STATEMENT OF WORK

Have You Ever Done Anything Like This?

By Ama Birch

Are you here for the poetry walk? I am the poet. Are you poets, artists, lovers? Trying is a big part of writing. Oh, okay. There is a place in Greenpoint that takes old digital hardware and converts it. Alright. Okay. That is a good idea. You know it is like anything. The more you practice the better you get. About 25 years. I started when I was an undergraduate at New Paltz. I had a short story published in a magazine they put out and that is how I became a writer. I grew up on South 3rd, and I moved back to the neighborhood a few times, but this iteration. I moved back a year ago. I know this area very well. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I spent a lot of time playing basketball here. I have a lot of memories, which is why I selected this as the place to meet. Where are you from? Prague? Oh, okay. That is okay. I lived in Guadalajara in Mexico. Jalisco is big. I think Chiwawa is north, but, also Puerto Vallarta is Jalisco. So it goes west, but it is the second biggest city in Mexico. I went to study. I studied how to teach English. I became a teacher abroad. When did you come from the Czech Republic? Oh, wow. That is awesome. That is pretty cool. Have you gone to Poetry Project? Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good. It sounds like you are seeing everything. There is also Brooklyn Poets. That’s an organization. They are in Brooklyn Heights. They might have an event. I think MOMA this week has a poetry event. I teach at Poetry Project. I just finished teaching a ten-week poetry workshop on zoom thru Poetry Project. I had a couple of Midwesterners and mostly the rest were local. It depends on how much you are shaping your poem, you know, or how much you are shaped by your poem, you know. But if you see the poem as something you are creating then there is always room for conversation and discussion. If you see the poem as you, it would be very difficult to workshop. You can still be a poet through the mere acting of composing poetry. That class was ten students, and maybe by the end we were five or six. Manageable. Everyone got attention. Maybe we will give it a few more minutes and then. Yeahhhhhh. It is suppose to rain maybe 20% chance around 6 pm. Hopefully we will be inside. Oh a lot. The southside is still very Latino. It has a large Hasidic population, but the northside is like completely gentrified. Yeah. It has a lot of tech people who have come in. It has a lot of affluent, wealthy people who have rented or bought condos. There is like a Chanel store. There is a Glossier. This is still sort of like. This is still kind of like the scene when I was a kid. People hanging out and playing basketball. Maybe skin complexion might be a little different. Maybe culture might be a little different. But it is still basically the same. Yes. Yes. We. They. This is actually our first time collaborating together. They do have some of my books on consignment, but this is our first experience. I am happy to have this experience, but I hope today goes well. Yeah. I think we should start. Alright. I was going to recite a poem to just start us. Then we can talk as we walk or we can write as we walk. I am open to. You know. The name of the poem is:

