Poets' Theater marks 7th anniversary at Passim
CAMBRIDGE CHRONICLE, Arts & Lifestyle, July 30, 2002
By Susie Davidson / Correspondent

This Sunday at 7:30 p.m., Passim will host the seventh anniversary Celebration of Richard Cambridge's Poets' Theater.

Housed in the venerable 47 Palmer St. venue, the series has featured more than 70 performances. This event will showcase Manisha Shahane, Zenos Eros and Indigo Moor.

Richard Cambridge, a longtime fixture of the local poetry scene, began the series in 1995, while Passim was revamping.

"The genesis of the project happened with a phone call," Cambridge recalled. "Passim was reorganizing as Club Passim, and poet and booking agent Tim Mason offered me the opportunity to produce a poets' theater."

Cambridge won the Master's Slam at the 1997 National Poetry Slam, was a member of the 1992 Boston Championship Slam Team and won third place on the 1993 Cambridge team. His past awards have included the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize and finalist for a residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Cambridge's work has been featured in, among other publications, the Heartland Journal, Paterson Literary Review, Defined Providence, Red Brick Review, Squawk, Nantucket Journal and Asheville Poetry Review.

At the time of the Passim offer, Cambridge was experimenting with poetry performance which he said was "outside the scope of traditional readings." In 1992, he produced and co-authored "Where the Red Road Runs," a dramatic performance of poetry and music by local artists, which conveyed a Native American perspective of the European settlement of the Americas. The show, which included Passim's Mason and was one of the few alternative events to the U.S. Quincentennial Celebration of Columbus, ran for five months at the former Harvard Square comedy club Catch a Rising Star.

From 1994 to 1996, Cambridge also worked with director Patrick Trettenero ("Late Night Catechism") on "The Cigarette Papers: A Spiritual Journey from Addiction," which ran at the ICA, Boston Playwrights' Theater and Little Flags Theater. It received wide acclaim by both the medical and literary communities, and was hailed by the Boston Globe as "a tour-de-force."

"The Club Passim series was just the opportunity I was looking for," said Cambridge, who credits T.S. Elliot, Leonard Cohen, Keats and Yeats as major poetic influences. "The Cambridge-Boston open mike scene is a fertile ground for poets, musicians and performance artists. When you put this all together you've got Poets' Theater, and you can really take the audience on a journey engaging all the disciplines of the stage in performance art."

The series has featured, among many other performances, Sebastian Lockwood's classical improvisation of the Odyssey with flamenco guitar, and poet-griot Askia Toure's modern classic, "From the Pyramids to the Projects." "The Poets' Theater at Club Passim has nurtured artists and challenged them to assemble dramatic works," said Cambridge.

Cambridge, who refers to himself as a cultural revolutionary, has also addressed major contemporary issues at the club. His performance troupe, Singing with the Enemy, has performed "¡EMBARGO!", centering on the U.S. government's 43-year blockade of Cuba; his current production, "PRESENTE!," addresses political prisoners in the U.S.

"They were convicted unjustly not because they did wrong, but because they did right," he said.

The Poets' Theater has also produced benefits for the Rainbow Coalition as well as for political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier.

In his own work, Cambridge cited the overriding themes of nature, relationship, political struggles (including the Native American movement) and the struggle of women.

"My line, 'What is a twist of rhyme to a Black man doing time?,' questions the significance of poetry," he said, "if people are unjustly incarcerated, or if they are being killed in wars in foreign regions where we have no real business. I've always struggled with the promotion of social consciousness."

Artists, he feels, must speak for their times as well as those which are eternal.

"All great art will transcend its time," he said, "and at the same time, speak for its own era. We must take issue with all contemporary challenges, and any ongoing war, since all war is ultimately wrong. Artists have the responsibility to be a part of the community at large, yet incorporate a sense of timelessness which transcends the human condition."

He cited the Dylan song "Blowing in the Wind."

On Aug. 4, Shahane, whose artistry is rooted in folk, jazz and Indian traditions, will perform poetry and song with keyboard, guitar and drum. Eros, who with poet Gabrielle Zane and musician Ludent Tremmel will merge spoken word, performance art and progressive tribal music in provocative and ethereal arrangements, is a favorite on the local music and spoken word scene. Moor, whose poetry explores timeless childhood themes, is a recent arrival from Sacramento, Calif., and will incorporate jazz and blues music into his act.

Tickets are $10. Club Passim is not wheelchair accessible; for reservations and additional information call 617-492-7679.