I enjoy being on stage, but going forward I cannot continue to donate my time, money, and effort every other weekend when I have medical bills to contend with. Unfortunately, the health conditions I am dealing with are ongoing and unlikely to disappear in the coming years. Whatever money I would have set aside in the past for attending poetry open mics or other social events needs to go towards medical treatment and keeping a roof over my head. I need to focus on what really matters. Art has to take a back seat. There’s nothing virtuous about constantly performing for free when doing so risks your overall stability.
If it requires me to leave Solano County and offers zero monetary compensation, going forward the answer is no. I will be saying yes to Zoom appearances so long as they happen at a reasonable time of day such as afternoon or early evening.
I’ve supported numerous organizations and fellow writers over the past 13 years. My bookshelves are overflowing with poetry books from authors that I know. How many can say they’ve purchased all of my books as well?
I’ve helped promote countless local events and spread the word about hundreds of small press anthology calls through the Vallejo Poetry Society for the past eight years, yet when I announce a performance or new book, I’m lucky if 10 people interact with the posts.
It’s quite rare for me to see friends or colleagues show up in a nearby town to hear me elsewhere. I’ll assume it’s also due to having to pay nearly $20 for two bridge tolls just to leave the north bay. I only expect that amount to go up if they redo highway 37 and make it a toll road as well.
While I enjoy supporting political and charitable causes with my art, I cannot continue to do volunteer performances as frequently as I was. Just getting to a venue in the bay area these days costs an average of $50 for parking, gas, and tolls. If one does this every weekend, it can add up to thousands of dollars per year just to get to a performance space. This doesn’t even include the cost of food. With my health concerns I cannot survive on free wine, candy, and cookies as delicious as they all may be.
While the ferry would be more affordable in the case of San Francisco, the last night time ferry leaves in the 8 o’clock hour, which rules out most evening open mics which wouldn’t be done in time. One also has to factor in the time it takes to walk or take a train back to the ferry building depending on the venue location within the city. There’s also no connections to BART or SMART in Solano County, so trains are not an option. The bus that used to stop near my house stops running at 9 PM. I have no choice but to drive.
Honorariums that help cover travel are the bare minimum. If organizations can’t be bothered to pay their performers and only exploit them time after time, being a performing poet becomes a financial drain pretty quickly. Exposure doesn’t pay the bills. Add to that that some venues want as much as a 60% cut of your book sales which fully eliminates an author’s profit.
A non-ticketed poetry event attracts folks who want free entertainment, and they’re also unlikely to have the money to purchase books. Ticketed poetry events often do not share a portion of the take with performers. Charity events balk at you if you expect to profit at all while they charge for attendance. Other open mics ask for a donation, but organizers or venues pocket them instead of splitting it between the featured performers, profiting off the poets and audience members. The performers are drawing customers into your business who would not show up otherwise. They should be fairly compensated for their time.
There’s a lot of reasons I have to say no. I prefer libraries, bookstores, museums, theaters, and other quiet venues where people are gathered solely there to hear the works of the featured writers. Performing in bars, restaurants and coffee shops, I often have to shout to be heard over disrespectful patrons who aren’t there for the entertainment, and then deal with rude, often drunken feedback and unwanted come-ons. Then instead of comping performers with a meal or a drink, on top of travel costs, one is expected to buy something at the venue instead.
The current economics of the poetry scene financially support everyone except for the poets. As accomplished as I am at this point I would expect to be offered something in return, but the lack thereof shows the true status of poets in our society. Good enough to be celebrated and have our labor exploited, but not good enough to be compensated.
The least folks could do is buy my ebooks on their favorite platform. At $4.99 it costs less than a gallon of gas in California.