Frequency North/CLMP present CAPITAL LIT!

This weekend Albany will be rocking with poetry!  Here is the info from Daniel Nester about a great day of poetry, literature, small press, karaoke, and of course…fun!

Attention Albany Lit Lovers! Start 2010 off right with all the literary magazines and books you can carry off from CAPITAL LIT, CLMP’s first-ever Albany Lit Mag & Small Press Fair.

Hundreds of regional and national independent literary publishers will converge to sell their journals for only $2 an issue and books for $4 each. Many publishers will attend in person to meet Albany’s eager readers, so don’t miss this opportunity to discover literature you are unlikely to find in a single store, and meet the publishers and editors who do the real work of keeping American Literature vibrant and vital.

An offering of Frequency North, the aggressively eclectic visiting writers reading series at Saint Rose, and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, CAPITAL LIT will bring to Albany hundreds of regional and national independent literary publishers who will sell their journals for only $2 an issue and books for $4 each. The all-day festival includes a panel discussion on publishing, readings by some of the region’s most notable authors and the Albany debut of Karaoke + Poetry = Fun!

Schedule

12-6 Book fair, Saint Joseph Auditorium
1pm Potlach with Colie Collen
2pm Indie Publishing Discussion

5pm Reading and discussion with Shane Jones, Tobias Seamon and Barbara Louise Ungar

Shane Jones is a graduate of The University at Buffalo, and currently resides in Albany, New York. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in numerous literary journals, including: New York Tyrant, Unsaid, Typo, and Caketrain. His first novel, Light Boxes, will be published by Penguin Books in June, 2010. Director Spike Jonze (Where The Wild Things Are, Being John Malkovich) purchased the film option for Light Boxes in July 2009.

Tobias Seamon is author of the novel The Magician's Study and a poetry chapbook Loosestrife Along the River Styx. He also wrote and directed the short mockumentary "Amerikan Partizan," which premiered at the 2007 Edwood Filmfest. A collection of stories The Emperor's Toy Chest and a novella The Fair Grounds are both forthcoming from the UK-based press PS Publishing. A contributor with the online magazine The Morning News, he lives in Albany. 

Barbara Louise Ungar's newest book, The Origin of the Milky Way, published last year, won the Gival Press Prize for Poetry. Barbara Louise Ungar is the author of Thrift. Her poems have appeared in Salmagundi, The Minnesota Review, The Literary Review among others. She is an Associate Professor of English at The College of Saint Rose.

7pm Karaoke + Poetry = Fun at Valentine's
17 New Scotland Avenue
Featuring Eric Auld, Cara Benson, R.M. Englehardt, Geof Huth, Murrow, Tara Needham, Mary Panza, Tobias Seamon, Alifair Skebe, Dan Wilcox
Come and sign up to read and sing!

Admission is free and open to the public. This program is made possible in part through support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

Some Tuesday Poetry News

Happy New Year!  All of us here at Albany Poets wish you the best in the new year. 

Here is some upstate New York poetry news concerning some upcoming events and other things going on the community.

TONIGHT, Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 8:00PM

Albany Poets Presents NO GIMMICK OPEN MIC
Valentines, 17 New Scotland Ave, Albany

We start off the new year with our monthly open mic for poetry, music, and spoken word.  Old school open mic.  No gimmicks, no themes.   Sign up starts at 7:00, reading starts at 8:00.

Poet Rock Ritual
The Putnam Den, 63A Putnam Street, Saratoga Springs

If you are up in the Saratoga are tonight be sure to check out what Margot Malia Lynch is doing up at the Putnam Den with her weekly open mic of words and music.

The weekly poetry open mic continues!
Please join us at The Putnam Den every Tues.
Sign up is at 8
$5 suggested donation
21+

Poetry Slam
then the Poet Rock Ritual: open mic for poets and any kind of word artist. You will be backed up by a live band:
Chris Turano on Drums
Marc Latzky on Bass
and a mystery Guitarist.

Margot is hosting.

Happy new decade

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic
Caffe Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs

More poetry in Saratoga!  Here is the info from host Carol Graser:

the first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents:

Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic
Wednesday, January 6
7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start
Featured Poets:
Barbara Vink
$3
Hosted by Carol Graser
Caffè Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs
www.caffelena.org     583-0022

Barbara Vink has been coordinating the Voorheesville Public Library Every Other Thursday Night Poets since its onset in 1991. She also hosts Poetry Performance Day events, and has been in a performance trio for several years with Tom Corrado and Larry Rapant.  She has read her poetry at many local venues and was one of the editors and contributors to the anthology Poetry Don't Pump.

Friday, January 8

No Gimmick Open Mic at the UAG
UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street, Albany

No Gimmick Open Mic at the UAG is Albany Poets’ open mic series for poetry and spoken word held at the UAG Gallery on the second Fridays of the month during the fall and spring semesters.

We return Friday, January 8 to kick off the new year with your words.

The UAG Gallery is located at 247 Lark Street, Albany NY. The readings start at 7:00PM. This is a free event.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Woodstock Poetry Society
Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, Woodstock

Poets Bruce Weber and Laurie Byro will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, January 9th at 2pm. The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Bruce Weber - Bruce Weber is the author of five published books of poetry, "These Poems are Not Pretty", "How the Poem Died", "Poetic Justice", "The First Time I Had Sex with T. S. Eliot", and the just released "The Break-up of My  First Marriage".  Bruce’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, as well as in several anthologies including recently in Up is Up, But So Is Down: Downtown Writings, 1978-1992, and Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers (New Paltz, NY: Codhill Press, 2007). He has performed regularly in the tri-state area, both alone and with his performance group, Bruce Weber’s No Chance Ensemble, which has produced the CD "Let’s Dine Like Jack Johnson Tonight". He is the organizer of the Unorganicized Sunday Reading at ABC NO RIO, editor of the broadside Stained Sheets, and the producer of the long running Alternative New Year’s Day Spoken Word/Performance Extravaganza. By day, Bruce is Senior Curator at the National Academy Museum, and splits his time between his homes in New York City and Saugerties, New York.

Laurie Byro - Laurie Byro's short stories and poetry have appeared in a dozen or so small presses. Additionally, her work has been published in The Literary Review, Single Parent, Redactions, Aim, Chaminade Review, Chronogram, Grasslimb, Re:al Journal, The New Jersey Journal of Poets, Red Rock Review, The Paterson Literary Review among others. Her work can be googled in on-line e-zines and in the Guardian Unlimited on-line workshop. She was thrice nominated for “The Pushcart Prize” and has won or placed in 27 IBPC competitions.  Her work was recently published in The Poetry of Place Anthology (honoring William Carlos Williams).  Her children’s poem "A Captain's Cat" has appeared in Cricket Magazine and a textbook "Measuring up to the Illinois Learning Standards". In 2009, Mayor Barra proclaimed Laurie Byro as the “Official Poet Laureate of Allendale, NJ.”  Her work draws on myth and fairytale and her experiences of foreign places in the years she worked as a travel agent. Her poetry insists upon the continuing importance of fantasy, mystery and “the other” in our lives. Laurie is head of circulation at a library in New Jersey where she facilitates a poetry circle.

21st Annual Day of the Poet Contest on Thanksgiving Saturday, Nov 28

After the Thanksgiving holiday and all the Black Friday madness, be sure to go over the Colonie Library and check out this great annual poetry and spoken word event.

POETS' CORNER at the COLONIE TOWN LIBRARY and the SPC present the 21st Annual DAY OF THE POET --a poetry reading contest

Saturday, November 28, 2009 at the Colonie Town Library (William K.Sanford Library), 629 Albany Shaker Road, Loundonville, NY (near the Times Union Building off the Northway)

Reading starts at 10:00AM. Entrance fee: $3.00

Day of the Poet also features open stage readings by past champions and other local poets not competing.

How it works:
Competing poets are given three rounds. Poets present their original work only. Rounds are timed at two, three and four minutes respectively.

Poets are judged based on:
1. timing( get it close to the mark.)
2. presentation
3. content( profanity is discouraged unless used well. It is a library.)

