Participation Type
Performance
Session Title
Session 10.15 (Music) Shifflettness: The Nasreddin Shifflett Cycle
Session Abstract or Summary
This performance consists of a musically accompanied reading of the “Nasreddin Shifflett” heroic crown sonnet cycle, Heroic Crown #15 in part of a larger work of freestyle sonnets in the work of Virginia poet Raven Mack. In this 60 minute performance, Raven Mack, founder of Rojonekku Word Fighting Arts will interactively recite the “Nasreddin Shifflett” cycle. The cycle details the human history and the human present of life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, as experienced by the poet-philosopher of the title and informed by a number of themes: Sufi mysticism, the early 20th century Virginia eugenics movement of Walter Plecker, the determined persistence of mountain folkways . Preceding the performance, the heroic crown form utilized in this piece will be briefly explained for the audience. The performance of this cycle will include the reading of the sonnets with live musical accompaniment by Floyd County, Virginia musician and dj Josh “Boogie” Brown, with a mix that moves from old time string music to bluegrass to hip hop.
Presentation #1 Title
Shifflettness: The Nasreddin Shifflett Cycle
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This performance consists of a musically accompanied reading of the “Nasreddin Shifflett” heroic crown sonnet cycle, Heroic Crown #15 in part of a larger work of freestyle sonnets in the work of Virginia poet Raven Mack. In this 60 minute performance, Raven Mack, founder of Rojonekku Word Fighting Arts will interactively recite the “Nasreddin Shifflett” cycle. The cycle details the human history and the human present of life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, as experienced by the poet-philosopher of the title and informed by a number of themes: Sufi mysticism, the early 20th century Virginia eugenics movement of Walter Plecker, the determined persistence of mountain folkways . Preceding the performance, the heroic crown form utilized in this piece will be briefly explained for the audience. The performance of this cycle will include the reading of the sonnets with live musical accompaniment by Floyd County, Virginia musician and dj Josh “Boogie” Brown, with a mix that moves from old time string music to bluegrass to hip hop.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Raven Mack is an American mongrel mystic poet-philosopher of the Greater Appalachian tradition. He established the Rojonekku Word Fighting Arts system as a means of turning self-destructive behaviors into outwardly expressed word arts, meant to empower the uncomfortable, but done so in a way that appears to be nonsense gibberish to outsiders (insiders of The System), similar to speaking in tongues so that devils can’t understand. He has facilitated live hand-to-hand haiku events over the past couple years.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Josh Brown is an American mongrel mystic music-philosopher of the Greater Appalachian tradition. He has experimented in most all forms of popular music in his life, most extensively in the seemingly polar opposite worlds of bluegrass and hip hop, allowing for a cross-pollination between the two genres in his work.
Shifflettness: The Nasreddin Shifflett Cycle
This performance consists of a musically accompanied reading of the “Nasreddin Shifflett” heroic crown sonnet cycle, Heroic Crown #15 in part of a larger work of freestyle sonnets in the work of Virginia poet Raven Mack. In this 60 minute performance, Raven Mack, founder of Rojonekku Word Fighting Arts will interactively recite the “Nasreddin Shifflett” cycle. The cycle details the human history and the human present of life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, as experienced by the poet-philosopher of the title and informed by a number of themes: Sufi mysticism, the early 20th century Virginia eugenics movement of Walter Plecker, the determined persistence of mountain folkways . Preceding the performance, the heroic crown form utilized in this piece will be briefly explained for the audience. The performance of this cycle will include the reading of the sonnets with live musical accompaniment by Floyd County, Virginia musician and dj Josh “Boogie” Brown, with a mix that moves from old time string music to bluegrass to hip hop.
