The Knopf people (and now we as well) just realized that the NYC celebration for Philip Levine's 80th birthday is not Thursday, November 28th, but Thursday, November 29th. See the information presented here in a November 16th listing for all the details (correct except for the day of the month).
You may have noticed that there have been few updates to AlbanyPoets.com over the past few weeks. Don't worry, we are not giving up on the local poetry and spoken word here in Albany, we are just taking a little break for the holiday season to recharge our batteries. Be sure to check back often for updates on events and OTHER: in the coming days and weeks. We will be updating the blog and events calendars throughout this break, but not on the daily schedule that we have in the past. In the new year we will be looking for volunteers to help us spread the word about poetry in upstate New York. If you are interested, send us an email at info@albanypoets.com and we contact you with more information.
Marc Straus read at Monkey Joe's in the Kingston area not long after he started writing and publishing poetry, and it struck us then that he would have much to offer his readers, given both his writing skills and his particularly sensitive medical perspective. He has continued to pursue poetry, and his play in verse, being performed in Garrison on December 1st, may very well warrant your attention. Part of a press release describing that event appears below.
Garrison, NY, October 7, 2007: Philipstown Depot Theatre announces the staged reading of NOT GOD - A Play in Verse by award winning poet and distinguished oncologist Marc Straus, December 1st at 8:00 pm, featuring actors Jennifer Dorr White and Peter Van Wagner. The recipient of outstanding reviews, NOT GOD, a play in two acts, has been lauded as a clever and poignant collection of poetic monologues alternating between the voice of a cancer patient and a doctor. NOT GOD premiered as a stage production at the York Theatre Company in New York City on April 21, 2004. Most recently, in November 2007, it was presented as a staged reading at Yale. Northwestern University Press published the book, NOT GOD, in 2006. Nancy Robillard is Director of productions at Yale and at the Depot Theatre. Straus' NOT GOD is filled with eloquence and power, making it a compelling read, and breathtaking to watch. The Depot Theatre is located at Garrison Landing, Lower Station Road, Garrison, New York. For information and directions, call 845-424-3900 or log onto www.philipstowndepottheatre.org/ or e-mail membership@philipstowndepottheatre.org . Ticket prices are: $15.00 adults; $12.00 Students.
Marc Straus, author of three books of poetry, is a distinguished medical oncologist whose literary work has been performed in venues throughout the country. The poems in his latest book Not God, A Play in Verse, document one woman's encounter with cancer, a journey through illness whose end, while inevitable, is also unknown. Alternating with the words of her doctor, these poems form a remarkable dialogue of the flesh becoming word, and of the body inventorying--and finally transcending--its limitations.
Marc Straus' professional career includes head of oncology at Boston University Medical Center, head of neoplastic diseases at New York Medical College, and research and clinical fellowships at the National Cancer Institute. He has published nearly 100 scientific papers and three textbooks on lung cancer. In 1991, Straus began writing poetry. Two years later, he was awarded a Yaddo Fellowship. In the years since, his poems have been published in over 100 literary journals, including The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Tikkun, TriQuarterly, and The Journal of the American Medical Association. He has written two previous volumes of poetry, One Word (1994) and Symmetry (2000), both published by Northwestern University Press. In addition, Marc Straus has written about art for various magazines, including Art International and Provincetown Art, which includes a major review of the 2006 Whitney Biennial. He has written for galleries and museum exhibits. Marc has curated numerous exhibits for galleries and museums, including "The Lineage of Eva Hesse" at The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art. Marc is co-Founder of the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, NY.
