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The rise of the Peru’s cultural intelligentsia

April 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Some of Peru’s best poets from way back when, have been influenced by European artists and philosophers and vice versa. Ever notice how a trend seems to reach even the most remote of places in the world?

In the 1960s and the 1970s Peru experienced a kind of rise of the intellectuals – the Lima intelligentsia. That would be the people who are intent on finding new ways to live and intellectualizing about life (not a fan of such). I was reading up on this intelligentsia and some of the Peruvian poets of the time and came across a story about Blanca Valera, a Peruvian poet who has been honored with many awards notably the Medalla de Honor from the National Institute of Peruvian culture and International Prize of Lorca’s city Granada (she was the first woman ever to win this prize). According to the Andina website: “Her poems are surrealist in the way that they try to express the world in an innocent way from the inner space’s point of view, yet they cannot prevent cruelty from coming into them from the outside world. “

When I read the above criticism I was very fascinated because I sometimes feel that that may be the battle of all artists – the struggle to see the good and yet always be shocked back into reality. I am forced to wonder though if it could also just be the times…Blanca Valera is considered one of Latin America’s most important writers and knew the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Henri Michaux, all of whom influenced her in some way. I think this influence is very obvious, her work is extremely surreal. Her work is too broken and abstract for me but it is interesting to see how even back in the 1960s artists from all walks of life were influencing each other across geographies. Poets from Peru, from a whole different culture were able to connect with poets in Europe and bring the concept of surrealism back to Peru.

A country is multidimensional – not all poets are going to write in the same style or have the same point of view or even find the same things challenging. Artistic influences across countries and cultures are much more obvious today because we have technology, marketing people and the media to track them, quantify them, research and analyze them and report on them.

Blanca Varela
Professional Résumé (Translated by Michael L. Smith)
let’s say that you won the race
and the prize was another race
that you didn’t drink victory’s win
but your own salt
that you never heard the cheers
but dogs’ barking
and that your shadow
was your sole
and unfair competitor

Filed Under: -Traditions: Americas Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The saga of Peru’s national anthem

April 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Today I guess it would be great to share a fun fact about Peru – the country has changed its national anthem several times to suit the will of the people. Honestly! At some point the government had to issue a decree that the national anthem would not be changed any more but even that did not seem to help. Of course, the Peruvian national anthem was/is written by poets.

Peru’s very first national anthem after independence was written by Jose Bernardo Alcedo in 1821. The government at the time held a competition to see who could write the best anthem. All the final chosen anthems were played in private and the government chose the best anthem. That anthem was then played in public and accepted as the national anthem. For some reason after the anthem was announced people chose to keep publishing the anthem but with different lyrics and beats, which ended up confusing the entire nation because nobody knew what the real anthem was (I now know why the South African government once banned a local group (Boom Shaka) from turning the national anthem into a pop hit). This led to the need to modify the anthem several times. In 1901, there was yet another poetry contest to choose a national anthem because the government thought the original was antagonistic towards Spain (What??). Actually that is because the Peruvian National Anthem talks about slavery and freedom and fighting for independence (the more I read about the country the more I wonder about the references to freedom). And of course, after a decade the public hated it and wanted a new set of lyrics, which forced the Peruvian Congress to issue a decree and declare the national anthem’s lyrics untouchable (true story). And as recently as 2005, the Peruvian Congress (and public) was debating whether or not the first verse of the anthem was actually written by the poet or if it was a folklore.

How much drama can possibly surround an anthem? To the point where congress has to pass laws around it? For me learning about the national anthem was very interesting because it occurred to me that the national anthem represents the people of a country. It is essentially the voice of a country – it is words that are sung to state what your country believes/ stands for or is. I had never thought of national anthems in that way before – as something that the people could fight and really get upset about and care about enough to march against. It’s just words and yet…Of course I think like this because I love South Africa’s national anthem.

Peruvian National Anthem

Chorus
We are free; let us always be so, let us always be so
Let the sun rather deny its deny its light
Than that we should fail the solemn vow
Which our country raised to God (repeat previous two lines)
Which our country raised to God. (repeat)

For a long time the Peruvian, oppressed,
Dragged the ominous chain;
Condemned to cruel serfdom,
For a long time, for a long time, for a long time he moaned in silence.
But as soon as the sacred cry of
Freedom! was heard on his coasts,
He shook off the indolence of the slave,
He raised his humiliated, his humiliated, his humiliated head.
He raised, he raised his humiliated head.

Chorus

Filed Under: -Traditions: Americas Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The black messengers – Cesar Vallejo

April 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The black messengers by Cesar Vallejo

There are in life such hard blows . . . I don’t know!
Blows seemingly from God’s wrath; as if before them
the undertow of all our sufferings
is embedded in our souls . . . I don’t know!

There are few; but are . . . opening dark furrows
in the fiercest of faces and the strongest of loins,
They are perhaps the colts of barbaric Attilas
or the dark heralds Death sends us.

They are the deep falls of the Christ of the soul,
of some adorable one that Destiny Blasphemes.
Those bloody blows are the crepitation
of some bread getting burned on us by the oven’s door

And the man . . . poor . . . poor!
He turns his eyes around, like
when patting calls us upon our shoulder;
he turns his crazed maddened eyes,
and all of life’s experiences become stagnant, like a puddle of guilt, in a daze.

There are such hard blows in life. I don’t know!

