L.A. Poet Christian Elder is an artist, organizer, educator, and screenwriter. He has been a student of the fine arts at the Rhode Island School of Design and Lorenzo de’ Medici/The Art Institute of Florence in Italy.
Born in New York raised in Los Angeles. Christian Elder is also a screenwriting instructor with The Screenwriting Ninja. As an organizer he was responsible for the Lollapalooza Poetry Slams in ’94 and produced The LA Spoken photograph shortly after.
He has also co-hosted and produced two seminal LA poetry series, SpokenHeard with LA Poet Mauro Monteiro and The LA Speak Easy with Nelson Gary Author "Twin Volumes" (Ethelrod Press). Christian has long been dedicating himself to the recognition of the Los Angeles poetry scene’s most distinctive voices.
Christian is currently working on his film, one he has just recently put into motion, a story about a disturbed girl confronting her delusions through the writing process, freeing herself from an abusive relationship; Elder wishes to bring it to the screen. Once again, his work is in dedication to writing.
GODMA
godma dogma
runs rampant to the jook joint
and all that satanic
and irrelevant
jive jazz
velocity philosophy
w/low down no good dirty
rats
on the flaming perimeter
of the headless negro
who grieves
for mortal guns and mortal flesh
who sleeps in seven taxis a night
who dreams of the ball game
who wept for the green wishes
of just another hopeless race
who was arraigned by the lost courts
on purpose
who dragged in w/the child
you once knew
as daughter
who complained about the sexless
tenants in the next room
who paraded about conceptually
nude
in the superstore of love
and seriousness
who whispered tears about uprising
who pierced Malcom X
in just another fit of trial and err
jealousy
who threw out his pitching arm
who is sticking it
to the vein
somewhere violated
at a glass reality in Saigon
who was pressured into the
white miracle
of the civilized cosmos
as though it were
the common
rigors
of the space programyou
who shake your Zaprudder footage
justice
at the wet grace of god
anyone w/eyesight knows
the heavens are out there
and
they’re black
like my motherby Christian Elder
Examiner: How long have you lived in Los Angeles?
"I’ve been in Los Angeles since I was 2 years old, I was born in Manhattan, grew up in the San Fernando Valley when the Dogtown skateboard scene was all the rage and Ventura Blvd was ground zero for showbiz kids. It didn’t dawn on me that I was living in the “Los Angeles” I saw on TV for a long time. Once I wanted to enter a contest advertised on the back of a cereal box, I was about 10 years old at the time, and I showed it to my parents. The Grand Prize was an all expense paid trip to Hollywood.
I will never forget the look on their faces. They literally had to break it down to me in so many words. I guess geography has never been one of my strong suits."
Examiner: When did you first discovery poetry? Was this the same time you began writing poetry?
"I discovered it as soon I could read. I was fortunate to have been surrounded by a culture of words and ideas early on. My father was a very successful writer in the entertainment industry and had once written an epic jazz poem edited by Langston Hughes on Charlie Mingus’ “A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry”, so a foundation that honored the written word developed in my formative years. But a connection with poetry formed as a teenager in high school when I was introduced to Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”. It was these words that did it too, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” That opened my mind to the power of poetry. But I wasn’t necessarily interested in writing it. I did try my hand at a couple of poems back then, but my early attempts drew greater influence from pop songs. It wasn’t until I reached my early twenties that I felt this clear “voice” for poetry emerging from inside of me."
Examiner: Overall, what are your thoughts in regard to Los Angeles Poetry today?
"There needs to be more dyed in the wool writers out there performing their poems like their lives depend on it. Because it does now more than ever; the economy sucks, people are hurting, war is the new status quo, and I want to hear what real writers have to say. I will say thank God for places like Beyond Baroque, they're the only ones holding the torch.
“McPoets" are smothering the literary tradition and widening the gap between the rarefied Paris Review type of academia and the low art of the coffeehouse. It's totally reversing the kind of barriers guys like Ginsberg were adamant on tearing down, and that's a deep thing for me to say because I'm not the biggest fan of The Beats."
Examiner: Who are your favorite poets living today?
"My favorite living poets happen to be some of my favorite friends. Scott Wannberg I think is a brilliant writer. Mark my words, the annals of literary history have a special place reserved for Scott. Pam Ward is excellent in every way. Jerry Quickley is awesome. Brendan Constantine is very witty and profound. And Friday Lubina slays you in a couple of stanzas. That’s my dream team."
QUEER
here
the rain is having phone sex
on a murdered cordless
with my gray hands
beating a relentless taps
over the dial-tone
and i have drunk 7 bottles
of bladder
that kept me up at night
and told me to
my heart is a basehead
that pumps my nerves full of powder
until my cheeks flake off
into the wings that broke
supper with the john
the hemp is walking
down an aisle
of a small neighborhood
in the last supermarket of
size d cups
hermetically sealed
at 5:05 am
some of the laymen are
curt with me
through the hazy storefront
of a low-budget movie still
because they’d rather be
stage actors
hollywood
in its wet lime-colored skin
pines away
as every adult bookstore on the strip
looks like a bad toupee
and even i
with my roach clip
know
that the power to stare
agrees with any wretched dreamscape
whenever i wear my floral chaps
like a square inch of meat
in the rain
by Christian Elder
Examiner: What writers influenced much of your writing today?
"James Baldwin is the reason I write anything, period. I read “Another Country” and “The Fire Next Time” at age 19 and was totally transfixed. Baldwin lit the fuse because he showed me that you can simultaneously be an artist and an activist. That was better than being a rock star to me. Anne Sexton is the strongest direct influence on my poetry because she really breaks my heart. A good poem should get inside you like she does. Charles Bukowski is the second strongest influence on my poetry. And my late father Lonne Elder III is the disciplinary standard that inspires every word I write."