This just in from the publisher Knopf: Dear Poetry Lovers, If you're in New York City on Thursday, November 28th, 2007, don't miss a special 80th birthday tribute and reading featuring Philip Levine with Kate Daniels, E.L. Doctorow, Edward Hirsch, Galway Kinnell, Yusuf Komunyakaa, Malena Mörling, Sharon Olds, Tom Sleigh, Gerald Stern, Jean Valentine and Charles Wright. Philip Levine was born in Detroit and is the author of 16 collections of poetry, most recently Breath. His other books include The Simple Truth, which won the Pulitzer Prize; What Work Is, which won the National Book Award; The Names of the Lost; Ashes: Poems New and Old and 7 Years From Somewhere, both of which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the distinguished Poet-in-Residence in the Creative Writing Program at NYU. Co-sponsored with the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center, the Academy of American Poets, Cave Canem Foundation, Cooper Union, Knopf, Poets House, Society of America and Poets & Writers. Hope to see you there! Philip Levine 80th Birthday Tribute, Thursday, November 29th, 7:00pm, Great Hall, Cooper Union, East 7th Street. Free and Open to the Public. http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/poetry/levine_tribute/
 John Raymond is the featured poet this month at the Live From The Living Room reading and open mic at the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Center. Host Don Levy sent the following announcement along:
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 November 14th with John Raymond. John Raymond is a local rapscallion who is coming out of seclusion to take part in Albany's open mic poetry scene. He enjoys music, backpacking, and smoked meats. 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. Labels: Live From The Living Room, open mic, poetry
 There were two open mic commentaries and one post about the difference between print poetry and performance poetry this week over at Dan Wilcox's blog. There are some very good points about print vs. performance in the comments section from Therese Broderick and Mary Kathryn Jablonski so be sure to check those out, too.
Poets Speak Loud, October 29 So I, Dan Wilcox, ended up being #1 on The List again & read a couple new poems inspired by conversations with other poets, "Consumerism," & "Poetry Prompts." I was followed by Scott Casale, who hasn't been around for a while. Both his poems seemed based on random phrases & images, "Stop Writing a Piccolo's Refund," & "Amarillo Bleu," where the second stanza is a re-arrangement of the first stanza. Buried in the tsunami of comments on my Blog of October 26 were some musings by Therese Broderick about performing poetry at an open mic. Therese is a thoughtful poet who likes to ponder the many & various issues of modern poetry both in & out of our community. Her comments reflect some of the issues that I have confronted over the years in practice & thought (this is not meant as a point-by-point response to Therese's comments, I'm just bouncing off them randomly). Albany Poets Presents, November 6 As advertised, this was the challenge laid down by Mary Panza to perform the best dramatic reading of the worst song lyrics and you win a featured reading at the Poets Speak Loud open mic at the Lark Tavern in the future, even if you have already featured. So the hardcore showed up, with the best of tunes & worst of tunes. Go to Dan's blog to read his complete commentaries and speak or mind in the comments section of the posts. Labels: Dan Wilcox, open mic, poetry
After taking a day off due to some technical difficulties, we are back with the Poetry Video of the Day. Today we have a piece called "Rusty" from the Phoenix, Arizona spoken word artist Apollo. Labels: video of the day
We have been getting a lot of questions recently on when OTHER:NINE is going to be released. We announced in the last issue that we were going to start publishing on a monthly schedule and we still plan on doing just that. We are in the process right now of putting the finishing touches on a couple items for the ninth edition of OTHER: in order to make it the best journal of poetry and literature in the Capital Region. OTHER:NINE will be hitting the streets by the within the next two weeks and then on a monthly schedule there after. If you would like to be part of OTHER: by contributing your art and writing, send us an email to info@albanypoets.com and let us know about yourself. We are always looking for interesting and compelling content. Labels: OTHER
Remember Theo from the Cosby Show? Well, Malcolm-Jamal Warner has done a lot since we last saw him in the Huxtable house on television including directing, making music, and of course acting. In 2002 he also was a spoken word artist on HBO's Def Poetry. Here is Malcolm letting us know why he "loves his woman". Labels: video of the day
 The Poetry Foundation website has added a few new tools for readers to find and read poetry. You can browse by category or by poet name. Some of the featured categories are love, autumn, school, weddings and funerals.
