By: Nick R. Scalia , Staff Writer

"Progressive" has typically been a word that signified forward-looking ideas, though now it's often better known as the name of a large insurance company and a term used to describe overproduced rock bands who haven't quite mastered the art of ending a song.

Musician/poet Ronnie Neuhauser uses that word a lot, but don't worry; he's not out to promise you a lower rate on anything, and though his own recorded output is rife with improvisation and experimentation, his song lengths remain humble and manageable. In fact, it seems like he says "progressive" so much in an attempt to reclaim its original meaning - for thought and art that transcend boundaries and pay little attention to the status quo.
That's where Poets Speak/Music Heard comes in, a monthly evening of spoken word and musical artists both scheduled and open-mic. Created by Neuhauser and fellow local musician Joe Sags, the event - held within the comfortable, creativity-stimulating confines of used-book shop/intimate performance space Never Ending Books, 810 State St., 203-865-6507 - seeks to bring together like-minded performers and fans, and provide a welcoming environment for aural artists whose sounds and words either push the envelope or ignore it completely.

"The idea really is to bring in progressive ideas — spoken word, poets, music, all those things, and overall we're really just looking for a really progressive event," Neuhauser says. "We want the kind of bands that are being ignored by the bars around here, the ones that don't fit what's going on — we're trying to create that scene."

"It's just something we really believe in strongly," adds Sags. "We decided to join forces to make it happen and look out for those artistic ideas."

Coming up on its sixth edition on Aug. 6, Poets Speak / Music Heard has already hosted a wide variety of innovative musical acts, Neuhauser says - from his own band, the improv-heavy jazz/rock/fusion trio Styrocultural Antidote, to fingerstyle acoustic guitarist Glenn Roth, to singer/songwriter duo Christina Abbot and Jenn D., and Sags' three-piece eclectic funk-rock combo, Social Relapse.

But both Sags and Neuhauser are especially eager to showcase diverse forms of poetry, and they're hoping to bring in more and more spoken word performers each month. So far, they've featured artists like the hip-hop-influenced Baub Bidon, and Shadow, whose work Neuhauser describes as "pretty intellectual, but with a street side to it."

Some of the spoken word performers are booked in advance - Neuhauser says he frequently attends open-mic nights at local spots like The Space and Café Nine to recruit talent - but spontaneous performance is what Poets Speak / Music Heard is all about. "We always have an open mic that starts the evening off," Neuhauser says, "So anyone can come up and play acoustic guitar, or read poetry" - in fact, those opting to participate get half-off the already modest $4 cover.

After the open-mic segment, there's usually a solo acoustic performer or duo, followed by a full band - Saturday's show is headlined by avant-rocker Ludent Tremmel (who shared a bill with Neuhauser at this year's Ideat Village Festival) and his band, GNO, as well as Zeno Eros. The only theme, Neuhauser says, is that in the eclectic spirit of the event, there's no theme at all - "I'd say we really want to stay away from trying to find a certain sound or anything — we want it to be totally different, for people to experience really different things in the same evening." Thus far, he says, "The bands we've had have usually been a fusion or jazz-type thing, but usually they've had a rock edge too, I've noticed."

It's definitely a chance to see acts that might have trouble getting booked elsewhere, he says. "We're booking for pure artistic reasons and not for money or for crowd at all," which means artists don't have to be able to move mass quantities of tickets - Neuhauser and Sags are just "looking for people that are doing something outside the norm."

The pair's approach has paid off in the nearly seven months they've been coordinating Poets Speak / Music Heard nights, and in advertising on their websites (Neuhauser's at www.nocheez.com, Sags at www.munkeepaw.com) and spreading the word around New Haven area arts and music community they've been able to continually build a following. "Every event has grown so far," Sags says, "We do see the regular faces there, but we've also started to see a lot of new faces every time."

So, we guess you could say things are progressing nicely.