The Literary Gazette Call For Submissions

The Literary Gazette, published annually by The River Reporter, is seeking submissions for its 2008 edition, to be published in June. The theme is "nature" and poems, short shorts and short memoir/essay pieces will be considered on topics related to nature, wilderness, weather, the seasons, wildlife, trekking, landscape and human encounters with same.

To be considered, entries must not exceed 1,000 words.   Send word documents to marygreene@riverreporter.com or via snail mail to The Literary Gazette, PO Box 150, Narrowsburg, NY 12764.

Submission deadline is Friday, May 2. Submissions cannot be returned.  Please include an email address or SASE to receive response. For more information call 845-252-7414.

Poetry Video of the Day, February 29

Well, it is a very special day here at Albany Poets as we are bringing back the Poetry Video of the Day.  As a welcome back we have a video of The Poet Essence recorded when the NWO Up Top Tour rolled into Albany in 2007.

HVWG Items of Interest

Hudson Valley Writers Guild Announcements

Peer Group Workshop
Mark your calendar for Thursday, April 17, 2008.  The Hudson Valley Writers Guild will sponsor a workshop for those interested in joining a writing group or starting a writing group.  More information will be forthcoming as we get closer to the date.

Marni Gillard
A teacher workshop at Proctors with Marni Gillard – open to artists, teachers, anyone interested in the topics:  Storytalk To Write with Style - Wednesday, April 2, 2008, 4 - 7 PM.  Call (518)382-3884 ext.139 or email raskew@proctors.org for more information.

Reminder:  Don't forget March 15 - 7:30 p.m. PROCTORS THEATER  Marni Gillard and Mary Murphy, will be part of Proctors new series on performing stories called WORD PLAY. Cost $15.Tickets available online or at PROCTORS' Box Office. PROCTORS is also the new location of monthly story swaps. More details at http://www.storycircleatproctors.org/

Denie Whalen
An Expressive Arts and Social Change Workshop - Thursday, March 6, 2008, 6-9:30 pm
4 Central Avenue, Albany.  $25.00 to benefit CAUSE Sierra Leone 
This expressive arts workshop will explore how we can collectively re-frame local and gobal conflicts through an imaginative and engaged response.  There will also be an information session after the workshop on the Expressive Arts and Social Change Program at the European Graduate School in Switzerland (www.expressiveartsandsocialchange.org).  Facilitator:  Carrie MacLeod. 
For directions or to register, visit the NYEA website (www.newyorkexpressivearts.com) or call 518 434 2412.

Area Announcements:
FEBRUARY 24, 2008 NORMANSKILL POETS READING
Local Poets Read From Their Work:  A number of poets who all live within the Normans Kill Watershed are reading a selection of their work. The poets all had poetry in the NORMANSKILL:  PEBBLE IN THE POND bioregional anthology published by Rootdrinker Institute in 2007. Poets reading are:  Dennis Sullivan, Mark O'Brien, Art Willis, Edie Abrams, Alan Casline, Mimi Moriarty, Tom Corrado, and Barbara Hatch Vink. The event is held at Perfect Blend Coffee House, 376 Delaware Ave., Delmar, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. Open to the Public.  For more information contact email Alan Casline.

Creative Arts Therapies Conference at Holy Names Academy
An all-day creative arts conference will be held at the Academy of Holy Names, 1075 New Scotland Ave., Albany from 8:30 am - 5:00 pm. on Tuesday, March 4, 2008.
Register by contacting the Consultation Center at 489-4431 or email.  Cost:  $80 (includes lunch) (payment after 2-26 is $90)

An Expressive Arts and Social Change Workshop

Inde-Script-Able Places: Living Creatively in between Cultures and Conflicts on Thursday, March 6, 2008, 6 to 9:30 p.m.

