Bash Compactor: Page Against The Machine
The Brooklyn Book Festival celebrated its fifth anniversary this past Saturday with a big party at Skylight One Hanson honoring poet John Ashbery with the Best of Brooklyn (BoBi) Award.
The swanky soiree drew a substantial crowd of editors, writers and other publishing types, all clad in festive sport jackets or cocktail dresses. Our master of ceremonies, Akashic Books founder Johnny Temple, who sits as chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council and is handsome like a dad on TV, welcomed the guests and introduced Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. The Beep further voiced the need to encourage the arts in Brooklyn, leaving the crowd feeling self-satisfied and inspired before introducing Brooklyn Poet Laureate Tina Chang, who in turn introduced Ashbury.
Met with a standing ovation, the poet spoke in a faint voice about his days working at the New York Public Library and shared an anecdote about walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with Frank OHara. The obviously touched Ashbery spoke about how Brooklyn was once a place to disappear, and that it has come a long way. He has obviously tried to hide from an ex on the L train, a Jedi move if there ever was one.
Left unspoken was an acknowledgement of the widespread concern that Brooklyn with its rising cost of living is slowly pushing out its artists. Sure, the borough has spawned tons of influential authors and poets, and yes, there is an aspiring author for every stroller in Park Slope, but are we sabotaging our artistic future?
The crowd didnt worry too much as it made its way upstairs into a large and lavish room with high ceilings, for sandwiches, wraps, fruit and, of course, cheese and crackers. Sipping a Brooklyn Brewery Lager, I found myself asking Temple, a man known to me for publishing truly outsider, punk rock literature like Punk Planets Collected Interviews and books by Joe Meno and Arthur Nersesian, what drew him to the Book Festival.
People are lamenting that no one reads anymore. I think thats because the publishing industry has turned itself into an elitist cocoon, he said. Public book fairs like this are one of the remedies to that dilemma. They help to show that books dont have to be an elitist art form.
Still, I wondered how this world of complimentary cheese and festive dress was, you know, of the people.
I may not look like it, but I believe in a mass audience for literature, Temple explaned. If I hear some song by Beyonce song, and I love it, I love the feeling of being part of the conversation that everyone is having. I want my literary vision to be less obscure, but Im not willing to compromise it.