Adam Gregory Pergament

Adam Gregory Pergament, a finalist for Best Artist (Other) in the First Annual Madison WI Area Music Awards, is a Spoken Word performer who has bridged the gap between poetry and music. His dynamic style of Rock and Fire Flowpoetry combines rhythm, musicality, and a highly condensed depth of poetic language. His delivery on stage makes him one of the most unique and riveting performers on the Midwestern musical and artistic landscape. Adam speaks shamanically through poems of Asian Gods and Goddesses, tells Cowboy stories of the American Wild West and the Railroad Age, and poetically rants and rages about both Love and War. In 2006, he was appointed as the first ever "Poet-In-Residence" at The King Club, Madison, WI's premier live music dance club. He has performed over 500 times in the USA with Rock and Roll bands, Jazz musicians, and as a solo poet.

His current projects include Venice Gas House Trolley (a "Beat Freak" trio consisting of voice, double bass, and percussion) and Rock and Fire Flowpoetry (spoken word with vocal effects, loops, guitar and electric bass). Over the past two years, he led and taught Chime Collective Big Band weekly improvised free flow musical and poetic workshops at The Madison WI Center For Creative And Cultural Arts. In previous incarnations, Adam has played catcher for the University of Minnesota Baseball team, spent five years backpacking throughout Asia and India, earned a Master of Arts Degree in Languages and Cultures of Asia and studied for seven years in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Buddhist Studies Ph.D program. He holds a black belt in Kendo (the art of the Samurai swordsman). He has performed with such Jazz notables as Hanah Jon Taylor (Chicago's Artists For The Advancement of Creative Music) and Vincent Davis (Roscoe Mitchell Quartet). He has opened shows for The Steve Kimock Band, Cornmeal, Groovatron, Buck 65, and Claude Coleman, Jr of Ween. He has also appeared on festival billings with The Jerry Garcia Band and Indigenous.

Websites:
www.flowpoetry.com
http://www.myspace.com/flowpoetry
Adam Gregory Pergament

 

Dance

Fly and ride sister trip,
Surf on the crest of the wave wall
Shoot down a hundred thousand miles an hour glide
Moan through the disembodied mourning of self-expression
Concealment.
Burst open: a morning-gold explosion of multi-colored sparks
Rays prismatic
Charismatic swoop of wings
Slow to a grind
Halt and pant on the floor.
Sweat dripping to your feet spin-
Swoon into the dharma blues again.

  *   *    *     *     *      *
                  *       *      *      *     *    *   *  * *


quiet (is)


quiet (is)      peaceful (is)

brush of incense smoke                  past paper lantern wave

breath through      Indian bamboo


drop   of

amber ash           on tatami

blink of           lash


          the night.