The Underground Loft: From Server to City
By Emily Marie Mayo, Deputy Features Editor
The Underground Loft, a biweekly poetry open mic, turned two on Shrove Tuesday, and a party was held to celebrate. As a Loft regular, I arrived early to help set up streamers, balloons, posters, and artwork from past events to give the occasion its due pizzazz. Behind the bar, Ciarán and other helpful patrons were sizzling pancakes on hotplates. Luckily, I was doubling as a taste tester. No complaints here.
This kind of serendipity is ordinary at The Underground Loft, where poetry lovers of all kinds congregate to share their work. Founded in March 2023 by Tipperary poet and filmmaker Ciarán Shanahan, the Loft has grown into a staple event for Cork City’s creatives. While the Loft is held on the top floor of The Liberty Bar, its origins are rooted in an unlikely place: Minecraft, the blocky video game sensation. As a child, Ciaran built hidden spaces beneath other players' houses, leaving signs that read ‘The Underground Loft’ because he was ‘too lazy’ to build his own home. With its oxymoronic name, The Underground Loft has transfigured from the pixelated to the actual, and the city’s local poets are grateful for it.
The anniversary night was full of the Loft's signature chaos and charm. The Liberty was packed to the brim, but the crowd went silent as they watched one of the first performers eat an entire block of smoked tofu. In between massive bites, the artist called out ‘It’s so dense.’ As the packaged coagulated soy milk’s juices began to spill into his hands and onto the plastic bag he set on the floor, he asked, ‘Should I drink the juice?’ It was an interesting social experiment, as some people encouraged him, while others (including myself) tried to spare his stomach. Visual artist Chris DeRubeis is often quoted for saying, ‘Art should be something you can actually feel.’ I sense this performance art piece kept our tofu eating performer feeling things long after the event. The night continued with poems about Beamish, feral girl behavior, and the beauty of spring, all of which were followed by raucous applause.
Shanahan closed the session with a performance of his infamous poem, “Butcher,” which begins with the lines ‘My God is my Butcher, and I am his lamb.’ With a burlap sack draped over his head, he delivered the poem's repeated crescendo : ‘...and I want to scream!’ Walking through the room, Shanahan gestured to the audience as he yelled, prompting them to do the same, and scream they did.
In a later conversation with Ciáran Shanahan, he assured me that Loft goers can expect more of the same as the Loft enters its toddler years. This hopefully means more open mics and involvement in local events. Past collaborations include Litreacha x Pebbledash, Listen to Litreacha in partnership with éist radio, Solace Festival, O'Bhéal's Winter Warmer Poetry Festival and upcoming collaborations include St. Peter's Art Night on April 11th (get your tickets here).
When asked what’s on his mind, Ciarán is candid.
CS: The future… and I guess the present as well. It's the usual stuff, you know. Do you have money for rent? But I‘ll buy a pint. But I’ll buy that food or that thing that I don’t need. I’m always thinking about film.
EM: More so than poetry?
CS: Poetry just happens. It comes and goes. I can try and write it or I might just have ideas pop in, but it's not as planned [as film].
EM: What is the film that you’re thinking about now?
CS: It’s like stations of the cross, but instead of stations it's more stations of the Cork pubs.
Ciarán cites Nick Cave as a major artistic influence. He leans on his friends to combat self-doubt, which he says is intrinsic to the creative process.
Nick Cave, via Spotify
EM: Do you have any obsessions?
CS: I have addictions. I have very brief obsessions.
EM: Do you have any right now?
CS: No. I don’t like that. I want something to focus my energy into that I’m crazy about.
EM: Have you heard or seen anything recently that’s moved you?
CS: Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, Before Sunset, specifically. I guess there’s a reminiscing about a relationship. I find it more intimate [than Before Sunrise] because they know each other. They know each other but they don’t know each other. I don’t think you need to know everything about a person. You just need to have a feeling about character, I assume. There is a special feeling with a person that's… Comfortability. Not even in a romantic relationship, but any relationship. Musically, he's been looping Papa M's “Sorrow Reigns” and Dave Bixby's “Drug Song”, saying ‘I think he lost his mind on LSD, but it's a great track’.
EM: Your poems have an experimental quality. Does this aspect inspire catharsis? What does it feel like?
CS: I feel like I’m free. Physically free to move and mentally free in performing. I feel like I’m alive. I feel like I have this bundle of energy and I’m about to explode.
EM: How do you define poetry?
CS: It's a way in which I’m trying to understand life. It’s a short, raw form of expression.
EM: What is your process?
CS: I don’t tend to go over and over poems and edit and edit and edit because I feel like I lose something in that. I write a line here, a line there, and then sometimes I put them together. Other times I’ll just let them spill out. It’s like a projectile vomit of words, but in a poetic sense. You’re in an altered state. It’s very intense. I’m always chasing it [the altered state of mind that can come with writing poetry].
EM: You are a multimedia artist. Has something that started out as a poem ended up as something else or vice versa? Is this why you encourage Loft members to do the same, as paper and crayons are provided at every event?
CS: I don’t even call myself a poet. I feel weird about that.
EM: What do you call yourself?
CS: No, I realised I am! Somebody who writes poems is definitely a poet.
As we wrapped up, I challenged Ciarán to an impromptu poetry session. Want to hear what we came up with? Come down to The Underground Loft at 8pm on Tuesday, April 1st, to find out!