Note: No artificial timing devices (watches, timers, alarm clocks, folks in the audience waving hands) are allowed. Timing is a unique feature of this contest. Poets have to depend on their own internal clocks. Preparation ahead of time to stay close to the time targets is recommended.

Prize amounts:
$200 First Prize
$50 Second prize
Third place prize is based on Entrance fees

To register or for more information call Timothy Lake at 518-274-0131.

Past First Place Winners:
1989- J.J. Clarke
1990-Roberta Waugh
1991- Paul Genega
1992- Judith saunders
1993-Frank Murphy
1994- Kym Flemming
1995-James Patrick Casey
1996- Sylvia Barnard
1997- Laura Minita( age 8)
1998-Anne Goodwin
1999-Viktor Batorsky
2000-Edward Sherlock
2001-Margaret Black
2002-Therese Broderick
2003-Todd Broomhead
2004-Serafina Whelen
2005-Kathy O'Brien
2006-Timothy Lake
2007-Alan Casline
2008-Miriam Axel-Lute
2009- who knows? Maybe you will take this spot in an auspicious list of competitors.

Spoken Word and Hip Hop at Valentines Tonight

Poetry, spoken word, music, hip hop and more is happening tonight at Valentines as The Intangible Collective is coming into town for what is sure to be a great show.  If you remember, these guys were a big part of the Psycho Cluster F*#k at the 2006 Albany Word Fest (Download Albany Poets Podcast #13 mp3).

Here is the info from Dan Stalter:

Static After The Storm
Friday 11/6 // Valentines 9PM // $5 Cover // 18+

The world ends often. Every moment offers the opportunity of new beginnings, as our past becomes engulfed in the apocalypse of our future. If you survive, the choice becomes yours: wallow in despair or effect change upon circumstance. 28 of us chose creation. This is Intangible. This is Collective. This is the Static After the Storm.

The Intangible Collective will kick off the evening with a full set of spoken word poetry at 9pm. A handful of local Albany Poets [editors note: Murrow and Dan Wilcox, among others] will also read. Following the poetry we will shift gears and bring Hip Hop to the stage. Headling the set will be Xkwisit, Killa Kev, Absolute, & DJ SG. Representing the Intangible Hip Hop faction will be Fascious, Bamboo MC, & B.Nice

For more information: http://www.intangiblecollective.com and http://www.valentinesalbany.com

Home Planet News Benefit and Reading This Sunday

The Bohemian Book Bin is proud to welcome Donald Lev, one of the founders of The Home Planet News (an Independent Literary Review that includes Poetry, Fiction, and Theater) for a gala poetry event and to celebrate the emergence of Home Planet News issue #63

The following poets will be reading their work which is featured in The Home Planet News Issue #63: Andy Clausen, Teresa Marta Costa, Justin Parrinello, Michael Platsky, Judith Saunders & R. Dionysus Whiteurs.

Suggested Donation $5.00 includes refreshments & free copy of HPN, plus face to face with Donald Lev

Donald Lev 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 in NYC.

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 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. He has published fourteen collections of poetry, including: Yesterday's News in 2002 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.  Don has just released a new collection: The Darkness Above.

So come by Sunday, November 8th from 4pm - 6pm, with some poems of your own to read & support an amazing publication, now in its 30th year Home Planet News at the Bohemian Book Bin, Largest Used Bookstore in Ulster County.  Now located in Lake Katrine, .02 mi North of Adams, off 9W right behind G & G Leather Sign. 85 Carle Terrace, Lake Katrine, 845-336-6450  bohemianbookbin.com

Poetry in Kingston This Saturday Featuring Alan Catlin, Dan Crocker, Tim Gager, Nathan Graziano and Rebecca Schumejda

Alan Catlin, Dan Crocker, Tim Gager, Nathan Graziano and Rebecca Schumejda will read at Half Moon Books, 35 North Front Street, Kingston, NY 6:30pm on Saturday, November 7th

Alan Catlin retired after thirty-four years of working in his unchosen profession as a barman. His latest collections include “Only the Dead Know Albany" from sunnyoutisde and a companion piece from March Street Press, “Near Death in the Afternoon on Becker Street.”

Daniel Crocker is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, a collection of short stories and the novel, The Cornstalk Man. He is the former editor of Controlled Burn and former assistant editor of Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley.

Timothy Gager is the author of seven books of short fiction and poetry. The poetry chapbooks, These Poems are not Pink Clouds (Propaganda Press) and this is where you go when you are gone (Cerena Barva Press) were released in 2008. He hosts the Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts every month and is the co-founder of Somerville News Writers Festival. Timothy is the current Fiction Editor of The Wilderness House Literary Review, the founding co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review and has edited the book, Out of the Blue Writers Unite: A Book of Poetry and Prose from the Out of the Blue Art Gallery. He has had over 150 works of fiction and poetry published since 2007 and of which five have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Nathan Graziano lives in Manchester, New Hampshire with his wife and two children. He is the author of Teaching Metaphors (sunnyoutside, 2007), Not So Profound (Green Bean Press, 2004), Frostbite (GBP, 2002) and seven chapbooks of poetry and fiction. His work has appeared in Rattle, Night Train, Freight Stories, The Coe Review, The Owen Wister Review, and others. His third book of poetry, After the Honeymoon, was published in September by sunnyoutside press. For more information, visit his website: www.nathangraziano.com

Rebecca Schumejda’s new collection, The Map of Our Garden will be release November 1st from verve bath press. Her full length collection, Falling Forward, was published by sunnyoutside press in February. They are also the publishers of her second collection, Dream Big, Work Harder, which appeared in 2006. She is a graduate of San Francisco State University, with an MA in Poetics. Schumejda currently teaches English at an alternative high school in Hudson. You can find out more at her website at www.rebeccaschumejda.com

Half Moon Books is located at 35 North Front St., in the uptown section of Kingston. Light refreshments will be served, and there is no cover charge. For more information, contact Half Moon Books at 845-331-5439, or contact Schumejda at rshume@hotmail.com.

Tribute to Poe at the Fuze Box THis Friday

This coming Friday is the “annual” Edgar Allan Poe tribute event and open mic R.M. Engelhardt’s monthly VoX series at the Fuze Box.  Local poets and musicians will be performing some of Poe’s work and there will be an open mic for poetry and spoken word. 

Here is the (slightly edited for formatting purposes) info from Rob.

ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30th, 2009 THE FUZE - BOX PRESENTS :

ALL HALLOW’S EVE, A RECKONING: 200 YEARS
A TRIBUTE TO EDGAR ALLEN POE
To Benefit THE ALBANY DAMIEN CENTER

WITH PERFORMANCES OF POE’S WORK BY:
- Murrow 
- Mary Panza 
- John Weiler 
- Terry Bat-Sonja
- AC Everson
- The Black Heart Contingency 
- R.M. Engelhardt

Many Others … Plus An Open Halloween Mic!

Come Celebrate HALLOWEEN ! Costumes Encouraged!!!

On FRIDAY, 8pm 
OCTOBER 30th 2009 
AT THE FUZE BOX
12 CENTRAL AVENUE, ALBANY, NY
(518) 432-8866

$8.00 Donation to the Damien Center

And Afterwards?
The Party Begins w/D.J. Strange & THE NECROMANCERS BALL!!!

10pm!

Come & join us for a glass of ABSINTHE!

R.M. ENGELHARDT
www.rmengelhardt.com

Poetry Reading Will Explore ‘Grief and Gratitude’, Sept 16

Sounds like this is going to be a good reading over in Troy on Wednesday.  Here is the information from the good people at the Arts Center:

Poetry reading will explore ‘grief and gratitude’

Area writers included in acclaimed anthology to read at The Arts Center

Beloved on the Earth (Holy Cow! Press) is an engaging anthology of 150 poems that brings together a range of responses to the experiences of death, mourning, and gratitude for lost loved ones, composed by a variety of poets, both emerging and well-known.

TROY—Acclaimed poet, storyteller and scholar Joseph Bruchac of Greenfield Center will be among the featured writers in a September 16 "anthology reading" at The Arts Center of the Capital Region, 265 River St. in downtown Troy.

