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Charlie Newman
and ZOOTSUITBEATNICK!

 

Charlie Newman
Charlie Newman (photo: John Lair, Louisville)
 

Charlie Newman ignites his performance poetry with a drive, spark and pugnaciousness that he'd quickly acknowledge as typical of any native (or any survivor?) of Newark, New Jersey, USA.

But he's a radical transplantee in at least a couple senses of that term. Newman's professional and musical careers also have led him through: Elizabeth, NJ; West Orange, NJ; Blairstown, NJ; Parkville, MO; New York City; Chicago; Winston Salem, NC; Nashville, TN; Louisville, KY; Orlando, FL; Louisville, KY (again); and finally back to Chicago. In this last place, he's settled well into the local performance poetry sphere. He MC's two different reading series, one weekly at The Café (Lincoln Square), an open mic; and the other at DvA Gallery (Lincoln Park/DePaul), which is a curated reading.

Newman's vigorous poetry career has netted him gigs from Chicago to New York to London, even performing once on the occasion of David Amram's 75th birthday. His poetry text has been published in print in the journals honeydu, After Hours, Poetry Bay, and Saw,, and online in Ink & Ashes, Milk Magazine. His latest living mash-up with punk band and performance poetry is called ZOOTSUITBEATNICK!, audible at the Virtual Artists' Collective. Newman is also visible on MySpace.

The following clip was recorded by e-poets.net on 14 May 2007, at Molly Malone's Pub, Forest Park, IL, and is presented here with the author's permission:

Hot Dog!: RealPlayer | MPEG-4 audio

- April 2008