Marcus Amaker
Marcus Amaker moved to Charleston in 2003 to take a job as a page designer for the local newspaper, but he quickly established himself as one of the most creative poets and spoken-word performers in the city.
Today Marcus is a well-known artist whose poems and graphic art have appeared in multiple publications, websites and chapbooks. His relationship with the founders of OPP dates back to 2005, when he first began applying his many talents to multimedia events such as Pieces of Sanity and Curious Tales. And he’s been a driving force behind the development of the poetry scene in the Lowcountry through his involvement with charlestonpoets.com.
OPP is the publisher of his newest collection, The Soft Paper Cut. Marcus sat down with Dan Conover for a few minutes on Nov. 29, 2007, to talk about poetry, art, and where he's headed these days.
DC: So The Soft Paper Cut is Book No. 3 for you?
MA: Yes, it is. Book No. 3.
DC: Talk a little bit about how this is different.
MA: This one is basically seeing the evolution of where my art has gone. Which is a really interesting thing for me right now. I really can't get through my first book now without cringing.
It shows a lot more of where I'm at as a spoken-word artist, too. A lot of quote-unquote spoken-word poems are represented.
DC: So between the spoken-word poems and the poems that aren't written with that in mind, this is a two-dimensional, non-spoken medium, the book. How do you get that across?
MA: I think a key for me is in the visuals. That is very important to me... like writing a poem itself. I hope that visually, putting that together with the poem, will make it easier for the reader. For me, reading regular poetry books is kind of boring, so that's why I kinda wanted to spice this one up with some visuals, which will make it jump out of the page a little more than a regular poetry book.
DC: Is there a multimedia component to The Soft Paper Cut?
MA: It's an ongoing thing. Basically everything is connected with the website. I'm still thinking about doing a connection to an interactive website, so that people can read along with the poem and see me perform it. All of the poems that I've memorized are in that book ... but it's something I'm still working on.
DC: When you did the previous two (books), how did you do the publishing?
MA: Through BookSurge. That opportunity opened up because I did some freelance work for some people there, and that actually led to me meeting Mitchell and Farrah. That first book was a gift for doing some freelance work. I've been lucky enough that I haven't had to pay for any books.
DC: What does it mean to have OPP as the publisher of this book?
MA: It's very cool for me to be part of a grassroots organization that's doing good work. Honestly, I feel very lucky and proud to be part of that, just because they've been so nice to help me out with, you know, the costs of books, putting on shows.
They've helped me get the word out there more than I've been able to do on my own. And then being involved with the Post-Katrina Tour -- that does give me the opportunity to (reach out to audiences) that wouldn't otherwise (be reachable).
DC: What's going on with CharlestonPoets these days?
MA: It's a hit-or-miss thing. I don't have as much energy into that website as I used to. A lot of the other open-mics, other than the Monday one, have shut down.
The scene is going well, it's just scattered around. We do have the Monday Night Blues. That's been going on for about four years now. There's one I sort of co-host, that's Thursday night at Kudu Coffee. And then I have a buddy of mine ... he hosts some stuff in North Charleston, as well as downtown. But he does monthly events, not weekly events.
DC: Are there more poets active now (in Charleston) than in 2003?
MA: I would say less. Or less that I know of. A lot of the people that I knew that were active are kind of doing their own thing. When it's on, it's really beautiful, but I think we're kind of going through a stagnant period right now.
DC: It seems to me there are creative cycles to everything. Some of this you can call fashion, but things build on each other and reference the past. What are the revelant trends you're seeing in poetry, at least as it's experienced around here?
MA: I'm seeing a lot of really powerful political things, people reacting to the politics of being in a red state. Basically a lot of the poets I see are liberal-leaning, which is cool, like, for me as well, and they're writing a lot of interesting stuff.
It's a lot less like love poems and a lot more like political stuff. And that's a national trend as well. A lot of political stuff.
DC: Politics... it's not what I think of when I think about the stuff you do.
MA: I don't write about it as much as I talk about it. I'm not sure exactly why. I have written some political stuff, and a lot of the political stuff I do I do bring it to a personal level. I do find it a little more difficult to write about political topcs because I'm not as educated about it as I'd like to be. But yeah, you can definitely classify me as a liberal, hippie, kind of...
DC: Do you use the same creative muscles in writing a poem as you do in creating a graphic or performing a poem?
MA: It's all very natural. It's not a process I think about very much. It just seems to happen very naturally after a lot of trial and error.
DC: Every time that somebody puts out a book, I see that as a milestone in their life, but ... it contains the seed of the next thing. Where is this pointing you?
MA: I feel like I'm in a continual creative process and just continuing to evolve. It's just getting to a point where I'm feeling completely comfortable with my work, even moreso than I am now, which is kind of a scary thought. Feeling like I'm crafting my own style, and not that I'm really ...like, with my first book, I was trying to write like some people. And with my second book I got a little more comfortable. And with this book I was definitely more comfortable. But I would like for the reader to read my work and know that it's coming from me and not from somebody else, and I think that's starting to happen.