Hedwig Gorski
Encyclopedia
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
artist who labels her aesthetic as American Futurism
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
. She is a first-generation Polish-American, the first in her family born in the United States, who is both an academic scholar and popular writer.
Biography
The poet has characterized her life as that of a SlavicSlavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
nomad due to a family history of displacement along with her own penchant for traveling. A first-generation American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
citizen, born in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, her parents and sister immigrated to the United States from Poland's frontier, Galicia, in what is now Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, where her two aunts and grandmother were murdered by Ukrainian partisans
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
during the rampant massacres of Poles.
Her father joined the Polish Underground at age 14 and later the American army, arriving with his family in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1949 on the General Sturgis which docked in New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Her father did electrical work in Napoleonville before they moved to New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. After receiving a Bachelors of Fine Arts in painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University
NSCAD University also known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, is a post-secondary art school located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada....
(NSCAD) in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, she moved with her first husband to Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
.
Career
Her public career began in New Orleans illustrating for the infamous NOLA ExpressNOLA Express
NOLA Express is a singular publication started in 1967 in New Orleans as part of the Underground Free Press movement of the 1960s that protested the Vietnam War and other government policies along with social hypocrisies...
underground newspaper during 1973 and hawking the new issues on the corner. The archives of NOLA Express are now housed in the University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
. Gorski and Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
Henry Charles Bukowski was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles...
are two of the most notable contributors to the NOLA Express, and both are Polish Americans. There, she befriended Delta
Delta
Delta commonly refers to:* Delta , Δ or δ in the Greek alphabet, also used as a mathematical symbol* River delta, a landform at the mouth of a river* Delta Air Lines, a major U.S...
blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
Babe Stovall
Babe Stovall
Jewell Stovall, better known as Babe Stovall was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist....
and often kept him company while he performed for tourists in Jackson Square
Jackson Square
Jackson Square may refer to:United States* Jackson Square, New Orleans* Jackson Square, San Francisco* Jackson Square, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts** Jackson Square * Jackson Square * Jackson Square Park, New York City...
receiving tips into his open guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
case. A video of them at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was made but lost.
Soon after moving to Austin, she divorced and began her poetry and theater careers in earnest by falling into the "[a]tmospheric landscape of the town that summoned and intoxicated so many beloved . . . artists of the time toward intense self-actualization." She completed, produced, and directed a one-act play script with the title Booby, Mama! that is an inventive form she named "neo-verse drama." The art memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
of the production states that the verse play was based on a conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
cut-up form of writing made famous by William Burroughs. The memoir titled Intoxication: Heathcliff on Powell Street details the events in 1978 that are described as the birth of performance poetry as an American regional avant-garde joining the activity of the body to the psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
power of utterance and intent.
The conceptual process ... seems impossible to pull off. There was no money, and it used 'found' text and 'street' actors ... filled with existential angst living on the fringes of society.
She never claimed close ties to the Feminist movement, but feminists considered her work to contain powerful statements about the disparity caused by race and gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The images in her poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
are womanly more so than politically correct
Politically Correct
Politically Correct may refer to:*Political correctness, language, ideas, policies, or behaviour seeking to minimize offence to groups of people-See also:*Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, book by James Finn Garner, published in 1994...
according to the feminist dictum of the time, and they reflect a protest
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
against the complacency and inaction of artists and non-conformists, too.
She had close ties with Austin
Austin
Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
colleague Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Gloria E. Anzaldúa
Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was considered a leading scholar of Chicano cultural theory and Queer theory. She loosely based her most well-known book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza on her life growing up on the Mexican-Texas border and incorporated her lifelong feelings of social and...
, whose book Borderlands/La Frontera is considered a major work in Chicana feminist theory, Ricardo Sanchez
Ricardo Sanchez
Ricardo Sanchez is a retired United States Army Lieutenant General and a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for the Senate election in 2012 for the seat of retiring Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.-Early life and education:...
, and Raul Salinas, often performing with them at Resistencia Bookstore and elsewhere.
During the Annual Polish American Historical Association (PAHA) conference in Washington, DC, 2008, Gorski read from “Mexico Solo”, a long prose poem that she used to introduce how Polish Americans are more closely related to all hyphenated minority
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
cultures than to the majority American culture.
