Dia’s poetry program, Poetry &, continues its tradition of pairing poets with artists from other disciplines to create immersive, cross-genre performances. The upcoming event Clear Air features poet Ben Estes and composer Ben Vida in a sound-and-text collaboration at Dia Beacon on December 7th, 2024.
This performance explores spiritualism, concrete poetry, and Quakerism, blending Estes’s ethereal text with Vida’s hypnotic electronic music. Four readers will deliver Estes’s poetry, creating a space where disembodied voices drift like beams of light or shadows on furniture, adding a surreal narrative element. Vida’s soundscapes enhance this atmosphere, turning the text into a fluid, ambient experience. Estes, known for his poetry collections and editorial work, collaborates here with Vida, whose practice spans voice, electro-acoustic improvisation, and ensemble compositions.
The performance promises an abstract yet evocative experience, blending language and sound in a captivating narrative.