They have also added the "Poetry Tool" to assist visitors in narrowing down searches for their favorite poets and poems. As always, the Poetry Foundation website is one of the greatest resources on the Internet for poetry and spoken word. Labels: poetry, Poetry Foundation, resources
Today we have poet Jason Anthony Julian performing at the Knicks Poetry Slam. The New York Knicks Poetry Slam program, in its fourth year, "utilizes the popularity of hip-hop and poetry to give young people a vehicle to express their thoughts, concerns, passions and dreams through the written and spoken word." For more information on this great program for young poets, visit their website at http://msg.com/poetryslam.jsp or at NYKnicks.com Labels: video of the day
 It is going to be a busy Thursday night for poetry in upstate New York. There is the Word Thursdays reading in Treadwell, the Bohemian Book Bin open mic in Kingston (featuring Marylin Barr and Dennis Bressack), the Rockhill Bakehouse open mic in Glens Falls, the Van Dyck open mic in Schenectady, and the second Frequency North reading of the season at St. Rose in Albany. Here is the annoucement from host Daniel Nester:
Come one, come all! Thursday, November 8, 7:30pm: Wayne Koestenbaum and Nalini Jones Neil Hellman Library, First Floor,
392 Western Ave., Albany
free and open to the public.
For more information, visit the series' website at http://www.FrequencyNorth.com. Nalini Jones is the author of What You Call Winter: Stories (Knopf, 2007), which Publisher's Weekly calls an "auspicious debut." Her work has appeared in Ontario Review and Creative Nonfiction, among other publications. Jones is a Stanford Calderwood Fellow of the MacDowell Colony and worked for several years in music production, most notably for festivals in New York, Newport and New Orleans. Wayne Koestenbaum's most recent books include Hotel Theory (Soft Skull Press, 2007), in which a meditative essay on hotel life runs alongside a dime-store novel account of Liberace and Lana Turner. Other essay collections include Jackie Under My Skin (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1995), Cleavage: Essays on Sex, Stars, and Aesthetics (Ballantine Books, 2000) and Andy Warhol (Lipper/Viking, 2001). He has written several books of poetry, most recently Best Selling Jewish Porn Films (Turtle Point, 2006), as well as the novel Moira Orfei in Aigues-Mortes (Soft Skull, 2004). He writes frequently for such periodicals as The New York Times Magazine and the London Review of Books. Koestenbaum also is an art critic, participating in panels at the Whitney Museum of American Art and contributing regularly to Artforum. Labels: Frequency North, poetry events
 Bright Hill has sent us this announcement for their last Word Thursdays reading for the year with featured poets Robert Milby (the busiest poetry host in upstate New York) and Christopher Zegers (from New York, NY).
On Thursday, November 8, Word Thursdays, for its last regular reading of 2007, will present Florida, NY poet Robert Milby and NYC poet Christopher Zegers. They will read from their poetry in Bright Hill's Word & Image Gallery, now showing "What I Saw: Photographs and Commentary by Ernest M. Fishman." The evening begins with an open reading at 7 p.m., during which all those present are invited to read their own work or that of another writer for up to five minutes, followed by the features. Bright Hill Center is located at 94 Church Street, one block north of Barlow's General Store. Admission is $3 for Adults and free to those 18 and under. Refreshments are served at the intermission. Robert Milby has been reading his poetry throughout the Hudson Valley, and beyond, since early 1995. He is the author of four poetry chapbooks, and his individual poems have been published in Home Planet News, Hunger Magazine, Will Work for Peace, Hart, Fertile Ground, Chronogram, and the Hudson Valley Literary Magazine. Currently, he hosts poetry series at Joey’s Café in Washingtonville, Mudd Puddle Café in New Paltz, and Noble Coffee Roasters in Campbell Hall. He was the invited poet at SUNY Oneonta, in March 2003. Robert is a listed poet with Poets and Writers, Inc. His spoken word cd is entitled: Revenant Echo(Sonotrope Recordings, 2004). Milby's first full-length book of poetry, Ophelia's Offspring was published in June, 2007 by Foothills Publishing. He is a freelance thinker. Christopher Zegers was born, raised, and educated in Chicago. He was a VISTA volunteer, living and working in central Harlem in the sixties, attended Union Theological