Radical Pedagaogies: Bop Prosody and the Practice of Spontaneous Poetics

Note: this program is being rescheduled. We will announce rescheduled date soon. 

Compound Yellow
244 Lake St.
Oak Park, IL  60302

free and open to the public, all ages

You're invited to come to "Bop Prosody and the Practice of Spontaneous Poetics," which will be led by local poet, editor, and educator Albert DeGenova. Bop Prosody and the Practice of Spontaneous Poetics is the seventh installment in the Radical Pedagogies series. 

Bop Prosody and the Practice of Spontaneous Poetics explores the concepts of jazz poetry.  The writings of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and others, posit that to write poetry as a jazz musician creates a musical improvisation is a “practice” more akin to Zen meditation than to traditional prosody. The terms bop prosody or spontaneous poetics represent the writer’s attempt at capturing the purity of spontaneous emotion in a literary medium similar to the improvisation method of a jazz musician.  The Workshop will discuss jazz improvisation, Kerouac’s theory of Spontaneous Poetics, and Ginsberg’s long-held “first thought, best thought” dictate; musical examples and experimentation with writing prompts will also be facets of the day’s conversation.

photo: Charlie Parker and Miles Davis

Albert DeGenova is an award-winning poet, publisher, and teacher.  He is the author of three books of poetry and three chapbooks.  His most recent book is Black Pearl: poems of love, sex and regret; his collection of haibun and poetry, Postcards to Jack, was recently released in a second expanded edition in 2018. His work has also appeared in numerous journals including: RHINO, The Paterson Literary Review, The Louisville Review, Aesthetica Magazine, The Café Review and others.  DeGenova is the founder and co-editor of After Hours magazine, a journal of Chicago writing and art, which launched in June of 2000.  He received his MFA from Spalding University in Louisville and leads several writing workshops throughout the year at WriteOn Door County and an annual writing week at The Clearing Folk School in Ellison Bay, WI.  He hosts the monthly Traveling Mollys reading series (Oak Park, IL) which is now in its 22nd year.  He is also a blues saxophonist and one-time contributing editor to Down Beat magazine.  DeGenova splits his time between Sturgeon Bay, WI, and the metro Chicago area.  

Bop Prosody and the Practice of Spontaneous Poetics is part of the Radical Pedagogies series, which happens at Compound Yellow on the fourth Sunday of the month. This series is co-presented by Borderbend and Compound Yellow.