Thom Francis, President
Mary Panza, Vice President
Lacy O'Brien, Treasurer
Harith Abdullah
Leonardo Faierman
Emily Gonzalez
Don Levy
Dale Walker

THOM FRANCIS
thom@albanypoets.com

Thom has been involved in the Albany poetry and spoken word community for ten years. In that time, Thom has published four volumes of his poetry and is currently working on a new book/CD project entitled there. Thom has been featured at such open mics and events as The School of Night (Valentines), Vox (Albany Center Galleries), Web of Consciousness (C@fe Web), Live from the Living Room (Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Center), Open Spoken (Colony Café, Woodstock), Kill Your TV, Feed Your Ears (Lark Street Bookshop), Third Thursday Poetry Open Mic (Lark Street Bookshop), and the Albany Word Fest 2001, 2002 (Thacher Park), and 2003 (Valentines).

In 2000 Thom was approached by Albany area poet R.M. Engelhardt to serve as Co-Director of AlbanyPoets.org. They worked together in bring more attention to the Albany poetry and spoken word scene by posting a reading calendar and featured poets on the organizations website as well as organizing the first three Albany Word Fests.

In late 2003 Thom saw that things in the organization needed to be refocused and began working on a business plan that would better serve the upstate New York poetry community. With that, Thom brought together the Board of Directors, a new mission, a new website, and a new name…Albany Poets was born.

Since then Thom and the Board have been working hard to bring attention to not only the poets and poetry of this city, but bring attention to the city as a whole. The goal is not just to promote the artists of Albany to the world, but to also promote Albany as a place to come as a spoken word artist and perform. Thom is building relationships with poetry organizations in New York City, Boston, and other cities in the Northeast in order to make the poetry community even larger and to bring fresh new poets to this area as well as have Albany poets perform to a broader audience.

Thom serves as the President of Albany Poets with a strong passion and undying vision to make Albany the cultural and literary hub of the Northeast Untied States.

MARY PANZA
panza@albanypoets.com

Mary Panza, Vice President of Albany Poets is Albany's poetry diva. She originated and hosted the poetry open mic at Border's and has been a driving force in the poetry community for a number of years. Mary has also been active in promoting, hosting, and participating in many arts events through out Upstate New York.

Mary has been the host of the Singer/Songwriter stage at the annual LARKfest street fair since 2004 and was one of the first poets to perform in the 25 year history of the arts event in 2006. Mary has published a number of poetry chapbooks and was the producer of Volume, a compilation of Albany area poets performing their work at local readings and open mics. Mary is the host of Albany Poets’ monthly poetry open mic, Poets Speak Loud, at the Lark Tavern.

Mary also serves as the Poetry Editor for the new Capital Region edition of Chronogram Magazine.

LACY O'BRIEN
lacy@albanypoets.com

Lacy has had a passion for both art and business from a young age. After going to school for art and graduating with a business degree, Lacy became the Treasurer of Albany Poets.

She is a forward thinker bringing new ideas and strategies to Albany Poets in marketing, advertising, financial planning, and growth.

HARITH ABDULLAH
harith@albanypoets.com

Harith Abdullah's position at Albany Poets represents the expansion currently taking place in the organization. Abdullah was brought on board as part of the continuing effort to integrate the different, less conventional forms of poetry – in this case, music.

Abdullah has spent over two years hosting the highly successful music open mic at Borders Books and Music in Albany. He has become familiar with a number of promising young artists who have not yet gained much notice in Albany. Using these connections, as well as the organizational skills he has honed through his open mic, Abdullah brings both well-known and lesser-known acts together on the Albany Poets stage.

"My goal really is to set up the most exciting events possible," Abdullah says of his position. "To me, this means you're going to go and see someone you already know you love, and leave loving someone new as well."

Abduallah's first event with Albany Poets was the closing night of the 2005 Albany Word Fest. The five-hour event featured musicians and poets, and was a resounding success. He is currently working on organizing the upcoming Johnny Cash tribute as part of the Albany Poets Presents series, and beginning to plan next year’s Word Fest event.

"Now that Albany Poets has introduced the idea of music as a centerpiece for some of their events, I want to go even further with it," he says. "Every show has to be better than the last one."

LEO FAIERMAN
leo@albanypoets.com

Leonardo Faierman is a GED scholar who's working on an English degree at SUNY Albany. Raised in the city since age 2, he’s lived in upstate NY five years and has been involved in poetry for four of them.

He hosted Mad Dog Midnight Open Mic, an impromptu BYOB poetry night at the now defunct Changing Spaces Art Gallery in downtown Albany, and has been featured at several readings in the surrounding area.

His self-publishing efforts have yielded three chapbooks and three "mini-chaps" and, most recently, production/composition credits for the Albany Poets CD Didn't I Hear You Read?

He is currently involved in the non-profit org Albany Poets as a Communications Director, as well as a co-editor for their free arts magazine, OTHER:.

EMILY GONZALEZ
emily@albanypoets.com

Emily Gonzalez is a graduate from Lehman College in the Bronx, NY. As a student she served as Managing editor of the Meridian, the college newspaper, Chief Editor of Signatures, Lehman's literary magazine and president of Footnotes, the college literary club.

She was host of The Poet's Say, a monthly poetry open mic in Albany that began as a small poetry discussion group at Borders Books and Music. She has been a featured poet at such venues as The School of Night, Live in the Living Room, Changing Spaces, The Lark Street Book Shop, and The Albany Institute of History & Art, as well as being featured on the Albany Poets website.

She's had three poems published in Albany's alternative weekly newspaper, Metroland, and has self-published a collection of her poems titled When Mami was Born.

Currently she serves as a Communications Director for Albany Poets and as one of two editors for OTHER:.

DON LEVY
don@albanypoets.com

Don Levy has read for a million years in Albany. He was an editor of Open Mic: The Albany Anthology back in the middle ages. His work has been published in Think 3, Salvage, and Screed. He is the proud author of 2 chapbooks: How Small Was My Big Eden and Super Queer Poet Saves The Day. He is currently the host of Live From The Living Room, a featured reading series on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center at 332 Hudson Avenue.

DALE WALKER
dale@albanypoets.com

Dale Walker, who writes and performs as Dain Brammage, has been writing seriously since the year 2000. He serves as secretary on the Albany Poets Board of Directors.

Dale has a strong tie to the poetry slam scene, once being the Slam Master for Albany Poets' Project Slam and volunteering at the 2005 Individual World Poetry Slam held in Worcester Ma. Dale tries to use his ties to the slam community to book touring poets for Albany Poets shows.

As Dain Brammage he truly enjoys bringing poetry to life as the spoken word. He performs each piece with heart and emotion, letting the soul of each individual piece shine through with his eclectic delivery.

Dale’s is also a co-founder and an administrative board member of Prysmatic Dreams, a website and internet poetry message board that provides a family like atmosphere for more 400 poets, with about one third of them being active members of the site. In addition he is a co-founder of The New Word Order, A website that provides many different avenues of poetry based entertainment including Whispered Words Poetry Mixtape shows, the Net Slam and Albany Poets' zine OTHER:.