St. Louis Poetry Center: Invitation to the Voyage

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I've met very few poets that don't revere the French Symbolists, especially that wildman Arthur Rimbaud, who wrote more good poetry before the age of 20 than most poets produce in a lifetime. Of course, he gave up poetry for piracy; The St. Louis Poetry Center has never given up on poetry -- it's the oldest organization of its kind west of the Mississippi. On Wednesday, they're hosting an amazing reading, "Invitation to the Voyage," featuring the work of Rimbaud, Aimé Césaire, Charles Baudelaire and Stéphane Mallarmé, read by Mary Jo Bang,  William H. Gass,  and David Robertson respectively. The title of the reading is taken from a poem from Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil (which, like many great works of art, offended nearly everyone when it was first published in 1857, and so was fined and censored). To see writers of Gass' and Bang's stature reading some of the best poetry every written is impressive, but there's something extra charming about the thought of David Robertson reading poetry (there is, of course, a musical connection with his selection; Mallarmé's "Afternoon of a Faun," which inspired Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun"). The reading will be held at White Flag Projects, 4658 Manchester, starting at 5:30 p.m. on March 25. Tickets are $50 and include a champagne reception; $25 of the ticket price is tax-deductible. For more info or to buy a ticket, call 314-973-0616 or visit SLPC's website. --Stefene Russell