[Photo: Readers at the Open Mic share not only from their own writing but from classic works by authors such as Tolstoy.]
This article was published in the Spring 2011 semester in Excelsior
By Angelica Berry
Pacific Standard, a bar in Park Slope, offers a stable dose of poetry for months to anyone willing to listen. A space beyond the bar with the look of a retired classroom, behind a black velvet curtain atop a few wooden steps, welcomes literary guests every other Thursday night from September through June.
Pacific Standard is home to the Chin Music Reading Series, led by Bryan Patrick Miller. It’s free and features poets that Miller finds admirable. “I read widely and solicit poets whose work I love,” he said. Miller has had the pleasure of choosing the reader lineup for the past year after taking over for Colin Cheney, the creator of Chin Music who is away in Thailand. The series has been running as long as the bar, four years, and the plan is to keep it going indefinitely.
“I’m grateful to Colin for all the work he has done. It’s easier to keep a series going than starting it from scratch. I’m grateful for how much he gave to his project and hope to honor and continue the great work he started,” said Miller.
Pacific Standard’s fusion with poetry originated from a scholarly friendship. John Rauschenberg, one of the bar’s owners, Cheney, and Miller are all NYU MFA poetry graduates. While they were out drinking one night it was agreed that Cheney would start a reading series at Rauschenberg’s bar if and when he opened it, shared Miller. The college pals have kept their promises and they have been prosperous.
Chin Music thrives in a dimly lit room that consists of navy walls, a golden ceiling with a centered skylight, and studious decor. Stringed white lights, flags, and paintings line the walls that surround the room full of wooden seats and tables. The stage is marked by a standing mike beside a desk and a large map between two filled bookcases as the backdrop.
Bar noise is distant and bar dwellers do not disrupt the reading except to visit the gender neutral bathrooms “Pacific” and “Atlantic” located at the back of the room.
"I want people to feel the tradition of poetry alive in this room. I love to have people hear something that moves them. I look forward to different voices and I'm fortunate to get my heroes to read here,” commented Miller.
Cheney’s inspiration for naming his series “chin music,” a slang term for idle talk, was Mark Twain, Miller revealed. Specifically Twain’s quote: “So the thing I'm on now is to roust out somebody to jerk a little chin-music for us and waltz him through handsome.”
”It's also a high-and-tight fastball in baseball, and a fistfight in hockey. And of course poetry is chin music,” he said.
Chin Music readings are consistently scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and last for about two hours. They are structured to highlight the voices of three live poets and a great poet that has passed. “I want people to feel that the dead are still living,” said Miller. In this celebration of ever existing poetry, the poems of the deceased are read in between those of the night’s breathing poets. Each poet is cued to the stage when Miller reads their bio, mainly comprised of quirky facts about past living situations, which he crafted himself.
On March 17th, the bar hosted its latest biweekly installment (skipping the 31st) of the series with readings from poets Metta Sama, Nicky Beer, and Mark Doty (in that order). These voices were joined by the late Edna St. Vincent Millay’s as presented by Miller.
Sama spoke softly, Beer was energized and animated, Doty was at ease, and Miller read Millay’s words with pride.
Beer and Doty were especially thrilled to read at Pacific Standard because it allowed them to reunite. Doty shared that he taught Beer in a graduate program in the early 2000s at the University of Houston and was pleased to see his former student. Beer was enthusiastic about the reconnection as well and said, “Getting to read with a mentor who was a guiding light for my work was a really exciting moment.” Aside from seeing Nicky, Doty was pleased with the relaxed atmosphere. “I like that the room is set back from the bar. It’s comfortable and the audience is focused; it feels like a basement family room,” said Doty.
Appreciation from all participants in the series, both speakers and listeners, was evident.
Prior to the start of the event, the chatter of groups of two to four people holding drinks, seated from the church style benches lining one side of the room to the casual couches in front, was loud enough to quiet the acoustic song playing from overhead speakers. This sound of anticipation or simply tipsy colleagues ceased when Miller appeared and the audience listened intently to and applauded each reading thereafter.
Immediately after taking the stage Beer thanked Miller for the opportunity and afterwards said, “Bryan should be praised for doing this. A reading series is such a labor of love. It’s complicated to put together and takes a lot of energy. I’m so grateful to be here.”
During the performance Miller offered a cap for donations around the room and it was filled when it reached the audience members sitting in the back.
Following the readings, a couple of fans rushed to buy copies of the books “Fire to Fire” by Doty and “The Diminishing House” by Beer being sold for 16 dollars each at a small table in the back. They were supplied by the book selling service Mobile Libris, always present at Chin Music.
Members of the audience noted that they enjoyed the experience. “I like the poetry and the location’s good too,” said Caitlyn Tomson, 25, a friend of Miller’s. “The performance was really great. I don’t see a lot of poetry spoken and there’s just something about hearing it spoken,” said Katie Unger, 34, a friend of one of the poets for 15 years.
An intimate setting and supportive crowd are chief aspects that make the series successful. Attend the Chin Music Poetry Series at Pacific Standard for an evening of positive energy.
Go here or here to read regularly updated information on the bar and its poetry. The event was recorded and videos of the readings should be on the site by the end of the month. People eager to attend the series should just show up, no RSVP needed, and poets interested in reading are welcomed to contact Miller for consideration at chinmusicpoetry@gmail.com.
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