How now shall we live in this world where borders are disintegrating and cultures are colliding? This expressive arts workshop will explore how we can collectively re-frame local and global conflicts through an imaginative and engaged response. We will dive into the silent, hidden, challenging and "inde-script-able" spaces in between cultures and within conflicts that call for our undivided attention and embodied presence. Movement, music, art-making, poetic narrative and performance will become our shared social canvas for cultivating awareness, compassion and action. Through a variety of artistic encounters in the "gaps," we will collaboratively write new scripts for some of the most neglected personal, social and political spaces
in our world today. This will involve a dynamic exploration of how diverse worldviews, cultural identities and power structures influence conflict transformation both locally and globally. Join us for this innovative interplay with arts and social change as we invent, improvise and imagine how we can re-write current headlines and "in-habit" fragile spaces with sensitivity, dignity and creativity.

There also will be an information session after the workshop on the Expressive Arts and Social Change Program at the European Graduate School in Switzerland (www.expressiveartsandsocialchange.org)

Facilitator: Carrie MacLeod, Ph.D. candidate. Carrie has used an arts-based approach to education, advocacy and social change for over a decade. Internationally, she has worked within the context of peace and reconciliation programs with children impacted by war in Sierra Leone, West Africa; she also has worked on community health, education and environmental projects throughout India and Central America. In Canada, she designs and facilitates programs that combine the arts, film and multimedia with intercultural conflict resolution and global responsibility. She is on the faculty of the European Graduate School in Switzerland, and currently is the creative director of an arts and conflict resolution project at the University of British Columbia.

Location: NYEA Studio, 4 Central Ave., 2nd floor, Albany (just west of the corner at Lark St.)
Fee: $25.00 (all proceeds benefit CAUSE Sierra Leone)
For more information: Visit the NYEA website or call (518) 434-2412.

Poetry in Athens

Upcoming Featured Poets at Poetry at the Hudson at the Athens Cultural Center (24 Second St., Athens, NY) every 3rd Saturday at 2 p.m. in the even-numbered months (except June this year, when it meets on the 2d Saturday).

April 19, 2008 - Bill Seaton and Susan Sindall
June 14, 2008 - Eddie Bell and Carol Graser
August 16, 2008 - T.G. Vanini and Susan Hoover
Ocotber 18, 2008 - Lei Isaacs and Phillip Levine
December 20, 2008 - Thom Francis and Bob Sharkey

For more information on this poetry and spoken word series at the Athens Cultural Center, email host Bob Wright at hudsonvalleybob@yahoo.com

Upcoming Special Guests at the Colony Cafe

Upcoming "Special Guests" at the Colony Café - Monday Night Open Mic - Poetry/Prose/Performance - Every Monday Night "Forever"

All events include an open mic of poetry/prose/performance hosted by Phillip Levine (Chronogram Poetry Editor). Doors Open at 7pm, start time is 7:30pm. Features read for approximately 20-25mins each, beginning around 8pm. Open mic before & after the featured readers.

Monday, February 25th, 2008 7pm:
Phillip hosts Phillip & Friends on his near birthday featuring: Gnomon Shadow Puppet Theatre (Sharon Penz & Zzoe), Elijah Wapner ("Mr. Inevitable"-stand up comedy) & Wide Open Mike

Gnomon Shadow Puppet Theatre (Sharon Penz & Zzoe) - Presents shadow puppet theatre in the Western European tradition, performed live, with live music & narraion, in performances of edifying plays and stories from many cultures.  Gnomon Puppet Theatre is available for parties, festivals, and performances at Libraries, schools, homes and other venues, as well as for tutorial workshops. Contact: (845)247-2843 or email: gnomonshadowtheatre@yahoo.com or Gnomon Shadow Theatre, 122 West Bridge Street, Saugerties, NY 12477-1418. Website: http://web.mac.com/taimasmith/Gnomon/Home.html

Elijah Wapner (Mr. Inevitable-stand-up) - Elijah Wapner is an 11th grader at the Hudson Valley Sudbury School and studies acting, movement and voice in the teen conservatory at Stella Adler Studio in Manhattan. He performs standup comedy as a regular at the Gotham Comedy Club in New York City and travels the country raising awareness about autism. His TV debut was on MTV's True Life, and he has been featured in the New York Times, Redbook Magazine, and on Japanese Television (NHK). Check out his calendar of events at www.MrInevitable.com

