Adam Gregory Pergament

Adam Gregory Pergament,a three-time finalist for Best Artist (Other) in the Annual Madison WI Area Music Awards, is a performer who has bridged the gap between poetry and music. He has performed publicly over 700 times in the USA with Rock-and-Roll bands, Jazz musicians, and as a solo poet. In 2009 he was a finalist for the MNSWA "Urban Griot" International/National Performer of the year alongside other poets such as Leonard Cohen and Saul Williams. His current projects include Venice Gas House Trolley (Cerebral Groovalicious Existential Sacred Fusion Rock) and Rock and Fire Flowpoetry (spoken word with vocal effects and loops). From 2006–2008, 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. He was also the first ever "Poet-In-Residence" at the King Club (voted Madison, WI's #1 nightclub in 2007). In previous incarnations, Adam 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 has performed with such notables as Hanah Jon Taylor (Chicago’s Artists For The Advancement of Creative Music) and Vincent Davis (Roscoe Mitchell Quartet) and Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown's Original Funky Drummer). He has opened shows for The Steve Kimock Band, Cornmeal, Groovatron, Buck 65, Claude Coleman, Jr of Ween. He has also appeared on festival billings with The Jerry Garcia Band and Indigenous

Website: http://www.vght.net

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.

updated 1/21/11