Performances

The People’s Poetry Gathering, a documentary film by Nick Doob and Steve Zeitlin chronicling the 1999 Gathering.

Founded by City Lore and Poets House in 1999 and later produced in cooperation with Bowery Arts + Science, the People’s Poetry Gathering was a biennial event that brought together diverse audiences not only to witness stunning performances, but to galvanize public attention around issues of preserving cultural forms and languages. During these festivals in 1999, 2001, 2003, and 2006, Lower Manhattan was transformed into a poetry village for three days. The People’s Poetry Gathering was one of the highest profile poetry events in the United States and had an average audience of 10,000. Previous Gatherings featured:

1999: In New York City, artists, folklorists, musicians, and lovers of poetry gathered en masse for the first biennial People’s Poetry Gathering. The festival brought together folk, ethnic, and literary poets from New York City and across the U.S., including cowboy and hobo poets and U.S. poet laureates.

2001: The Gathering continued to combine readings with musical performances, including poetry rock concerts by singer songwriters such as Patti Smith, panel discussions, and offbeat happenings, such as a day-long reading of Homer’s Odyssey on a ship at South Street Seaport. Our festival focus was the oral tradition.

2003: The Gathering highlighted ballads and epics. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, wrote an insightful essay on the ballad for The New York Times on the festival’s opening day; and we hosted a special conference and concert honoring Alan Lomax for his contribution to folk music and poetry. Beowulf and Sundiata were among the works featured.

2006: Through collaborations, performances, dialogues, and panel discussions, the Gathering was inspired to develop a more focused initiative on contested and endangered languages. The 2006 festival was dedicated to the poetry of these languages. The program included a keynote by poet Robert Bly, a program at the United Nations, and a “Festival within a Festival,” Harpsong: Celtic Poetry and Music.

All of the Festivals featured traditions such as a midnight reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry in the New York City Marble Cemetery; open mics in English and Spanish; workshops on publishing, writing, and memorizing poems; as well Poetry and Prayer at the Bowery Mission on Sunday mornings.

City Lore was inspired to create the People’s Poetry Project because, while many groups are dedicated to traditional music and literary poetry, no other organization is systematically presenting the diverse oral poetry traditions of New York City, the U.S. and beyond. The People’s Poetry Project grew out of the People’s Poetry Gathering, held in 1999, 2001, 2003 with Poets House, and in 2006 with Bowery Arts + Science, to bring together folk, ethnic, inner city, and literary poets.

Poetry plays a key role in New York’s ethnic and cultural communities. For many immigrant communities, poetry is the most accessible and profound way for people to express themselves. Every community we have researched has its poets. City Lore is committed to finding ways to give these poets voice, finding the venues and formats for them to convey their artistry to their own communities and to the city at large, often finding new and innovative ways to communicate across languages.

Since the Gathering, the People’s Poetry Project has featured New York’s manifold traditions in the Poetry Dialogues; the Poetry Dinners; and, most recently, with the POEMobile, a wildly decorated box truck designed to project poems on the sides of buildings in tandem with live readings in diverse urban neighborhoods. Click on the images to read more.

Tigrinya (ትግርኛ)

Tigrinya is a Semitic language spoken in central Eritrea and in Ethiopia and Israel by approximately 5 million people. It is closely related to Tigre and descended from Ge’ez, an ancient language of the Horn of Africa. One of the longest poetic traditions in the world, much of Tigrinya poetry is oral; recitations remain very much a part of contemporary Eritrean culture. Tigrinya poetry was first published by Italian scholars during colonization. Notable works include Tigrinya Popular Songs (1906), collected by Carlos Conti Rossini and featuring the genres masse (historical praise poems), melke (poems for the recently deceased), and dog’a (poems of mourning). Additional dog’a were collected by Jacques Faïtlovitch and published in Habasha Poetry. AbbaIsaak Ghebreyesus published Legends, Stories and Proverbs of the Ancestors in 1949 which included a hundred stories, 3300 proverbs, and various poems. More recently, poetry in Tigrinya has been written by Solomon Tsehaye, Saba Kidane, and the pioneering Reesom Haile, who modernized many oral forms. Contemporary Tigrinya poets are featured with those working in Tigre and Arabic in the recent anthology Who Needs a Story? (2005) edited by Ghirmai Negash and Charles Cantalupo.

A very popular oral poem, Negusse, Negusse is about a legendary hero called Negusse. The events narrated in the 169-line Tigrinya text are believed to have taken place around the 1880s, just about a decade before the Italian colonization of Eritrea. According to AbbaIsaak Gebreyesus, Negusse was initially a rebel but, because of his bravery and fighting skills, was acknowledged by the court of Ras Weldemichael, later becoming his general and then a chief of his own clan among the peoples of the region of Akeleguzai in Eritrea. In 1879, Negusse was killed in a battle, which was set in motion by a popular revolt of his own clan against his tyrannical and oppressive style of rule. Growing up in Eritrea, co-translator Ghirmai Negash heard this poem being sung and performed on many occasions – including by his grandmother who was a chronicler of oral tradition. Over the years, the poem, whose symbolism is interpreted as being relevant to all times, has been recited and documented by different performers and researchers and thus exists in different versions. This translation is based on the poem’s published version by Gebreyesus: Negusse, Negusse, Weiza Alem Blashe (Asmara, 1995).

https://citylore.org//wp-content/gallery/negusse/negusse.html

City Lore presents:

Negusse, Negusse – The World Falls Apart

An Excerpt from the Tigrinya Oral Epic

March 29, 2008
Bowery Poetry Club, New York City

With Performances By:
Ghirmai Negash (Tigrinya)
Charles Cantalupo (English)
Yosief Negusie (Kirar)

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