Hedwig Gorski - Accomplishments

Accomplishments

She coined the term "Performance Poetry" in the early 1980s after initiating and writing the "Litera" column for the Austin Chronicle in an effort to distinguish her performed poetry from performance art. She was also one of the founding writers on the Austin Chronicle, which helped to promote the vibrant music capital of the world that Austin, the capital of Texas, had become. Along with the growth of the music scene, a multi-ethnic theater, literature, and art community began to coalesce during the 1970s. This is the environment from which Gorski's work grew from its mysterious underground, what she calls a "pedestrian avant-garde".

Gorski's live broadcast performances on KUT-FM were recorded and distributed to radio stations internationally. They became part of the 1980s Indie audio cassette/radio station network offering alternatives to commercial music. Her literature based broadcast audio increased the popularity of performance poetry, the genre she named to describe her own work: literature based poetry written for performance only and not for print publication.

East of Eden, formed of professional jazz musicians, was successful because the music and poetry were melded together exclusively for performance. Gorski’s spoken vocals have been described as bringing her "eerie" voicing as close to singing as possible without actually singing. The compositions written for each poem by D'Jalma Garnier ranged from jazz to country and western to rock and roll