Filed Under: Poems and Poets Tagged With: , ,

When passion consumes the man

April 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

It is a benefit to know what makes you happy and what you are willing to go to the end of the world for.
Cesar Vallejo once said all he wants is freedom because if he did not get it in lifetime then he did not know when he would ever get it. I thought it would be interesting to do a blog post on him because he is considered one of the world’s most influential poets. I want to talk about the poet and the man, not the poetry, because I am trying to understand passion without fear and what it means to really and truly stand for something.
Cesar Vallejo was Peruvian; his 2 grandmothers were of Peruvian decent whereas his 2 grandfathers were Spanish Catholic priests, so he obviously had a lot of inborn issues. He was one of eleven children and growing up, his family struggled a lot. He was forced to drop out of college many times and he worked tutoring jobs and a book keeping job at a plantation (I think that was his job?). It was during his job as a book keeper on the plantation that he turned into a revolutionary and a social activist. He observed the way that workers (of Peruvian decent) were treated and how hard they worked and how little they were paid for their work and he felt compelled to speak up (and in the process turn communist). I would say he developed an obsession with freedom – in both his poetry and life.
In 1920 he published his second volume of poetry – Trilce – and focused on Freedom. Not just freedom the ideal, but freedom in writing and life. He wanted to be free of the rules of writing – no rhyming schemes, metaphors, etc. He wanted to invent new words and create his own unique style. This book is considered his best work and sheer genius. As with all poets, he eventually had to go into exile because he was making enemies of the wrong people. He died in exile in Paris and at the time the Peruvian government would not let him return to Peru to die at home, nor would they let his remains back into the country.
We are talking about someone who desperately needed a job and the money to continue existing. But for some reason he knew that he could not continue under the circumstances – he just had to speak up at the risk to his own comfort. What is it that moves a man/woman to such a point? The point where you stop caring about your own well being and comfort and start fighting for something even when you know it may be your undoing?
Filed Under: -Traditions: Americas Tagged With: , , , ,

Slam: good or bad for poetry?

April 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Is slam good or bad for poetry? Is it killing poetry by judging the poets or is it forcing poets to up their game? Dare I say it; but is Harold Bloom right? Is our generation killing art?

A week ago I was watching “Brave New Voices” on HBO and one of the contestants in the show was admonished for writing a poem that was just a normal poem but not a slam poem. At the time I remember wondering what a slam poem really was. As a spoken word poet or slam poet I tend to think of slam poems as poems filled with metaphors and stories, but a part of me always assumed that any poem as long as it was good could be a slam poem. I was wrong; the mentor on HBO explained that a slam poem is different – it is witty and smart and filled with metaphors and captivates the audience. I remember thinking what the hell, doesn’t all poetry strive to do this? To me slam poetry seemed to be about the competition and the time, in fact poets fixate on the time (we have so much to say, we apparently need more than 3 minutes to say a poem).

I forgot about this episode and went on living my life, my life being Speak 2B Free and oral traditions and the spoken word poetry industry and website development etc. But then yesterday I was invited to a poetry show at my old college and asked to perform. I was really excited and was looking forward to it.

The show was in the school library; this was the first time I had ever performed anything in the library during school hours so it was interesting. They had a podium for the poets and that through me off because it was way too formal. For the first time in a long time I felt intimidated (funny because this was a friendly reading and not a slam) and out of my depth. For the first time in my life I started to realize that the environment in which poetry is performed makes all the difference (I guess I had grown used to the informal venues). The podium made me feel really formal and the chairs and the setting itself gave me the impression of restriction. There was no screaming or real intense clapping and stomping or uhmmms or any kind of raw emotion after the performances and that contributed to the formal atmosphere and made me jumpy, leaving me with the sole wish of vacating the premises (no jokes). I kept wondering if I was reaching my audience in any way…

Since I am being deathly honest, and really speaking 2b free, I feel I should also confess that I started to understand the difference between slam poems and academic poems. I started to understand the difference between poetry that is meant to be performed and poetry that is meant to be read (big difference). I am starting to better understand the divide between slam poets and academia and where I fall on the issue. I realized that I really prefer slam or spoken word poetry because it is raw and political and aims to move people. Much as I read a lot of academic poetry, I prefer slam and love to watch it and really see it as a way for generation Y to express themselves. I love to see the raw emotions, the crazy metaphors, the take no prisoners approach performances. Oh, the passion in the delivery:

I kept contrasting the library setting to the Lizard Lounge setting and I was intrigued by the difference that atmosphere can make to a reading. To me poetry has nothing to do with a rhyming scheme (or lines in a stanza) instead it is freedom to share your emotions and hold nothing back, it is freedom to express your confusions in an eloquent way, to connect with others and share your insight and scream it on stage. Poetry should be felt and it should move others to see life your way. It is freedom to show your scars or beauty on stage and freedom knows no rules…

To quote the poem of quotes website (http://www.poemofquotes.com/articles/poetry_nutshell.php):

“Poetry is poetry. It has its own mind. If it flows, good — if not… it needs work. The rules can be bent but not broken. Our life is our life and no one can tell us what we have been through but ourselves. We know best not some stranger reading our poems. Our poetry is our life, not what someone says.

Rhyming in poetry is not always the best way to express yourself. Rhyming actually takes away many words that could have been used. If you try to rhyme it cuts your dictionary into little pieces. It doesn’t need to be this way, choose flow over rhyme.“

Filed Under: Art of Spoken Word Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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