A space to keep up on the zany-antics and debauchery spawned
by the poetry cabaret troupe, The TypewriterGirls.
Who Are the TypewriterGirls, Really?
If you’ve never been to a TypewriterGirl Poetry Cabaret (shame on you, if you haven’t), then one of the first things that may come to mind when you hear a ‘Typewriter-Girl’ referenced to may be that of the Victorian New Woman icon, of whom Rudyard Kipling once complained Now in the name of all the Gods at once, what is one to say to a young lady . . . who earns her own bread and slings out-of-the-way quotations at your head. That one falls in love with her goes without saying; but that is not enough. A mission should be established.
Well, here’s a mission for you Rudyard:
Quite simply, The TypewriterGirls are a collective of young women who first congregated in Carlow College’s Creative Writing Department, during its Golden Age, of 2002-2006. There, they fell in love with poetry, women, monkeys (perhaps, I should have mentioned this first) comedic misadventures of all sorts, Dada, Modernism, run-down-turn-of-the-century haunted hotels in dead coal-mining towns and, of course, typewriters. This splendid group of young, charming, and slightly out of touch with reality burgeoning poets and writers decided to adopt and own the mildly disparaging title that had been given to them by the befuddled masses ‘those typewriter girls.’
After years of preparation-theatrics on dilapidated train-tops, cabaret
dancing in gas-stations, gorilla poetry readings in Dollar Generals, failed attempts at opening a petting zoo/brothel that specializes in pigmy goats and monkeys—a militant branch of the TypewriterGirl collective decided to be only mildly distracting to the world no longer! They took up arms against banal poetry and decided to wage war the only way they knew how: with a play and a dance party. Taking their cues from Hugo Ball and Tristan Tzara’s Cabaret Voltaire, Crystal and Margaret (monkey trainer aficionados), began orchestrating Pittsburgh’s first and only Poetry Cabaret – complete with a typewriter-written exquisite corpse, sketch comedy, whiskey trivia, magic, live music, dancing, and a few flickers of thematic unity”
Address: http://typewritergirls.net/blog
