“Posthumous fame is a ridiculous concept,” says poet Lisa Hemminger. “You can almost pick out people who will be famous after they’re dead, so why not appreciate their work now while they’re here?”
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The seance kicks off Hemminger’s new Dead Poet Channeling Series, which will attempt to contact Jack Kerouac, E.E. Cummings, Charles Bukowski, Dorothy Parker, and Sylvia Plath. Hemminger also wants the series to spotlight the Yammer regulars, a group she calls the We Should Be Famous Club. Over the past two years Yammer has given a forum to spoken-word talents who might once have stayed at home like Dickinson. “Emily ties in with the We Should Be Famous Club because she never received fame when she was alive, and I think people often miss the fact that she was very witty,” says Hemminger. “We end every show by singing one of her poems to the tune of ‘The Yellow Rose of Texas.’ Eighty-seven percent of her poems can be sung to it, but we usually sing ‘Because I Could Not Stop for Death’ because it’s her most famous poem.”
Hemminger was a hit, and in November 1996 she was named the Winter Grand Slam Champion of the Uptown slam. Hemminger created Yammer to give poets and other spoken-word artists a stage without competition. A typical evening features at least 20 performers playing to a crowd about double that size, with Hemminger leaping, howling, and shaking her fists, playing host to what she describes as a “chaotic free fall of entertainment.” Ironically Yammer has brought Hemminger some measure of fame: recently she was invited to host the Gay and Lesbian Open Mike Show at the National Poetry Slam in Chicago this August.
