Ellyn Maybe

Ellyn Maybe is a poetry and spoken-word group from Argentina. The project works across spoken word, poetry, humor and music, and its recorded work includes Rodeo for the Sheepish, a poetry/music release that brings spoken performance together with musical accompaniment and sung chorus. The format is shaped by the contrast between recited and sung delivery, with the spoken voice treated as part of the musical arrangement rather than as narration over backing.

Background and performance style

The act is associated with poetry set to music and with a performance approach that combines humour, anguish and a highly personal speaking style. In the account of Rodeo for the Sheepish, the material includes long-form spoken pieces such as “City Streets”, and the project is described as using music as an integrated element rather than simple accompaniment. The record also draws on an artistic approach that includes adoption of Nirvana’s “Oh well whatever never mind” as a tool within the work.

Members and collaborators

The release features contributions from several musicians, including Tommy C. Jordan of Geggy Tah, Danny Moynahan of The Untouchables, and producer and composer Harlan Steinberger of Hen House Studios. Robbie Fitzsimmons of Rabbits Running also joins the ensemble. The work is presented as a collaboration between Ellyn Maybe and the musicians, rather than as a solo spoken-word recording.

Career and recognition

Ellyn Maybe is the author of eight books of poetry and is also known for performances. She grows up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and later lives in New York City, Prague and Los Angeles. She is closely associated with Venice, California, and performs regularly at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, where she also invites poets to perform with the backing musicians.

Her appearances include South by Southwest, Lollapalooza, the Poetry Project, Bumbershoot, the Los Angeles Times Book Fair, the Taos Poetry Circus, and the Albuquerque and Seattle Poetry Festivals. In Europe, she appears at the Bristol Poetry Festival, on the BBC, and at poetry slams and readings in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Prague. She also opens the MTV Spoken Wurd Tour in Los Angeles and reads at USC, UCLA, The New School and other colleges.

Publications and anthologies

Writer’s Digest names Ellyn Maybe one of “Ten Poets to Watch in the New Millennium”. Her work appears in anthologies including Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, American Poetry: The Next Generation, Another City: Writing From Los Angeles Poetry Slam and Poetry Nation.

Other activity

She performs on the 1998 and 1999 Venice Beach Slam teams and earns a Screen Actors Guild card from a featured cameo in Michael Radford’s film Dancing at the Blue Iguana.