PUMA PERL IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN WISNIEWSKI
Photo by Lindi Gordon
PUMA PERL is a widely published poet and writer, as well as a performer, lyricist, and producer. She is the author of two chapbooks, Ruby True and Belinda and Her Friends, and three full-length poetry collections, knuckle tattoos, Retrograde (great weather for MEDIA), and Birthdays Before and After (Beyond Baroque.) She was the creator, curator, and producer of Puma’s Pandemonium, 2012-20, which brought together spoken word and rock and roll. Her band, Puma Perl and Friends, began in 2012 and has performed in venues throughout the metropolitan area and New York State.
Puma has featured as a solo artist throughout the United States and in Europe. She’s received two honorable mentions and one first-place award from the New York Press Association in recognition of her journalism and was the recipient of the 2016 Acker Award in the category of writing. During the pandemic, she contributed a weekly column, “Writing the Apocalypse,” to Chelsea Community News which included poetry, prose, journalism and photographic essays.
John Wisniewski: When did you begin writing, Puma? What inspires you to write?
Puma Perl: When I was child I did not feel like I was good at many things. Because of my lack of confidence, it was hard for me to approach new experiences with an expectation of achievement. Reading and writing were so natural to me that I did not feel pressured in those areas. I also did not recognize that they were valuable skills. Punchball and being mean were much more popular pastimes in my neighborhood.
I am rarely inspired to write. I force myself. And once I do that, I may or may not find inspiration along the way.
John Wisniewski: What was your early life like?
Puma Perl: In addition to punchball and people being mean? My early life was spent in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, which was a great place for a kid. A dead-end street to play on, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens across the street, Prospect Park another block down, and in the other direction there was the Brooklyn Museum and the Grand Army Plaza Library. Every photo of me from those years, I'm in a tree. Unfortunately, my parents moved from there to Gravesend, Brooklyn for several reasons, not limited to but definitely including white flight and redlining. The library was in a little storefront and there were chicken slaughterhouses instead of museums. A cultural wasteland. I was never at home, even at home.
John Wisniewski: Could you tell us about writing Retrograde? Was it difficult to look back to your past?
PP: I would say I looked back at all aspects of my past in my first full-length collection, knuckle tattoos. I've heard it said that one's first poetry collection is similar to a first novel, autobiographical in tone. Retrograde incorporates areas of my past, mostly Lower East Side based; it also touches on past relationships, all in the context of my fascination with apocalyptic literature and, in my head, a Velvet Underground soundtrack. When I look at some groups of those poems, now, I seem to have been looking forward into the eye of the pandemic hurricane.
John Wisniewski: Could you tell us about writing Ruby True, Puma? How did you create your characters, whose lives intersect?
Puma Perl: Ruby True was an easy book for me to write and I loved writing it. It is reality based, albeit with composite characters. I feel like that book really wrote itself and the characters were clear to me in their personalities and motivations throughout.
John Wisniewski: What are you working on now?
Puma Perl: What am I actually working on or what SHOULD I be working on? Haha. I am the worst person to work with if I'm not given a deadline. I will meet every deadline, but, as the great weather editors could attest to, if you tell me to take your time, I'll take a nap. My good friend, Iris Berry, who I call my West Coast sister, is the co-founder of Punk Hostage Press, and we've always wanted me to do a book for them since I am part of that family of writers. She came up with the great idea of us doing a collaboration, so that is what I should be working on. Since NYC has recently been more open to shows and performances, my band, Puma Perl and Friends, and I have been taking advantage of this window since you never know if or when it might shut. We are doing a lot of shows, including a monthly residency at Anyway Café, on East 2nd Street. I also have many solo readings I'm booked for and at some point will get back to recording.
John Wisniewski: Could you tell us about Puma Perl's Pandemonium?
Puma Perl: Speaking of windows that suddenly shut...The first Pandemonium, in 2012, was meant as a one-off to celebrate the six month anniversary of the Bowery Electric Happy Hour on the main floor. I was initially asked to do a poetry reading but since there was a room with a soundboard and a front and backline available, I decided to invite musicians as well as poets and see what came out of it. The night was a great success and it grew in popularity over the next eight years. Performers came from the Midwest, the West Coast, the UK, and Prague, among other places, and I had a crew of local musicians and invited many NYC based musicians and poets and writers to feature. Then, in March, 2020, the window shut. My final Pandemonium was January, 2020. The next one would have been in April, and included three features from California. Naturally, we thought it would happen a few weeks later but it turned out that the last Pandemonium truly was the last Pandemonium. I can't complain. It was a great eight year run.
John Wisniewski: Do you find rock lyrics to be poetic? Any favorite rock bands?
Some rock and rollers are poets at heart and some poets are rock and roll at heart and some bring it all together. Rather than bands, I would say the lyrics of Lucinda Williams, Alejandro Escovedo, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, and, naturally, Bob Dylan are among my favorites.
John Wisniewski: Any future plans and projects?
Puma Perl: In addition to the Anyway Café I mentioned above, some upcoming events I'm part of include the Tribes tribute to Steve Cannon at the Whitney Biennial (4/8-4/9), a benefit for Ukraine at the Parkside Lounge (4/14), Puma Perl and Friends at the 11th Street Bar (5/18) and a Brecht Festival at the Bowery Electric Map Room (8/14.) I also have several solo readings, including one for great weather Spoken Word Sundays (5/1) with my Bay Area friend KR Morrison. Recently, I've been keeping my blog up to date and I include listings of events and photographs there.