booth with friends and relaxing with a nice, warming beer in the perfect location.”
For most of the poets who performed, including Marilyn Kallet, director of UT’s creative writing program, Sunday night was not their first collaboration.
“The reason we were all invited to come do this show together is we all used to do slam years ago, so we’ve all been involved in performance poetry,” Kallet said. “Scott was actually one of my students as an undergrad at UT, and a lot of the poets who were reading have studied with me in the day.”
Some members of the group, like UT alum Reeny Mooney, could trace their ties back to the late ’90s, when the Knoxville Poetry Slam Team “ObKNOXious” gained notoriety at the National Poetry Slam.
Kallet noted the sense of “community” created when performing with this group, which included fellow local writers Daniel Roop, Mouffe Tard, Keith Norris, Debby Geis and Leslie LaChance.
“When we’re in an environment like that and we’re all up there, it’s kind of like we’re in a play,” she said. “It helps to build bonds and build confidence. We feel like a family.”
Shelby Stringfield, senior in English and one of Kallet’s current students, expressed pleasure at seeing an event like this held outside of the campus setting and within the Knoxville community.
“The only poetry events I’ve been to in Knoxville have been campus-based,” Stringfield said. “I think readings by local authors are really important because they showcase talent that has been cultivated right here in our city. They make it seem less impossible for us locals and UT students to succeed with our own creative work.”
For Kallet, the location is not as important as the ultimate goal — communication.
“I try to communicate with my students that you need to not just be able to write, but you need to communicate your work,” she said. “It doesn’t really matter if it’s in a bar, on the stage or even in the library. The main thing is to be able to get up and to communicate the poem well and, as one of my friends said, to be the poem.”
For information on more local performance poetry events, visit Knoxville Poetry Slam’s Facebook page.
