From Klezmer to Poetry: Deep Listening, with Jake Marmer

Music often leaves us speechless – or, at best, reduced to inarticulate, but deeply emotive, grunts. And yet, while we listen to music, so much happens in our minds, in our bodies. Memories, images, free associations, commentary, and a whole gamut of emotions can pass through in a matter of minutes. Poetry is one time-tested way of attempting to capture the music’s mystery with words. In this workshop, we will read a few famous poems, written in response to music, and then attempt to write, while listening to awesome klezmer played by Jim Rebhan. No previous experience with writing poems necessary!

Jake Marmer is a poet, performer, and educator. He is the author of three poetry collections: “Cosmic Diaspora” (Station Hill Press, 2020), as well as “The Neighbor Out of Sound” (2018) and “Jazz Talmud” (2012), both from The Sheep Meadow Press. He also released two klez-jazz-poetry records: “Purple Tentacles of Thought and Desire” (2020, with Cosmic Diaspora Trio), and “Hermeneutic Stomp” (Blue Fringe Music, 2013). Jake is the poetry critic for Tablet Magazine. Born in the provincial steppes of Ukraine, in a city that was renamed four times in the past 100 years, Jake lives in Los Angeles.

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