Julien Poirier Talks to the Daily Californian About NYC and Bay Area Poetry Scenes
The Daily Californian interviews Berkeley-based poet Julien Poirier, who talks about getting into the art scene, the city's differences from New York, publishing with City Lights, and more. An excerpt:
DC: How was the Bay Area poetry community when you came back different than in New York?
JP: It was folks that were really serious almost about poetry as magic… In New York I never really felt comfortable in the poetry scene and out here it was like *claps* — it felt great. That was another reason to come out.
New York is really competitive. Like super competitive. And… I got on some people’s bad sides because I wrote some disparaging articles. I was publishing a newspaper though Ugly Duckling (a nonprofit publishing company Poirier helped found). I wrote probably a few different things. But it was sort of this article… that (said) something was missing from poetry. I felt that we were in the midst of this insane war and that there was just this ridiculous kind of yo-yo poetry that was coming out of everywhere. I was just pissed off. I also felt like people weren’t paying enough attention to me.
DC: Who did you piss off with the articles?
JP: Probably almost everyone in the Poetry Project scene. I don’t think they necessarily stayed mad. I subsequently became friends with people… It’s better now. I always had this confrontational part of me, this personality. And it just came out there in that setting. Maybe the competition of it. I always wanted… the community. The group that’s doing the cafe hopping, staying up late making books together. Like that’s all I ever wanted out of poetry… I always just wanted… poets to be outsiders together.
I think the big point is to collaborate on some huge alternative living space. An alternative living space for the mind that we’re all making together and that actually nourishes us and protects us from this insanity that we’re constantly exposed to. Nobody can do that alone. That has to be done together.
I want it to be a place where I and all my fellow poets come together like in a state of trust and unity to be able to fight those malignant things with this outrageously artful and experimental art form that we have. That’s what I really dream of, you know?
Read it all right here.