FOR RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, OCT. 10, 2001
CONTACT: Miller Williams, professor of English(501)575-4301, [email protected]
KUAF, Northwest Arkansas NPR affiliate(501)575-2556
Allison Hogge, science and research communications officer(501)575-5555, [email protected]
MILLER, LUCINDA WILLIAMS PERFORMANCE TO BE FEATURED ON NPR
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- A special collaborative performance by nationally renowned poet Miller Williams and his daughter, Grammy Award-winning songwriter Lucinda Williams has been selected for nationwide distribution by National Public Radio.
The performance -- staged last March at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh, Penn. -- was sponsored by the International Poetry Forum. Pittsburgh NPR affiliate WDUQ recorded the event and has now made that recording available to other stations. NPR affiliates across the nation will air the program throughout October and November.
"This was a special event, and we wanted to be sure we recorded it," said Mark Yacovone, national productions director for WDUQ. "But through the course of the performance, we realized that we were capturing something truly, artistically significant. Beyond the quality of their work, hearing the two of them perform together is a powerful look at the origin of artistic talent."
The Pittsburgh performance represents the fifth collaborative concert for Lucinda Williams and her father, who teaches creative writing at the University of Arknasas.
With a microphone on each side of the stage, the poet and the songwriter alternately recite and perform. It may not be a typical father-daughter talk, but as the performance progresses, it takes on the shape of a conversation. Without planning the order in which they will perform their works, each song or poem becomes a response to the poem or song that preceded it.
Interspersed throughout the performance are family stories and bits of humor passed across the stage -- what Yacovone calls "a warm exchange that includes the audience." The result is a glimpse into the relationship between father and daughter as well as between word and song.
"Listening to this performance, you get an idea of the difference between poetry written and poetry sung," said Sam Hazo, director and president of the International Poetry Forum. "They're two ways of examining a similar thing -- like looking at an object with your left eye or your right eye. You get a different perspective each way."
But in addition to highlighting the differences between poetry and music, the concert also reveals the similarities between poet and musician. Williams and his daughter share a style that is both blunt and candid, deeply personal yet universally understood.
"My poetry and her songs -- you could say they both have dirt under the fingernails," Miller said. "In my writing, I try to get down to the nuts and bolts of living, and there's no question that Lucinda does that, too. Her music is not abstract. There's real sweat in every song."
Funding for the national distribution of this program comes from The Humanities and the Arts Initiative: a Grant-Making Partnership between the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
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