Poetrymind: The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music to Show at the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music to Show at the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival

Rani Singh's 90 minute film on the work of Harry Smith, The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music will show at the American Museum of Natural History on November 10, 2007 at 8:15 PM

Every fan of American music owes a debt to Harry Smith. Driven by his unique sensibility and passion for authentic, offbeat music, he amassed an unparalleled collection of recordings and brought attention to numerous unrecognized artists. His musical legacy is celebrated here through archival footage, interviews, and filmed stage performances by a diverse group of artists, including Nick Cave, Percy Heath, Philip Glass, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and Elvis Costello.

The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
Located at the American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th St.
New York, NY 10024
Phone: 212.769.5305
Fax: 212.769.5329

To read my blog entry on Harry, click here

WHAT IS POETRYMIND?

Officially Poetrymind’s a Decade Old

In the Spring of 2005 while co-directing the New England College MFA Program in Poetry, I considered starting my own blog. I had been introduced to blogging through an MAT program in Information Technology I was enrolled in at Marlboro College.

I still remember sitting bolt upright one night when the word poetrymind manifested as the title. I believe I first heard this word from Russell Edson--at NEC when he read. At one point he responded to a challenge from a faculty saying something like there is only one thing that matters and that is poetrymind. Edson was a magical and deeply ironic prose poet whose work I admire. His work epitomizes for me the simple notion that things are not what they seem. Thus, the phenomenal world is infused with magic and the mystery of discovery with ever fresh eyes.

For me poetrymind is synonymous with “First Thought, Best Thought,” which is to say, thought that represents a state of mind free from conceptual overlays of judgment and second guessing. Rather it is elegant thought borne from pure perception, the original thought before attaching judgement. The slogan, "First Thought, Best Thought", coined by the late Chogyam Trungpa and Allen Ginsberg at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics is not about writing without revision, as some believe. It is about experience first hand--direct and pure without a lot of egotistic filters or projections.

I am reminded of what the great Zen master, Susuki Roshi called “Beginner’s Mind” --- every moment offers a “fresh” experience. The ground is open vast mind or as Pema Chodron aptly puts it—The sky is open mind and everything else is the weather. Words are the display of poetrymind –alive with potentiality. Words in this context can become a vehicle for discovery of who we are.

See No Blood for Hubris on Russell Edson