Hedwig Gorski

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hedwig Gorski
Fulbright Fellowship
2003
SpouseD'Jalma Garnier
Gorski with Babe Stovall on a 1973 trip to rural Mississippi to visit blues guitarist Roosevelt Holts

Hedwig Irene Gorski (born July 18, 1949) is an

Polish American
academic scholar and accomplished creative writer. The innovative poetry, prose, drama, and audio works are published and produced in a variety of media using standard and experimental forms.

Biography

A first-generation American citizen, born in Trenton, New Jersey, Gorski's parents and sister emigrated to the United States from Galicia, Poland (present-day Ukraine) following World War II, where two aunts and a grandmother were murdered[2] by Ukrainian partisans.[3]

Her father joined the

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Canada, she moved with her first husband to Austin, Texas in 1977.[4] She is married to her second husband, composer D'Jalma Garnier.[5]

Career

Her public career began in New Orleans during 1973, illustrating for the infamous

New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was made but lost.[7]

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."

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
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

WASP culture.[13]

On the conference panel,

Mayakovsky" from whom her motto "poetry is a hammer" is adapted.[15]

Performance poet

When

poetry readings, performed poetry, and performance art.[17]

Populist writer

Gorski sees poets in American society as a disenfranchised minority group with a history of prosecution by the American government for obscenity when exercising the freedom of speech. "Experimental and avant-garde artists and poets were demonized during the early 1990s by the efforts of a conservative agenda to eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) during the late 1980s and to remove art studies from primary education."[18]

She produced and funded projects to distribute works of performance-oriented literature outside the "mainstream". She also promoted and nurtured literature opposed to the establishment. 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 literature, especially poetry.[19][20]

Scholar

After her career in performance poetry during the 1980s, Gorski entered

United States Embassy and the French Institute in Kraków
before returning to the United States.

Gorski with Václav Havel

Accomplishments

She coined the term "

Austin Chronicle in an effort to distinguish her performed poetry from performance art.[22] She was also one of the founding writers on the Austin Chronicle, which helped to promote the vibrant "music capital of the world" that Austin, the capital of Texas, had become. Along with the growth of the music scene, a multi-ethnic theater, literature, and art 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".[23]

Gorski's live broadcast performances on

KUT-FM 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. Her literature-based broadcast audio increased the popularity of performance poetry, the genre she named to describe her own work: literature-based poetry written for performance only and not for print publication.[24]

East of Eden, formed of professional

country and western to rock and roll[27][28]

Style

Unlike the

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Canada, she did not like the elitism of the gallery circuit. She transferred her love of images into a poetics that also incorporated the anti-capitalist, socialist un-doings found in performance art and conceptual art.[30] Gorski, along with Vito Acconci, is considered one of the most notable graduates of NSCAD. She was directly influenced by Allen Ginsberg's "Howl". They had a friendly enmity after he jeered one of her early readings at Naropa University during the Jack Kerouac Disembodied Poetics Conference in the 1980s.[31]

One of her early idols was Bob Dylan because she admired the "surreal 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, the Welsh poet who initially inspired her. Bob Dylan came to Gorski's final reading/performance in Austin at the Mexic-Arte Museum's Acoustic Festival in late 1992 after his concert at the Austin Opry House.[32]

Gorski with Swedish actor Peter Stormare in Prague, Czech Republic, backstage at Bob Dylan's concert in October 2003

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 raúlrsalinas, Roxy Gordon, 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 radio recordings by Gorski and East of Eden from live broadcasts was released in 2009, called Send in the Clown.[33]

The archival and remastered recordings by Hedwig Gorski®

KRVS-FM and simulcast on the web, are available for download on iTunes. A more extensive listing of creative and scholarly publications and productions by the artist-poet is available online (see Hedwig Gorski's online CV
with permission request from official website).

Awards

  • 2011 Finalist in 2011 National Poetry Series
  • 2004 Southern Artistry Award
  • 2003
    University of Wroclaw
    , Poland
  • 2002 Artist Fellowship in Audio Media, Louisiana Division of the Arts
  • 2001 Robert and Bernice Webb Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching – Advanced Level. Department of English, University of Louisiana
  • 2001 National Audio Theatre 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" in Austin Music Umbrella Annual Songwriters Competition
  • 1986 Honorable Mention for performance poem "Glitter Streets" in Austin Music Umbrella Annual Songwriters Competition

Works

Audio recordings

  • Hedwig Gorski Performance Poetry. CD. Original Broadcast on Liveset
    KUT-FM
    . Performed with East of Eden Band and D'Jalma Garnier. Austin, TX.
  • 13 Donuts. CD. Original Broadcast Oct. 13, 2000 on
    KRVS-FM
    . Performed by Honors Players, U of Louisiana. Oct. 13, 2010.
  • "Slow Paradise". Podcast by Mongo. Show Number 962. Wed., September 29, 2010.[34]"
  • "To My Last Idol Bob Dylan". Podcast by Mongo. Show Number 714. Wed., June 9, 2010.[35]
  • "Mexico Solo". Podcast by Mongo. Show Number 623. Mon., November 9, 2009.[36]
  • 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 Austin 1985
  • "Intellectual Love", "Slow Paradise", "There's Always Something That Can Make You Happy", all from East of Eden's album Intimacies.
    KUT-FM
    Live Set. Recording and broadcast. University of Texas at Austin 1986
  • Snatches of the Visible Unreal. Duets by Hedwig Gorski and D'Jalma Garnier. Directed by Morgan Guidry, 1984

