Spoleto not quite ready to give poetry big role

"I'd rather handle a hundred divas like Maria Callas than 10 poets."

— Gian Carlo Menotti, Spoleto Festival USA founder

Now which would you rather have — 100 opera divas or Nikki Giovanni rousing an auditorium full of grief-stunned Virginia Tech students to their feet screaming, "Hokies!"

Poets were part of the Italian Spoleto festival, Festival dei Due Mondi, created 50 years ago by Gian Carlo Menotti, himself a poet. The renowned, reviled American poetry icon Ezra Pound, among others, haunted its early years in Italy. This year's festival in Charleston has a tribute to Menotti, who died in February, and might well have included a high-profile American poet such as Giovanni.

But in Charleston, the festival has long tiptoed a high wire when it comes to literary figures. Some elements of the art are part and parcel to the music. This year, composer Philip Glass' "Book of Longing" uses a collection of Leonard Cohen's poetry. Other performers also toe the iambic line. This year, Sekou Sundiata's "blessing the boats" is a near stream-of-consciousness duet of spoken word and music.

Sundiata "is really just a remarkable voice, a remarkable poet, who manages to bring together music and poetry in a way that reveals to us the music in poetry and the poetry in music," said Kwame Dawes, University of South Carolina distinguished poet-in- residence, who himself is a musician and uses music in some poetry interpretations.

Dawes, though, won't read for Spoleto Festival. He will be one of 10 poets to read for the Sundown Poetry Series of Piccolo Spoleto, the festival's counterpart featuring more regional artists. People regularly pack the relatively intimate confines of the Dock Street Theatre courtyard for the free dinner-time hour.

Local poets have pushed Spoleto organizers for more attention to the art and to bring in high-profile poets such as Giovanni, Maya Angelou, Rita Dove or Billy Collins.

"The Sundown series is the only literary component of either festival," series organizer Carol Furtwangler said. "Nigel's stance is that writing is not a 'lively art.' In his own way, he is as stubborn about that as Menotti was about (not including) jazz."

Nigel Redden, Spoleto's general director, doesn't shy from that assessment. "I don't think anyone would say (poetry) is a performing art," he said. For him, it comes down to intent — something written to be spoken out loud is very different from something written in a private pursuit.

Dawes is the author of more than a dozen poetry collections, among a slew of other writings. He has a passion for bringing other art forms into the mix. For Sundown, he will read poetry from "Wisteria: Twilight Poems From the Swamp County" or "Impossible Flying," or from a recent novel and memoir — and likely won't decide long before he's introduced.

He is also program director of the Calabash International Literary Festival to be held not long after Spoleto at Treasure Beach, Jamaica. That free literary festival draws as many as 7,000 people per year.

"Folks at Spoleto have a formula that seems to work for them. But I think it's a mistake not to think of poetry as a 'lively art.' It's disingenuous. It's wiser to say, 'It's not our thing. There are other people who do it better,' " he said.

The Calabash festival draws so well partly because of "beautiful, earthy" Jamaica, Dawes said. "Charleston could do it, because Charleston has destination on its side."

It's worth pointing out that Redden interned with the Italian festival and met the "laconic" Pound, who didn't read and spoke so rarely that he surprised Redden by saying, "Thank you" one time when handed mail.

Reach Bo Petersen at bpetersen@postandcourier.com or 745-5852.