Rodney Park North

2   7   8

Red line

Red line

Red line

Brooklyn

Q u e e n s

Expressway

Bicycle Parking

White car

White car

White car

Red car

Black car

In the shade

Basketball

C o u r t s

Freedom

And I

Played

H  e  r  e

Are we ready? Let’s go. Yeah. That is what I was hoping for. Are you from New York? Yeah. I actually went to New Paltz. For undergrad for Theatre. Yeah. What do you do up there? Oh really, I spend a lot of time there. I graduated in 2000. A guy from Mad Men. Who was on Mad Men for three seasons, and then who else. Mike who was in Blair Witch Project. It was a good time. It was good. You know New Paltz is so beautiful. No what happened? So what do you do? Yeah. A little bit. It has. There are a lot of homeless people in Philly. I see that. Technically southern New Jersey is below the Mason Dixon line. What do you want to write about? Usually poets, artists in general are outsiders. Dubai. I don’t know her, but that doesn’t mean. When did you take the class? I think what happened was after studying Theatre I didn’t have a lot of...I didn’t have a lot of money, but I still felt creative, and I still wanted to tell stories and find different mediums to tell stories in and writing has allowed me that. And then sometimes I get to make something out of a story. Like a movie or an album or a video game or a book, but it was really the story that’s driving it. I feel like I craft the poem, but you know it is the sound that the poem makes plus the story that the poem tells. I guess you can find a poem. You know along the way. Those are fun. Susan-Lori Parks says that she sees poems on the wall. That is one approach you know. Where was that? What was your role in the theatre? Like the New York State Poet Laurate? You know. It is hard to have a singular focus. Like a singular vision in theatre is often not the case. You have to compromise in theatre. A singular vision; you can do that in poetry.  You can do it with your own personal – you know I think of painters. But you know collaborative art it is almost impossible. I co-directed once. He was more of a technical director, so I guess it worked out, but still I don’t think it made the piece very marketable because people look for like auteurs. Exactly, and people want that. I studied stage direction. My main focus. Yes, I directed about twelve. I wrote a few, too. Right. Right. I yah I do and I don’t. You know. That was like a playground for me. That is where I learned improvisation. That is where I learned some performance theory. That is where I learned where my art comes from. You know. I learned many things at that place. It all laid the foundation for where I am now. I wouldn’t be here without that. Bear beaver face in the tree. Isn’t it amazing how from over there to over here? Yeah. We are kind of in the restaurant row of Williamsburg. Which one True West? I love True West. Yeah, Sam Shepard is the best. I like also Buried Child. Have you read that one? That one is pretty good. A good story. Do you like like the Living Theatre like Julian Beck and all of that jazz? Julian Beck. You know the Living Theatre? A lot of nudity. Nudity and storytelling. A kind of performance art. Maybe like Allen Kaprow inspired events. In theatre school. Yeah, studied Julian Beck. Yeah. That is the next stop. It has totally changed. Yeah. You’re like one step ahead of me this whole day. The first thing you said was like why does this place have significance to you at the basketball courts? And I was like, I have a poem about that.  A little bit. I think so. You asked something that was related like tangential to that. And I was like oh. No. Yeah.  And the general vibe. You did say that? But before I did the poem. That’s okay. I just think it is interesting because you are just so ah you’ve got such a good sense of story rhythm.  I don’t know. Hmmm. I saw this Broadway musical recently Illinoise. It was pretty good. Yeah. It was-- his music is awesome. And yeah – It is a good album. And the musical is just like so beautiful because it is all dance. Everything is told through dance. It was like a ballet. Yeah. It was dream like. Yeah. It was. It was like going from one dream to another dream. Call me by my name. I guess he has been really sick. The playwright. Yeah. I think the librettist. Yeah. He is. Something. I saw it on Instagram. Pushing news and everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. It is pretty much. I lived in New Orleans for a while. It was kind of amazing, but I have to say the current state of Williamsburg reminds me of Burbon Street and the French Quarters. Well. I mean. Yes. It is a different kind of cool. I mean. New Orleans is cool...cooler. It is hard for me to say it is cooler. It is. It is a different kind of cool. Yeah, it is a poor city. This is like…comparing Williamsburg to New Orleans is really unfair to New Orleans because New Orleans is doing this with so much less. Yeah. Do you live near the water? Oh. Okay. I like it over there. I wonder what it will be. That’s the old Domino Factory. And the signs. The glass was relatively new. Maybe. Maybe. They finished construction last year? Oh yeah. You were part of that? Yeah. Oh really. We are going to go down here. I think the city is being sold. Yeah. All of them. No. no. Yeah. What I like about Fort Greene is that you have Pratt and the park. When I was a kid my dad did a, my dad is an artist, and he did an art installation in Fort Greene Park. He had a procession. Yeah. I guess. Yeah. It is really beautiful. You smell the jasmine? I don’t know, but I smell jasmine. You smell jasmine. That is wonderful. It is nice, huh? Are there the sprinklers? During the summer it is so active. This is actually a conservancy. Conservancy. So, it is like a private park. It is. I think around here. We should perform.

