METAPHOR: Performance poetry in a new locally-based magazine

The Twin Cities are home to a new online venture: METAPHOR magazine, an online magazine dedicated to the art, lifestyle and culture of performance poetry. But this online magazine is anything but standard fare. Check out current posts to find mostly video and audio clips of poetry performances—minus any poetry text—as well as lifestyle articles about and for poets and an advice column where the answers appear as performance pieces.

“My goal was to bring performance poets and their art to a mainstream, national audience,” said Matt Peiken, editor and publisher of METAPHOR.

Peiken’s venture mixes traditional print journalism reporting with video and audio, focusing on artists who write and compose poetry mainly for performance rather than print. His interest in the art form was piqued when covering the National Poetry Slam’s 2002 tournament in Minneapolis for the Pioneer Press.

“Most people in Minneapolis didn’t know that we were hosting the National Poetry Slam, and for that matter, didn’t care,” said Peiken. “When I was covering it, I was floored by the talent I saw and the potential in the form of artistic expression. I had an idea to set up a performance poetry non-profit, but that stalled. I took some time, wrote and published a humor book, and then was looking for a new winter project. I decided on a grassroots performance poetry thing, and that’s where this came from.”

Once Peiken decided to pursue his idea from almost five years prior, he began his research. His first stop was the Individual World Poetry Slam in Vancouver, where he met with almost all of the poets, taping and interviewing them for what would become METAPHOR.

“I saw a niche that wasn’t being covered, and when I told people about my idea at the International Poetry Slam, they were all really excited,” said Peiken. “There is definitely a mainstream audience waiting to be found for this type of art, and hopefully I can help bring it to the masses.”

As Peiken sees it, this online publication is the Rolling Stone of performance poetry.

“In its heyday, Rolling Stone had a vision that musicians were important not just as entertainment, but as social activists,” Peiken explained. “I see the same thing with performance poetry. While some are purely entertainment, others exist to educate and activate people.

With site sections ranging from poetry performances to profiles of performance poetry legends to columns written by poets for poets, Peiken is attempting to capture not only the art but the lifestyle. The most engaging segment on the site, however, is the “Ask a Poet” advice column, where performance poet Sonya Renee answers reader questions in an audio recording of a performance piece. Her brassy attitude and straightforward advice should have visitors coming back over and over to see what she has to say next.

METAPHOR’s attempt to shine a light on not only performance poetry but also the lifestyles of poets seems to work, and can only improve as Peiken expands the site with youth performance pieces and more journalistic prose. For his first foray into the art form and online publishing, however, Peiken has a winner.

Katie Anderson is a local writer who appreciates performance poetry and will someday try it on a stage.