Seth Brown plays with words at Inkberry/Papyri reading

By Mark Burridge Staff Writer

Firing freestyle poetry faster than most people can speak; Seth Brown entranced his audience Saturday night at Papyri Books. Wordplay, presented by Inkberry and Papyri Books presented humor Columnist and author Seth Brown. Brown works for The North Adams Transcript, writing a daily humor column, and he began his presentation by reading one.

The column was about how he was going to speak at Papyri Books, and he made sure to play to his audience. "People who come to hear me speak, are the greatest people in the world," Brown said while the crowd laughed.

Brown is average height, and wore a wrinkled plaid shirt on top of a plain green t-shirt. He delivered puns constantly the entire time he spoke. "What if you introduced a Priest to a tailor, who is the real man of the cloth?"

Also a multi-time author, Brown described his next book, "God to Verse," which is a translation of the Torah, entirely into couplets.

He said it took him five years to do…and that he has way too much time on his hands. "I wasn't very familiar with [the Torah] before I started the project; I am exceedingly familiar with it now."

Brown doesn't only write books and columns though. He recited a rap for the viewers using much more flowery English than the medium usually hears.

After some poetry readings, and selections from his 2005 book, Shards, Brown announced to the crowd that he also performed freestyle poetry, a fast paced, improvisational form.

He asked the audience for a few words, they replied "Obama" and "Gnome." Brown quickly broke into rhyme and, launching off those words, went on for a few minutes before mixing into his verse a request for different words.

"Snickerdoodle," and "cubism," are what they replied with. Brown found a way to mix "schism" into his poem to pair with cubism and again lasted for several minutes, by the end going at his fastest pace.

"I've been working on it for a long time, not intentionally, I guess since first grade," Brown said describing his freestyle abilities.

Humor was present in everything that Brown presented, and answering questions from the audience was no different. When asked what slam-poetry was, Brown lifted up the poems he had been reading earlier on and slammed them into the floor.

Brown is a Rhode Island native and has been releasing books since 2003. He had to look up when his first book was published, "I have to look up answers to my own life," he admitted.

Brown's work is easily found, not only does he have his daily column in the North Adams Transcript, but he also has a website, risingpun.com.

He closed by noting, "Life is funny, at least I hope so, because I'm a humor writer."

On December 13, Jennifer Trainer-Thompson will be the next to speak at Wordplay. She is the author of "The Joy of Family Traditions."