Where Are the Young Ones?

There was a tribute to the late poet, cartoonist and filmmaker Mick Cusimano earlier this September.  One of the people posting about the event asked where the young poets were. 

I wouldn't have been able to go even if I knew about it. I'm an old man now, so even if I had gone, I would have been to help with the "youth shortage." Still, I know the reason why there weren't young poets there.

It's because older artists often don't do anything to cultivate younger talent. Most of the Boston arts scene doesn't. The Cantab used to, but now the Cantab is older, fractured in both live and online forums post-pandemic and sticking to to the people they know--and those people aren't getting any younger!

There are efforts from time to time in some poetry circles, but those efforts are often overblown and insincere. I remember a poetry press putting out an issue of their journal with two new young poets who were attending everything (Stone Soup included) just to see what was right for them. 

These two poets, who also dated, eventually had their names featured on the cover of the press' journal. 

Of course the two poets broke up either before or after this journal came out. Both of them were probably creeped out by the attention and later stopped having to do anything with the press. 

The press never pursued them afterwards, as far as I can tell. They also didn't seem to feature any younger poets like that again.

Older poets like to appear like they're pushing young poets when really they are really trying cultivate sycophants that will support their aging efforts. 

As the host of a poetry venue, I'm guilty of this too, though I would argue that I did everything to try and have the new talent feel like they owned a piece of Stone Soup. This soured long-time attendees, which was likely a good part of why Stone Soup collapsed around 2016. Another story for another time.

When you spend a good chunk of your life creating art with the hope of impressing your peers, it's hard to direct that energy towards young people who by natural instinct want nothing to do with you.

I don't think Mick would have cared that much about who attended. He did appear to cultivate younger artists (if only for the sake of having young actresses in his films), but he was likely happy with the few that showed up at the Squawk open mic week after week.

To him, a room of fellow poets and artists near his age who liked what he did was probably perfect.

Sometimes, as aging artists, that's all we get. Sometimes, we don't even get that.

Reach out if you want to seen or heard. If you don't want to try that hard to reach out, be happy with what you have.