Deep Cleveland Poetry 8/8/2008: Christopher Franke Video
The Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour takes place every second Friday at Borders Books in Strongsville, Ohio. On 8 August 2008, we had the privilege of witnessing Cleveland poetic legend Christopher Franke in action. And I'm excited to report that he gave me permission to film his reading and post it on this blog.
Here's emcee Joshua Gage's introduction (about 6 minutes):
And, in my first experiment with Google Video (which lacks You Tube's time limits), here's Christopher Franke's featured reading (around 27 minutes):
More photos from that fabulous night, as well as video from the open mic session that followed Franke's feature, will be coming to soon to a blog near you (namely this one). The open mic video will feature poetry readings by T.M. Göttl, Dianne Borsenik, J.E. Stanley, Josh Gage, me, and many others - as well as another brief taste of Franke to close the evening. Lots of goodies!
Crisis at Borders, 08/08/08 [photo by Dianne Borsenik]
Christopher Franke, 08/08/08 [photo by Jesus Crisis]
Posted by Jesus Crisis at 9/18/2008 3:40 PM 
Categories: Cleveland, Poetry by Others, Poetry Events, Video Blogs
Categories: Cleveland, Poetry by Others, Poetry Events, Video Blogs
Nice job with the videos!!
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Thanks, T.M.! Now that I've figured out the Google business, I plan to upload the video of your Sandusky reading there as well in the near future.
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Hey, neato! You make good use of yr neat equipment.
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Thanks, Lady! I wish I could have posted this in a more timely fashion. Better late than never, I suppose.... But six weeks after the fact is far too long for my liking. I intend to do better next time.
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Oh, that was cool, John. I actually watched the whole thing. I finally figured my bad self out. I like to hear this stuff more than I like to read it. Who knew?
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Thanks, Terese! I seem to get more out of it, too, when I can hear (and see) it and not just read it. With some of Franke's poems, it seems I get the most out of them when I can do all of the above. Like the first piece he read - it's similar to some of my older poems in that you can lose some of the puns when you hear but don't see it. But that said, I think he does as fantastic a job as possible of conveying them to listeners.
Here are the first few lines of the first poem he read, as an illustration:
"IF COVER ART, O, BOMB, A FLAP
what york'll be all the news!
Butt-know-noose is got noose."
Really needs seen and heard, and more than one time to really get the depth and dig the multiple layers.....
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I agree that a lot of your poetry and that of others you have posted needs to be heard and read as well or it is not
READily understood. LOL I presume that is why it is better to have handouts or books offered for sale at these readings.
Too much can become obtuse, trite, misunderstood and lost to the listener and we just can't "dig" it so it gets buried in the depth of too many multiple layers of wordiness.
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It's so strange that you guys are talking about layers because I was just writing a poem about that yesterday morning.
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Great video! Love the animation of the poet. Haven't seen that since the 60's!
*god I'm old*
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lol... I feel old, too! But we're NOT, damn it!
Thanks, Susan. He seemed a tad bit nervous at the very beginning - but after the first couple of poems, he seemed totally at ease. I really like this guy. Christopher's one of my favorite people I've met in the Cleveland poetry scene. And he has a huge body of good work. I'd seen him read at probably a dozen open mics, and yet most of what he read at Borders that night was new to me.
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Sorry about getting over here so late to comment... I'm usually a little more on top of things but have had a lot on my mind lately.
Nice video .. I remember liking Franke's poetry when I heard it at the Brandt so nice to hear it again here.. finally.. *smile*
I know that pesky computer has been making your hair turn gray... glad to see you've finally almost gotten caught up.
Any more videos in the offing perhaps??
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Thanks, Chris!
Yes! I still have open mic highlights from Joe Sundae's and Borders on video that will make it to the blog or online library eventually. And I filmed some of Steve Goldberg's reading at the Tremont Arts & Culture festival this morning. Plus, there's always the video I'll eventually post of little ol' me.
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