Domino Park

East River

River Street

Street River

Do Not Enter

While we work

The Other Half

B r e w e r y

Kent Avenue

Avenue Kent

South 4th

South 3rd

Domino Park

Dog Run

Food feed food

All along the waterfront

Dad and I use to sit

On the r o c k s Junkies

Prostitutes were everywhere

Your experience. And then I am doing a public art performance, so there is that experience happening, also. But the visual experience…It is a poem installation. Yeah. There poems are based on Google Map images, so the Google Map is essentially an ekphrastic exercise. Ekphrastic is the Greek practice of writing from an image or writing about an image. This poems are inspired by digital images. Yeah. The way the streets are labeled. The specific landmarks. They have significant meaning to me. It is actually kind of a little emotional for me because it is so nice to share my experience with others, but also to be in the world sharing it with just everybody is also quite impactful for me as an artist and performer. I am interested in street performance, and in the accidental walk by that might have impact in someone else’s life. Oh and just writing. Just doing that. I guess I wanted a visual representation that was in addition to the text or sonic experience. And so, as an artist I was looking for a way to have a picture that also represented the poem, so that the poem could live on in both worlds. So they are not one for one representations of each other. They are kind of translations of each other. Yeah. Like a postcard you know. You can always look back at that image. And maybe it will give you the feeling you had when you experienced the poem for the first time. So you can experience the poem again. Sometimes I write outside. I am not adverse to it. Sometimes I walk poem is that process like literally writing as you walk. Hmm. And the experience of that is in the act of writing you know. And I think I wanted an experience that was more not so insular. You know because writing you can get very and this I wanted to be able to talk to people and still interact and be part of the moment. No. Not so much these days. This is like my natural existence. This is like. Yeah. No. It’s really. Really. I spent a lot of time in dark rooms basically practicing. It is so nice to be in the world actually doing it. In actual. You know. My sister says I am really good at giving people an experience. And that is the real gift of the time we are spending together. With all of the noise and the boats. We should head back to the gallery. Yeah. Yeah. He is big time. He just became the executive director at A Gathering of the Tribes. Yeah. I am pretty sure he just took this position. Yeah. Maybe he will do it partially remote. Does he teach in D.C. or does he just live? Hmm. He is just a powerful poet. Yeah. There seems to be some glass ceiling that has been shattered. Did you see that film Wealthy. Too stereotypical. Hmm. You ready. No. No. I was taking a screenshot through. You mean just random people sitting at a typewriter. Writing a poem for hire. Yeah, I did a. I did this piece. Kind of how the walking poem came about was. I got a grant to write poetry about Ridgewood and that grant led me to writing this poem called Fresh Pond Road which is about the street Fresh Pond Road. It’s signs along the street, so, you know, I guess, the way I got to this project was through a performance piece were I stood on a sidewalk, and I solicited stories from my neighbors about the neighborhood. And then I wrote the poems out. Exactly, but I was really interested in monologue plays at New Paltz. Eric Bogosian, Talk Radio, Ntozoke Shange, For Colored Girls, The America Play to some extent by Susan-Lori Parks is really a one-man show in many ways. Oh, that is a really good one. No, I think Susan-Lori I think was always a writer. She also taught at CalArts. She just writes, and sometimes she does these writing workshops through the Public where you can write with her. Oh. Okay. That wasn’t Fuckin’ A? Was it? The one about The Scarlet Letter. Oh, that was her first one. Yeah, have you ever seen anything at the Theater of Ontological? Yeah, we are going to keep going up this way. I am just getting some material for my original poem. Make it happen. Hmm. Right. Okay. I saw Anna Deavere Smith when I was kid. When I was at New Paltz actually.  One of my teachers she couldn’t go to a play. It was at The Public. She was like here I will give you this ticket but you have to sell the other ticket down there. So I realized the seats are front row center. And, she was like telling a story about. Watch out. She was telling a story about a maid who had worked for the Roosevelts in the White House, and the maid has this journal and she kept using the word karma. Karma. And then, so then. She didn’t know how to pronounce it, so I pronounced it for her in front of everybody. The word was actually reincarnation. I am just going to dive in. I will give it a second. Hey Alexis, you made it. How are you? It was a good walk, and the readings have gone well. I have actually got one more reading.

Miriam

Oslo Convenient

Sushi store

Bedford Avenue

Get sauced

At sauced

Crosswalks

In perpendicular

Today I was looking at Wikipedia. I was reading about Transcendentalism, and I was reading about Hume, the Scottish philosopher who influenced so many people, and his five-page autobiography. And I thought. I have kind of given you a five-page autobiography to you myself today. At the basketball court, I was thinking about Emerson, and I was thinking why can’t we go on together peacefully. I once went to Peter Luger’s with my aunt. We had big slabs of bacon and burgers and steak, and the wooden slats on the floor kind of creaked, and the oil from the meat dripped onto the floor. The waiter slipped. Have you taken the Seastreak Ferry through the East River? Have you visited Spirit Halloween? Somewhere in this neighborhood there is a Live Sword. Vrooooooom. Vroooom. The sound of the ferry. Vroooom. Vrrooooom. Vrrrrroooom. The sound of the ferry. Marsha P. Johnson State Park. Bath House. Buffalo Exchange. Artists & Fleas. MUJI. Sephora. Ten Feet Single. Fette Sau. Buzo. L’Industrie Pizzeria. Traif. Williamsburg Cinemas. BonBon. Love you. Share the road. Five miles per hour. One way. One way. One way. One way to the post office. Molly’s Mini Market. Coca-Cola. People outside. Fire escapes above.