Above is a video of the Fire of Prometheus reunion held at Stone Soup held on October 5, 2009. Hopefully, this video will be taken down someday.
Fellow FoP member Mic Cusimano owns this footage. I've never asked him to take it down. It's probably karmic justice for all the photos and videos I've taken over the years that footage of me introducing R.U. Outavit and company is still up on YouTube.
All my videos and photos recorded from this performance were accidentally deleted. It was an unusual but legitimate screw up that I later came to see as divine intervention.
Years ago, I wrote this on Mick's YouTube page:
I wish to make it known here that I regret ever giving R.U. Outavit stage time at Stone Soup Poetry during my time as host and organizer (which continues to this day). R.U. Outavit will never be welcome at Stone Soup Poetry ever again so long as I have anything to do with the organization.I have no problems with Mick. I loved Bill Barnum and cherished the times he was with us. But I still feel bad that Bill was talked into any group that had the poet R.U. Outavit in their midst. I'd like to think that if Bill had better awareness of R.U.'s character, he would have never joined even if it meant not being able to see John Pirolli, the group's manager, one more time.
R.U. around this period started trying to ensconce himself in the poetry scene. He was showing up at open mics while his brother, Danzr Von Thai was manipulating things from his home down South. I had always heard stories of the brothers' racism and bigotry for years, but I never expected to have it culminate with a racist and homophobic rewrite on Jack Powers' obituary in October 2010 that began like this:
And more twisted truths and sheer nonsense and so forth.Mr. Powers, who died tragically Thursday in a North End flop-house, founded Stone Soup nearly 40 years ago. Young and old, gay and bi, beginners and accomplished writers, the ever-changing collection of Stone Soup poets met every Monday night to recite in a series of venues before an attentive audience that was not above voicing its opinion. The readings gained a national profile as he persuaded poets such as R U Outavit who went on to found the performance Slam movement in 1985 and was awarded the Pulitzer Nomination for Poetry ~ "Harmony Blossoms" in 1989.
So yeah, it didn't take much longer after this to have both Outavit and Danzr bannd from Stone Soup for life.
Both, thankfully gave up trolling years ago due to losing interest, lack of internet access or other reasons I don't know and couldn't care less about.
I made a mistake, bua tt least it's one of the rare mistakes that no longer comes back to haunt me.
2 comments:
Poet R was a force of nature and a tour de force that invented, pioneered, and popularized the performance poetry delivery style fashionably known as Slam Poetry that entertained millions of poetry officianadoes and poetasters worldwide and is still the most Googled poet on the world wide web as well as resurrecting the careers of the Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlingetti, Vincent Ferrini, and even Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, and Tracy Chapman. English poetry especially the American idiem owes more to Poet R than any poet since Wordsworth or Basho. He to this day continues to enthrall the largest poetry audiences everywhere and influences with ditties like "Homeless Squatter" governments to enact legislation establishing for instance Homeless Unity Day annually on February 20th in Massachusetts perhaps Biden to declare in light of the current Homeless pandemic a national Homeless Unity Day. Amen!
idiom is misspelled idiem
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