Bruchac will be joined by poets Judith E. Prest of Duanesburg and Kenneth Salzmann of Woodstock in reading from the best-selling poetry anthology BELOVED ON THE EARTH: 150 POEMS OF GRIEF AND GRATITUDE.

The program will also include video recorded contributions and "proxy" readings of poems from more than a dozen far-flung contributors to the anthology.

A book signing will follow the reading, which begins at 7 p.m.

Released in June by the Minnesota-based Holy Cow! Press, BELOVED ON THE EARTH has been a frequent "hot new release" on Amazon's list of poetry anthologies and has appeared several times on the Poetry Foundation's Best Seller List (Nielsen BookScan).

The collection includes poems by dozens of emerging and acclaimed poets, including numerous Pulitzer Prize-winners, past and current poets laureate and other notables.

It has received praise from  Rabbi Lawrence Kushner ("An anthology filled with healing and hope.") and Dr. Bernie Seigel (“Death is an inevitable event and we are poorly prepared for the loss of a loved one. The answer lies within this book’s poems. . . “).

Michele Fedderly, executive director of Hospice Minnesota, also praised the anthology, saying, "This would be an excellent resource for families and staff offering a way to be open to healing and grace."

In literary circles, a Minnesota Star-Tribune book reviewer said, “This is a collection of poems that help give meaning to our grief and remind us that we are not alone.”

Elsewhere, critic Vince Corvaia termed it “the best book of poems I have reviewed so far this year.”

The collection is edited by poet Deborah Cooper, memoirist Mara Hart and poet and mystery writer Pamela Mittlefehldt  along with Jim Perlman, founding editor and publisher of Holy Cow! Press, which has been hailed by critic Lewis Hyde as “one of the best small presses in the nation.”

For more information about the Sept. 16 reading in Troy, contact The Arts Center at 518-273-0552 or visit www.artscenteronline.org

Java Poets Collective Reading, Oct 4

Definitely a reading to check out at Professor Java’s in Colonie coming on October 4.

In spring 2006, the NYS Writers Institute offered a poetry workshop conducted by Cara Benson. The group has continued to meet independently forming the Java Poets Collective.  The group is publishing Java Wednesdays, a chapbook of their work and will launch its release with this reading.

Readers include:  Deb Adler, Maria DeLucia-Evans, Gwen Gould, Scott Hicks, Nick Kling, Cecele Kraus, Suzanne Meyers, Terry Royne, Jan Marin Tramontano, Amy White, and Cara Benson.

Java Poets Collective Reading
Sunday, October 4, 2-4pm
Professor Java's Coffee Sanctuary
217 Wolf Road, Albany

Poets in the Park 2009

The 2009 season of Poets in the Park begins this coming Saturday, July 11 at the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park.  Here is the schedule of this years readers from host Dan Wilcox:

Poets in the Park 2009

Saturdays in July at the Robert Burns statue, Washington Park, Albany (at Henry Johnson Blvd. & Hudson Ave.)

July 11, 7PM
Mary Kathryn Jablonski and Randall Horton

July 18, 7PM
LisaAnn LoBasso and Tom Nicotera

July 25, 7PM
Lori Desrosiers and George Wallace

Free! & open to the public (just like the park).  Bring chairs, blankets, etc. to sit on.  Rain site: the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave.

sponsored by the Poetry Motel Foundation & the Hudson Valley Writers Guild

This project is made possible in part through COMMUNITY ART$GRANTS, a program funded through the State and Local Partnership Program of the New York State Council on the arts, a State agency and the Arts Center of the Capital Region.

For more information call 482-0262

Sunday Four Poetry With Frank Desiderio and Mimi Moriarty

Just wanted to pass this announcement along from the poets in Voorheesville and their monthly poetry series at the Old Songs Community Arts Center.

Old Songs Community Arts Center: Sunday Four Poetry--Frank Desiderio and Mimi Moriarty/ Voorheesville

Frank Desiderio and Mimi Moriarty with an open mike
Sunday Four Poetry Open Mike

Hosts: Dennis Sullivan, Edie Abrams, & Michael Burke

Old Songs Community Center
37 S. Main St., Voorheesville, NY
Every 4th Sunday

Upcoming Poetry Readings and Events

Busy week in poetry coming up.  Things kicked off yesterday with Dan Wilcox’s annual birthday tribute and reading of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”.  Here is some information on Tuesday’s Albany Poets Presents and Wednesday’s Caffe Lena Open Mic up in Saratoga. 

Albany Poets Presents, Tuesday, June 2

Albany Poets Presents, hosted by Thom Francis returns to Valentines on Tuesday, June 2 starting at 8:00PM.

Come over and join local poets and spoken word artists for an evening of conversation, cocktails, coffee, and, of course, poetry. The signup starts at 7:00PM for anyone who wants to take the stage and share their work.

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

Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic,  Wednesday, June 3 featuring Bill Wunder

Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic on Wednesday, June 3.  7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start with featured poet: Bill Wunder.  $3.  Hosted by Carol Graser at Caffe Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs.  For more information contact www.caffelena.org or call 583-0022.

This poetry month is sponsored by Joe and Carol Bruchac in memory of Kate O'Connell, a true lover and supporter of poetry.

Bill Wunder is the author of Pointing at the Moon (WordTech Editions, 2008) and a chapbook, A Season of Storms (Via Dolorosa Press, 2002). His poems have twice been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, and in 2004 he was named Poet Laureate of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Bill has been a finalist in The T. S. Eliot Prize two times, and the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards four times. He has read and lectured in local schools, colleges, on public television. His poems and short stories have been widely published, most recently in the Innisfree Poetry Journal, The Manhattan Review and The Paterson Literary Review. Bill serves as Poetry Editor of The Schuylkill Valley Journal, and lives with his two black labs in Bucks County.

Be sure to check the Poetry Calendar and if there are any events, readings, or open mics that we are missing, feel free to send us an email and we will add it to the calendar.

Upcoming Poetry Events and Open Mics

We have some annoucenments for poetry events and open mics that are coming up.  Be sure to check these out, there is a lot of poetry going on in the area. 

And just a reminder, in observance of Memorial Day on Monday, May 25, we will not be having the Poets Speak Loud poetry reading / open mic.  We will return on Monday, June 29 at the Lark Tavern.

Third Thursday Poetry Night, Thursday, May 21

The Poetry Motel Foundation presents Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center (33 Central Ave., Albany, NY).

Thursday, May 21.  7:00 sign up; 7:30 start.

Featured Poet: Rebecca Schumejda

Rebecca Schumejda’s newest collection of poems “Falling Forward” was published by sunnyoutside in February. Currently, she is working on a collection of poems exploring the pool hall subulture. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and daughter & works as a teacher at an alternative high school.

-- with open mic for community poets before & after the feature: $3.00 donation, suggested; more if you got it, less if you can’t.  Your busy host: Dan Wilcox.

Beat Poetry Night at Inquiring Minds, Sunday, May 24

BEAT POETRY NIGHT with Donald Lev, Teresa Marta Costa & Michael Platsky on Sunday, May 24 at 5 pm

Local Beat poets Teresa Marta Costa and Michael Platsky will join Donald Lev for a booksigning and reading to celebrate his recent collection, The Darkness Above. All three presenters are veteran poets who have been working in the Beat tradition for decades. Books, cds and chapbooks will be available at a discount, and refreshments will be served.

Inquiring Minds Bookstore, 6 Church Street, New Paltz, NY 12561 (845) 255-8300

Sunday Four Poetry Open Mic, Sunday, May 24

Sunday Four Poetry Open Mic (every 4th Sunday), May 24, 3PM at the Old Songs Community Arts Center, 37 S. Main Street, Voorheesville, NY

Hosts:  Dennis Sullivan, Edie Abrams, Michael Burke. 
Featured poet:  Dan Wilcox with Open Mic

For information contact: dsullivan6@nycap.rr.com

VOX, Friday, May 29

V Ω X ! @ The Fuze Box
Albany, NY's Open Mic For Poets, Poetry and the Word
8pm signup, 8:30PM Start time.  $4.00 Donation Requested.

