Memories of the Q

Almost 20 years ago Tom Nattell began a poetry open mic series at the QE2 (now the Fuze Box) on Central Ave. This was a time when there were not 30-plus open mics and readings in the area there is now. The QE2 mic was “the only game in town” and if you wanted to get up on stage and have people to hear your poetry, you made sure you were free on the last Monday of the month.

Many of the poets that are active in the poetry community got their start at the QE2. Mary Panza, Don Levy, Dan Wilcox, R.M. Engelhardt, Deb Bump, are just a few of the poets that Tom introduced to the mic until the series ended in the mid-90’s. Since then we have seen poetry open mics come and go, but very few have had the history, legend, and influence as the QE2.

As the 20th anniversary comes closer, we are asking you to send us your memories and stories of your time at the QE2. We will be collecting these stories and putting them together for the next issue of OTHER: and of course on albanypoets.com.

The April edition of Poets Speak Loud at the Lark Tavern will be a special evening celebrating to 20th anniversary of the legendary open mic. Come share your stories, memories and poetry on Monday night, April 30.

Seaton to Talk on Oral Performance of Poetry at Woodstock Library

William Seaton will speak on the history and characteristics of performed poetry at the Woodstock Library Forum, a series sponsored by Friends of the Library, at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 17. The library is located at 5 Library Lane in Woodstock. The event will include time for questions and light refreshments.

“Words in the Air: Notes on the Oral Performance of Poetry” traces the ancient history of the artful spoken word as well as describing varieties of poetic performance in modern times. Seaton also comments on such theoretical issues as the influence of language on thought, the difference between a spoken or sung text and a written one, the relation between poetry and prose, and the functional value of verbal art.

Poet, translator, and critic William Seaton has been involved with poetry performance since attending Paul Carroll’s Second City readings in Chicago as a teen-ager. While associated with the Cloud House poets in San Francisco during the 70s he read poetry in the streets and collaborated with Art Goodtimes on “Wordriver” at the Blue Dolphin performance space in San Francisco. He has participated in a wide variety of other artistic and performance events over the last forty years, from "happenings" in the 60s to a reading in October of 2006 in Budapest where a hurdy-gurdy player opened the show.

As a scholar he studied Homer, troubadours and Minnesingers as well as folklore (with blues collector Harry Oster) and oral literature (with artist and classicist Stavros Deligiorgis). He has written learned articles about archaic Greek poets and African-American oral narrative and recently spoke for the Hudson Valley Cultural Society on the effect of literacy on the practice of poetry. He has translated and performed many German dada lyrics and has written on the theory of the avant-garde.

2007 Word Fest Open Mic Sign Up

The online sign up for the Word Fest Open Mic is now open for all poets and spoken word artists who wish to perform at the 2007 Albany Word Fest Open Mic at the UAG Gallery on Friday, April 20.

Those interested in being part of this years event can simply enter their name and where in the lineup you would like to perform, then click "Sign-Up". Their name will then be added to the list.   Click here to sign up for the open mic online.

Also, poets can sign up for the Word Fest Open Mic at POETS SPEAK LOUD at the Lark Tavern on March 26 and at ALBANY POETS PRESENTS… at Valentines on Tuesday, April 3.

The deadline to sign up for the open mic online is Sunday, April 15. If poets are unable to sign up before then, there still may be a limited opportunity to sign up at the open mic on Friday, April 20 beginning at 7:00pm at the UAG Gallery.

For more information, up to the minute news, and a complete schedule of events, go to www.albanywordfest.com

Bob Wright Live From the Living Room

Live From The Living Room, a featured reading series with an open mic afterwards is held on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at the Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Center, 332 Hudson Avenue, Albany, NY. The next reading is March 14th with featured reader Bob Wright.

Bob Wright, who currently resides in Athens, NY, has been writing poetry for close to 20 years. He was one of the founders of the Woodstock Poetry Society and for 6 months served as the Society's coordinator. Before that he was President of the Stone Ridge Poetry Society in Stone Ridge, NY. In March of 2007 he will start up a monthly reading series at the Athens Cultural Center at 24 Second Street in Athens, NY. He is the curator of the Hudson Valley Poetry Calendar (www.poetz.com/hudson), which is a comprehensive listing of poetry events in the Hudson Valley, and a contributor for the Albany Poets Blog (www.albanypoets.com/blog) .

Sign up is at 7pm with 7:30 start time with host Don Levy and $2.00 suggested donation. For more info call (518) 462-6138. This is a straight-friendly reading.

Albany Poets Presents...Tonight at Valentines

Poetry, Music, and Spoken Word Open Mic TONIGHT, Tuesday, March 6, starting at 8:00PM

Albany Poets is back at Valentines for a night of poetry, music, and spoken word tonight, March 6. Poets, musicians, and spoken word artists are all invited to come out and share their work at this monthly event series.

Open Mic sign up begins at 7:00PM. There is a $3.00 suggested donation for this event. All money collected at the event will go toward the upcoming 2007 Albany Word Fest.

Albany Poets Presents takes place at Valentines Music Hall (17 New Scotland Ave.) on the first Tuesday of each and every month. 

New and Improved Poetry Calendar

We have made some major changes to the Poetry Calendar on albanypoets.com in order to make this website a more complete resource for upstate poetry and spoken word.

This new calendar system is part of our BBS, so now when you are planning your week of poetry, you can read, comment, and even post your poems on the BBS. There may be a couple events that we missed during the transition, but we are constantly checking (and re-checking) to make certain all of the information is up-to-date and correct.

If you have an event that you would like added to the calendar or if you see an error in a listing, please send us an email to events@albanypoets.com.