Monday, March 3rd, 2008 - 7pm:
Tara Johannessen (poet and filmmaker w/short film: The Holy Longing by Goethe) and Gretchen Primack (poet, with her new book The Slow Creaking of Planets)

Tara Johannessen (poet and filmmaker w/short film: The Holy Longing by Goethe) - publication includes Sleep: bedtime reading by Roger Gorman and Robert Peacock (Rizzoli) and Wildflowers. Currently working for the severly disabled and the elderly as a nurse's assistant.

Gretchen Primack (poet, with her new book The Slow Creaking of Planets) - Gretchen Primack’s publication credits include The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, FIELD, New Orleans Review, Rhino, Best New Poets 2006, and others. Her chapbook The Slow Creaking of Planets is freshly minted from Finishing Line Press.  She teaches at Bard College and at two maximum-security prisons through the Bard Prison Initiative. More information and poems can be found at www.gretchenprimack.com.

Monday, March 10th, 2008 - 7pm:
A. C. Everson (A pinata bashing poet) and Frank Boyer (writer, performance/installation artist)

A. C. Everson (A pinata bashing poet) - A. C. Everson is a home grown poet, sculptor and performance artist who has performed and shown in the Albany area and abroad since 1994.  In 1995, A. C. started Breaking My Art where her poetry and piñatas are combined in what has been described as “awesome” performances. She has four self published chap books of poetry and two self produced cds of her poetry backed up by some of the Albany areas best musicians. You can hear some at www.myspace.com/aceverson .

Frank Boyer (writer, performance/installation artist) - Frank Boyer was born and raised in the Middle West. Throughout the 1980's, he was based in New York City, where he was active in the performance art scene and also wrote and performed poetry.  He has lived upstate since 1992, and is the single parent of a teen-age son. He is glad to read and to hear poetry whenever he can.

Monday, March 17th, 2008 - 7pm:
Tom Molinaro (meditation instructor, teacher, writer) and Laura Lonshein Ludwig (poet)

Tom Molinaro (meditation instructor, teacher, writer) - I am a writer, poet, interested in freedom, heaven on earth, for you, for me, for everyone who wants it, and for changes upon the planet from these intolerable conditions.  What are the intolerable conditions?  The lack of interest in things that matter, of waking up and celebrating life, the lack of culture, the death of the good things we've found in the past, the thrusting upon of technology without our proper balance of spiritual development, the lack of creative living, new ideas and the lack of the impending bonfire of our vanities and the trivial grossness to which we, as a group, have become attached and infected. www.tommspace.com

Laura Lonshein Ludwig (poet) - Laura Lonshein Ludwig's work is listed in Who's Who in the World in 2004 and 2005.  Recipient of 4 New York State Council of the Arts grants, and author of 3 books, Robo Sapiens, Sounds Like a Plot, and Reflections for the Renaissance. Reviewed by legends in TV, radio and scholars. see: www.barnesandnoble.com.

Monday, March 24th, 2008 - 7pm:
TBA and Richard Boes (prose, 1st chapter of his new book Last Train Out)

Richard Boes (prose, 1st chapter of his new book Last Train Out) - Richard Boes has written a ripped-from-the-heart memoir (The Last Dead Soldier Left Alive) of the years of struggle, substance abuse, and failed relationships that followed his combat experience. It’s painful, yet richly rewarding. Imagine sitting down in a pub next to a slightly scary-looking fellow who buys you a round and then begins to talk, his words spilling out in a heated rush, things bottled up within him all flooding to the surface. And although some of what he is saying is hard to hear, it’s made compelling by his wry, ironic perspective and stream-of-consciousness style, which is akin to that of Henry Miller or Jack Kerouac. At closing time, you’d be inviting him home for a nightcap to hear the rest—even if it disturbed your sleep for weeks to come. - Anne Pyburn (Chronogram, June 2007)

