Wham, slam poetry jam
by Ashley Arabian on Apr. 10, 2008, under CalendarTucson group brings multimedia mix to performances
Moisés Regla, Logan Phillips and Adam Cooper-Terán make up Verbobala Spoken Video.
Art often is expressed in unique and unconventional ways, but poetry has reached a new edge with Verbobala Spoken Video.
The avant-garde, binational group based in Tucson and Cuernavaca, Morelos, layers its performances with slam poetry, video, eclectic music, experimental linguistics and new media. Sometimes up to six projections display videos while members recite bilingual spoken word over experimental audio.
The troupe’s talents will be on display Saturday when the trio performs at the Tucson Poetry Festival, which starts Thursday and continues through Sunday. Accompanying the group will be aerial dancers from local pyrotechnic theater troupe Flam Chen.
Verbobala Spoken Video is made up of Moisés Regla, a Mexican of French and Spanish descent; Logan Phillips, an American of Irish and Slavic background; and Adam Cooper-Terán, a Chicano of Russian and Yaqui ancestry.
“We all have a lot of experience individually in different areas,” Phillips says. “This is what makes us such a dynamic group.”
The three came together last year when Phillips, a border poet and slam poetry competitor, and Regla, a VJ in Cuernavaca, discussed their common interest in live art forms. After just two beers, they knew the group had to be formed. Cooper-Terán, a filmmaker from the Old Pueblo and member of Flam Chen, joined them shortly afterward.
“It’s not easy being a binational group,” Phillips says. “The border policy gets in the way and we can’t all legally be together at the same time. But we work best as a group. We feed off each other’s creativity, like a band.”
The trio’s individual talents have been showcased all over the world. Regla’s multimedia art has been exhibited in museums in Spain, Canada, Colombia and Mexico.
Phillips has toured with his poetry to New York, Paris and Mexico City and has been hailed by some critics as “the young voice of the Southwest.”
Cooper-Terán’s work has been featured in venues from England to San Francisco, as well as the Arizona International Film Festival, where he focused on war and terrorism.
The group challenges the understanding of art from the simpler form to the complex. The members incorporate their thoughts about border issues, language, education and the desert into their divergent performances.
His inspirations, Phillips says, come from the Sonoran Desert, mixed cultures, languages coming together and seeing the grace in which people live their lives.
Tucson, in particular, is a major source of the group’s ideas.
“Its landscape, gigantic sky and its vast amount of space challenges people,” Phillips says.
An ardent Verbobala fan, Tucson Poetry Festival co-director Lindsay Miller says performances by the troupe are like no other, and she’s looking forward to Saturday’s piece.
“Verbobala is a border project in every sense,” she says. “These artists are playing with the boundaries between cultures, between countries, between languages; the borders between artistic disciplines, the border between scripted work and improvisation, even the border between performer and audience.”
“I’ve had the privilege of seeing two earlier Verbobala projects, although neither of them was as involved as this will be. In both cases, I had the sense that I hadn’t just seen the show; I had been a part of it.”
———
IF YOU GO
What: Tucson Poetry Festival
When: various times Thursday-Sunday
Where: The University of Arizona Poetry Center, 1508 E. Helen St., and The Historic Y Hall, 300 E. University Blvd.
Price: $10 individual readings, $5 with student ID, $10 small group sessions, $50 festival pass good for all events, 20 percent off for groups of 10 or more
Info: All tickets available at The Historic Y Hall. Tucson Poetry Festival info line: 620-2045; tucsonpoetryfestival.org
———
OTHER FEATURED ARTISTS
• Ayisha Knight is the only deaf poet to have been on Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam. Her art is expressed in music, photography and American Sign Language translation. Her subjects range from family to community and ethnicity to identity.
• Rebecca Seiferle has won several awards for her poetry and is included in Best American Poetry 2000. She is the founding editor of the online magazine The Drunken Boat (www.thedrunkenboat.com).
• Benjamin Alire Saenz is a fiction writer and a poet. From New Mexico, he has written short stories, a novel and children’s books. He teaches creative writing at the University of Texas-El Paso.
• Paul Fisher is the founder and was the director of the Arts Education Program for the Tucson Pima Arts Council. He is a published poet, a performing artist and a theater education specialist.
• Wanda Coleman has written several books of poetry that have received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She has also written novels, was a scriptwriter and a journalist.
• Sherwin Bitsui has published several poems and received the 2000-01 Individual Poet Grant from the Writer Bynner Foundation for Poetry. He is from White Cone and lives in Tucson.
———
POETRY FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
THURSDAY
7:30 p.m.: Performance by Ayisha Knight at The University of Arizona Poetry Center, 1508 E. Helen St.
FRIDAY
7:30 p.m.: Readings by Benjamin Alire Saenz, Will Inman Award winner, and Wanda Coleman. A book signing follows the reading. Held at The Historic Y Hall, 300 E. University Blvd.
SATURDAY
Small Group Sessions in The Historic Y Conference Room: • 10 a.m. Wanda Coleman • 11:30 a.m. Benjamin Alire Saenz • 1 p.m. Rebecca Seiferle • 2:30 p.m. Sherwin Bitsui • 7:30 p.m. Reading by Ayisha Knight, performance by Verbobala Spoken Video. Book signing to follow.
SUNDAY
11:30 a.m.: Breakfast & Panel Discussion on “Poetry and Voice” and “Other People’s Poetry” Reading: Moderated by Paul Fisher in The Historic Y Conference Room • 2 p.m. Verbobala Small Group Session • 3 p.m. High School Contest Reading with contest judge Rebecca Seiferle • 5:30 p.m. Readings by Sherwin Bitsui, high school contest winner, and Rebecca Seiferle. A book signing follows the reading. • 8 p.m. Community Poetry Slam hosted by Lindsay Miller ($5 suggested donation).
