WRITER Nathaniel Mackey
DATE November 2003
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
This 45-minute film features the poet Nathaniel Mackey (b. 1947) reading from and discussing his work.
OVERVIEW OF CONTENTS
Mackey reads and discusses the poems "Sound and Semblance," "Sound and Sustenance," "On Antiphon Island," "Song of the Andoumboulou 62," and "Dread Lakes Aperture." His remarks touch on the Kaluli myth of the Muni bird, the origins of limbo dancing in the Middle Passage, Dogon funeral ceremonies, the emergence of poetic utterance in the breakdown of "social sustenance," his own early influences, and his compositional practice (including a discussion of serial poetics, anagrams, and neologisms in his work). Among the writers and artists mentioned are: Kamau Brathwaite, Wilson Harris, Cecil Taylor, Art Blakey, Zora Neal Hurston, William Carlos Williams, Amiri Baraka, and others.
RELATED TITLES
Allen, Donald, ed. The New American Poetry. New York: Grove, 1960.
Blakey, Art. Mosaic. Blue Note, 1961.
Coltrane, John. Live at Birdland. MCA/Impuse, 1963.
Feld, Steven. Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics and Song in Kaluli Expression. Second edition. U of Pennsylvania P, 1990.
Jones, LeRoi. The Dead Lecturer. New York: Grove, 1964.
Mackey, Nathaniel. Splay Anthem. New York: New Directions, 2005.
---. Whatsaid Serif. San Francisco: City Lights, 1998.
Williams, William Carlos. Pictures from Brueghel. New York: New Directions, 1962.
ARCHIVAL RECORD
The DV master of this Profile was shot and edited by Jim Sharkey of Folkfilms. The Profile was arranged and produced by Steve Evans, who oversaw the shoot and conducted the interview with the poet.
In addition to the master tape for the Profile, there are two DV cassettes of unedited footage.
RELATED ARCHIVAL MATERIALS
New Writing Series Reading, 18 November 2003.
NATHANIEL MACKEY SET LIST - DV 1 of 1
00'30 - [OPENING TITLE]
00'40 - Sound and Semblance
03'38 - [remarks on the preceding poem, on Steven Feld's ethnomusicological studies of the Kaluli, the poet's "-mu" sequence, and Charles Olson's sense of "muthos"]
09'23 - Sound and Sustenance
12'30 - On Antiphon Island
14'43 - [remarks on preceding poem]
19'00 - [INTERTITLE : Influences]
19'07 - [remarks on first encounters with poetry and jazz in the early '60s, the importance of LeRoi Jones, William Carlos Williams, and the New American Poetry]
22'13 - Song of the Andoumboulou 62
28'40 - [remarks on the preceding poem and on Andoumboulou sequence]
33'10 - [INTERTITLE: Composition]
33'12 - [remarks on his compositional practice, permutability and serial poetics, anagrams in Cecil Taylor's works and his own, neologisms]
37'25 - Dread Lake Apertures
40'50 - [remarks on preceding poem, the "-mu" series, the concept of "eldren" (elders and children), contemporary social reality]
45'00 - [CREDITS]