Monday, March 31st, 2008 - 7pm:
Donald Lev (poet) and R. Dionysius Whiteurs (Peptic Poet of the Pepperoni Persuasion)

Donald Lev (poet) - Donald Lev was born in New York City in 1936. He attended Hunter College, worked in the wire rooms of the Daily News and New York Times, and then drove a taxi cab for 20 years (with a 6-year hiatus in which he ran messages for, and contributed poetry to, The Village Voice and operated the Home Planet Bookshop on the Lower East Side). His earliest poems appeared in print in 1958 and he started his first small press magazine, HYN Anthology, in 1969. The most recent of the fourteen collections of his poetry is Grief, a chapbook published in 2006 by Bard Press/Ten Penny Players in Staten Island. A volume of his Selected Poems will be brought out soon by Red Hill Outloudbooks in Claryville, NY. His brief underground film-acting career pinnacled with his portrayal (he wrote his own lines) of "The Poet" in Robert Downey Sr.'s 1969 classic Putney Swope. He and his reclusive cat Kit Smart live in High Falls, NY, where he spends most of his time publishing the literary tabloid Home Planet News, which he and his late wife Enid Dame founded in 1979.

R. Dionysius Whiteurs (Peptic Poet of the Pepperoni Persuasion) - Born in the Bronx, brought up in the hills of Mahwah NJ, Ron (R. Dionysius) Whiteurs has lived in the New Paltz-Rosendale region since 1966. With an MA from SUNY New Paltz, he taught English at that institution in 1970-71 and went on to a long career as unofficial "Poet Laureate" of IBM Publishing in Poughkeepsie. From these scintillating heights his fortunes took a flip/flop/flip like some half-dead fish out of water in the following manner:

Performed regularly at the Rosendale Creative Space Co-Op from 1989 to 1992; Performed annually at the Cave Readings at the Widow Jane Quarry in Rosendale from 1991 to 1997; Starred in the Igneous It performance Ox Necks in Tweed on April 3, 1992; Performed at Fountain House, NYC and slammed at the Nuyorican, NYC during these years; Performed at the Woodstock Guild's Byrdcliffe Barn as part of Summerjazz (FM Artists Coalition) in 1992; Performed as main featured poet at the Outloud Festival in Claryville in 1994; Formed the amateur-amateur-amateur rock n' roll band "Glory-Hole Bishops of the Holy See" in which he starred as lead NON-singer and song writer; Recorded four poems in 1993 for the Steve Charney Show ("Knock-On-Wood") on WAMC Albany Public Radio; Featured in the brief biographic film Trapped in Amber by Bart Thrall of Big Time Records; and somehow got himself published in the Rondout Review, The Poets Gallery (Woodstock), Chronogram, Hunger Magazine, and Wuzz Buzzin (Switzerland).

Presently, Ronald, a noted toy collector and craftsman of fine costumes and objects, reads, rants, and raves regularly at the Bohemian Book Bin in Kingston, at the Colony Cafe in Woodstock, and at the Woodstock Town Hall. He is a member of the Woodstock Poetry Society.

Poetry/Prose/Performance:
Colony Café, 22 Rock City Road, Woodstock, NY
(845)679-5342 - www.colonycafe.com
The Colony Cafe has full bar and cafe menu.
For further information about the Monday Night Open Mic or possible bookings contact: Phillip Levine pprod@mindspring.com. For information about the Colony Café contact: Jeff Harrigfeld osmrecords@hotmail.com

Kane to Read at Poetry on the Loose at the Baby Grand

Paul Kane will read his work at the next program in the Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance Series.  The event will be held at the Baby Grand Bookshop at 7 West Street in Warwick at 4:00 p.m. on March 1.  Following the featured poet, others are welcome to read original work on any theme.  Admission is free.

