Poetry at the UAG Gallery This Friday, Nov 13

Albany Poets and Jawbone are once again combining forces to bring poetry to the UAG Gallery.  This Friday Jawbone will present a reading with James Belflower and Lucyna Prostko followed by our monthly open mic for poetry and spoken word.

Here is the information from the good folks at Jawbone:

Jawbone is pleased to host a first book release party/reading this Friday, November 13th at 6:30pm in the United Artists Guild Gallery (247 Lark Street). Please come early and enjoy a refreshment/chat with the authors.

An open mic hosted by Albany Poets will follow at 8pm.

We hope that you will attend and support two very talented poets and PhD Candidates.

COMMUTER by James Belflower: Modeling the courage of the witness as a compelling poetic subjectivity, COMMUTER attempts to encourage response by negotiating notions of the self. Juliana Spahr calls COMMUTER "a painfully beautiful and transformatively aestheticized book."

James Belflower is the author of Commuter (Instance Press) and And Also a Fountain, (NeOpepper Press) a collaborative echap with Anne Heide and J. Michael Martinez. He won the 2007 Juked Magazine poetry prize and his work  appears, or is forthcoming in: Jacket, EOAGH, Denver Quarterly, Apostrophe Cast, First Intensity, Reconfigurations, Konundrum Engine and O&S, among others. He curates PotLatchpoetry.org, a website dedicated to the gifting and exchange of poetry resources.

Infinite Beginnnings—Lucyna Prostko's fierce, quiet book shines like the
wooden boat in "Homecoming" that "beckons the winds with all its power."  Prostko makes poetic speech feel somehow inevitable, yet unexpected and fresh; there is nothing self-conscious, no straining for high art, in her mastery. "The human stories in her poems haunt me. . . . Clear-eyed and steadfast in her honesty, Prostko doesn't pretend to easy understanding of the mystery she touches at the deep heart of our being, but her love for the world is palpable in every poem"--Joan Larkin, Judge, Bright Hill Poetry Book Competition.

Lucyna Prostko was born in 1971 in Poland, where she grew up in a small village of Solistowka in Mazury. From an early age, she has been immersed in the stories of her grandparents' lives who have been tragically affected by the outbreak of World War II. She came to New York City at the age of 19. She received her BA degree in English from Hunter College and MFA in poetry from New York University, where she was awarded The New York Times Fellowship. She has been writing poetry in both Polish and English, and her work has been influenced by both Polish and American poets, in particular Boleslaw Lesmian, Czeslaw Milosz, Tadeusz Rozewicz, Wislawa Szymborska as well as Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Galway Kinnell, Philip Levine, Sharon Olds, and Louise Gluck. Her poetry has appeared in The Bitter Oleander, Fugue, Washington Square, Painted Bride Quarterly, Ellipsis, Quiddity, Five Points, and other literary magazines and in her collection, Infinite Beginnings, judged winner of the Bright Hill Press Poetry Book Competition by Joan Larkin and published by Bright Hill in 2009. She has been teaching literature and creative writing for the past ten years. She currently teaches at Queensbury High School in upstate New York and pursues Ph.D. in English at SUNY Albany. She lives on Hunt Lake in the Adirondacks with her husband, Mirko.

The evening starts at 6:30PM with the “No Gimmicks Open Mic” hosted by Mary Panza will begin after the two featured poets at 8:00PM.  Sign up for the open mic will be available throughout the night. 

Poetry at The UAG Begins Friday, September 11

That’s right, for our third year, Albany Poets is bringing poetry back to the UAG Gallery on the second Friday of the month.

ALBANY POETS PRESENTS SECOND FRIDAY OPEN MIC @ THE UAG GALLERY!

Albany Poets is proud to present a NO GIMMICKS OPEN MIC every second Friday at the UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street in Albany.

You are the feature.  You set the tone.  Anything goes! 

The series dates are:
Friday September 11th
Friday October 9th
Friday November 13th
Friday December 11th
7pm sign-up, we will start around 7:45.
Hosted by Thom, Mary and Keith

One Week Until The 2009 Albany Word Fest

We are one week away from the 2009 Albany Word Fest! 

The first Albany Word Fest was held in September 2001 in Thatcher Park.  It featured poets from all over the upstate area sharing their words all day and into the evening in a beautiful outdoor setting.  Through all of the Word Fest since then, we have kept the same idea in mind; invite the poets and spoken word artists from all over the capital region and beyond to share their words and show that “poetry lives in Albany”.

This year is no different as we are having a 12-hour open mic for poetry on Friday night starting at 7:00PM at the UAG Gallery (247 Lark Street, Albany).  We already have more than 25 poets signed up for this all night event.  During the open mic we will be having some special featured poets perform including poets from Voorheesville, Albany area poetry workshop participants, and all three of this years “Best Poets” from the Metroland readers poll (Mary Panza, R.M. Engelhardt, and Dan Wilcox).  The open mic will end on Saturday morning with a very special performance by A.C. Everson and Friends.

Saturday night we come back to the UAG with music and poetry from the Rambling Jug Stompers, Margot Malia Lynch, Daniel Nester, Mother Judge, and Murrow. 

