Bad to Verse
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The Sam Adams incident took place on the sweltering weekend of July 20 and 21; Mariottini, who was responsible for the art vendors, says crowds were thin and tempers short. The poetry stage, at Division and Wolcott, situated between booths selling art and two loud music stages, was equipped with its own speakers. Not all the vendors were thrilled. In an account E-mailed to his roster of poets, Laity says they “continuously heckled us throughout Saturday’s poetry showcase.” When Kent Foreman took the stage and began reading “‘You frigid bitch!’ / ‘You whore’ / ‘Mistress of the rich’” from his poem “Chicago,” witnesses heard one vendor shout, “Why don’t you go back to the west side?”
Laity says things went from bad to worse when he brought the incident to Mariottini’s attention the next day. According to him, instead of being concerned about the insult to the poets, she told him to tone down the attitude on the poetry stage, turn down the volume on the speakers, and leave the poets who were heckled behind when it came time for the Bucktown festival. Laity says she then either lowered the volume herself or had it lowered, though he turned it right back up and “every last poet was allowed to get up on that microphone uncensored.” Mariottini says if she’d known about the racial slurs when they happened, she’d have called security and had the hecklers ousted. She says she asked Laity to turn down the volume but didn’t do it herself. She denies telling him to leave certain poets out of the Bucktown festival (and says she’s always championed poetry there), but admits she might have said something like, “‘Maybe they’re not the best poets for this situation.’ I keep trying to get him to think about context. I may have said, ‘Could you watch the tone a bit.’ It’s a hard line to walk, but my personal opinion is, it’s a street fest. Let’s make it as acceptable as possible.”
Final Curtain