With this Month’s Feature: MURROW (Thom Francis and Keith Spencer)

Hosted by R.M.Engelhardt w/Bruce Richardson & James Washburn- Dr.Sax

Last Friday of every month at the FUZE BOX, 12 Central Avenue, Albany,NY.  More info at www.myspace.com/theblackdooralbany

Reading for Will Christman, Monday, June 1

Rootdrinker Presents Reading for Will Christman on Monday June 1, 2009,  8 pm at Smith's Tavern, 112 Maple Ave., Voorheesville, N.Y.

With Poets from Near and Far : Dennis Sullivan, Therese Broderick, Michael Czarnacki, Tom Corrado, Alan Casline, John Roche, Mimi Moriarity, Susan Deer Cloud, Tim Lake, Paulette Swartzfager, Mike Burke, Walt Franklin & more

OPEN MIC FORMAT: All who want to read bring your poetry.  Reading in honor of famous local poet William Weaver Christman (1865– 1937)

Donald Lev and Frank Boyer Reading in Woodstock, May 9

Phillip Levine sent along the following announcement for this weekend’s Woodstock Poetry Society reading with Frank Boyer and Donald Lev.  If you are in the Woodstock area on Saturday afternoon, this would be a great reading to check out.

Poets Frank Boyer and Donald Lev will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival returns to the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, May 9th at 2pm. Note: WPS&F meetings are held the 2nd Saturday of every month at the Woodstock Town Hall, except during the winter months when we meet at the Woodstock Community Center (56 Rock City Road).  The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

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.

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. Among his honors have been a Madeline Sadin Award from New York Quarterly in 1973 and a Life Time Achievement Award from the Catskill Reading Society/Outloudbooks in 2003. Outloudbooks has just brought out his The Darkness Above: Selected Poems 1968-2002 a sampling from the first four decades of his writing. 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.

Here's our upcoming 2009 schedule of featured readers:
Jun 13 - Judith Saunders; William Seaton
Jul 11 - Marnie Andrews; Raphael Kosek
Aug 8 - Susan Lewis; India Radfar
Sep 12 – Cornelius Eady; Gioia Timpanelli
Oct 10 – Patti Martin; Susan Hoover, Victoria Sullivan
Nov 14 – George Wallace; TBA
Dec 12 – Open Mike & Annual Business & Planning Meeting

3 Guys From Albany On Tour

Got this from Dan Wilcox about the upcoming 3 Guys From Albany tour and information on how you can watch it live on your computer.  Ah, the combination of poetry and technology is fantastic!

As part of our Colorado/Wyoming tour to get to Albany Wyoming as 3 Guys from Albany--our 12th of 18 U.S. albanys--This Sunday, May 3, we will be on a colorado tv show that also streams live to the world via yr computer.

If you've never heard us....or haven't heard us in a while...or seen us...

We go live on CCTV 54 Sunday at 7 pm Mountain Daylight Time.  The show will be streamed live on the internet. That means anyone anywhere can view it

Sunday's Show LIVE at http://cctv54.org

NOTE that's 7 MOUNTAIN DAYLIGHT TIME

Our complete itinerary, in case you are in the area:
May 3 – Louisville, CO – Appearance on the Poets Co-op, CCTV 54, 7:00PM
May 4 – Albany, WY –   (somewhere, sometime)
May 5 – Cheyenne WY – The Albany Restaurant, Bar and Liquormat, 1506 Capitol Ave., 7:30 PM
May 6 – Denver, CO – Glovinsky Gallery, 800 W. 8th Ave., 7:00 PM, free (for information:  303-587-4237)
May 7 – Loveland, CO – Loveland Museum, 503 N. Lincoln Ave., 7:00 PM, donation (for information:  970-962-2410)

See us in an Albany near you.

Joan Murray to Read From “The Pushcart Book of Poetry”

Our friends over at The Arts Center in Troy are having a reading from poet adn editor Joan Murray on Monday, April 27.  Joan will be reading from a new book that she edited highlighting 30 years of the Pushcart Prize for poetry.

Poet and anthologist Joan Murray, a Columbia County resident, will offer up what amounts to a retrospective of some of the most important and influential poetry of the past three decades in a free and public reading on Monday, April 27, at The Arts Center of the Capital Region, 265 River St. in downtown Troy.

In the program, which will begin at 7 p.m., Murray will read a selection of poems from “The Pushcart Book of Poetry: The Best Poems from 30 Years of the Pushcart Prize.”

The anthology, published last year by The Pushcart Press and recently released in a paperback edition, was edited by Murray, who selected the poems from among thousands collected in the annual Pushcart Prize volumes through the years. Each year since 1976, The Pushcart Press has published “The Pushcart Prize – Best of the Small Presses” series, drawing from writing published in the nation’s small but influential literary presses.

Among the poets represented in “The Pushcart Book of Poetry: The Best Poems from 30 Years of the Pushcart Prize.” are such well-known figures as Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott, Mary Oliver, Gerald Stern, Lucille Clifton and Billy Collins, along with many lesser-known writers. The works range from the socially-conscious poems of the 1970s to technically ambitious selections from recent years, offering a historical glimpse into the evolving concerns of poetry over the 30 years it spans.

A noted poet herself, Murray is a National Poetry Series Winner, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Winner; a Wesleyan New Poets Series Winner, and Winner of Poetry Society of America's Gordon Barber Award. She is the author of eight books, including five volumes of poetry, most recently Dancing on the Edge, and is editor of the anthology, Poems to Live By in Troubling Times as well as the Pushcart Book of Poetry.

She has been a repeat guest on NPR's Morning Edition and PRI's To the Best of our Knowledge, and has contributed to such publications as The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The Nation, The New York Times, and The Best American Poetry.

For more information about her reading at The Arts Center, call 518-273-0552 or visit www.artscenteronline.org.

Caffe Lena Poetry Festival, April 11

The Albany Word Fest is not the only poetry festival in the area this year celebrating National Poetry Month.  Carol Graser is putting together the Caffe Lena Poetry Festival on Saturday, April 11 (from noon to 10:00PM) with a great lineup of poets, workshops, and activities all leading up to a reading by the legendary Ed Sanders.

Here is the information from Carol:

This year Caffè Lena greets the approaching spring and the arrival of National Poetry Month with a torrent of words: an all-day festival of poetry performance and workshops.

The program will feature twenty-minute readings throughout the afternoon by twelve stylistically varied, widely read poets from NYC, Rhode Island, Maine, the Capital District and the Adirondacks. Included will be Bernadette Mayer, Joseph Bruchac, Sam White, Michael Brown, Lyn Lifshin, Alan Catlin, Steven Huff, Miriam Axel-Lute, Barbara Ungar, Nancy White, Miriam Herrera and Jordan Smith. Workshops will be offered by Joe Bruchac, Michael Brown, Barbara Ungar, Jordan Smith, Miriam Axel-Lute and Steven Huff.

Afterward, we'll Gather for conversation and a meal of appetizers, salads and main course dishes. Bring a dish for 10 people and eat for free, or pay $10 and fill your plate at the eclectic buffet.

Headlining our first Caffè Lena Poetry Festival is Ed Sanders, famed counter-culture figure of the ‘60s, who built a bridge between the Beatnik and Hippy generations.

Please check www.caffelena.org  for a full schedule of readings, workshops, and for information about the potluck dinner.

Poetry Reading and Workshop With George Wallace in Woodstock, March 17

Utilizing a teaching method he perfected in the Pacific Northwest, George Wallace will stimulate your writing through exercises based on re-discovering and using your imaginative skills. This one day, two-hour workshop encourages you to play with language and practice your skill at triggering ideas for new poems, in a friendly group setting. Imagination-based poetry moves away from critical-evaluative approaches to writing poetry, focusing instead on exercises that enhance the writer’s ability to create space for the imagination to explore, invent, discover and roam.