Paul Kane, who lives in Warwick (New York), has published four collections of poems: The Farther Shore, Drowned Lands, Work Life and, recently, A Slant of Light.  Kane’s work has frequently been compared to Robert Frost’s, as “a dark echo” (Joseph Brodsky) or like Frost “at his best” (Harold Bloom).  Poet and critic Rosanna Warren writes that his poems “bespeak a wholeness of life and language, a fitting of elegy, diatribe, natural description, meditation and blessing into the same large work of mind and heart.”  His other publications include scholarly editions, critical studies, anthologies and collaborations. 

Kane has taught at Yale University and Monash University (Australia) and is presently a professor of English at Vassar College.  He is the recipient of a Fulbright award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

Shirley Powell will be featured on April 5.

For further information, contact: William Seaton/ Poetry on the Loose, Inc. at       (845) 294-8085 or email seaton@frontiernet.net

Visual Poetry Exhibit at Skidmore

The fourth annual visual poetry exhibition, featuring work by Skidmore students and faculty, will be presented in Case Center Gallery from Monday, Feb. 25 to Saturday, March 1. An opening reception is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at the gallery. The gallery is open without charge starting at 9 a.m. daily.

The exhibition will feature original artwork that explores the intersection of poetry and visual art in any form suitable to gallery display, including graphic presentation of text. Skidmore's Department of English and Folio, the Skidmore student literary and arts magazine, are sponsoring the exhibition, with support from Skidmore's Schick Art Gallery.

Poets Speak Loud Featuring Nicole Karas and Janice McNeal Tonight at the Lark Tavern

That's correct! We are once again at Tess' Lark Tavern (453 Madison Ave, Albany) for our Feb edition of PSL.

We are happy to have the double bill of Nicole Karas and Janice McNeal. Oh yeah, it is ladies night.

We are hoping the writers strike is over for you as well! Come on out and talk about politics, sex, religion, the oscars, the weather, your landlord, or your feet. You know all the things your mother told you not to talk about in mixed company.

$3 requested donation. 7pm sign-up and we start between 7:30 and 8pm.

Upcoming Events at Java Jazz

Here are some upcoming events at the Java Jazz Cafe (318 Delaware Avenue, Delmar).

Thursday, February 21st from 7pm to 9pm, Blue Wilder and Chrys Ballerano, will combine their talents and energy for a great evening of guitar and folk music.

Friday, February 22nd from 7pm to 9pm we are pleased to introduce Rob Skane to our growing group of entertainers - Rob's song and guitar style is truly enjoyable - a great evening for everyone!

AND...

Next week, Monday, February 25th from 6:30 to 8 pm, Java Jazz is proud to host author Richard Boes, reading from his latest work: "The Last Dead Soldier Left Alive".  Richard is a Vietnam Veteran for Peace.  Introductions by Dan Wilcox.

For more information on the Java Jazz Cafe, contact Cathy at (518) 439-1727 or visit their website at http://www.javajazzcafe.net

Michael Bostick at the Third Thursday Poetry Night

The Poetry Motel Foundation presents Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY on Thursday, February 21, 2008 (7:00 sign up; 7:30 start ) with featured poet Michael Bostick.  

Open mic for poets before and after the feature.  $3.00 donation -- suggested, more if you got it, less if you can’t.   This night of poetry is hosted by Dan Wilcox.

Michael Bostick is the author of “Mou-si: Life Lessons and Thoughts Set to Poetry”, published by RoseDog Books in May, and was the subject of a profile about his writing in the Albany Times-Union in October. His poetry explores such varied subjects as social ills, spirituality, alcoholism, love, race and responsibility.

Poetry at The UAG

Jawbone and Albany Poets are proud to bring poetry back to the UAG Gallery on Lark Street.  The series started on January 25 with Thom Francis and Michael Peters and continues tonight with a special reading from Flim Magazine featuring Jaye Bartell, Jennifer Karmin, Michael Ives, and Deborah Poe. 

The next reading will be on February 22 with poets Rusty Barnes, Jason Tandon, Rebecca Schumejda, Dan Wilcox, and Margot Lynch. 

Be sure to check back for the complete schedule for this new series of Poetry at the UAG.