Audio and Video
The Kerouac Effect 2017
Miriam Barr and JaradUPs, 15 March 2017
A music-poetry-performance collaboration with Jarad Bryant for the tenth annual Kerouac Effect in Auckland. Music and words passed hands for five weeks. We started with the music, and built the poetry around the choruses. One old poem found a new life and a one new poem was born.
1. Keeping the peace
2. Bonnie and Clyde
Jarad Bryant aka Jarad UPS aka New Hang Ups is a Bristol-raised, Auckland-based electronic musician, singer and artist.
This performance was dedicated to Michelle Durey.
Filmed and edited by 206 Media at Toi Ora Live Art Trust.
Theoradical Hobohemians: Oblivian
Miriam Barr and Adam Colegrave, Mercury Theatre, 2015
Electronic musician Adam Colegrove creates a continuous soundscape for three poems by Miriam Barr.
The opening piece, Hugs by Rodney Hide, is composed entirely by words from a NZ Herald column by Rodney Hide. Storytime with Hans Christian Anderson and a remixed version of Love and Gardening complete the triptych.
Performed live with visual animation at The Mercury Theatre as part of a poetic variety show called Theoradical Hobohemians: Oblivion.
Filmed and edited by Ruth Bioletti.
All Out Wor audio
Recorded for Poetry Night on Twitter, August 2014
Poetry Night was a virtual poetry reading held on Twitter in celebration of National Poetry Day.
All Out Wor is a deletion poem made using Michael Harlow's poem All About the World from the 2010 National Poetry Day postcard series.
The Kerouac Effect 2013
Miriam Barr and John McNab, Only
Every year for The Kerouac Effect, poets are blind-matched with musicians and given 6 weeks to create a poetry-music performance for an annual celebration of Jack Kerouac and all things beat poetry.
2013 saw me matched with musician John McNab, who I have had the pleasure of working with before. Here, John plays guitar and sax. This performance was filmed by Ruth Bioletti and clips were featured in The Kerouac Effect documentary, which screened at the Academy in 2014. The poem itself was written in December 2012.
Click on the button below to find out more about The Kerouac Effect and how to get involved in future.
2013 Collaboration with Matt Reece
Miriam Barr and Matt Reece, 2013 at Poetry Live
In June 2013 I collaborated with musician Matt Reece in an improvised performance at Poetry Live. Matt used a range of ethnic instruments to create a soundscape for a sequence of nine poems he had never heard before.
Many of these pieces feature in Bullet Hole Riddle including Staying Here, Standing, Falling In, Cohabitation and The Things We Carried. If you read along with the book you will be able to spot the edits.
Click on the button below to watch the entire show in order on Youtube, or watch the selection of videos embedded here.
Bullet Hole Riddle: Live in Three Voices
Miriam Barr, Nikki Patin and Sabrina Muck with Fiona Holding on Cello.
Recorded live at GROWL, The London Bar, 2008
In 2008 I directed and performed in GROWL with The Literatti and American poet, Nikki Patin, who I met on YouTube after I commented on a video of her performing Sweat on the HBO Def Jam series. We exchanged and scripted poems online and spent two weeks in intensive rehearsals prior to the show, when Nikki arrived in NZ. We were joined by Fiona Holding on live cello, with recorded music by various artists.
For GROWL, Bullet Hole Riddle was scripted for three voices, with the chorus sung by Nikki Patin. Bullet Hole Riddle is the title poem of the poetry book by the same name, though the piece has since seen many edits. Click play above to listen to the track or click the button below to list to the whole show on Sound Cloud.
Animated Poetry Collaboration
How My Brain Betrays Me, Miriam Barr and Kate Barton, 2008
Visual artist Kate Barton and I worked together on this collaboration as part of the 2008 Metonymy project. From a conversation exploring our common ground, a poem was created, which led to the creation of images which in turn inspired more words and so on, with each artist feeding off the other. How My Brain Betrays Me was selected by a panel of acclaimed NZ artists and poets, including CK Stead and John Pule to be part of the 2008 Metonymy Exhibition at Side Room gallery. It was later named, by the same panel, as one of two pieces that best represented collaboration between genres. In November 2008 further collaboration led to the addition of music by Craig Humphries and a live performance with both the animation and music for The Literatti's theatre show One Foot Forward. The YouTube video has been used as a university teaching resource in the UK and was chosen to feature in an undergraduate text book on digital texts by Dr Paola Trimarco (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015).
Interview for Renegade House
Miriam Barr and Christian Jensen at Galatos, 2011
Christian Jensen took over as Creative Director of The Literatti in 2011. Renegade House filmed a rehearsal and interviewed the two of us to promote One Question, Christian's debut show as director. At the time we were working on incorporating more movement into our multiple person pieces and this footage shows us working out the components of a duet performance of a poem we wrote together.
Exchange audio: Layered Voices
Miriam Barr and Heidi Brickell, Metonymy 2009
In 2009 I was paired with visiual artist Heidi Brickell for the second annual Metonymy project. Our collaborative discussions centred on the theme of interconnectedness, social constructions and the shifting nature of perception.
The visual component was a textile sculpture with painted planes. The sculpture was accompanied by a recording that incorporated both voices and could be listened to through headphones as the viewer walked around the three- dimensional construction.
One Foot Forward Footage
The Literatti, Nov 2008
In November 2008 I directed and performed with The Literatti in One Foot Forward at the Raye Freedman Arts Centre with musician Craig Humphries, his band Just the Ticket and Karen Hunter.
The poets in this show were myself, Shane Hollands, Christian Jensen and Murray Lee. We workshopped with a group of Year 9 drama students at Epsom Girls Grammar School where students wrote, scripted and performed their own poety theatre show to open for One Foot Foward.
Hey Poets was written by Shane Hollands, Peace Poem written by Murray Lee and Alternative Angels was written by me.
Word of Mouth Footage
The Literatti, 2008 Dunedin Fringe Festival
In April 2008 I directed and performed with The Literatti in Word of Mouth at the Dunedin Fringe Festival in collaboration with photographers Darcy Gladwin and Daniel Trotter and a range of musicians.
The poets in this show were myself, Andra Jenkin, Shane Hollands, Murray Lee and Murray Haddow.
Gristle and The Abuss is one of my first performance poems and one of the pieces I performed when I won the Poetry Idol Slam at the 2007 Auckland Readers and Writers Festival.
Observations from the Poetry Factory audio
feat music by Craig Humphries, Observations from the Poetry Factory CD (2007).
Lemon Verbena and The Thing Is... featured in my second self-published collection Observations from the Poetry Factory and on the accompanying CD, with music by Craig Humphries. I performed Lemon Verbena when I won the Poetry Idol Slam at the 2007 Auckland Readers and Writers Festival. The Thing Is... later became a duet performed with Christian Jensen.