Kete questionnaire: Carrie Rudzinski & Grace Iwashita-Taylor on why performance poetry is rapturous
Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (Auckland University Press, $49.99) features 90 performance poets, rappers, spoken-word artists, slam poets, theatre makers, genre blenders and storytellers brought together by editors Carrie Rudzinski and Grace Iwashita-Taylor to celebrate diverse voices and communities within Aotearoa. Here, the duo explain how they took poems from the stage to the page.
Where did the idea for a book like Rapture come from?
(Carrie) Auckland University Press approached me about the possibility of a performance poetry anthology of poetry but it was an inkling of an idea that had a lot of room to grow from. It felt obvious that my co-editor needed to be Grace Taylor. Grace and I have been friends for years and she’s an absolute titan of a writer and has been creating poetry spaces and stages for years. Our initial conversations about what the book could be and where it could go were very aligned: let’s celebrate the past 10-15 years of performance poetry in Aotearoa and have it feel very fresh, vibrant and as if you are sitting in our community as you read it.
(Grace) Carrie asked me, so I did what I was told. All jokes aside, I have so much respect and admiration for Carrie and how much she has added to the canon of poetry in this country that I take up as many opportunities as I can to collaborate with her. I have also been lucky enough to be involved in many poetry initiatives over the years and felt a sense of responsibility to help hold the kaupapa of this collection.
What was the process for taking the poems from the stage to the page?
(G) Some of the poems in the collection are pre-existing performed poems, while some are fresh to the page and are yet to see the stage. I think the important thing to remember here, and something Rapture advocates through its existence, is that poets who perform their work are skilled writers whose work can exist on the page just as successfully as on the stage.
(C ) I’ll add that most, if not all of these poems, were written down first. The connection and relationship to the stage and performance is symbiotic: we are writing and speaking those words often simultaneously - the creation and editing and performance are intertwined from the beginning.
How difficult was it to communicate poems in print that might have been written to be performed?
(G) The page is also a stage. There are so many ways a poem can move, exist, slip and slide on a page that can evoke the unwritten nuances of a story. In terms of logistically for Rapture we gave that full agency to the writers with their submission. When we made our selections we did offer writers edits and suggestions to consider in their review - but within their editing and review we trusted their skills and experience to make the final call on how they chose to present their poems.
How did you go about finding poets to include – there’s so many?!
(C) We did an open call for submissions on social media and directly contacted many poetry organisations, spoken word groups and legends of the scene to help spread the word to as many people as possible. We also activated our own communities by directly contacting hundreds of poets asking for them to consider submitting to the call. The response was overwhelming - we read over 600 poems and somehow whittled it down to 90. We hope that this anthology will inspire our community to create and compile more anthologies going forward.
What did you learn in the course of editing the book that surprised you?
(G) That editing is really damn hard LOL. For real, I guess you don’t really know how much energy and time goes into the editing process in such a way that is authentic and true to the kaupapa. This was a two year journey for Carrie and me. I was pregnant with my second child when we started and she will be 1.5 years old when we launch it into the world. I also could not tell you how many meetings, emails, FB messages, google docs and hours it took to come up with the book title. But hot damn, I am so glad we did!
( C) Rapture definitely feels like a birth but one I couldn’t have done with anyone else! Grace and I definitely have approached every aspect of this process as a team and I feel like we learned as a team as well. It’s been an amazing process to have both AUP and the poets trust us with this work and this incredible task - but I think I was most surprised by how long it took to make it to this point!
Why do you think performance poetry has been on the fringes?
(G) I think existing on the fringes is a great place to be, it certainly is where I have personally existed myself in many ways. On the fringe you can walk between tensions and within tension comes innovation and creativity. All that said, I believe performance poetry is its own centre and hopefully Rapture is one of the reminders to some of the literary world to catch up ;)
( C) I’ve always thought of poets as truth tellers and not everyone is ready to hear the truth. To call out injustice, to activate political and personal freedoms, to reflect the lived experience of the world – we thrive in being at the forefront of what is to come. And therefore, some might view that as the fringe. But as Grace says, we view it as the centre.
It strikes me that performance poetry is actually a lot bigger – in terms of its popularity and participant numbers – than many people may think. Why do you think it remains out of the (so called) main stream?
(G) I would ask what is mainstream? I don’t view one genre of literature as the centre of reference over another, I am more interested in writers and writing in all variations and shades.
(C) There has often felt like a divide in the literary world - where ‘academia’ and ‘page’ poets and funders don’t view ‘performance’ poets as ‘legitimate.’ And that can hold back an artform from being accepted, talked about, and brought into the ‘mainstream.’ But performance poetry has not only persisted, it has thrived, especially in Aotearoa.
I look at WORD The Frontline, the largest poetry slam in the country, which is a youth poetry programme run by Action Education - they’ll have 44 high schools participating with hundreds of young poets performing their own original work and they’ll sell out Auckland Town Hall for their Finals. I look at Poetry Idol being the only performance poetry event at Auckland Writers Festival for a decade and selling out every time. Audiences are hungry for this artform - they emotionally connect with the performers, they appreciate the multi-genre blending of theatre and poetry - but that means literary organisations, festivals, funders, established or ‘accepted’ writers need to back performance poetry as well.
What is your hope for the book?
(G) I hope every writer within it feels seen. I hope that every reader finds resonance within the pages. I hope that publishers discover a writer that intrigues them, connects with that writer and offers them a publishing deal (massive alofa to AUP for publishing RAPTURE). I hope it becomes a working text in schools for my own children to study. I hope all the amazing writers who are not in the book feel seen and know that this book is just the seed for so many more.
(C ) I echo all of Grace’s hopes for RAPTURE and I also hope this book reiterates and shows how legitimate, talented, and powerful performance poets and poetry are. That we are worthy of being published, that the craft and talent and editing that goes into our poems is the same as any ‘page’ poet. I hope that our poems are given new life in these pages.
What are you working on now?
(G) I am working on my second theatre show, Water Memories which has been slowly cooking for the last three years and I have recently dropped into a really exciting sweet spot with its development. My other two projects are my continued work with theatre show UPU (currently touring across the motu) and Flying Fest Festival with my uso Dr Lana Lopesi.
(C ) I have just returned from performing my award-winning poetry theatre show Hysterical at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe - we did 24 performances in 26 days after a year of preparation so I am currently in a state of recuperation and rest.
Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand edited by Carrie Rudzinski and Grace Iwashita-Taylor (Auckland University Press, $49.99) is out now.