Seminary, and applied for and received Conscientious Objector status in 1969; his political direction came through working in a summer project of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the summer of 1966, hearing Martin Luther King give his anti-Vietnamese war speech in that same year, and as a CO. He spent two years working on Worldview Magazine, a publication of the Council on Religion and International Affairs. Working as an editorial assistant revived his interest in writing, as did a long series of part-time jobs, during which his real work was becoming a poet. During that time he helped found and run a leftist community center in Brooklyn, was a member of a poetry collective, and began to publish. He has published two full-length volumes and five chapbooks. In the early eighties he trained in Secondary Education at Hunger College, and he has been teaching at Hunter High School for 22 years. Word Thursdays regular bi-monthly readings will resume in April, with special readings for Black History Month in February. Bright Hill Press's 2007 programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts, the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O'Connor Foundation, the Walter Rich Charitable Foundation, the Otis A. ThompsonFoundation, the Dewar Foundation, the A. C. Molinari Foundation, the Delaware National Bank of Delhi, Stewart's Shops, area businesses, and its members and friends. For further information and for information about Bright Hill Press and its programs, contact Bright Hill Center at 607-829-5055 or email wordthur@stny.rr.com. Labels: open mic, poetry events, Robert Milby
 Local poet Barbara Garro sent this in about a great resource for poets who want to share their work and get feedback from their peers.
Attention all Poets who want 45 minutes of sharing and critique in a professional setting! Saratoga Springs Poet, Barbara Garro, offers a monthly, Third Wednesday morning from 9 a.m. to Noon, Saratoga Poetry Focus Group for a maximum of four poets. The Group meets at Garro's studio at 205 Regent Street, Saratoga Springs, and attendees must call 518-587-9999 for their reservation. Poets are asked to bring 4 copies of each poem for critique and offer critique to other attendees. Directions: Those coming from the South, get off the Adirondack Northway at Exit 13N and proceed into Saratoga. When you see Saratoga's major intersection (Adirondack Trust, Post Office, City Hall), turn East onto Lake Avenue and follow Lake past the Fire House and make a Right onto Regent Street where the Lake Avenue School is located. 205 Regent is on the right in the block between Lake and Caroline. Make sure you park on the correct side of the street. Those coming from the North, get off the Adirondack Northway at Exit 15 and follow the above directions. Labels: poetry, workshops, writing
This afternoon we have a video of spoken word artist Taylor Mali performing his great and powerful poem "What Do Teachers Really Make". I remember when I first saw Taylor do this piece on the first season of Def Poetry on HBO and it made me think of the English teacher that got me into the poetry and spoken word when I was younger. Thanks Mr. Pipa. Labels: video of the day
 In celebration of her new book of poetry, The Wild Twist of Their Stems, Carol Graser will be performing at Caffe Lena Sunday, November 25 at 7pm. She'll be joined by jazz musician Elisabeth Woodbury and percussionist Chrys Ballerano. Opening for her will be comedian Marly Halpern-Graser. For reservations call 583-0022.
Praise for The Wild Twist of Their Stems: These poems are smartly lyrical & welcome to my consciousness. It's a great pleasure to have Carol Graser's poems.
-Bernadette Mayer Generations are woven together in these poems of Carol Grazer's with an ease as natural as the wind twining grasses. Her reflections on motherhood and relationships, and the small anxious dramas of everyday life are as memorable and true as any I've read, tempered by hope and humor, self-aware, yet never self-centered. It's a journey worth taking.
-Joseph Bruchac At once shocking and then calming, Graser’s words take you on the ever-winding journey of being a mother. Deep and profound, her words and images will remain long after you have closed the book.
-Debra Wetzel, MotherVerse Magazine An exploration of the awe, strife, and joys of motherhood, Saratoga Springs poet Carol Graser’s first book focuses on the movement of small moments in the context of larger meaning. Her verse emphasizes repetition and enjambment to create memorable images.