BIO: George Wallace (AB, MPH, MFA) is an award winning poet and journalist from New York who has performed his work across America and in Europe. Author of eighteen chapbooks of poetry, he has served as editor of Poetrybay (www.poetrybay.com), Poetryvlog (www.poetryvlog.com), Long Island Quarterly, Walt’s Corner and other electronic and hard copy publications. A university lecturer and practicing poet in performance, he has performed his own work and conducted writing workshops worldwide. Wallace's work, which has been translated into fourteen languages, may be found in the collections of the New York State Historic Preservation Office, the California State Archives and the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library; and is archived at Hofstra University's Long Island Studies Institute.

IMAGINATION-BASED POETRY READING BY GEORGE WALLACE AND WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS.  TUESDAY MARCH 17 7-9 PM.  $40 please register by March 15.  Call 845-679-3392 for more information.  9 PM Open to the Public.  6 HILLCREST AVE, WOODSTOCK NY.

Amy Halloran and Matthew Klane At The UAG, Mar 13

Happy Monday! Yes it is early in the week but Albany Poets thought we would give you a reason to make it until Friday!

This Friday, March 13th ALBANY POETS PRESENTS: FRIDAY AT THE UAG, 247 Lark Street. We begin at 7pm!  Featuring Amy Halloran and Matthew Klane.

Amy Halloran writes short stories, prosey poems, and some vaguely agreed upon facts for a wide range of reading publics. Her work is archived on McSweeneys, Pindeldyboz and at her website, amyhalloran.net. She lives in Troy with her husband, their two sons and five hens. The birds lay beautiful green eggs, and some not so lovely brown ones.

Matthew Klane is co-editor/founder of Flim Forum Press, publisher of the anthologies Oh One Arrow (2007) and A Sing Economy (2008). His book is B_____ Meditations from Stockport Flats Press (2008). His latest chapbooks include Sons and Followers, Friend Delighting the Eloquent, Sorrow Songs, and The- Associated Press. Also see: The Meister-Reich Experiments, a sprawling hypertext, online at housepress.org. He currently lives and writes in Albany, NY.

We will be streaming this event live on the web in case you are not able to make it out.  Head over to www.albanypoets.com/video.asp and click on “Launch Live Player” starting at 7:00PM.

Albany Poets Presents, Tuesday, Feb 3

Albany Poets is returning to Valentines on Tuesday, February 3 for our monthly open mic for poetry and spoken word. This month, in addition to all of the great poetry, we will have information on the Albany Word Fest that is coming up in April.

ALBANY POETS PRESENTS is Albany Poets monthly open mic for poetry, spoken word, and music. This event is hosted by Thom Francis.

When we are not having special events, such as the annual Airing of Grievances or the Johnny Cash Tribute Night, this is a No Gimmick Open Mic series. This means no features, no special theme, no mysterious name for the show… just a stage, a microphone, a sign-up sheet, and an audience.

Sign up starts at 7:00PM, the reading starts at 8:00PM. Valentines is located at 17 New Scotland Ave., Albany (right between Washington Park and Albany Med).

Dan Wilcox Talks About the Small Press Reading at the UAG

Dan Wilcox has a new post up on his blog talking about the small press reading at the UAG Gallery last Saturday.  This reading featured poets and representatives from the local small presses that were a part of the New Beginnings show.

Matthew Klane hosted this reading by representatives of small presses with connections to the Capital Region as part of the month-long exhibit at the Gallery. The presses had had their books on display since the First Friday of January monthly art walk, along with an exhibit of photos from "the world's largest collection of photos of unknown poets" by me, Dan Wilcox.

Be sure to check out the rest of the article here.

Poetry Slam at RPI

From our fiends over at the La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity at RPI announcing their upcoming annual poetry slam on February 20.

We the brothers of La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity will be hosting our 12th Annual Poetry Slam on Friday February 20th at 7:00PM in the Biotech Auditorium at RPI. It is a free event and open to the public to compete in. This years theme is "Armageddon: Point of No Return?". Below is a link to the website where you can view all the information on the rules and regulations of the overall poetry slam and competition.

Check out the site for more information on this event and find out how you can get involved.

Poetry on the Radio?

Bob Wright sent along this announcement about a special Valentines Day poetry event brought to you by Catskill Community Radio.

Catskill  Community Radio Presents

Word Upstage!

A Valentine's Day Special Event of Regional Writers Reading Original Love Poetry Saturday, February 14, Potluck Dinner at 6 PM, Show From 7- 9; FREE

An enjoyable evening of original love poetry from both sides of the fence!  We will feature two poets from the women's writing group from Skidmore known as The Salon and two male poets as they read original works dealing with the pleasures and pitfalls of love.  Starring Georganna Millman, Therese Broderick, Will Nixon and Bob Wright.  You need not be in love to attend!  Not to be missed, but if you must miss it, tune in live at www.catskillradio.org

Taylor Mali To Read For Frequency North At Saint Rose

Here is some information on slam poet and teacher Taylor Mali coming into town for a reading at the Frequency North series at St. Rose.

Frequency North, the aggressively eclectic visiting writers reading series at The College of Saint Rose, rolls on with slam poet Taylor Mali, a former teacher who uses his artistry with words to turn people to the teaching profession.

Mali will read at Saint Rose Thursday, February 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the College’s Saint Joseph Hall Auditorium, 985 Madison Ave., Albany. Copies of Mali’s latest work will be available for purchase and signing. Frequency North is sponsored by The College of Saint Rose School of Arts and Humanities and is free and open to the public.

Mali is a former teacher who now makes his living as a professional poet. Through poetry, passion and perseverance, he wants to turn 1,000 people to the teaching profession. He is considered the most successful poetry slam strategist of all time, having led six of his eight national poetry slam teams to the finals stage and winning the championship itself a record four times before anyone had even tied him at three. The New York City native was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO original series “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.” Mali also was the “golden-tongued, Armani clad villain” of Paul Devlin’s 1997 documentary film SlamNation, which chronicled the National Poetry Slam Championship of 1996, the year of Mali’s first national team championship.

Mali is a vocal advocate of teachers, having performed and lectured for education professionals all over the world. Mali received a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in 2001 to develop “Teacher! Teacher!” a one-man show about poetry, teaching and math that won the jury prize for best solo performance at the 2001 U. S. Comedy Arts Festival.

Taylor Mail at Frequency North
Thursday, February 26, 2009, 7:30pm - 8:30pm
Saint Joseph Auditorium, Albany, NY

For more information, you can contact Daniel Nester at daniel.nester@strose.edu

Two Readings at Inquiring Mind Bookstore in New Paltz

Just got this announcement from Phillip Levine about two upcoming readings at the Inquiring Mind Bookstore in New Paltz.  These readings have pretty impressive lineups of poets, some have read in Albany over the years.  Be sure to check these out if you are in the area.

SUNDAY, January 11th from 5 pm to 7pm: "Chronogram Poetry Picks," a reading by poets with books reviewed in the January issue of Chronogram, including: Ed Sanders, Robert Kelly, Anne Gorrick, Susan Sindall, Djelloul Marbrook, Mary Katherine Jablonski, Robert Milby, Donald Lev, Peter Gizzi, Roberta Gould, Will Nixon, William Seaton, and Lee Gould. Refreshments will be served.

SATURDAY, February 7th at 6:30: A group reading from "The Poet's Guide to the Birds," a new anthology published by Aningha Press, edited by Judith Kitchen and former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. The reading will feature local poets Will Nixon, Matt Spireng, Barbara Adams, David Nightingale, and Rich Parisio. Refreshments will be served.

Both events will be held at Inquiring Minds Bookstore, located at 6 Church Street in New Paltz, NY. Please call 845-255-8300 for additional information and directions.

Inaugural Poetry Event in Northampton

Northampton Poet Laureate Lesléa Newman, The Florence Poets Society, and the Northampton Arts Council will host an open poetry reading on Tuesday, January 20th starting at 6:30 p.m.at the Yellow Sofa Café (24 Main Street, Northampton, MA) to celebrate the election of President Barack Obama.

Poets are asked to write an inauguration poem celebrating this momentous occasion and bring it to read.  Sign up will begin at 6:00 p.m.

