Transcript of interview with the Romanian Lit Mag Revista PARAGRAF - July 31, 2019 (Responses translated from English into Romanian, then back to English)
1) Tell us, please, who is Mason Granger. What was your first encounter with poetry? When did start writing poetry?
I first got into spoken word poetry in 2001, my sophomore year at Rutgers University. One of my classes took a field trip to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in NYC and I was actually quite disinterested; the only reason I ended up going was because the girl in the class who I had a crush on was going, so my pragmatic science kid brain was like, “Ok sure, it’s a free date.”
I’ll never forget the first person who got on the mic— a young scraggly guy who’d obviously been through some things. He walks on stage, gets real close to the mic, and says, “Just so you know, I’m not really this angry in real life,” and then blasts this poem out of his entire face— big and scary and hilarious. Then he finishes, takes two seconds to recompose himself, squeaks a “Thank you,” and walks off stage. That’s was the first time I realized poetry isn’t [whatever stereotype I had], it actually can be [literally whatever I want], and there’s nothing that could’ve seduced my awkward smart-yet-disinterested 19 year old self more.
Serendipitously, there was a feature article in the school newspaper a week later highlighting a student-run poetry open mic called Verbal Mayhem. I started attending almost every week, then, after a few years, began co-hosting and organizing the event. Verbal Mayhem is actually still around at Rutgers today, with this September being the 20 year anniversary.
2) When did you join Bowery Arts and Science and how do you fit in it? What is Bowery A&S, more exactly, what is the scope and the mission of this organization?
Bowery Arts & Science (colloquially known as Bowery Poetry) is a nonprofit organization that preserves and develops the oral tradition of poetry via live readings, media documentation, and creation. What makes us unique amongst poetry organizations is our explicit inclusion of ‘media’ in our mission. We could pack our audience for every single event, every single night, and still not reach a fraction of the potential poetry-lovers that one well-made, well circulated poetry video can. Some thumb their nose at the concept of poetry videos, seeing them as a cheap replacement for the real experience, but I think that’s a narrow view.
Instead, I look at poetry videos as being the perfect spearhead for an idea cast out into the digital world— it’ll make whatever impact it’ll make, but it’s the weight of the rest of the spear that gives the spearhead it’s power, not the other way around, and it’s up to you to craft (if you’re the poet) or curate (if you’re me) what the rest of that spear will be. For us at Bowery Poetry, that spear is to encourage as many people as possible to engage with live spoken word poetry.
3) For the Romanians who are not all too familiar with performative poetry, can you highlight a bit the difference between being a spectator and being (just) a reader? And on the other part, between performing (as an artist in a show), reading aloud to an audience, and letting the reader get acquainted with your written poetry?
As with any live art, the inexorable passage of time is holding the big joker and you, the audience member, are along for the ride. The show starts when it starts, not when you decide to sit down. The words/plot/twists/etc flow over you as they are delivered, not as you decide to navigate them, and every satisfying moment of this experience could be, for all you know, the last. This urgency is amplified at a poetry open mic because of the inherent fact that the person you’re listening to at any given moment is basically just some random person off the street; when a brilliant artistic moment comes out of the full spectrum of possibilities, you’re like, “Damn what are the odds,” and it makes that moment that much more special.
On the performer side, maybe it’s a reflection of my personality, but there’s an element of jazz to a live poetry show that’s just fun. I like both the immediate feedback of a well delivered line and the freedom to deliver any given line however I want at any particular performance. There’s a groove when you’re delivering a poem exactly at a crowd’s collective speed of cognition that feels kinda magical; speed up slightly and they have to strain a bit to keep up, then slow down and let that whole chunk sink in at once, then keep going from there.
Also it’s weird seeing my poems in text because that font doesn’t look like how my voice sounds, so it just looks like words, not like my poem. Even when I read at a show, I almost always read from my handwritten notebook instead of printed text.
4) From your point of view is there American contemporary styles, genres of poetry which are not meant to be performed in open space (and are better off read alone in one’s intimacy)?
I don’t think there’s anything inherent about a particular style or genre of poetry that makes it ‘off limits’ in terms performing; it really boils down to the individual poet and their ability (or desire) to speak to an audience instead of at them.
That said, when you make the decision to share your poem aloud in open space, you’re thrusting your energy upon the listener and inviting the multitude of histories they’ve brought through the door into your poem. That open relationship you’ve created between yourself, the poem, and the audience is subject to the same dynamics as any social interaction; if you’re going out of your way as the poet to share something with me and it’s clear that you don’t care how if affects me, well, why am I here then?
5) Talking about literary trends, can you highlight for us some of the most recent ones (with some poets’ names maybe) in New York poetry?
One thing I’ve noticed more of is form poems being performed at poetry slams, further blurring the (perceived) line between the two. I can’t say it’s a particularly New York thing (the one that comes to mind is a contrapuntal performed at the 2018 National Poetry Slam by the winning team from Charlotte NC), but I’ve seen it at the open mic at Bowery Poetry as well. We’re pretty much at a post-stigma point for the Page Poet vs Performance Poet dichotomy in NYC nowadays.
6) Can you tell us about your own poetry? What are your style and approach? What are your writing and performing habits and techniques? (When do you write, how often, how do you prepare for a performance?)
I think what I’m getting at in all my poems is the idea that if you scratch down enough, there’s no such thing as different things, so how does The Thing work? The visual would be the Pink Floyd cover of “The Wall” with the light beams moving both forward and backwards. I also do a lot of poetry performances and workshops for kids, so I tend to not use profanity or other ‘not safe for schools’ language in my work. The best compliment I’ve ever gotten was from someone who said they reminded of a mix between (NYC rapper) Aesop Rock and Dr. Seuss.
7) Your recent Romanian experience (with pluses and minuses)?
The poetry organizer part of me was happy the events went smoothly, were well attended and well received, and the sound systems were all functional (not always a given in my experience). Our partners, the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York City and the National Museum of Romanian Literature in Bucharest, did such an amazing job and I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.
The human being who loves to travel part of me just loved Bucharest. There’s a great place, Cafe Alef, across the street from the museum that became our unofficial hangout spot during the trip, with the whole staff as our city nightlife tour guides. Summertime in Bucharest seems to be all about the things I like to do— sit outside with food, drink, and friends, so I was pretty much in heaven.
Really the only minus was feeling like I was going to crash and die with every taxi ride. Bucharest drivers don’t have that reputation for no reason.
Overall, Bucharest felt like a seed that’s just now beginning to bloom into its full self, so at this exact moment, anything is possible. From an arts standpoint, particularly as an arts-based entrepreneur, it’s a very exciting place to be. We’re already in talks to come back in May 2020, so hopefully that’ll happen.
8) Can poetry make a difference of any kind to the humankind?
I honestly feel that poetry has the greatest potential to make a difference in mankind because it’s the art form with easiest entry bar of participation. If you can speak, write, and have thoughts, you can engage in poetry. Across cultures, geography, socioeconomic strata, poetry is the Artistic Expression 101 that almost every single person on Earth can get their feet wet in. You don’t need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on an instrument or millions of dollars on a movie budget to tell a story. To me, that says that whatever comes next in the most grand revolutionary meaning of it all, will probably have begun as a poem.
9) And in connection to the above question, please write down for us your personal comment on Dylan Thomas’ “More Poetry Is Needed”.
I wish it said “Your Poetry Is Needed”. That’s what I wish would sink in.