Teens going from bad to verse
Times Colonist
Published: Thursday, May 15, 2008
TEEN ANGST POETRY NIGHT
(May 24, 10 p.m., Intrepid Theatre Club, 1609 Blanshard St.)
Eight years ago, Vancouver's Sara Bynoe unearthed her old boyfriend's teenage love poems. These maudlin masterpieces were hilarious. So she phoned a girlfriend to enjoy a mutual guffaw.
That nasty yukfest was the seed for Teen Angst Poetry Night. For this performance, 27-year-old Bynoe reads her self-penned teen poems, then invites audience members to read their own horrific teen musings (e-mail her at sarabynoe@gmail.com to sign up).
Bynoe's interest in teen writing spun off into a successful website in which people worldwide post their poems. She wrote a 2005 book, Teen Angst: A Celebration of Really Bad Poetry, and hosts a monthly open-mike night at Vancouver's Railway Club for those who relish bad teen prose.
The floodgates of Bynoe's own pubescent scribbling opened in Grade 8, when her boyfriend James (a Mormon who'd "fake-drink" beers) dumped her after a month. This prompted a steady stream that resulted in 400 poems and a journal she kept from age 15 to 20.
One of her James-inspired poems goes: "You thought wrong/You thought I would cry/You thought I would die/But it was me that said goodbye."
For adults -- aside from the humour -- the appeal of such writings is a feeling of catharsis in realizing others suffered as teens, Bynoe says. Just as we did.
Showing posts with label PRESS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PRESS. Show all posts
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
PHOTOS!
Nathaniel- "Marshmallow horses" = pure poetry.
She's over it.
German teen angst.
Rosie-Reading Teen Angst to laugh with her daughter.
Maddie- Life was tough on the streets of North Van.
She's over it.
German teen angst.
Rosie-Reading Teen Angst to laugh with her daughter.
Maddie- Life was tough on the streets of North Van.
Media Attention
http://www.the-peak.ca/article/2463
Arts
Lit : 'Teen Angst' celebrates the accidently hilarious
By Deanne Beattie
The first Teen Angst show takes place at the Railway Club this Tuesday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m. If you wish to participate, contact the event coordinators at teenangstpoet@gmail.com, or bring your work to the event for a spontaneous performance.
Okay, this is brilliant. The event is “Teen Angst: A Celebration of Inadvertently Hilarious Adolescent Writing,” a sort-of talent show for self-respecting adults that choose to share the scripts, poetry, songs, and stories that they wrote as teenagers for friends and complete strangers — for the sheer hilarity of it. I sat down with event creators Sara Bynoe and Sarah Morgan for a better idea of what Teen Angst is about, now that it’s a monthly event at the Railway Club, an online community, and a theme that has been taken up on stages and in writing collections across the country.
The Peak: Where did the idea for Teen Angst come from?
Sara Bynoe: When I was 20, I was on the phone with a friend and I came across a binder full of poetry that my high school boyfriend wrote for me. I was mean, and shared it with her, and we laughed like mean, horrible girls. I thought, “Okay, wait, the karma’s going to get me — let me grab my poetry books,” because I wrote a lot, like over 400 poems as a teenager. I shared those and we laughed at those, and realized that was much funnier, so I began doing Teen Angst night in Calgary. Those were moreso focused on poetry, because that’s what I wrote. I moved out [to Vancouver], it kept on evolving, and then Sarah and I got in touch.
Sarah Morgan: I actually heard of this night called Salon of Shame, which is a night down in Seattle, through a friend. He told me how funny it was and how I had to see it, so I did, and I asked [the promoters] if it would be okay if I started a night like this in Vancouver. They suggested I talk to Sara, who had been doing this for a while, so we got in touch. This will be the first one we’re co-producing together, in March.
P: Now tell me, why are you encouraging respectable adults to unearth their angsty writing?
SB: Because it’s funny! Because it’s fun, it’s cathartic, and it’s one of those things [where] people cringe and think, “Oh God, I would never do that!” but when you come to these events . . . you get inspired, because people are up on stage and sharing these ridiculous things they wrote, putting their heart on a platter. Yet you laugh with them and at them, and understand that the feelings are so universal. You see all the love that they are getting, and you say, “I want to do that too, because this is awesome.”
