Author Hiromi Goto
David Bateman and Hiromi Goto unite for Martini Madness
When the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival coming into full swing at the end of National Poetry Month claims to represent a wide diversity of voices it’s not just lip service. This week nestled between Beat poets Francophone writers and acclaimed storytellers David Bateman a performance artist and the author of two poetry collections and Hiromi Goto the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize-winning author of four novels unite for two innovative performances.
Their collaboration began when Goto saw Bateman’s performance of Lotus Blossom Special in Vancouver. “It was an interpretation of Madama Butterfly where I project my experiences as a white Canadian male being raised in a racist environment onto the racism against Asian Canadians at the time.”
Intrigued by his perspectives on gender sexuality and orientalism Goto proposed that they team up and e-mails started to fly. The result was The Cowboy and the Geisha a performance that has toured the world from the Performing Identities conference in Cyprus to the University of Victoria’s Queer Caucus to the TransCanada Institute at the University of Guelph.
“I’m the geisha she’s the cowboy” Bateman laughs. “Hiromi was born in Japan but her family moved to Nanton B.C. when she was about three. She grew up with the idea of the Calgary Stampede and the cowboy but also with traditional notions of how a young Asian-Canadian woman might behave an idea of the submissive female character that she didn’t embrace. I grew up in some sense with an opposite perception of how a young boy should behave gravitating instead toward young women.”
The performance is a staged reading that incorporates a slideshow and costumes. “It’s made up of spiraled monologues twined together” says Goto “and then the twine breaks to create a dialogue.”
After the completion of The Cowboy and the Geisha Bateman and Goto still couldn’t get enough of each other. “Most of my work has been on full-length novels by myself” says Goto. “Working with someone else collaboratively to build something is an amazing experience. It’s surprising and exciting and it can also disturb and trouble you which are all good things when you’re an artist.”
Their second performance a collaboration-in-progress making its public debut in Calgary is a poetry manuscript about fathers and martinis. “Our fathers and drinking without giving away too many surprises kind of go hand-in-hand” Bateman says dryly. “The piece has martini recipes scattered throughout the manuscript. I thought that was a fun idea because when you get bored with the poetry you can just make yourself a drink.”
With a manuscript about martinis at an event called Martini Madness it’s a safe bet that both performers have some experience in the world of mixed drinks. “I know how to make a pretty distracting martini” Bateman admits. “I guess my favourite is a Grey Goose vodka martini with olives. I think gin is supposed to be the classic martini ingredient but I’m afraid I’ve been lured away by post-modern martini culture where anything in a martini glass is called a martini.”
For Goto the collaboration with Bateman has extended beyond poetry. “Until quite recently my favourite was the dirty gin martini but when David was at the Heathrow Airport he found a bottle of Pinky Vodka” she says. “Oh my God it is the most amazing vodka ever. When I read the label it sounded a bit too fruity with infused fruit and rose petals but it was just amazing.”
Bateman and Goto are joined by Ivan E. Coyote Karen Hines Jordan Scott and host Blake Brooker for Oh Canada! Martini Madness the seventh event in the 2008 Calgary International Spoken Word Festival taking place at the W.R. Castell Central Library (616 Macleod Tr. S.E.) on April 24 8 p.m. $10 admission.
