Rives (born 1968) is an American poet, storyteller, and author. He appeared on seasons 3-6 of HBO's
Def Poetry Jam
''Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry'', better known as simply ''Def Poetry Jam'' or ''Def Poetry'', was a spoken word poetry television series hosted by Mos Def and airing on HBO between 2002 and 2007. The series features performances by estab ...
and was a member of Team Hollywood, which won the 2004
National Poetry Slam
The National Poetry Slam (NPS) was a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurred in early August every y ...
. His best-known poems include "Kite," about waking up alone in a new lover's apartment, and "Mockingbird," which he performs differently every time, incorporating the words of other poets and speakers in the program.
In 2008, Rives hosted the television special ''Ironic Iconic America'' with
Tommy Hilfiger
Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( ; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger (company), Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.
After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's P ...
and
Bar Refaeli, examining how pop culture has influenced American tastes and styles. In October of that year, he began appearing as the "first 2.0 poet" in a series of ads for telecom company
Orange S.A.
Orange S.A. (; formerly , stylised as france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications corporation founded in 1988 and headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris.
''Orange'' has been the corporation's main brand for mobile, ...
Rives has made multiple appearances at the
TED Conference[TED]
Speakers - Rives
/ref> and is the regular co-host of TEDYouth. His multimedia performances touch on themes of connectedness, wordplay, and romance. In 2013, Rives began curating the Museum of Four in the Morning, an online crowd-sourced
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...
collection of references to the time, 04:00 am, in art and popular culture.
Rives has written and paper engineered several pop-up books for children and adults. Early in his career, Rives worked at Intervisual Books, under the leadership of Waldo Hunt. Two pop-up books, with paper engineering by Rives, were finalists for the Movable Book Society Meggendorfer Prize for Best Paper Engineering: ''The Consummate Cigar Book'' in 2000 and ''If I Were a Polar Bear'' in 2002.
The Museum of Four in the Morning
Rives create
The Museum of Four in the Morning
a collection of 4:00 a.m. references in art, culture, and elsewhere. The collection started after he gave a talk at TED2007. The talk, The 4 a.m. mystery, was a mock "conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
* ...
" about 4:00 a.m. and a series of coincidences he had encountered. Rives theorized that Swiss
Swiss most commonly refers to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Swiss may also refer to: Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
sculptor and painter, Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, Drafter, draftsman and Printmaking, printmaker, who was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced ...
(his sculpture, The Palace at 4 a.m.) was the beginning of what he called “The Giacometti Code”. Rives made connections to many 04:00 am references and events including Isabel Allende
Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born 2 August 1942) is a Chilean-American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the magical realism genre, is known for novels such as '' The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...
(her novel, The House of the Spirits), Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
(his autobiography, My Life), Wislawa Szymborska (her poem, Four in the Morning), and Dame Judi Dench (her film, Four in the Morning). After the talk, Rives received 04:00 am references from people who had seen the talk live. Soon however, he would receive many more messages after his talk was published on the TED website, which had launched in April that year. While he never intended for the project to go beyond the 2007 talk, he realized at a certain point that he had this hobby thanks to all the submissions he had received.
Rives was curious about a possible confirmation bias for the time, questioning whether one couldn’t effectively do the same for any hour of the day. He found that four in the morning was the one that came up in dire or interesting contexts and was often used as a scapegoat hour. Thanks to all the messages and tips he received, Rives published the collection online in October, 2013. On the site, a refresh button brings up randomized video clips, with links to Tumblr, Instagram, and Twitter pages that are regularly updated with other 4:00 a.m. references.
TED talks
* "If I controlled the Internet"
* "A mockingbird remix of TED2006"
* "The 4 a.m. mystery"
* "A story of mixed emoticons"
* "Reinventing the encyclopedia game"
* "The Museum of Four in the Morning"
References
External links
Official Website
*Ironic Iconic America
*
Part 1 - Show Open and “Beauty in America”
- vimeo
Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...
*
Part 2 - “Food in America”
- vimeo
Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...
*
Part 3 - “Love and Sex in America”
- vimeo
Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...
*
Part 4 - “Design in America”
- vimeo
Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...
*
Part 5 - The End
- vimeo
Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rives (poet)
Living people
American male poets
American spoken word poets
Place of birth missing (living people)
1968 births
21st-century American poets
Pop-up book artists
21st-century American male writers