A
polyrhythmic adventurer and an intellectual provocateur,
Ralph La Charity argues with and provokes the aesthetic
possibilities of the contemporary poetic experience.
His highly incantatory style of delivery is coupled
with compositional ingredients that blend both earthy
and sophisticated verbal elements. A veteran performer
at such festivals as Seattle's Bumbershoot and at
Texas’ Austin International Poetry Festival,
he has incited poetry ferment over the years in communities
as diverse as San Antonio, San Francisco, Honolulu,
and Denver. His principal forté, since moving
to Cincinnati in the early '90s, has been the blending
of poetry within co-equally polyrhythmic musical
contexts: La Charity simultaneously delivers his
verbal stew while also playing percussion in eclectic,
jazz-flavored productions featuring 3 to 5-man musical
ensembles.
La
Charity has been public as a poet since 1970. He first
began presenting his work in music settings as a result
of the vivid physical quality of his delivery, working
for two years as house poet at JAZZ PLUS Nightclub
in Honolulu HI, with Bob Braye's Peace & Rhythm
jazz ensemble in the early 80's. Working in collaboration
with two Cincinnati-based musicians in 1996, guitarist
Richard Williams & saxophonist Jack Walker, La
Charity, as poet/percussionist, formed the musical
trio, SáSemblé, dedicated to performing
what the poet calls "village jazz & word." Also
in the mid-90s, working with poets Ken Kawaji and Bill
Polak, he created the eclectic Cincinnati jazz/poetry
radio program, the Skaldric Cauldlron, on WAIF-FM radio.
Among
the poet's books currently in print are: four-by-fars;
on Som bo; and CINEMANUENSING, all from Aloud Allowed
Impress of Cincinnati in the late '90s, and Seatticus
Knight, from Black Heron Press of Seattle/San Francisco,
released in 1985. Two audio cassette anthologies include
his work, Poets Along the River, from Mesilla Press
of San Antonio TX, 1991, and Road Word Live, from Burning
Press of Cleveland OH, 1994. The poet currently edits & publishes
W'ORCs/ALOUD ALLOWED, a poetry samizdat he originated
in then-West Germany in 1986, based since 1992 in Cincinnati.
An October 2003 taped 50-minute video of La Charity
performing solo at the Jailhouse in Fred Fuller Park
in Kent OH is available from RC Wilson Jr of that city.
Among
appearances over the course of the preceding decade:
Austin International Poetry Festival (Austin TX), Bumbershoot
Festival (Seattle WA), the Southern Ohio Museum (Portsmouth
OH), the Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati & the Carnegie
Theater of Covington KY (in Aralee Strange's "Evening
at the Sad Cafe"), the Davis Discovery Center
(Columbus OH). In the Summer of the year 2000 he mounted
Sahara Date, a single 90-minute performance piece,
backed by a quintet version of his group,which was
presented at Quill’s in Philadelphia, at BARDFEST
2000 in Reading PA., and on successive nights at three
separate Cincinnati-area venues, Volk Gallery, Base
Arts Gallery, and York Street Café. The June
2001 presentation of his hour-long Acoustic Sun Song,
at the downtown Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati,
both distilled and advanced upon the achievement of
Sahara Date . . . this performance marked the final
public appearance of SáSemblé, which
did not continue performing following the passing of
Richard Williams, its guitarist and musical mainstay.
