Chicago Poet Spotlight: Carrie Olivia Adams

By Betsy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 23, 2010 9:08PM

We're ashamed that it's almost the end of the month and we haven't given National Poetry Month much representation. We'll admit we don't often read poetry for pleasure; some of us are just contemporary fiction types of girls. But a Chicago poet who writes poems that are films and who produces films that are poetry intrigued us. We wanted to know more about how she began incorporating film into her work.

Carrie Olivia Adams started creating films with poetry about three years ago. Her first film, which was shot in the Scottish Highlands and Adams described as "a Malick-like meditation on sublime landscape with a little bit of the Loch Ness Monster and Brakhage thrown-in" premiered at the Around the Coyote Arts Festival in 2007. She has since published a book of poetry titled Intervening Absence and has another book and DVD slotted for publication in 2013. As part of Chicago Public Library's extensive Poetry Fest celebration, Adams will be screening and discussing one of her movie-poems and few other short films from local poets/cinematographers. Glass Darkly: Combining Poetry and Film in the Internet Age will be tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. in Harold Washington Library Center's Video Theater.

Chicagoist: How did you get started doing the film+poetry combination?

Carrie Olivia Adams: I have a hard time visualizing things to begin with. If I close my eyes, I can't actually picture an object. Film was a way for me to learn the visual and have something to go to when I was trying to write a poem. It kind of came about as a reorganizing process. I didn't think I was ever going to show my films to the world. I was just kind of playing around on my own. As I began to talk to some of my friends, I realized other people were doing it.

C: We admit that we’re kind of out of the loop and haven't head about this type of poetry. What do you have to do to promote this sort of work?

COA: Basically you have to treat poetry as if you were a rock band; You have to tour to get your work out there. I've been to Racine and Kalamazoo… almost wherever there's a university, and all these other little places across the country. In Chicago there's the Myopic Poetry Series, The Red Rover Series, and Danny's Reading Series, which brings in a mixture of big names and little names.

C: Since your event this month deals with new technology, we were wondering what you have to do to keep up with the advancing technologies in film. Does this get expensive?

COA: I am kind of trying to keep it as low-tech as possible. I had to teach myself how to do everything, so I'm trying not to let it get too complicated. In many ways I am reverted to older technology. My next project involves vintage slides (They were a teaching set, and they have cross sections of lungs and brains), and I had to buy a slide scanner. So I'm converting old slides into digital film.

C: How does living and working in Chicago tie into your poetry and films?

COA: I wasn't sure what it was going to be like when I moved here, and it's been surprisingly rich. It's not necessarily where my work originates from. But there are a lot of poets here. It's nice to know there is a built-in audience for your work, and it's always encouraging to know there are people out there.