On the conference panel, Polish American
Polish American
A Polish American , is a citizen of the United States of Polish descent. There are an estimated 10 million Polish Americans, representing about 3.2% of the population of the United States...
poets Stephen Lewandowski and Joseph Lisowski discussed how blatant discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
and negative stereotyping circulated by Polish jokes plagued their childhoods. She calls these persecuted groups "invisible minorities," in the United States, often of European heritage. Gorski’s writing and career aligns with the struggles of all disadvantaged groups suffering from the hidden disparity inside American society, and for this she has been called the “American Mayakovsky
Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky was a Russian poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.Mayakovsky or Mayakovskaya may also refer to:...
” from whom her motto "poetry is a hammer" is adapted.
Performance poet
When Bob HolmanBob Holman
Bob Holman is a poet and poetry activist in the United States.- Career :After graduating from Columbia University in 1970, Bob Holman founded, with Sara Miles and Susie Timmons, the NYC Poetry Calendar, a free monthly publication with all the readings and poets "on the same page"...
first heard an audio cassette of Hedwig Gorski with East of Eden Band, he exclaimed to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
poet Michael Vecchio that they were the best poetry and music band he had heard. Jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
writers and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
programmers were intrigued with poetry and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
s, but few practitioners dedicated their careers to doing only oral poetry
Oral poetry
Oral poetry can be defined in various ways. A strict definition would include only poetry that is composed and transmitted without any aid of writing. However, the complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain, and oral...
and music, as did Gorski. She never wrote poems for publication
Publication
To publish is to make content available to the public. While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content on any medium, including paper or electronic publishing forms such as websites, e-books, Compact Discs and MP3s...
and exhibited, it is said by observers, a disdain toward the inbred society of print poetry journals
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
, especially the tradition of requiring poets to pay publishers when submitting poems for consideration. She remained an uncompromising rebel among traditional or established poetry circles, but bridged a gap with non-reading audiences by performing on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
since the 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
.
She is credited for naming herself a "performance poet" to describe what she did with the East of Eden Band in press releases and interviews
Interviews
Interviews is:# the plural form of "interview"# a compilation album by Bob Marley & the Wailers, see Interviews # a C++ toolkit for the X Window System, see InterViews...
. Gorski first coined the term "performance poetry
Performance poetry
Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.-History:...
" to name her style of writing poetry for oral
Speech
Speech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...
presentation instead of for print publication
Publication
To publish is to make content available to the public. While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content on any medium, including paper or electronic publishing forms such as websites, e-books, Compact Discs and MP3s...
in a 1981 press release. The term was adopted to name the genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
by practitioners, which is distinct within and parallel to these practices: spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
, poetry readings, performed poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, and performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
.
Populist writer
Gorski sees poets in American society as a disenfranchised minority group with a long history of persecution by the American government for exercising the freedom of speech. "Experimental and avant-garde artists and poets were demonized during the early 1990s1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
by the efforts of a conservative agenda to eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
(NEA) during the late 1980s and to remove art studies from primary education."
She often produced and funded projects to help distribute the work of performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
oriented literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
that was not considered mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
. Gorski promoted and nurtured the creation of daring literature against the establishment
The Establishment
The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...
using her own popularity and access to mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
. She was a founding writer for The Austin Chronicle in 1980 initiating and naming the “Litera” column that discussed readings, books, and other matters of importance related to non-mainstream, alternative, and small press
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
literature, especially poetry.
Scholar
After a successful careerCareer
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
as a performance poet during the 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, Gorski entered graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
in the University of Louisiana
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, or UL Lafayette, is a coeducational, public research university located in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the heart of Acadiana...
at Lafayette
Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
and was awarded a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
, Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Creative Writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
, in 2001.
In 2003-04, Dr. Gorski lectured on minority American literature
American literature
American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British...
at the University of Wrocław in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
as a Fulbright Fellow and spent five months traveling to various locations, including Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. While backstage at Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's concert in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, she met Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
. She made an appearance at the Cafe Krzystofore in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
in 2004 for the United States Embassy and the French Institute in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
before returning to the U.S.
Accomplishments
She coined the term "Performance PoetryPerformance poetry
Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.-History:...
