Word Up! Check Out Word X Word

Submitted by Seth Rogovoy on August 27, 2010 - 12:51pm

 

 
Word Up: Check Out Word X Word
 
 
Text and photos by Seth Rogovoy
 
 
I’ve been attending several of the events that come under the umbrella of downtown Pittsfield’s Word X Word Festival this past week. Earlier in the week, at a dinner discussion at the Ferrin Gallery, artists Maggie Mailer and Nanny Vonnegut – daughters, respectively, of famous writers Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut – spoke about the unique challenges of being daughters of famous men, and how that has affected or influenced, for better or worse, their own careers as artists. The verdict, in the end, seemed to be that it was a plus, and in both cases their fathers were very supportive of their daughters chosen career paths.
 
 
On Thursday night at the Pittsfield Contemporary Dot Com Gallery, spoken word performance was on the menu, featuring two masters of the form. The Berkshires own Douglass Truth, best known as a painter, performed his one man – or was it one-woman – show, Death as a Salesman, in which the aptly named Truth played his fictional – or is she real? -- twin sister, Dorothy, exploring how she made the transformation from a meatloaf-dishing school cafeteria attendant to a middle-aged lady helping Death become the world’s greatest salesman in the age of social networking. Truth’s story and performance was like nothing you’ve ever seen before, and you can see it again on Friday night at Pittsfield Contemporary.
 
 
Spoken word artist Roger Bonair-Agard followed Truth. This former National Poetry Slam champion describes himself as a” Trinidadian native, poet/writer/essayist/shit talker and professional procrastinator,” but in performance, he was more like a boxer of words, weaving and ducking in and out of the way of his boundless verbal artillery. Many of Bonair-Agard’s poems center around his identity as a Trinidadian with a rich and dignified history and legacy, including poignant memories of village life and familial relations, and how all that changed the moment he stepped off the plane at JFK Airport and became, at least in the eyes of everyone else, just another black man in America, and how he had to relearn what it meant to be a man, a human, and Roger Bonair-Agard.
 
 
Fortunately for us, Bonair-Agard is a fighter, and rather than succumb to the indignities foisted upon immigrants and dark-skinned people, he channeled his amazing experiences – including working his way up to being a key staffer at an Upper East Side synagogue, and learning how to negotiate the mean streets of East New York – into the new art form of performance poetry, to which he is perfectly suited. Bonair-Agard is a powerful and dynamic wordsmith with a mellifluous voice and winning presence, and he had the audience hanging on every word. And when do you recall someone receiving a standing ovation for a poetry reading?
 
 
It’s rare to see these sorts of performances in the Berkshires, and they continue on Friday and Saturday nights in various venues in Pittsfield, culminating with a big show at the Colonial on Saturday night featuring slam poetry champion Rives, along with several musical guests. Check the WordXWord Festival website for complete details.
 
 
 
Seth Rogovoy is Berkshire Living’s award-winning editor-in-chief and cultural critic. He is the author of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet and The Essential Klezmer: A Music Lover’s Guide to Jewish Roots and Soul Music.
 
 
 
 

 

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