Today we’d like to introduce you to Rich Ferguson.
Hi Rich, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Before moving to California, I lived in New Jersey. At the time, I was studying drums in NYC and happened to experience an unscheduled yet fortuitous lesson with the master drummer Michael Carvin. After watching me play, he said, “Don’t go to L.A. Go to San Francisco and make a name for yourself, then come back to New York.” After graduating from Rutgers, I took Michael’s advice, packed my drums and a bag of clothes, and headed west. Despite Michael’s advice, I landed in L.A., tempted by the prospects of seeing Venice Beach and Hollywood Boulevard in person. But after only two days in the city, a UPS truck crashed into my car on the 10 freeway. It totaled my car. And my drums. Was Michael right? Did I need to be in San Francisco? I thought so, and after settling the insurance claim, I hightailed it north.
It was the mid-to-late 80s, and I began playing in a band and performing poetry. Even though I was new to poetry and spoken word, I kept putting myself out there, growing up on stage, learning from my mistakes and the wisdom of others, to keep learning and pushing forward. As much as I loved San Francisco, something compelled me to return to L.A. and give it another chance. So, after my S.F. band broke up, this is where I returned to, L.A…the scene of the crime.
Flash to 2020: during the pandemic, two notable things happened. First, Moon Tide Press released my second poetry collection, Everything Is Radiant Between the Hates, and the National Beat Poetry Foundation honored me as the Beat Poet Laureate of California. The lockdown limited my book tour and ability to connect with other artists, so I created video poems, collaborating with Butch Norton, the drummer for Lucinda Williams. I started using the production name ‘beat not beat’ at the end of my videos. This got noticed by an artist who suggested I go further with that idea. As I’d been a poetry editor for years with the online literary magazine The Nervous Breakdown (TNB), I decided to create a Beat Not Beat poetry anthology. For the past year and a half, I’ve been working with Moon Tide Press and three amazing co-editors to put together a collection of poems of living and deceased California poets. It’s got Beat poets, but it’s not a history book. It’s an anthology that celebrates those who’ve been directly or indirectly inspired by Beat forms or topics such as politics, sex, and issues of injustice. The anthology has a website to spotlight the tour and a blog for other artists who identify with and respond to beat not beat. (beatnotbeat.com)
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The anthology has been challenging in many ways, not least the number of pages limiting the number of poets we would have liked to have included. Living in L.A. has its challenges, but like the anthology has served as a great teacher. There are so many talented people here. It’s where I’ve developed a community of friends and mentors, where I continue to work on my craft and perform on stage. And because of my community, I worked with fellow editors S.A. Griffin, Alexis Rhone Fancher, and former S.F. Poet Laureate Kim Shuck to create Beat Not Beat. They helped me amass a collection of poems far surpassing my expectations of what this anthology could be. I’m also very grateful to Eric Morago at Moon Tide Press and Kathleen Florence for their continued support throughout the process. The experience highlights that people can exceed their wildest dreams and expectations with the right collaborators.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
This past decade has been an honor for me. In 2022 I received an artist-in-residence grant from the Valparaiso Foundation in Spain. I was chosen to be California’s Beat Poet Laureate by the National Beat Poetry Foundation. I’ve shared the stage with Wanda Coleman, Moby, and other esteemed poets and musicians. I was also a performer in the film, What About Me? featuring Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, k.d. lang, and others. My poetry and award-winning spoken-word music videos have appeared in numerous anthologies and festivals, and I was also a winner in Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match, L.A. In addition to Everything Is Radiant Between the Hates, I’m also the author of the poetry collection 8th& Agony (Punk Hostage Press) and the novel New Jersey Me (Rare Bird Books).
What changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Regarding what’s next for Beat Not Beat, I’d like to grow the concept into future opportunities that include national and international poets. This would not be a strict history but a wave and way to spotlight poets uniquely expressing various concepts and ideologies inspired by the Beats, revealing and reconstructing them in contemporary ways. Like the original Beats, we continually build communities and connections with artists worldwide—poets, writers, visual artists, photographers, videographers, and musicians. We cross-pollinate with one another’s ideas. We create the future.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rich-ferguson.com
- Instagram: @fergiebeat
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rich.ferguson1
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/fuzzydoodah
- Other: www.beatnotbeat.com
Image Credits
All photos were by Alexis Rhone Fancher, except for the black and white performance photo (Bernie Larsen), and Cat Gwynn took the extreme close-up.