" in the early 1980s after initiating and writing the "Litera" column for the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
in an effort to distinguish her performed poetry from performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
. She was also one of the founding writers on the Austin Chronicle, which helped to promote the vibrant music capital of the world that the capital of Texas had become. Along with the growth of the music scene, a multi-ethnic theater, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, and art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
community began to coalesce during the 1970s. This is the environment from which Gorski's work grew from its mysterious underground, what she calls a "pedestrian avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
." (Afterword. Intoxication: Heathcliff on Powell Street, College Station: Slough Press, 2007; p. 82.)
Her live broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast or Broadcasting may refer to:* Broadcasting, the transmission of audio and video signals* Broadcast, an individual television program or radio program* Broadcast , an English electronic music band...
performances on KUT-FM
KUT-FM
KUT FM 90.5 is a listener-supported public radio station owned and operated by faculty and staff of the University of Texas at Austin. It is the National Public Radio member station for central Texas...
were recorded and distributed to radio stations internationally. They became part of the 1980s Indie audio cassette/radio station network offering alternatives to commercial music. Gorski's literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
based broadcast audio increased the popularity of performance poetry
Performance poetry
Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.-History:...
, the genre she named to describe her own work: literature based poetry written for performance only and not for print publication.
East of Eden, formed of professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musicians, was successful because the music and poetry were melded together exclusively for performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
. Gorski’s spoken vocals have been described as bringing her "eerie" voicing as close to singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
as possible without actually singing. The compositions written for each poem by D'Jalma Garnier
D'Jalma Garnier
D'Jalma Garnier III is a musician and composer best known for Creole and Cajun fiddle and "outside" musical compositions and collaborations with other artists....
ranged from jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
to country and western to rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
Style
Unlike the Beats, Gorski wrote her stylized narrativeNarrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
and moody lyrical poetry only for performance with the music composed specifically for each poem by D'Jalma Garnier
D'Jalma Garnier
D'Jalma Garnier III is a musician and composer best known for Creole and Cajun fiddle and "outside" musical compositions and collaborations with other artists....
. The poetry was meant for audio
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
distribution only, especially for the radio (as opposed to print). Her radical
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
art school
Art school
Art school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...
background influenced her fondness for performance text
Written language
A written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
and the concept behind the manner of distribution. Though she received a degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
in painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Canada, she did not like the elitism
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...
of the gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
circuit. She transferred her love of image
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
s into a poetics
Poetics
Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory...
that also incorporated the anti-capitalist, socialist un-doings found in Performance Art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
and Conceptual Art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
. Gorski, along with Vito Acconci
Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...
, is considered one of the most notable graduates of NSCAD.
She was directly influenced by Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
's Howl. They had a friendly enmity after he jeered one of her early readings at the Naropa University
Naropa University
Naropa University is a private American liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher and Oxford University scholar Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda.Naropa describes itself as...
during the Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
Disembodied Poetics Conference in the 1980s
Gorski's husband, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
D'Jalma Garnier
D'Jalma Garnier
D'Jalma Garnier III is a musician and composer best known for Creole and Cajun fiddle and "outside" musical compositions and collaborations with other artists....
, accompanied Ginsberg at an Austin
Austin
Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
Liberty Lunch
Liberty Lunch
Liberty Lunch was a live-music venue in Austin, Texas. It began in the 1940s as an eatery and, over the years, evolved into a live-music venue. It closed in 1999....
reading, where other Beat poets such as Gregory Corso
Gregory Corso
Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...
, Jack Micheline
Jack Micheline
Jack Micheline , born Harold Martin Silver, was an American painter and poet from the San Francisco Bay Area. His name is synonymous with street artists, underground writers, and "outlaw" poets...
, Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
, Peter Orlovsky
Peter Orlovsky
Peter Anton Orlovsky was an American poet.-Life and work:Orlovsky was born in the Lower East Side of New York City, the son of Katherine and Oleg Orlovsky, a Russian immigrant. He was raised in poverty and was forced to drop out of Newtown High School in his senior year so he could support his...
, and neo-Beat Andy Clausen read at times. Snyder called Gorski's poems "surreal," and Corso called her his "big Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
girl" even though she is from New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
She is considered Post-Beat or Neo-Beat by some, (See Performance poetry
Performance poetry
Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.-History:...
