Zachary Schomburg Brings His FJORDS To Poetry Foundation

By Maggie Hellwig in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 15, 2012 7:20PM

There is quite the hubbub going down at the Poetry Foundation next week. Zachary Schomburg is taking his poetry on the road in the form of an elaborate show titled "FJORDS." The tour is in promotion of Schomburg's new book: Fjords Vol. 1, and the event even has its own "Fjord Econoline" to trek along all of the equipment.

Schomburg is a very talented poet, hailing from Portland, Oregon. He is the author of two books: Scary, No Scary and The Man Suit. He also co-edits a small poetry press called Octopus Books. His pieces often utilize surreal landscape and commonplace objects to evaluate struggles in everyday life. Spork Press recently published the first 25 pages of Fjords titled From the Fjords and gives us a little snippet of his poetry. In "Refrigerator General," an actual refrigerator general comes to inspect a woman's refrigerator when, in fact, she does not possess one. She is made to feel inhuman and violated due to her lack of ownership. In "Large Refrigerator of the Valley," an individual brings the largest refrigerator ever made to woman in a shack and asks her to ponder how it will change her entire life. In both poems, necessity and humanity are analyzed with skepticism.

It seems quite appropriate, if not brilliant, that visuals be part of his verses. Publishers Black Ocean Books are co-sponsoring the show in collaboration with Manual Cinema and the Chicago Q Ensemble to create euphoric performances with each of Schomburg's poems. In these presentations shadow puppetry, live silhouette, video, and quadraphonic sound design will be used. The Q Ensemble, a Chicagoan string quartet, will perform original music composed by Manual Cinema's Kyle Vegter.

FJORDS will be in Chicago Feb. 23 - 26. All performances begin at 7 p.m., and are located at The Poetry Foundation: 61 W. Superior St. The tickets are $10 each and available here.