"Barack Obama loves poetry; he is having poet Elizabeth Alexander read at his inauguration, he has been spotted with a book of Derek Walcott's tucked under his arm, he is going to be a fabulous president in terms of supporting the literary arts," said Poet Laureate Lesléa Newman, who will emcee the event. "I don't know who came up with the idea originally, but similar events will be happening coast to coast, and the goal is to make this the biggest simultaneous open reading of debut poetry that's ever happened in this country. I know the poets of the Northampton community are going to write amazing poems to read for, about, and in celebration of Barack Obama, and I can't wait to hear them.

"No previous writing experience is necessary in order to participate. Come one, come all, and read a poem for Obama!”

The Yellow Sofa is located at 24 Main Street in Northampton, and offers delicious Mediterranean food such as hummus and spinach and feta pie, as well as a wide assortment of coffee, tea, and locally baked goods.

For more information, about the event, contact: Lesléa Newman at
413-552-3865 or leslea@lesleakids.com.  For information about the Florence Poets Society, contact Carl Russo at fpoets@localnet.com.

Stephen Lewandowski To Read in Voorheesville

Noted environmental leader and poet, Stephen Lewandowski will appear at the Voorheesville Public Library, 51 School Rd., Voorheesville, N.Y. on Sunday January 4, 2008 at 2 pm. He will discuss his bioregional and watershed interests as well as read a selection of his poems. An informal question and answer session will immediately follow his presentation. He is a founder of the Coalition for Hemlock and Canadice Lakes and the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Task Force and worked on the development of watershed management plans for many of the Finger Lakes and Lake Ontario. His most recent book of poems, One Life, was published by Wood Thrush Books of Vermont. He is releasing a small book of poems, Digging Wild Soils, which will be published in early 2009 by Delmar’s Benevolent Bird Press

For more information, contact Alan Casline, Rootdrinker Institute, Box 522, Delmar, NY 12054 at ACASLINE@AOL.COM or by phone at 518-475-7781

Richard Jeffrey Newman to Read at Poetry on the Loose

Richard Jeffrey Newman will read his poetry at the next program in the Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance Series.  The event will be held at Baby Grand Books at 7 West Street in Warwick at 4:00 p.m. on October 4.  Following the feature, others are welcome to read original work.  Admission is free.

Poet, translator, essayist and educator, Richard Jeffrey Newman is the author of a book of original poetry, The Silence Of Men (which includes a foreword by Yusef Komunyakaa), and of Selections from Saadi’s Gulistan and Selections from Saadi’s Bustan, translations of two masterpieces of 13th century Iranian poetry. In addition, he co-translated with Prof. John Moyne a selection of work by Rumi titled A Bird in the Garden of Angels,.

Newman’s poems and essays have appeared in a wide range of journals, including Salon.com, The American Voice, Prairie Schooner, and Birmingham Poetry Review. In addition, he has completed a verse translation of a book-length section of the Shahnameh, the Persian national epic, for which he is seeking a publisher. Richard Jeffrey Newman is Literary Arts Director of Persian Arts Festival, sits on the advisory board of The Translation Project. He is Associate Professor of English at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York, where he coordinates the Creative Writing Project.

Newman says, “I first called myself a poet when I was 22 years old. That choice saved my life. Giving myself to the language, claiming the language as mine to work, was a paradox I did not even understand that I was entering; and yet entering that paradox gave me my voice back (how I lost it is a story too long to tell here). It also gave me - and I am not being melodramatic - a reason to live.”

In his translations, which were commissioned by the International Society for Iranian Culture, he has focused on finding verse forms in English that can embody the spirit and content of the poetic masterpieces he has been asked to work with, the formal characteristics of which are virtually impossible to reproduce in English. Newman’s work as a translator has also led him to investigate the reception of classical Iranian literature in the English-speaking world.

This event was funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. with public funds from The New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

On November 1, Jake St. John, Colleen Keenan, and Dave Spinelli of the New London (Connecticut) school of poets will read.

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

Albany Poets Presents Featuring Vanessa Place and Matthew Klane, Tues Oct. 7 at Valentines

Albany Poets in association w/ Flim Forum + Les Figues Press is hosting a special edition of Albany Poets Presents at Valentines (17 New Scotland Ave., Albany) on Tuesday, October 7th featuring Vanessa Place and Matthew Klane. 

Vanessa Place is a writer and lawyer, and co-director of Les Figues Press. She is the author of Dies: A Sentence (Les Figues Press), a 50,000-word, one-sentence novella; the post-conceptual novel La Medusa (Fiction Collective 2), and the forthcoming Notes on Conceptualisms (Ugly Duckling Presse), in collaboration with appropriation poet Robert Fitterman, and a nonfiction book, The Guilt Project: Rape and Morality (Other Press). Other work has appeared in other publications, including Western Humanities Review, Northwest Review, Insert Fold Magazine, Greetings #10, 4th Street: A Poetry Bimonthly, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Bookforum, and theextraroom (Ger.). Her collaboration with artist/performer Lamya Regragui will debut at Cent Quatre in Paris/Los Angeles in 2009, and she is collaborating with conceptual artist Stephanie Taylor on the film “Murderous Square Dance at the Spiral Jetty.” Place is a co-founder of Les Figures Press, described by critic Terry Castle as “an elegant vessel for experimental American writing of an extraordinarily assured and ingenious sort.”

Matthew Klane is co-editor and founder of Flim Forum Press, publisher of the experimental poetry anthologies Oh One Arrow and A Sing Economy. His book, B____ Meditations, is forthcoming, this fall, from Stockport Flats Press. His recent chapbooks include Sorrow Songs, Friend Delighting the Eloquent, and The-Associated Press. Also: The Meister-Reich Experiments, an evolving hypertext, online at www.housepress.org. Other recent work can be found in The New Chief Tongue and online at Open Letters Monthly and Otoliths. He currently lives and writes in Albany, New York.

$3 suggested donation

ALBANY POETS PRESENTS is Albany Poets’ monthly open mic for poetry, spoken word, and music. See: www.albanypoets.com. 

FLIM FORUM PRESS, founded in 2005, is an independent press that provides SPACE to emerging poets working in a variety of experimental modes. See:
www.flimforum.blogspot.com.

Award Winning Songwriter James Krueger and Poet Bob Wright to Give Performance at Arts Upstairs Gallery

Songwriter James Krueger and Poet Bob Wright will give a performance at Arts Upstairs Gallery on Saturday, October 4 at 7:30 PM. Hailed by judges as "an extraordinarily talented writer with a real talent for poetic imagery" Krueger is a two time honor award winner in the Great American Songwriting Contest. A founding member of the Woodstock Poetry Society and acting coordinator for six years, the Athens, NY poet Bob Wright has been published in periodicals and anthologies throughout the US such as Oxalis and Yankee Magazine. The Arts Upstairs Gallery is located at 60 Main Street in Phoenicia, NY. You can find out more about this program by calling 845-594-2249.

A man of few words, great insight and much humor, Athens, NY poet Bob Wright has been writing poetry for some 20 years. He has actively been reading his work at various venues in the Northeast for many years as well as hosting several regular poetry readings in the Hudson Valley. Currently he is the host of a bimonthly poetry reading at the Athens Cultural Center and is the curator of the web-based Hudson Valley Poetry Calendar (www.poetz.com/hudson), a reasonably comprehensive listing of poetry events in the counties along the Hudson River. He was one of the founders of the Woodstock Poetry Society and for six years acted as its coordinator. Before that, in its last year, he served as president of the Stone Ridge Poetry Society, in Stone Ridge, New York. His poetry has been published in such diverse periodicals as Oxalis, Yankee, the Christian Science Monitor, Freefall Magazine, Heliotrope, and the North Dakota Quarterly. One of his poems appeared recently in Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers, published by Codhill Press.