SM: Everyone was a teenager once — everyone wrote ridiculous things.
SB: And if you kept it . . . you’ve kept it for a reason, and the reason is this night.
P: Teen Angst is now on the web, in print, and on the stage. Why do you think it has become so popular across North America?
SB: Because I just won’t stop [laughs]. It’s been fun, it’s been infectious. There are other nights, like Salon of Shame, that weren’t inspired by me but through others [doing similar events]. I started the website teenangstpoetry.com and it became hugely popular. We were on Metafilter once and we got like a million hits — our server crashed. It’s sort of that people want to go through dirty little secrets . . . you’re getting that window into someone else’s life, because these feelings of “I’m alone, no one understands my pain, life sucks, I will never love again” are so universal no matter what age you are.
SM: Yeah, I think that’s why it does so well across the board: because everybody was a teenager once, everybody’s gone through some sort of situation that they can hopefully look back on and laugh at, or [they] realize that other people have shared the same feelings once.
SB: I think that when you were a teenager, you also thought that these thoughts and feelings or whatever you were writing were so important at the time, and there’s a part of you that kind of wants to validate it. I know that when I was writing my stuff, I was thinking, “I’m going to save this. This is going to be important.” And I didn’t realize that I was just going to use it to make fun of myself years later — but it did serve its purpose. It has entertained me a lot, and given me a lot of stage time.
Arts
Lit : 'Teen Angst' celebrates the accidently hilarious
By Deanne Beattie
The first Teen Angst show takes place at the Railway Club this Tuesday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m. If you wish to participate, contact the event coordinators at teenangstpoet@gmail.com, or bring your work to the event for a spontaneous performance.
Okay, this is brilliant. The event is “Teen Angst: A Celebration of Inadvertently Hilarious Adolescent Writing,” a sort-of talent show for self-respecting adults that choose to share the scripts, poetry, songs, and stories that they wrote as teenagers for friends and complete strangers — for the sheer hilarity of it. I sat down with event creators Sara Bynoe and Sarah Morgan for a better idea of what Teen Angst is about, now that it’s a monthly event at the Railway Club, an online community, and a theme that has been taken up on stages and in writing collections across the country.
The Peak: Where did the idea for Teen Angst come from?
Sara Bynoe: When I was 20, I was on the phone with a friend and I came across a binder full of poetry that my high school boyfriend wrote for me. I was mean, and shared it with her, and we laughed like mean, horrible girls. I thought, “Okay, wait, the karma’s going to get me — let me grab my poetry books,” because I wrote a lot, like over 400 poems as a teenager. I shared those and we laughed at those, and realized that was much funnier, so I began doing Teen Angst night in Calgary. Those were moreso focused on poetry, because that’s what I wrote. I moved out [to Vancouver], it kept on evolving, and then Sarah and I got in touch.
Sarah Morgan: I actually heard of this night called Salon of Shame, which is a night down in Seattle, through a friend. He told me how funny it was and how I had to see it, so I did, and I asked [the promoters] if it would be okay if I started a night like this in Vancouver. They suggested I talk to Sara, who had been doing this for a while, so we got in touch. This will be the first one we’re co-producing together, in March.
P: Now tell me, why are you encouraging respectable adults to unearth their angsty writing?
SB: Because it’s funny! Because it’s fun, it’s cathartic, and it’s one of those things [where] people cringe and think, “Oh God, I would never do that!” but when you come to these events . . . you get inspired, because people are up on stage and sharing these ridiculous things they wrote, putting their heart on a platter. Yet you laugh with them and at them, and understand that the feelings are so universal. You see all the love that they are getting, and you say, “I want to do that too, because this is awesome.”
SM: Everyone was a teenager once — everyone wrote ridiculous things.
SB: And if you kept it . . . you’ve kept it for a reason, and the reason is this night.
P: Teen Angst is now on the web, in print, and on the stage. Why do you think it has become so popular across North America?
SB: Because I just won’t stop [laughs]. It’s been fun, it’s been infectious. There are other nights, like Salon of Shame, that weren’t inspired by me but through others [doing similar events]. I started the website teenangstpoetry.com and it became hugely popular. We were on Metafilter once and we got like a million hits — our server crashed. It’s sort of that people want to go through dirty little secrets . . . you’re getting that window into someone else’s life, because these feelings of “I’m alone, no one understands my pain, life sucks, I will never love again” are so universal no matter what age you are.
