(1978)  Baby It’s About Time October 27 and 28. 
(second performance in Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre)
Assume 1981 performance at Dance Project was related to Michael Kriegsman review)

(Part I) The first of two performances with Chasen Gaver, DC’s most controversial, brilliant writer and performance poet, was absurd, somewhat outrageous, social commentary with Dance Construction Company dancers.  The evening performance was at Dorothy Betts Marvin Center Theatre, Washington, DC.

Note:  Chasen Gaver passed away as a vital young man. Chasen Gaver  collection is at Cornell University:   http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM07575.html DC Writers’ Homes: http://dcwriters.poetrymutual.org/pages/gaver.html

Evening I (1977) and Evening II (1978) both featured Chasen Gaver with the Dance Construction Company presenting a selection of different poems and different content for each performance. Gaver wrote new poems and selected previous poems that he performed with the dancers on stage.

Chasen was considered “a Washington, DC original.”  Some say he was one of Washington, DC’s first rappers. He performed speaking his text “live” and moving alone on and, also, among Dance Construction dancers. In addition to holding a microphone, Chasen often carried and played hand-held musical instruments.  Chasen was a performance artist original, a fearless artist, beloved by all who knew him.

Evening I: 1977

Evening II: 1978
https://vimeo.com/105555168 (video part II – dress rehearsal)

Evening II:  Baby It’s About Time: *
ACT I: Sounds “The poems in this set are constructed around rhythms and rhymes in an attempt to appeal to the sense of movement.
Poems: Sounds;  Dance City; Does Your Family Have the Money? Le Boheme; Your Guess is as Good as Mine (dancers with ropes and pillows); Man/ipulation: Life Under My Umbrella; Love Poem for Richard Pryor; Give the Dancers Castanets; Z Name EEEZ:….; Sonida Rico; Claudine (pajamas and robes); In Search of Nikki Butane.

ACT II:  “Poems in this set are more concerned with social comment and rhythm and rhyme provide the medium through which the message is directed.”  DADDY (Marlene sings Daddy! Maida tap dance); After 10 (marching with masks); The Oracle at Phila-Delphi; Freak Accidents; Funk Junction (dancers tied together with rope); Midge (mannequin) dancers enter side, men circling…feel heartbeat; Snap, Crackle, Poppers; Sales Talk (buy & sell) ; Give the Dancers Castanets (dancers jumping); ENCORE: DISCO.

Brook was replaced by dancer, Don Zuckerman, for the Saturday night performance:  Brook had to leave after the first evening performance and go to NYC where his second daughter, Nori/Elinor/Adrasteia was born 10/27 1978.

* Information on the two evenings of poetry are sparse.  Changes/updates may be possible if/when video tapes are located.

“Beloved Chasen” was one of the earliest in Washington, DC to die of AIDS.  Chasen Gaver’s papers, 1977-1988  (collection number 7575) are part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at the Cornell University Library.
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM07575.html

What the press is saying

“Performance poetry springs from the mind of Chasen Gaver, a 24-year old Wasington poet who, along with others of similar persuasion, is adding an important dimension to the style and sound of American poetry. Gaver, along with other artists uses what performance can provide – sounds, rhythms, props, costumes- to create an experience of poetry that the written word itself cannot achieve. In a sense, it is the performance that is the poem here, and the written word is the main scaffold of that experience.” John N. Yanson