 "Photo: Danielle Maisano / For The South End")
Wayne State professor and nationally recognized poet M. L. Liebler, along with Detroit-based band The High Strung, presented a mixture of poetry and performance art at “Detroit Tonight Live” on Nov. 6 at the Jazz Café.
The evening was one that fused the arts of poetry and music in a wide array of performances, from the hip-hop beats of spoken-word poet Keir to the gentler prose of Metro Times columnist Larry Gabriel set against an acoustic guitar. T
The evening reached its peak with a strange rendition of T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” as Liebler read passionately alongside The High Strung’s musical accompaniment.
Liebler, who has been combining music and poetry for the last 20 years during performances with his band, M. L. Liebler and the Magic Poetry Band, looks upon the art of the spoken word as a means of exposing a more diverse audience to poetry with a less traditional take on the art form.
“Poets aren’t crazy about it and that’s OK because I’m not doing it for them," Liebler said.
"I’m doing it for people like tonight’s audience. People who have never been to a poetry reading before or have some stereotype image of what it is."
Liebler, who has worked to bring poetry to the Detroit community through his various organizations and workshops, was introduced to the indie rock group The High Strung a little more than a year ago by librarian Bill Harmer.
The High Strung is not unfamiliar with the idea of combining its music with literature.
Harmer was also behind the band’s unique, yet successful, tour in 2005 that used only libraries as venues.
“The music they play is more in tune with my vision of performance poetry," Liebler said.
"It’s got more of a rock dent to it. When you do these things, you can’t just do it with any musicians. You must do it with musicians that are sympathetic to literature. This has a more natural style. It’s a different kind of performance poetry.
“The typical concept when you think of poetry and music is a guy and a jazz band playing, and [having] just that image bugs me.”
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