Video recordings

  • "Teenager in Nova Scotia." Video Illustrated Poetry. Producer PerfectoMedia 2010[37]
  • "Rising Melodic Chords." Poem by Hedwig Gorski Deconstructed by Composer D'Jalma Garnier 2008[38]
  • "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. Oct. 13, 2000.
  • Booby, Mama!. By Hedwig Gorski. Dir. Hedwig Gorski. Perf. Ex Troupe. InterArt Works, Austin. March–April 1977.

Publications

Poetry

Drama

  • The Waste Land Scripted for 44 Voices. Jadzia Books. 2018.
  • Beasts and Saints: One-Act Play. Jadzia Books. 2015.
  • 13 Donuts: An Original Radio Drama with a Multi-Cultural Twist. Jadzia Books. 2015.
  • Booby, Mama!: Surreal Cut-Up Spoken Word, 1977. Jadzia Books. 2015.
  • 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.

References

  1. ^ Carmona, Christopher (2012). Keeping The Beat: The Practice Of A Beat Movement. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from http : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -2012 -08 -11509.
  2. ^ a b c "Hedwig Gorski". Pw.org. July 14, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  3. ISBN 0-300-10586-X
  4. ISBN 1-4276-0475-4
  5. ^ "D'Jalma M. Garnier III". Facebook.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  6. ^ Fife, Darlene. Portraits from Memory: New Orleans in the Sixties. New Orleans: Surregional Press, 2000.
  7. ^ "Reconstruction 7.3 (2007)". June 14, 2015. Archived from the original on June 14, 2015. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  8. ISBN 1-4276-0475-4
  9. ^ "'Teenager in Nova Scotia' by Hedwig Gorski". Berfrois.com. September 14, 2011. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  10. ^ "Google Sites". Accounts.google.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  11. ^ Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, San Francisco: Aunt Lute Press, 1987
  12. ^ "Guide to the Ricardo Sánchez Papers, 1941-1995". Oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  13. ^ Polish American History Association. Janusz Zalewski, John Guzlowski, Chair. Washington D.C, January 2008. The 2008 PAHA Annual Meeting January 3–6, 2008 within the AHA conference in Washington, D.C. PAHA website Archived July 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ a b c "Google Sites". Accounts.google.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  15. ^ "Clinton, Alan. Review of Intoxication: Heathcliff on Powell Street, Reconstruction: Studies in American Culture, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2007". Archived from the original on June 14, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  16. ^ "eastofedenband". Sites.google.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  17. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8014-7442-2
  18. S2CID 57570574
    . Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  19. ^ The word "litera" is the Polish word for letter of the alphabet.
  20. ^ Publisher Nick Barbaro reply to Letter to the Editor in the Austin Chronicle (1985).
  21. ^ "Google Sites". Accounts.google.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  22. ^ The Austin Chronicle, Litera, 1981
  23. ^ (Afterword. Intoxication: Heathcliff on Powell Street, College Station: Slough Press, 2007; p. 82).
  24. ^ "Hedwig Gorski - Performance Poet - Nova Scotia Teenager". Catherinemeyersartist.blogspot.com. April 7, 2013. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  25. ^ John Herndon's review in the "Austin-American Statesman" about poem "There's Always Something That Can Make You Happy".
  26. ^ Playwright Jon Westerfield described Gorski's vocals in this way. He named an Angel Theater suite Early Breakfast with Hedwig Gorski in honor of the poet.
  27. KUT-FM
    radio producer who hosted Live Set's "Kerouac Coffee House" to bring together poets and musicians ad hoc.
  28. ^ "Howie Richey". Facebook.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  29. ^ "Log into Facebook". Facebook.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  30. ^ (Afterword. Intoxication: Heathcliff on Powell Street, College Station: Slough Press, 2007)
  31. ^ "Kerouac Conference, 1982". Flickr.com. January 21, 2008. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  32. ^ Austin Chronicle Litera, Nov. 1992, qtd. in Southern Artistry Bio
  33. ^ "CD Baby Music Store". Store.cdbaby.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  34. ^ "IndieFeed: Performance Poetry". Indiefeedpp.indiefeed.libsynpro.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  35. ^ "IndieFeed: Performance Poetry". Indiefeedpp.indiefeed.libsynpro.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  36. ^ "IndieFeed: Performance Poetry". Indiefeedpp.indiefeed.libsynpro.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  37. YouTube
  38. YouTube

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hedwig Gorski.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hedwig_Gorski&oldid=1217816562"