-Carolyn Niehaus, Chronogram Carol Graser hosts the first Wednesday of the month poetry series at Caffe Lena. She has read her poetry at many community events including fund-raisers, anti-war rallies and as a featured reader at poetry events around New York. Her poetry has appeared in regional journals such as Screed, Salvage and Metroland as well as in numerous national publications like Lullwater Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, The Worcester Review, The MacGuffin and Eureka Literary Magazine. Marly Halpern-Graser is a recent graduate of Emerson College’s film program. He has performed stand up comedy in Boston and Cambridge, as well as Woodstock and Saratoga Springs, NY. His comedic short films and animations have been screened in numerous film festivals internationally, and he has won many awards, including Best Short Documentary at the Lake Placid Film Festival. He's currently working in LA as a comedy writer. Elizabeth Woodbury Kasius is the composer-arranger-pianist for HEARD, a modern chamber ensemble, where she brings a wide array of styles --jazz, classical and world music-- into her captivating soundscape. Her inspirations come from her diverse experiences and interests and are often drawn from the raw and powerful sources that nature provides. Labels: books, Caffe Lena, Carol Graser, poetry events
 Our friends at the Hudson Valley Writers Guild sent along the following announcements. For more information on these and other projects from the Guild, check out their website at www.hvwg.org.
Annual Meeting of the HVWG
Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, 6:00-8:00, Colonie Town Library. Call for all Board Members to be there to introduce yourself to our membership. Please bring non-members who might be interested in joining, as well. (Directions: Travel north up Wolf Road until the last light at Albany-Shaker Road, turn right, then look for library driveway on your left.) Community of Writers - Schenectady
Mark your calendars for Sunday, November 18, 2007. There will be an excellent program held at the Schenectady County Public Library from 2:00-4:00 pm. Panel members include: Karen Guzzardi-James, Peter Heinegg, David Kaczynski, Ron Pavoldi, Bill Poppino, Kelly de la Rocha, Rosalyn R. Sollecito, and Jennifer Wells. Miki Conn will moderate. There will be a book signing from 1:30-2:00 and from 4:00-5:00. The Schenectady County Public Library is at 99 Clinton Street. Contact Karen Bradley at 388 4533 with any questions you may have. Web site: www.scpl.org. The meeting will be in the McChesney Room. This program is sponsored by the Schenectady County Public Library, the HVWG, Hamilton Hill Arts Center and Electric City Poetry Productions with support from the Friends of Schenectady County Public Library. Member Announcements: Nancy Klepsch, Mary McCarthy
Nancy Klepsch will be offering a limited number of poetry tee-shirts at the following locations starting this fall and holiday season: Allblues, 199 Fourth Street, Troy, NY and The Shop at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, River Street, Troy, NY. She is also offering soup bowls with her poem "Eat" written on it at DEPARTURES, Albany International Airport. The tee-shirt was inspired by her poetry installation called "about this building," which was funded by an Arts Grant from the Arts Center of the Capital Region through the New York State Council on the Arts. Twelve 2' X 3' vinyl posters with her poem "about this building" printed on them were mounted on the facade of a building on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Jay Street in Troy's North Central neighborhood, where she rehabilitated her first home about 14 years ago. "I realized this building was here before I was born, and it will be here after I am gone. I wanted to honor Troy's architecture, and I was wondering if anybody felt the way I do. I made this tee-shirt for folks who feel like me about their homes." The tee-shirts come in sizes small to 3XL, are long sleeve, 100% cotton and white in color.