James Krueger has been writing and performing his own music since the age of fifteen. His richly poetic songs backed by his unique finger-style guitar playing celebrate the beauty of the Catskill region, gently connecting listeners to the natural world without ever forcing a message. A review in the Chronogram described Krueger's music as "something you'll put on and won't take off" adding that his music and lyrics "reflect a deep, healthy connection with nature." Krueger is the recipient of numerous grants and has performed for such diverse groups as the North American Bluebird Society, National Artists for Mental Health, the Sierra Club, The New York Maple Growers' Association and the Thendara Mountain Club. He has released four solo CDs including his latest title, a live recording called Live in Denver, NY. You can hear James Krueger's music and find out more about him by visiting his web site www.jameskrueger.com.

The Arts Upstairs is a cooperative gallery that regularly showcases quality local art. The theme of the artwork hanging on October 4 will be "Pot Luck."

What: Performance by poet Bob Wright and songwriter James Krueger
Where: The Arts Upstairs Gallery, 60 Main Street, Phoenicia, NY
When: Saturday October 4, 7:30 – 9:00 PM
Cost: $5
Contact: info@jameskrueger.com or 845-594-2249

Lei Isaacs and Georganna Millman Read in Athens, NY on Oct 18

Two highly esteemed Hudson Valley  poets, Lei Isaacs and Georganna Millman, will be featured when Poetry at the Hudson meets at the Athens Cultural Center, 24 Second Street, on Saturday, October 18, 2008 at 2 p.m.  An open mike will be part of the occasion. 

Lei was born in the famed Maverick Arts Colony in Woodstock to parents who were professional writers, and she was entirely home-schooled.  Her mother, Marguerite, was a noted Woodstock artist of the 1950's and 1960's.  Active in local journalism for fifty years, she has been published in such periodicals as The Ulster County Townsman, The Woodstock Press, The Woodstock Journal, the Woodstock Times, the Kingston Times, Home Planet News, and Chronogram. Lei is the founder of the women's poetry collective called 3 Free Women and has given numerous spoken-word performances as a member of that collective and as a solo performer.  Among these are readings at The Day Of The Poet, an event that was held annually in Stone Ridge for several years; at the Voices of the Valley poetry series; and at The Arts Society of Kingston.  She has written a number of novels, and a chapbook of her poetry will soon be published.  Outside her writing activities, Lei is an vigorous advocate for persons with disabilities and animal rights.

Georganna graduated from the Adult Creative Writing & Degree Program at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. She is completing her first full-length book of poetry, titled Formulary, focusing on the landscape and history of the Catskill Mountain region, where she lives with her husband and sons.  Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including Blueline, The Margie Review: American Journal of Poetry, Vanguard Voices of the Hudson Valley (sponsored by the Mohonk Mountain Stage Company), and The Literary Gazette.  It has appeared also on Voice-America internet radio for National Poetry Month, April 2008. Georganna has been a featured poet at The Woodstock Poetry Society and at Albany's Poets In The Park. Self-employed as the owner of an independent retail pharmacy, she volunteers as well as a grant-writer for the Woodstock Poetry Society and Festival.

The readings will be hosted by area poet Bob Wright.  There is a suggested donation of $3.  To reach the Cultural Center, proceed on NY 385 into the village of Athens and turn west onto Second Street; it is the second building on the right.  For additional information, call 518-444-4561.

Robert Milby's October Poetry Events

The busiest downstate poet and host Robert Milby has just sent in his October Poetry Events schedule. 

October's Poetry Events:

Thursday, October 2, 2008  7:00pm
Noble Coffee Roasters
3020 Rt. 207 Campbell Hall, NY
Featured:  Lawrence Soehnel plus open mic
$2 donation
845-294-1056

Wed. Oct. 15th,  7:30pm
Muddycup Coffeehouse, 129 Main, Beacon, NY
Featured:  Robert Dunn plus open mic
$2 donation

Fri. Oct. 17th
NO JOEY'S CAFE

Friday, Oct. 17th,  7:00pm
Poetry Cafe
Florida Library 4 Cohen Circle, Florida, NY
Featured:  Barbara Adams, Kenneth Pearson, Robert Milby plus open mic and refreshments
No cover
845-651-7659

Sat. Oct. 18th,  7:00pm
Mudd Poets Poetry Series
Mudd Puddle Cafe
10 Main St.(inside Water St. Market), New Paltz, NY
Featured:  Ken Van Rensselaer, William Seaton plus open mic
$2 donation
845-255-3436

Sat. Oct. 25th, 7:00pm
6th Annual Evening of Ghost Poetry with Theremin Music
The Theremin Ghosts:Carl Welden and Robert Milby hosted by Christopher Wheeling
Mudd Puddle Cafe
10 Main St. (inside Water St. Market), New Paltz, NY        
845- 255-3436
No open mic/$4 cover

Tuesday, Oct. 28th, 7:30pm
Ghost Poetry Night with Theremin Ghosts: Welden and Milby
Rosendale Theatre
408 Main St. Rosendale, NY
845-658-3016
No open mic/$8 cover

Wednesday, Oct. 29th  7:00pm
Ghost Poetry Night w/Theremin Ghosts
Rose Memorial Library
79 East Main St. , Stony Point, NY
No cover, refreshments
Open mic for seasonal poetry

Quite a month ahead!  See you there...
your host, Robert Milby

We will be adding these to the events calendar as well so you will be able to plan your month of poetry from one end of the state to the other.

Roberta Allen and Naton Leslie at the Woodstock Poetry Society

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival as part of the Woodstock Arts Consortium is sponsoring the following poetry event as part of the Woodstock "Second Saturdays" Art Events. For a full listing of "Second Saturday" events, see: www.woodstockartsconsortium.org.

Roberta Allen and Naton Leslie will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, September 13th at 2pm. Note: WPS&F meetings are held the 2nd Saturday of every month.

The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Roberta Allen is the author of eight books, including the novel, THE DREAMING GIRL, praised by the Village Voice; two story collections, THE TRAVELING WOMAN and CERTAIN PEOPLE, both praised by The New York Times Book Review; a novella-in-stories, THE DAUGHTER, praised by the VLS; a memoir, AMAZON DREAM, praised by the LA Reader & the VLS; and three writing guides. She is finishing a story collection called NOW THAT HE'S DEAD. She is on the faculty of The New School, has taught in the writing program at Columbia, and teaches private writing classes in New York and Woodstock. Allen is also a visual artist who has exhibited worldwide, with work in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Naton Leslie is the author of a book of narrative nonfiction, That Might Be Useful (Lyon Press, 2005), six volumes of poetry: Three Shadows Are Dark Daughters (1998), Moving to Find Work (2000), Salvaged Maxims (2002), Egress (2004), The Last Best Motif (2004), and Emma Saves Her Life (2007). A collection of his short fiction, Marconi's Dream and Other Stories (2003), won the George Garrett Fiction Prize, and he is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He teaches writing and literature at Siena College, in Loudonville, New York.

For more information on this series in Woodstock, contact Philip Levine at 845-246-8565 or pprod@mindspring.com

The Hometown Stage at LARKfest 2008

It is that time of year again...LARKfest!  And again this year Albany Poets will be a part of the event bringing poetry, music and spoken word to upstate New York's largest arts festival.

Albany Poets will also have a table with information about our organization, the open mics and poetry events in the area, local poets and spoken word artists, and the new issue of our magazine OTHER.

LARKfest will be on September 20 from 10AM - 5:30PM on Lark Street (between Madison Ave. and Washington Ave.).  The Hometown Stage will be on the corner of Chestnut and Lark with Jazzhands kicking things off at 11:30AM. 

Here is the schedule of events for The Hometown Stage:

11:30 - 12:00  Jazzhands
12:15 - 12:45  Albany Poets and the House Band of the Apocalypse
12:50 -  1:00  Discard Avant Garb Recycled Fashion Show Preview
1:15  -   1:45  MotherJudge & Mitch Elrod with special guests
2:00  -   2:30  Cristo Lewis
2:45  -   3:30  Big Nixon
3:45  -   4:30  knotworking
4:45  -   5:30  Heavenly Echoes

For more information on LARKfest 2008 check out the Lark Street BID website.

Frequency North with David Rees and Rachel Shukert

The following is the announcement from our friend Daniel Nester about the new season of Frequency North at St. Rose:

Mark your calendars! David Rees of "Get Your War On" fame and Rachel Shukert, a Nerve/Salon/Heeb columnist, will come to The College of Saint Rose to kick off the 4th season of the Frequency North reading series!