Since moving the Word Fest from September to April in 2005, The Albany Word Fest has become spring time tradition here in Albany celebrating not just National Poetry Month, but celebrating the Poets and Poetry of Upstate New York.  Like Dan Wilcox says, “In Albany, everyday is Poetry Month!”

For more information, go to www.albanywordfest.com.  See everyone at the Word Fest!

2009 Albany Word Fest

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Albany Poets is proud to present the 2009 Albany Word Fest featuring the poetry, spoken word, and music of upstate New York.  This year’s event will take place on Friday, April 17 and Saturday, April 18, 2009.

The 2009 Albany Word Fest will start off on Friday night with a cocktail party at Tess’ Lark Tavern (453 Madison Ave.) at 5:00PM.  This is a chance for all of the poets and performers to get together, network, and reconnect with each other before the event begins. This is open to all ages.  Must be 21 or older to drink. 

At 7:00PM, the poetry and spoken word begins at the Friday Night Open Mic at the UAG Gallery (247 Lark Street).  This years open mic will be a special 12-hour open mic.

Poets who wish to participate in the open mic can sign up online by going to the Albany Word Fest website, www.albanywordfest.com.  Performers will also have a limited opportunity to sign up at the event itself.  Each poet will have10 -15 minutes to share their work.  Featured at this open mic will be A.C. Everson, groups of poets from Woodstock, Voorheesville, and other parts of area, plus all three of this years Metrolands Best Poets (Mary Panza, Dan Wilcox, and R.M. Engelhradt) and more. The open mic is open to all poets and spoken word artists with no style or content restrictions.  Admission is based on donation.

On Saturday, day two of the 2009 Albany Word Fest brings the annual Psycho Cluster F*#k to the UAG Gallery featuring music and spoken word from The Rambling Jug Stompers, Ed RInaldi, Mother Judge, Margot Malia Lynch, Daniel Nester, Murrow, and much more. Admission for this event is $5.00.  This event is open to all ages. 

The 2009 Albany Word Fest is sponsored by Albany Poets, Tess’ Lark Tavern, UAG Gallery, and the very generous donations of supporters of the arts in upstate New York.

Be sure to check www.albanywordfest.com for more details on the 2009 ALBANY WORD FEST.

Small Press reading at UAG This Saturday

The folks that brought you the very successful small press fair at the UAG Gallery (247 Lark Street, Albany) for First Friday a couple of weeks ago are coming back for a special poetry reading this coming Saturday at the UAG.

From 2:00PM – 5:00PM poets and representatives from Albany Poets, Flim Forum Press, Fence Books, A.P.D. Press, and Anchorite Press will be reading their work and talking about small press in Albany.  Some of the poets scheduled to read are Eric Gelsinger, Rebecca Wolff, Anthony Bernini, Colie Collen, Pierre Joris, Thom Francis, and R.M. Engelhardt.

Be sure to check this event out on Saturday afternoon and support local small presses by purchasing their books.

Small Press Poetry at UAG

First Friday, January 2nd, 5-9pm at the UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street.

The Upstate Artists Guild (UAG) Gallery, as part of their January “New Beginnings” show, will be hosting a Publisher’s Open House for many of the poetry small presses producing books in Albany, NY.

Across poetics, aesthetics, and institutional status, contributing presses will include: Flim Forum Press, Fence Books, A.P.D. Press, Anchorite Press, and Albany Poets.

This will be an opportunity for interested gallery-goers to engage with some of the independent, underground, and/or experimental writing and publishing happening here in Albany today.

The show opens on First Friday, January 2nd, and will last throughout the month. Free to the public. For more information, call (518) 426-350, or email: klane@flimforum.com.

Michael Eck Featured Artist At UAG "WTF?" Show

Musician and multi-tasker Michael Eck is the featured artist for Upstate Artists Guild’s third national exhibit, “WTF? What The Folk”

Michael Eck’s visual representations of seminal American folk, blues and jazz musicians have been featured nationally at venues such as The Lisle Station Museum (Illinois), The Outsiders Art (Connecticut), Inside/Out Gallery (Minnesota), Fairleigh Dickinson University (New

Jersey) and Synagogue for the Arts (New York). Regionally Eck has been a featured artist at Albany Center Galleries, Fulton Street Gallery, Firlefanz Gallery and the Arts Center of the Capital Region.

Using donated paint and power tools, Eck makes his works from recycled material, including desk drawers, shelving, wooden boxes, farm equipment, door panels, demolished stage sets and discarded construction materials.

The paintings are a direct outgrowth of his fascination with the ever-flowing river of American music.

Eck’s portion of the exhibit will contain over 50 works. Fully half of the works have never been shown; the remainder is a retrospective of musician portraits from the last five years.

Many of the new works come from a multi-media work-in-progress, “The Anthology Alive!: One Man’s View of The Anthology of American Folk Music.”

Eck – a member of Ramblin Jug Stompers and The Gospel Train, as well as an acclaimed songwriter -- will also perform a few songs at the opening and engage in a question/answer session with patrons.

Eck dedicates this show to the memory of Rochelle Brener, a great artist and a great inspiration.

http://michaeleck.com/megal.htm

WTF? What The Folk
April 4-25
Opening 6-9 pm, Friday, April 4
Upstate Artists Guild, 247 Lark Street, Albany NY

Michael Eck - mandhand@aol.com - www.michaeleck.com - www.jugstompers.com