The soup bowls were inspired by her downstate upbringing featuring her poem called "Eat." If you are from or visit the Queens, NY area, you will be familiar with such references as The Lemon Ice King, a Queens, NY institution, which makes homemade Italian ices from fresh fruit, in this poem. The ceramic bowls are white in color and feature hand lettering in black. Mary McCarthy has an essay on her work for insurance reforms in the book Voices of Breast Cancer, just released by LaChance publishing. To order a copy of this anthology, or to find out about future readings, contact Mary at mamc@nycap.rr.com or 518-465-6706. Area Announcements: Writing Group in Scotia, Food Writing Opportunity
1. We have a member who lives in Scotia who is looking for a peer writing group. She writes primarily short fiction. If you know of a group or are willing to form one, please contact her at woodswoman2003@aol.com . 2. Michelle Bowan writes: I am the publisher & editor of "Edible Upstate" magazine which will be launching in the upstate NY region in Spring 2008. As proud member of Edible Communities, our mission is to transform the way our community shops for, cooks, eats, and relates to the food that is grown and produced in our area. We value local, seasonal, authentic foods and culinary traditions, and we strive to put a face on every farmer, chef and food artisan as we tell their stories and champion their efforts toward a more sustainable and safe food system. I am looking for local/regional writers to contribute to our quarterly publication. If you have members that are interested in writing about food and agriculture, please pass on my contact information: Michelle Bowen at Edible Upstate by phone 518.281.2918 or email michelle@edibleupstate.com Labels: HVWG, poets, writing
 The Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic returns on the Wednesday, November 7 (sign-up at 7:00, reading starts at 7:30PM) with featured poet Tim Verhaegen.
Tim Verhaegen has been living in the Capital District for almost thirty years and is a regular at this and many other local poetry events. His work has been published in the anthology Poetry Don't Pump Gas. Tim’s poetry often targets the intimate stories of his own life and the stories of the people closest to him. He's a collector of toy cars, toy animals and other figurines and has been accused of being a "people collector". The Caffe Lena Open Mic takes place on the first Wednesday of each month hosted by Carol Graser. Admission is $2.00 . Caffe Lena is located at 47 Phila St. Saratoga Springs. For more information call 518-583-0022 or go to www.caffelena.org Labels: Caffe Lena, Carol Graser, open mic, poetry, Tim Verhaegen
 On Saturday, November 10 at 8:00PM a Harvest Celebration with multimedia artist Nicole Peyrafitte, saxophonist Joe Giardullo and poet Pierre Joris will take place at the Sanctuary For Independent Media (3361 6th Ave., Troy).
The trio will celebrate, harvest, and gather together non linear momentum through their music, poetry, voice, visuals and yes, a soup! Nicole, who recently moved to Brooklyn, will cook an "Inner-State" soup that will be shared with the audience. About the Artists: French Pyrenean-born Nicole Peyrafitte is a performance artist who mixes voice, video, poetry, painting and cooking. She draws on an eclectic heritage to perform works based on her transcontinental experiences of negotiating her identity across two continents and four languages. Her projects have been performed nationally and internationally. She often collaborates with poets and musicians such as Pierre Joris, Dave Brinks, George Muscatello, Mike Bisio, Jérôme Pizzato, Yuko Kishimoto, Greg Haymes, Ben Chadabe, Danny Whelchel and Mitch Elrod. She released her latest CD, The Bi-Continental Chowder / La Garbure Transcontinentale, last February at the WAMC Linda Norris auditorium. Indie-Music.com called it “a very tasty and imaginative work. With Peyrafitte’s vocal borrowings from Meredith Monk and Yoko Ono and a band that lends credence to her vocal explorations, this CD is definitely recommended for those listeners in need of an ear stretching.” In 2005: Peyrafitte was named “best performance artists of the Capital Region,” and in 2006 her Monday Night Experimental Cabaret that ran once a month at Tess’ Lark Tavern for 2 consecutive years won “best performance venue of the Capital Region”. Joe Giardullo is Brooklyn-born, and raised on the South Shore of Long Island, New York. He grew up on R&B music, playing tenor sax in club and regional bands and moved north to the Woodstock area in the 1960's. After a short period living in Amsterdam, Holland in the late 70’s, Joe Giardullo returned to live and work north of New York. Meeting Joe McPhee in 1991 marked the beginning of a continuing collaboration. He is a charter member of Joe McPhee's Bluette (with Mike Bisio and