SM: Yeah, I think that’s why it does so well across the board: because everybody was a teenager once, everybody’s gone through some sort of situation that they can hopefully look back on and laugh at, or [they] realize that other people have shared the same feelings once.
SB: I think that when you were a teenager, you also thought that these thoughts and feelings or whatever you were writing were so important at the time, and there’s a part of you that kind of wants to validate it. I know that when I was writing my stuff, I was thinking, “I’m going to save this. This is going to be important.” And I didn’t realize that I was just going to use it to make fun of myself years later — but it did serve its purpose. It has entertained me a lot, and given me a lot of stage time.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Dark nights of the soul take flight
Georgia Straight Arts Notes
By Pieta Woolley
Publish Date: August 4, 2005
Even with the help of an agent, Vancouver poet Sara Bynoe couldn't find a Canadian publisher for her recent book Teen Angst: A Celebration of Really Bad Poetry (St. Martin's Press, $18.95). The nation's presses might live to regret it. Featuring work by Bynoe and 31 other writers, the anthology is listed as one of the New York Library Association's "books of summer"-a sure-fire sales booster. It also made the Cleveland Plain Dealer's top 20 picks for the season, and Bynoe has become, in her words, a "media whore", appearing on the CBC and in the Globe and Mail, the Boston Herald, and other places.
In October, avid readers will vote to decide whether Teen Angst is the NYLA's young-adult book of summer. Will the sole Canadian on the list be the Big Apple's star? "It's my dream to write a musical about it," Bynoe told the Straight. "The song lyrics are going to be teen-angst poetry. It'll be like Breakfast Club meets Grease." She said the idea has already attracted the attention of a Los Angeles producer.
Teen Angst began with Bynoe's own tortured verse, written between the ages of 10 and 18. She started a Web site for teen-angst poetry back in 2000, and the book appeared this spring. Every second Monday at Montmartre Café (4362 Main Street), Bynoe hosts Teen Angst Poetry Night at 8 p.m.
"You know the deal now," she explains on her Web site. "You come to Montmartre, you drink, you read some old and embarrassing poetry, you laugh, you go home feeling better about the world."
Bynoe, 25, a graduate of Studio 58 at Langara College, is currently preparing to perform Sparkle Bunny: The Last Raver Standing at the Vancouver and Victoria Fringe festivals.
http://www.straight.com/article/dark-nights-of-the-soul-take-flight?#
By Pieta Woolley
Publish Date: August 4, 2005
Even with the help of an agent, Vancouver poet Sara Bynoe couldn't find a Canadian publisher for her recent book Teen Angst: A Celebration of Really Bad Poetry (St. Martin's Press, $18.95). The nation's presses might live to regret it. Featuring work by Bynoe and 31 other writers, the anthology is listed as one of the New York Library Association's "books of summer"-a sure-fire sales booster. It also made the Cleveland Plain Dealer's top 20 picks for the season, and Bynoe has become, in her words, a "media whore", appearing on the CBC and in the Globe and Mail, the Boston Herald, and other places.
In October, avid readers will vote to decide whether Teen Angst is the NYLA's young-adult book of summer. Will the sole Canadian on the list be the Big Apple's star? "It's my dream to write a musical about it," Bynoe told the Straight. "The song lyrics are going to be teen-angst poetry. It'll be like Breakfast Club meets Grease." She said the idea has already attracted the attention of a Los Angeles producer.
Teen Angst began with Bynoe's own tortured verse, written between the ages of 10 and 18. She started a Web site for teen-angst poetry back in 2000, and the book appeared this spring. Every second Monday at Montmartre Café (4362 Main Street), Bynoe hosts Teen Angst Poetry Night at 8 p.m.
"You know the deal now," she explains on her Web site. "You come to Montmartre, you drink, you read some old and embarrassing poetry, you laugh, you go home feeling better about the world."
Bynoe, 25, a graduate of Studio 58 at Langara College, is currently preparing to perform Sparkle Bunny: The Last Raver Standing at the Vancouver and Victoria Fringe festivals.
http://www.straight.com/article/dark-nights-of-the-soul-take-flight?#
Friday, July 20, 2007
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