Thax Douglas Discovers Kickstarter. God Help Us All.

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 1, 2011 7:20PM

We've always thought that onetime Chicago poet and unofficial local music scene emcee Thax Douglas had a book in him consisting solely of the poems he read for bands at shows. Thax eventually recognized this, as well and, like others in the Internet Age, has turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for a chapbook he's tentatively titled Thax Douglas Gay Power. Even more surprising is that he's 54 percent towards his modest $1,500 goal.

The list of Thax's backers in the project includes notables such as Matador Records' Gerard Cosloy, actress Paula Killen, Everyblock co-founder Daniel X. O'Neil and local writers and poets J. Niimi and Lisa Hemminger. Thax has promised to write a personalized poem to all his backers if he succeeds in his fundraising goal; one word for each dollar donated. We suspect, given the number of backers needed to raise the $819 he has so far, Thax will be writing a lot of haikus and one-line poems.

While Thax certainly has his issues with Chicago, its music scene in particular, he absolutely has the right to market his poems in any way he see fit. We sincerely hope that he does meet his goal. We also hope that Thax shares another update like the two that he's shared with us so far, where he declares "poetry in the United States is at risk" and asks where the knights of the Middle Ages would "use Kickstarter projects to pay for their armor and their penance and various polishing fees."

Poetry is at risk. Probably from its defender.