), but her use of multi-media and fascination with all technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
ties her further back to Russian Futurism
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
and Mayakovsky
Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky was a Russian poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.Mayakovsky or Mayakovskaya may also refer to:...
. Her literary and visual art education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and practices expand her uses of electronic media
Electronic media
Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user to access the content. This is in contrast to static media , which today are most often created electronically, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end-user in the printed form...
beyond the uses by the Beats like Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
who recorded, filmed, or televised more traditional readings to distribute printed literature. The glorification of Beat obsessions in the literature, especially womanizing and the glorification of sexual exploitation
Sexual exploitation
Sexual exploitation may refer to:*Sexual slavery*Sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian response...
by Ginsberg's man-boy love promotion exclude women and "exlude me categorically," she explained in a video interview at the University of Texas.
One of her early idols was Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
because she admired the "surreal
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
images and obscured meanings in a language that rolled off the tongue." The passion and flow in the vocals matched those she heard on reel-to-reel tapes by Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
, the Welsh poet who initially inspired her. Bob Dylan came to Gorski's final reading/performance in Austin
Austin
Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
at the Mexic-Arte Museum’s Acoustic Festival in late 1992 after his concert at the Austin Opry House.
Publications and recordings
The first publication of her performance poems is titled Snatches of the Visible Unreal from Backyard Press, which is also the title of her first audio cassette recording. Another chapbook titled Polish Gypsy with Ghost contains a vinyl recording. The second audio cassette release is titled East of Eden Band, for which Gorski used the name Hedwig G-G. Her poems received music lyric awards, rather than literature awards, though she never sang. In a career that eschewed elitism, she used her own success to help produce and promote the recording of other non-academic vocal poets including Raúl Salinas, Roxy GordonRoxy Gordon
Roxy Gordon was a Choctaw and Assiniboine poet, novelist, musician and activist.-Source:...
, and Joy Cole.
Several other print collections of poetry were produced in limited additions, including Early breakfast with Hedwig Gorski and The East of Eden Band Songbook. A remastered CD, containing a selection of the best radio recordings by Gorski and East of Eden from live broadcasts was released in 2009, entitled Send in the Clown.
The archival and remastered recordings by Hedwig Gorski® and East of Eden Band along with a radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
titled Thirteen Donuts, which she wrote and directed and that aired on KRVS-FM radio and simulcast on the web are available for download on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
in 2009. A more extensive listing of creative and scholarly publications and productions by the artist-poet is available online (see Hedwig Gorski's online CV).
Awards
- 2011 Finalist in 2011 National Poetry SeriesNational Poetry SeriesThe National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program.Every year since 1979 it has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry...
- 2004 Southern Artistry Award
- 2003 Fulbright Scholar at University of Wroclaw, PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
- 2002 ArtistArtistAn artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
Fellowship in Audio MediaMass mediaMass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, LouisianaLouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
Division of the Arts - 2001 Robert and Bernice Webb Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching - Advanced Level. Department of English, University of LouisianaUniversity of LouisianaUniversity of Louisiana may refer to:* University of Louisiana System, public multi-campus university system** Northwestern State University of Louisiana...
- 2001 National Audio TheatreTheatreTheatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
Festivals Script Writing Competition for Thirteen Donuts - 1994 Producer Fellowship from Corporation for Public Broadcasting at WWOZ, New Orleans
- 1990 Commemoration of International Women’s Day Certificate on the occasion of a University Co-Op Book Signing Honoring Women Authors
- 1987 Best Use of Language Judges Award for performance poem “Mexico Solo” from AustinAustinAustin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
Music Umbrella Annual SongwritersCompetition - 1986 Honorable Mention for performance poem “Glitter Streets” from AustinAustinAustin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
Music Umbrella Annual Songwriters Competition
Audio Recordings
- "Slow Paradise.” Podcast by Mongo. Show Number 962. Wed., 29 September 2010.“
- “To My Last Idol Bob Dylan.” Podcast by Mongo. Show Number 714. Wed., 9 June 2010.
- “Mexico Solo.” Podcast by Mongo. Show Number 623. Mon., 9 November 2009.
