Texty the Clown: The Inner Workings of Language in the Poet-Modern Ear was a series co-curated by The Kitchen and two writers and poets—Emily XYZ and Edwin Torres. Devoted to language as both conveyor of ideas and free-standing aural event, XYZ and Torres explored poetry and spoken word as an improvisational and musical form without the use instruments. Texty the Clown began in the fall of 1996 and continued through the winter of 1997. In the inaugural program of the series, Torres performed with drummer Sean Meehan to explore what he described as “word-music-rhythm.” Performing with her frequent collaborator Myers Bartlett and drummer Virgil Moorefield, XYZ examined the boundary between poetry and music by letting “the words do the works of both rhythm and melody,” as she noted in the program.