Reviews

KC Wilder - interpreting his "Wilder Blue Yonder"

by Richard Davison

Wilder has called himself a poet trapped in a person's body.

He is also the founder of fauxbrow, a new method of art and writing that conflates the expansive counter cultural orientation of newbrow/lowbrow with the ribald, boldly colorful experimentation of early twentieth century fauvism ... topped off by an edgy, peculiarly American, dreamlike wonder.

In the underdog-centric Wilder world, non-attachment is embraced as a virtue. There wit, pointed humor, and detached, mystical worldview are a springboard for soul release. Wilder's compositions give rich drama to ordinary experience, deepening our sense of what it means to be alive today.

In Wilder's fleeting, fragile, fauxbrow settings, traditional views & values take a back seat. Wilder's world changes so fast, the poet himself must race to keep up with it:

roaring down the giant
allen ginsberg memorial speedway,
another cloying clueless crowd of
slippery bop appropriators …
from "#17: sports poem"

Wilder's work is often unnerved and unnerving, centered on a loss of centrality itself, as evidenced in this passage from
"#45: dog-faced artboy":

traipsing down a rutted road,
flustered by complexities
ranging far beyond his ability to solve …

dog faced artboy
contemplates the dog-eared
corners of his rage.


Wilder has two brand new CDs available which showcase his unique poetry set to music. A guitarist, trained operatic singer and composer as well as poet, Wilder collaborates on many of these tracks with the Acme Rocket Quartet. Free clips are available at www.bewilderama.com and www.spokengreen.com.

Wilder's talents and forays in (and out of) the arts cover a wide area - writer, artist, musician, web coder, video producer (Wilder's video gallery is at frankmedia.com/video), first amendment activist, photographer (his photo gallery is at frankmedia.com/wilderphoto), as well as eco-journalist and former U.S. AAU-national champion athlete. He has performed to packed houses with a 40-piece classical orchestra as a baritone soloist, and has toured throughout America as a singer / songwriter.

Wilder's First Amendment battles with the city of New York became a cause celebre in the 90s. With the help of Allen Ginsberg, and an international uproar, Wilder was successful in overturning a $40,000 fine levied against him by New York City for creating flyers that announced a poetry reading. Recently poster artist Shepard Fairey (of Obama poster fame) was collared by the city of Boston on similar charges - he faced 89 years of prison because multiple posters of his were found affixed to city property. Wilder helped Shepard and his legal team to overcome these charges.

Wilder studied the craft of writing poetry from Pulitzer-prize winning poet Louis Simpson and as a teenager, studied singing and songwriting from a compatriot of Sir Laurence Olivier, the Homeric bard Richard Dyer-Bennet.

After checking out the music on "Wilder Blue Yonder", we hope to hear more from this thoroughly unique and ground breaking American artist.