Beatnik Poetry Night at Insomkneeacks

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By Madeline Brown

“It was the beat-down people of society that created poetry,” Excho said. “It was true and real poetry.”

Insomkneeacks Art House and Cerebral Assault present beatnik poetry night Wednesday, Mar. 26. It is a night to remember poetry from the beat era, and it will last from 8 p.m. until you want it to end.

“If we have poets to last ‘til 10 in the morning, we’ll go from eight at night ‘til 10 in the morning,” Peter Excho said.

There are no rules when Ellis Martin and Peter Excho host an event at their fun house on Florida Boulevard. Sign up to read, or don’t. Stand at the front and read your poetry, or play a guitar in the back. Listen quietly, or interject when the moment is totally wrong.

“If you want to give your two cents in the middle of the poem,” Excho said, that’s also fine with him.

The art house offers live music on the weekends and poetry readings in the middle of the week. They also feature artists every month and do tattoos by appointment. Oh yeah, there’s also coffee.

There are no sign-in sheets or time slots. Just show your face and listen to some works from the beat era as well as more contemporary poetry. Read if you like.

“Anyone can read. We don’t care,” Excho said. “It’s not sterile. We’re very unstructured. It takes the beauty out of it when you start organizing everything too much.”

That’s why Excho doesn’t just want to remember the “good ole days” of beatnik poetry. He wants to relive it, and “get people thinking simpler lives and simpler things.”

He hopes customers can experience a reading in the beatnik fashion with no competitions or order and “Take that style and write it their own.”

E-mail the author at Madeline@tigerweekly.com

Originally Published: Issue 601 - March 26, 2008

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