Dominic Duval), and has collaborated with a long and growing number of important creative musicians, including Milford Graves, Bobby Bradford, Carlos Zingaro, Alex Cline, Marilyn Crispell and Pauline Oliveros, whose Deep Listening concepts have had a lasting effect on him. The Oliveros Foundation has commissioned two works by Giardullo ("Elemental Odes" and "Autumn Rhythm: For Jackson Pollack"). Pierre Joris is a poet, essayist, translator and anthologist. His 2007 poetry publications include the CD Routes, not Roots (with Munir Beken, oud; Mike Bisio, bass; Ben Chadabe, percussion; and Mitch Elrod, guitar; & Nicole Peyrafitte, vocals and radio) issued by Ta’wil Productions; Aljibar (a bilingual volume of poems w/ French translations by Eric Sarner, published in Luxembourg by Editions PHI) and Meditations on the Stations of Mansour Al-Hallaj 1-21(Anchorite Press, Albany). Rain Taxi praised his Poasis: Selected Poems 1986-1999 for "its physical, philosophical delight in words and their reverberations." Recent translations include Lightduress by Paul Celan, which received the 2005 PEN Poetry Translation Award, and, with Jerome Rothenberg, Pablo Picasso, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz & Other Poems. Joris and Rothenberg also edited the award-winning anthologies Poems for the Millennium. Joris teaches at SUNY-Albany, when he is not on the road reading his poetry alone or with musicians. His collaborations with vocalist & multimedia artist Nicole Peyrafitte include the multimedia show SumericaBachbones, performed throughout Europe and the US. Admission for this event is $10. For more information contact Nicole Peyrafitte at garbure@mac.com or 518-281-5407 Labels: Nicole Peyrafitte, Pierre Joris, poetry events, poets
Today we have a video of Albany poet Dain Brammage performing "Corporate Spin" in Brooklyn, NY during The NWO Up Top Tour 07. Labels: video of the day
Today we are featuring a video from everyone's favorite drunk poet, Charles Bukowski. This poem is titled "The Night I Killed Tommy". Labels: video of the day
In order to bring you all aspects of poetry and spoken word, we are now going to post poetry and performance videos on the blog. Our first video features an animated view of Billy Collins poem "The Country". Check back often for more videos of poetry and spoken word from all over the world including right here in Albany. We are in the process of putting together videos of some great performances from open mics and events that we have recorded, so stay tuned. Labels: video of the day
 Today begins the annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). NaNoWriMo "is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30." Last year almost 80,000 writers took part in this unique approach to novel writing where quality is not what you are looking for, but rather quantity.
Even if you are not taking part in NaNoWriMo, we have come across a few websites that can help any writer hone their craft. 30+ Tools for the Amateur Writer is a great list of tools for writers including dictionaries, online word processors, grammar tips, and plotting and writing tips. 7 Can't Miss Ways to Kick-Start The Writing Habit is a list of tips, particularly for blogging, but can be used for all writing styles, to get writers into the habit of writing, especially on a regular basis. Quick Story Idea Generator is a neat little tool that will generate, as the title suggests, story ideas. Here is an example of what you can get: The theme of this story: metaphorical relationship.
The main characters: humble lawman and awkward smuggler.
The major event of the story: apocalyptic event. There are many more tools and tips out there for writers on the Internet these are just a few to get the ink flowing. Labels: books, writing
 What a busy week it has been on the Dan Wilcox blog. He posted a blog last week about a recent HVWG event with a small audience and the comments section exploded. Here is what happened on Dan's blog this week.
So then the strangest thing happened -- Dennis Sullivan, our night's feature had left a couple of free broadsides up on the counter by the sign-up sheet & our first poet up, Daniel Scott, who was unfamiliar to what we were doing, picked up one of Dennis' broadsides & read it. What a cool introduction to the night's feature -- how perfect. (Perhaps Daniel will return with one of his own poems soon.) Even though "Community of Writers" was sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild there were but 10 of us in the large (then seeming larger) auditorium of the Albany Public Library to hear Russell Dunn, Lyn Miller-Lachmann & Pierre Joris read from their work. As always, be sure to check out Dan's blog for more on the poetry scene here in the Albany area. Labels: Dan Wilcox, HVWG, open mic, poetry events
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