Christian Elder is remembered by many for the brainchild behind theThe LA Spoken Photograph. The photo captures a time in Los Angeles Poetry during the mid nineties that was inspired by the famous Jazz musicians historic gathering in which they posed for one photograph, and is today the topic of the well known "A Great Day In Harlem" documentary.
Examiner: The LA Spoken photograph was an historical Los Angeles event and now, document. What gave you the idea for it and how did you manage to gather everyone, especially in those days before the universality of the Internet?
"The LA Spoken photograph was inspired by a terrific documentary called “A Great Day in Harlem”. And that documentary was about a day when several great jazz musicians gathered to pose for one photograph on a stoop in Harlem, New York. And these were guys like Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Mingus, all the greats basically. So I’m looking at this movie in my tiny apartment in Hollywood and I can’t help thinking that this same idea could theoretically apply to the LA poetry community. So I started putting the wheels in motion, assembled a team, and produced the event. And as far as gathering the participants, I made so many contacts running the Lollapalooza slams that all I needed to do was open my phone book and get on the horn. But the idea truly took on a life of its own, people gravitated to it; I was merely a conduit. What I’m really proud of is that I helped bring together a wildly diverse group of spoken word artists ranging from Ellyn Maybe, to Dr. Mongo, Larry Hankin, The Carma Bums, the late Merilene Murphy, and the legendary Watts Prophets."
Examiner: Are you reading anything right now? If so what are you reading? (Title, Author, comments on the book)
Yes. I’m reading Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep” and digging it big time. I’m doing a literary tour of great crime fiction. I recently finished “The Grifters” by Jim Thompson. I like reading about people doing Machiavellian things in a morally bankrupt universe. It stimulates my sense of humor about working in show business. No, I’m kidding. I may be toying with the idea of writing crime novels someday. So I guess I’m doing my homework.
Examiner: You organized the Lollapalooza Poetry Slams in 1994, is this series still happening, or is there still poetry at Lollapalooza?
I don’t know if Lollapalooza is currently offering a stage for poets now. But as you might remember in the nineties, Lollapalooza was a city to city touring entity. And in ’94 Mud Baron and Liz Belile created a third stage “Revival Tent” for notable poets to perform at in each city. I was friends with Mud and Liz; subsequently I and Mauro Monteiro were charged with gathering 24 Los Angeles poets to perform on both days of the LA shows. Actually we pulled 22 people from poetry slams all over the city; then made an executive decision to bring Ellyn Maybe and Neslon Gary along for the ride. Because Lollapalooza needed to be exposed to them as far as we were concerned. I slammed poets from the San Fernando Valley to Santa Monica to Orange County. Then we brought the poets to the shows and hosted the events on the third stage. I remember Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins coming down and jamming with the poets at the close of the first day. It was frigging awesome. Good times all around; great memories.
Examiner: Currently you are in the process of bringing one of your screenplays to the screen. Can you tell us a little bit about this project?
Yes. I recently directed a couple of spec commercials with the help of my dear friend and producing partner Jessica Mathews. And soon after, we became very excited with the prospect of using the Kickstarter fund raising platform to make a full length independent movie. We shared our thoughts with another friend in New York, Mark Bailey, who has a tremendous background in indie film and decided to go for it. Now we are dead center in the process of generating the funds necessary to go into production. It’s called “Schizo” and people can read about it on our website at www.schizothefilm.com. And if they would like to pledge to the movie we’d be grateful for the help and support. The movie is about a schizophrenic girl who creates her ideal man in the context of writing a stage play. But then this fictional character comes to life so to speak, and invades her day to day existence.
Examiner: How would you compare writing poetry to writing screenplays?
In my opinion they’re very different disciplines. Although being intimate with both, the ability to write a good poem provides you with the tools necessary to craft an effective scene in a screenplay. And it’s not quite what one would expect. Poetry doesn’t inform the writing process in the form of dialogue. In fact you kind of need to turn off that muscle entirely, to avoid from writing dialogue that sounds too precious and contrived. It tends to come in handy when you’re writing lines of description, when you’re writing anything but the dialogue itself. Being able to convey a concise sense of atmosphere in a line or two is a very powerful tool to have in your screenwriting arsenal. Poetry teaches you how to do that like nothing else can. It’s metaphor training really. There are also some structural tricks in poetry that mirror the laws of storytelling, but those are a far more nuanced sleight of hand.
THE KILLING TIME
when i was five
my father held me upside down
by my ankles
the sun turned on its antlers
and wires
burned the clouds
who were lumps in the sky
to breathe the long day slow
sneezed up into summer pixies
yes sizzling stars
and the light on our porch
was a soft eminent glow
i sucked the barbs
of my fingers
till i lumbered to bed
where mother’s words
would play me backwards
to life
on la maida st.
i watched the paint
strip from the fences
and the housecats
clean themselves
watched the sun washed
flesh colored christ
bleached to cross bones
in the old lady’s window
watched
the hair splash ‘cross
karen’s face
bubble up in her button nose
red like a drunkard
full of blood nectar and fuel
clucking and laughing
and spitting
moving her crescent mouth at you
turning in when her dad was home
the sky has turned auburn and clay
now nobody’s gone
a few forgotten names
the neighbor’s pet barks
at the kids beyond belief
suburban snots kick the earth
frolic and piss up and down the street
like madmen
black eyes solid
teeth splintered
cheeks stuffed in parkas
karen:
beautiful things whisper
here where the autumn was fat
collapsing all over like red lashes
on the ground
the sidewalk
played in the yoke with yellow
leaves
moved and talked and tickled
under tall muscular trees
drenched
holding up more
and the world
serves as a quiet careful thought
to meander down la maida st.
just to
kill the timeby Christian Elder
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