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Richard Fammerée
Richard Fammerée is quite possibly Indiana's best-travelled poet and troubador, having enjoyed tours as a performing artist in Europe, the Middle East, Central America, and the Pacific. All these locations have lended Fammerée a broad palette of verbal and musical traditions, which he's incorporated to varying degrees in his own poems and song. This mix between culture, music and poetry even extends to his radio work, with his fortnightly program on WHPK-FM (Hyde Park, Chicago) titled "Poetry and Its Music International." Fammerée sees a continuum of arts between written poetry and full, musical song, and celebrates the traditions in language and music that give present-day poetry continuity with (and from) antiquity. The places, myths, and symbols that Fammerée invokes in his texts are often widely dispersed in geography, culture, and history. He then caps the experience for the listener by arranging the spoken words with original, contemporary music that draws from similarly dispersed folk traditions. Fammerée broke free from his family at a young age, when his parents were expecting him to enter a university and study for a professional practice. As a teen, he left for San Francisco with no more than bus fare in his pocket. He busked and gigged in the United States for a while, and then found his way to France where he performed in music clubs. In Paris, he took time to study French literature, and so he has a fairly thorough unerstanding of French and English poetry. Fammerée has said that the rebellion from his family's "arranged" life was not intended to estrange his family so much as allow himself the opportunity to pursue a life -- and passions -- he chose for himself. His romantic attachment to the road continues today. He is active in drawing other artists out into the greater world with him, to participate in festivals, featured readings, and performances in Europe and the Americas. Further information about Richard Fammerée is available online through the artist's personal website and Full Body Poetry. The tracks below were recorded by Fammerée and associates in 2001, and accompanied a copy of Fammerée's book, "Lessons of Water and Thirst," (Collage Press, Chicago, 2000) where the lyrics appear in print. Click to listen:
- April 2002 |
