THE HISTORY OF MATRIX part 1|2|3|4|5|6

by Tony Brewer.

THE NEW SCHOOL

Poetry in Bloomington enjoyed a powerful revival in the 1990s. Eric Rensberger, Patricia Coleman, Antonia Mattews, and many others performed often, and Jenny Kander's radio programs The Linen of Words on WFHB and The Poets Weave on WFIU brought poetry to the airwaves and into cars, businesses, and homes. Breeze, a now-defunct literary magazine, was published by the Bloomington Voice (now the Bloomington Independent) and distributed quarterly to thousands of readers. And the Runcible Spoon in Bloomington hosted a monthly open mike and poetry series.

Nationally, the Beat Generation (writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti) experienced a resurgence in popularity in academic as well as underground circles, fueling an interest in public readings and poetry slams. Poetry began appearing on buses, in TV commercials, and even on refrigerators in the form of popular magnetic "cut-ups." At the request of President Clinton, Maya Angelou wrote and delivered a poem at the 1993 presidential inauguration. And Robert Pinsky, arguably the most visible and celebrated U.S. poet laureate in that post's history, advocated poetry as a vital performing art. The time was ripe for a matrix of poets to open wide like a peony toward the sun.

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