Activism, Behaviour, Communication
Live in Milan 2011
Anne Waldman & Ambrose Bye:
Fossil Fuel
from the book Manatee/Humanity
& the album The Milk of Human Kindness
Anne Waldman (b. 1945) is an American poet. Since the 1960s, she has been a noted writer, performer, scholar, professor, cultural/political activist and student of Buddhism. She has published more than forty books of poetry.
She is a vocal proponent for feminist, environmental, and human rights causes, participating actively in Poets Against the War and organizing protests in New York and Washington D.C. She is a Distinguished Professor of Poetics at Naropa Institute.
The birth of her son Ambrose Bye in 1980 was an "inspiring turning point" for Waldman, and she became committed to the survival of the planet. Her child, she said, became her teacher. Waldman and Ambrose Bye perform together and created Fast Speaking Music. They have produced multiple albums together.
Waldman is particularly interested in the performance of her poetry: she considers performance a "ritualized event in time” and expresses the energy of her poetry through exuberant breathing, chanting, singing, and movement. She credits her poem, Fast Speaking Woman, as the seminal work that galvanized her idea of poetry as performance.