- Send in the Clown. Selected Performance Poetry from Live Radio Broadcasts. CD 2009
- East of Eden Band. KUT-FM Live Set. Recording and broadcast, University of Texas at AustinUniversity of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
1985 - "Intellectual Love." "Slow Paradise." "There's Always Something That Can Make You Happy." By East of Eden Band. Intimacies. KUT-FMKUT-FMKUT FM 90.5 is a listener-supported public radio station owned and operated by faculty and staff of the University of Texas at Austin. It is the National Public Radio member station for central Texas...
Live Set. Recording and broadcast. University of Texas at AustinAustinAustin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
1986 - Snatches of the Visible Unreal. Duets by Hedwig Gorski and D’Jalma Garnier. Dir. Morgan Guidry 1984
Video Recordings
- “Teenager in Nova Scotia.” Video Illustrated PoetryPoetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
. Producer PerfectoMedia 2010 - “Rising Melodic Chords.” Poem by Hedwig Gorski Deconstructed by ComposerComposerA composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
D'Jalma GarnierD'Jalma GarnierD'Jalma Garnier III is a musician and composer best known for Creole and Cajun fiddle and "outside" musical compositions and collaborations with other artists....
2008 - "Teenager in Nova Scotia." Dial-A-Poet-Series. Dir. Karen Minzer. Fort Worth 1990
Theater
- Thirteen Donuts. By Hedwig Gorski. Dir. William Davies. Perf. Honors Players. KRVS-FM Radio, Lafayette. LouisianaRadio.com. 13 Oct. 2000.
- Booby, Mama!. By Hedwig Gorski. Dir. Hedwig Gorski. Perf. Ex Troupe. InterArt Works, Austin. March-April 1977.
Poetry
- Poetique: Speak-Songbook. College Station: Slough P, Feb. 2010. Finalist for Balcones Prize.
- "Deconstruction of Rising Melodic Chords, Hedwig Gorski Poem." Composer, D'Jalma Garnier. Toxic Poetry. Second Issue. Exhibition No. 2. Jan. 2010.
- "Drunken Savior," "Mood Indigo." Toxic Poetry. Premier Issue. Exhibition No. 1. Aug. 2009.
- Karawane. No.10. Excerpts from neo-verse dramaDramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
poem for voices Booby, Mama! 2009. (PDF) - "Mexico Solo." Polish American Historical Association Conference. Commemorative Broadside. Ed. Janusz Zalewski. 2008.
- “White Colonnade Façade.” Art Mag 29. Las Vegas: Limited Editions P, 2006.
- “Zawsze jest coś, co może uczynić cię szczęśliwym.” Trans. Janusz Zalewski. Novo Okolica Poetów, 18-19. RzeszowRzeszówRzeszów is a city in southeastern Poland with a population of 179,455 in 2010. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River, in the heartland of the Sandomierska Valley...
, PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
: 2005, 58-60. - Polish Gypsy with Ghost. AustinAustinAustin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
: Shinebone P, 1993. - "Slow Paradise." Poem Broadside. Photo by Mark Christal. Austin: Shinebone P, 1992.
- Early Breakfast with Hedwig Gorski. Austin: Perfection Productions, 1992.
- Snatches of the Visible Unreal. Austin: Backyard P, 1991.
Drama
- Thirteen Donuts. National Audio Theatre Festivals Annual Scriptbook 2001. Ed. Brian Price. Hempstead: NATF, 2001. 87-105.
Memoir
- Intoxication: Heathcliff on Powell Street. College Station, TX: Slough P, 2007, 2009.
External links
- 1978 Women's Dada Theater Verse Drama
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYhTEMnSroI Video "Teenager in Nova Scotia" by Hedwig Gorski, performance poetry on the Vermilion River, Louisiana
- http://indieonestop.com/jamroom/bands/391/entry.php Poem audio "From Box to Living Room to Box"
- http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-IntoxicationHeathcliffonPowellStreet Intoxication: Heathcliff on Powell Street
- Audio excerpts from a few East of Eden live recordings are available online at SouthernArtistry.org - an adjudicated, online registry of Southern artists. Contact information for her appearances are available on this site.
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/markchristal/sets/72157603799434735 Mark Christal's Photos of Poets and Jack Kerouac Conference