#30 / 2004 Beatlick Tour 3

BEATLICKS TRAVELING SOUTH 

#30

It’s that time again and we are long gone from Nashville, Again, these are the travel reports of Beatlick Pamela Hirst and Joe Speer. Currently we are in Pensacola, Florida, at the public library. Down 98W we saw many indications of the past four hurricanes. After all this time the destruction is still clearly evident.

On our way to News Orleans for our first gig. Joe just completed the Beatlick Film Fest at the Lake Eden Arts Festival in Black Mountain, Swanonna, North Carolina. After that we went to visit my photographer friend outside Atlanta and joined her at a few art galleries to see her work. Her name is Dana S. Kemp. She was featured this week in Access Atlanta-published by the Atlanta Constitution. Go Dana!

We had a great sendoff. For this report I will include some shameless self-promotion. This was a story printed in The Rage as well as the Tennessean, right before we left town. Also, Jamie Givens gave us a great going away party, Leroy had us feature at Caffeine. Pat Jaworski took us out for an elegant lunch and sparkling conversation. We feel so lucky and blessed to know so many great folks.

Hasta la vista, yall.

Love

Beatlick Pamela

BEATLICKS LEAVE, BUT NOT WITHOUT A LEGACY

By K. Danielle Edwards

The Rage

When you think about celebrated institutions coming to an end, you might think about the destruction of historic buildings. Or the closing of that community bakery after generations of decadent aromas wafted through the neighborhood.

Seldom do you think of the everyday people who help bring a little sunshine into the life of the community. Joe Speer and Pamela Hirst, aka The Beatlicks, are an institution in Nashville poetry circles. This week they are leaving Nashville for Speer’s native New Mexico.

”I’ll be leaving the green and wet and moving to the brown and dry," Speer says with a laugh. "We’ve been phasing out of the Nashville area for the past few years anyway because we’ve been traveling and Pamela decided a few months ago that we needed a change."

Speer moved here from New Mexico in 1988 to stay with his brother and mother, who was ill with cancer. After his mother died, Speer met Hirst, who offered him a "new connection" and a new reason to stay.

"The first place I knew about (doing poetry) was Windows on the Cumberland in the late 80s," Speer says. "There wasn’t that many venues and we thought it was important to have at least one venue so poets could get together at least once a month."

The Beatlicks had open-mike poetry nights at Douglas Corner Cafe, Woodstock Care, Bookstar, Abyss, Bean Central and other venues.

Through connections in other cities, they helped bring a new form of poetic recitation to Nashville: the poetry slam, a verbal dual of verse and emotion.

"We brought the slam concept below the Mason-Dixon Line in 1990. The first slam was at Douglas Corner," Speer says.

The Beatlicks also produced a regular show on Nashville’s Community Access Television. Speer’s proudest moment was performing at the now-defunct Summer Lights Festival.

"It wasn’t like some little dingy club or a small room in the back of the bookstore. It felt like we were big time," he says.

Speer thinks poetry will always be an underground fixture. "I don’t see it as being a mainstream thing. There’s always poetry there but it always has a back seat. We’re always in the balcony.

”Mostly I see it as an event that is hosted by people who love poetry. They do it not for the money or for the recognition, but because they have to do it. People need a place to share their works. I see it continuing as a little stream. It’s an ancient and beloved art."

Speer and Hirst, both in their mid-50s, are looking forward to the tranquility of the more subdued New Mexico scene, which has pockets of poetic movement.

To keep up with the Beatlicks in New Mexico, visit www.beatlick.com.