Last month at 3030, a former Pentecostal church in Humboldt Park, a rapt audience of 50 sat in the pews of the red-walled chapel and listened intently as vocalist Jenny Walshe launched into her interpretation of Kurt Schwitters’s dadaist poem Ursonate. “Fumms,” she said. “Bo wo tŠŠ zŠŠ Uu, pog•ff, kwii Ee.”
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Walshe was one of three performers at the inaugural event in the Discrete Series, a monthly dose of experimental poetry and performance started by Kerri Sonnenberg and Jesse Seldess in the hope of opening up the rarefied world of avant-garde poetry to people who might find the form’s emphasis on sound and language over content intimidating. “We thought of trying to find a niche that wasn’t already filled in the city,” says Sonnenberg. “Open mikes are plentiful and performance poetry is plentiful. Most people associate that readily with Chicago, so it just created more of an imperative to me that there be an alternative.”
Sonnenberg and Seldess are optimistic about the reality of bringing experimental poetry to a broader audience. “I do think it’s possible,” says Seldess. “That’s what we’re trying to communicate. The conventions that are taught in a graduate writing program aren’t a prerequisite for somehow engaging with the work.”
