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Emerging poets hold reading for fans

Poetry Group, referred to by its members as POG, hosted a reading by emerging poets Deborah Bernhardt and Giovanni Singleton at Antigone Bookstore Saturday night.

The group is a "collective to present poetry readings, visual artists and musicians," said one of the group's director Tenney Nathanson. Composed of some UA students, the group features experimental and avant-garde poets.

Nathanson said the readings are meant to supplement those hosted by the University of Arizona Poetry Center, which typically spotlights more well-known, mainstream poets.

With Poetry Group and the Poetry Center, Nathanson added, Tucson is able to present a large range of poets to the public.

When selecting poets - done so in a single annual meeting of Poetry Group members - the collective tries to collapse geographic, generational and artistic diversities in a single reading.

"We wanted to cross boundaries with this series," Nathanson said.

Nathason said local artists are often paired with out-of-towners. The intention is to attract a larger audience and keep the readings interesting for those who attend.

Saturday's reading brought Bernhardt, a local poet, member of Poetry Group and UA alum, with guest poet Singleton, who comes to Tucson from the Bay area.

Bernhardt has accumulated an impressive resume since her time in Tucson. She won first place in the 1999 Tucson Poetry Festival Statewide Contest, in which she had already received an honorable mention and second place.

Her book titled "ms." was a New Issues Press finalist. Bernhardt was also awarded a Prague Summer Fellowship by the Associated Writing Programs.

Bernhardt's poetry rearticulates (or "steals," as Bernhardt herself said) diverse texts ranging from Madonna lyrics to Elizabeth Bishop poetry.

"Deborah is absolutely dazzling. It's very hard to be so smart and so funny all at once," said Alison Deming, associate UA English professor.

Bernhardt's self-reflexive poetry often addresses the people and events of her own life and of the present, fusing issues of consumerism, religion, the Internet and others into poems that resonate with both humor and truth.

Poet Giovanni Singleton, like Bernhardt, utilizes pop culture references in her poetry which often addresses her "relationship to nature and love, of course," she said.

"I try to look at what goes on on a daily basis and try to find poetry in that," Singleton said.

In his introduction before the reading, Poetry Group member Charles Alexander said the language of Singleton's poetry is not concerned with the expression of an idea, but rather the embodiment of it.

That full-bodied language also gives rise to a natural rhythm.

"I am always putting words together and see how they dance. Tango or break dance or what," Singleton said.

She received an M.F.A. in creative writing and poetics from The New College of California. Singleton has also been awarded fellowships from the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Workshops and the Zora Neal Hurston/Richard Wright Writers Workshops.

Her poetry will soon be featured in the anthology "The New Frontier: African American Poets for the Millennium."

For more information about future Poetry Group readings, contact them at 296-6416.