The time: 7:30pm. The place: Events and Activities Center, 420 Western Avenue, Second Floor.   Details and more information below; call me at 454-2812 or email me (Daniel Nester) at nesterd@strose.edu.

Frequency North,the visiting writers reading series at The College of Saint Rose, kicks off its fourth season on Thursday, September 25, with David Rees, creator of the Internet phenom Get Your War On,and playwright, writer and sometime performer Rachel Shukert.

David Rees was working a crummy magazine job when Operation: Enduring Freedom inspired him to create his cartoon "Get Your War On." The satire about the war on terrorism became an Internet phenomenon. "Get Your War On" now appears in every issue of Rolling Stone, and an animated version is featured on www.236.com. Get Your War On was published in book form in 2003 (Soft Skull Press), followed by Get Your War On II in 2004 (Riverhead Books). This fall, Soft Skull Press publishes Get Your War On: The Definitive Account of George Bush's War on Terror 2001-2008. Sales of the first two Get Your War On books have raised almost $100,000 for land mine removal in western Afghanistan. Rees also is the author of My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable (Riverhead Books, 2003), Adventures of Confessions of Saint Augustine Bear and My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable (Riverhead, 2004), which appeared as a regular feature in The Guardian of London. Rees lives in Beacon, Orange County.

Rachel Shukert is the author of Have You No Shame?: And Other Regrettable Stories (Random House/Villard), a memoir collection that chronicles, among other high jinks, the writer-performer-provocateur's experience growing up in Omaha, Neb., in that city's only Jewish elementary school. Her most recent theatre project, "Wasp Cove," is a "Dallas"/"Falcon Crest"-type soap opera, which she co-created and co-wrote with Julie Klausner. In it, Shukert plays the actress Pamela Ann Windchime, who plays the character of Donna Kettering. Her writing has appeared in Nerve, Babble, Salon, Heeb Magazine and McSweeney's, and anthologized in 2033: The Future of Misbehavior. Shukert lives in New York City with her husband and her cat.

Rogoff Reading at Skidmore College

Poet Jay Rogoff will be reading at Skidmore College at the Surrey Williamson Inn on North Broadway in Saratoga on Thursday, September 11 at 8:00PM.

Jay Rogoff’s new book of poems, The Long Fault, appeared from Louisiana State University Press in 2008.  LSU will also publish his book of poems concerning dance, The Code of Terpsichore, in 2011.  His earlier books include 1995’s The Cutoff, set in the world of minor league baseball, which won the Word Works Washington Prize, and How We Came to Stand on That Shore, issued in 2003.  He has also published a chapbook, First Hand (1997), about marriage and dairy farming, and, with artist and printmaker Kate Leavitt, Venera, a 2001 limited edition artists’ book, handmade and handset by Leavitt and featuring her four-color intaglio prints.

Rogoff’s poems have appeared in many journals and magazines, among them Agni, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Literary Imagination, Ploughshares, The Progressive, Salmagundi, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, and The Yale Review.  His criticism on poetry and other arts frequently appears in such journals as The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Salmagundi, Shenandoah, and The Southern Review.  He also serves as The Saratogian’s daily ballet reviewer during the summer New York City Ballet season at SPAC.

Rogoff teaches writing and literature in the English Department at Skidmore College and lives in Saratoga Springs.

For more information, contact 518-580-5150

"Krooked Change...Smeered" CD Release Show at The Bayou, Aug 13

The Poet Essence will be releasing her brand new CD, Krooked Change...Smeered, on Wednesday, August 13 at the Bayou Cafe (79 North Pearl Street, Albany).

This not-to-be-missed special event will feature poetry, music, and spoken word from Tribal Raine, Houseband of the Apocalypse, The Johnny Bravehearts, Max Parthas, THE Dubber, and, of course, THE POET ESSENCE.

And, as an added bonus, hosting this fantastic night of poetry and spoken word is none other than Big Ray from JAMZ 96.3

The show starts at 7:00PM.  Get there early to get a seat as space fills up quick for Essence's CD release shows.

You can get some more info on the show and The Poet Essence by checking out her MySpace page or her work on the Albany Poets site.

Steven Huff at Caffe Lena, August 6

The next Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic is on Wednesday, August 6 with featured poet Steven Huff. 

Steven Huff  is a poet and fiction writer, and the Director of Adult Education and Programming at Writers & Books. He teaches creative writing at RIT and the Eastman School of Music, and is the voice of “Fiction in Shorts” on WXXI-FM. Steve’s new book of poems, More Daring Escapes, is due out this fall from Red Hen Press, as is his new book of stories, A Pig in Paris from Lake Affect Publishers. His previous books include The Water We Came From, published in 2003 by FootHills, and Proof, which was named Editor’s Choice in the 2004 Two Rivers Review Chapbook Competition.

Sign up for the open mic begins at 7:00PM, open mic starts at 7:30PM.  There is a $3.00 suggested donation.  Your host, Carol Graser.  Caffe Lena is located at 47 Phila Street in beautiful downtown Saratoga Springs.

Woodstock Poetry Society, July 12

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival, as part of the Woodstock Arts Consortium is sponsoring the following poetry event as part of the Woodstock "Second Saturdays" Art Events. For a full listing of "Second Saturday" events, go to: www.woodstockartsconsortium.org.

Poets Baron James Ashanti and Bertha Rogers will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, July 12th at 2pm. Note: WPS&F meetings are held the 2nd Saturday of every month.  The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Baron James Ashanti has widely been published nationally and internationally over a 40 year career.  He is listed in:  Who's Who in The World; Who's Who in America;  Who's Who in American Education; Who's Who in America, Writer, Editors & Poets;  Who's Who in North American Poetry;  The International Who's Who in Poetry; and The International Writer and Author's Who's Who.  He has read poetry along with Allen Ginsberg; Gwen Brooks; and Amiri Baraka.  In 2004 Mr. Ashanti did a reading tour of Ireland which included Beal Feirste (Belfast), Northen Ireland and the Yeats House, Sligeah (Sligo).  For most of the last decade his work has centered on Asia and Ireland.

Bertha Rogers's poems appear in journals and anthologies. She has published four collections of poetry, and her fifth collection, Heart Turned Back, will be published in 2009 by Salmon Poetry, Ireland. Her translation of Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, was published in 2000, and her translation of the riddle-poems from the Anglo-Saxon Exeter Book will be published in 2008.  Her poem “Rhomboid” won PhiloPhonema’s Lyric Recovery  Award in 2001, selected by Alfred Corn; and her poem “Truck Stand” was selected by John Ashbery for display in the Albany Airport to celebrate the Millay Colony’s 3Oth anniversary. In 2006 she was the recipient of an AE Ventures Grant for excellence in both poetry and visual art and for contributions to the field through the not-for-profit literary press and center she founded, www.brighthillpress.org.  In 2007 she was given the 2007 Teaching Artist Distinguished Service to the Arts in Education Field by Partners for Arts Education and the Association of Teaching Artists in New York. She also serves as program manager for the New York State Literary Web Site, www.nyslittree.org, publisher of the first Literary Map of New York State (2005), in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts.  Her web site is www.bertharogers.com.

Here's our upcoming schedule of featured readers:
8/9 - Gretchen Primack (rescheduled), Philip Pardi
9/13 - Roberta Allen, Naton Leslie
10/11 - Mary Kathryn Jablonski, Will Nixon

Also, why not become a 2008 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival?
Membership is a nominal $15 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Include your email address as well as your mailing address and phone number.)  Your membership helps pay for hall rental, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website.

Poets in the Park 2008

Poets in the Park 2008 at the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park, Albany (at Henry Johnson Blvd. & Hudson Ave.) starts this Saturday at 7:00PM.

July 12: Georganna Millman and W.D. Clarke

July 19: Charlie Rossiter and Mimi Moriarty & Frank Desiderio

July 26: James Schlett and Kathryn Kelly

August 2: Susan Brennan and Philip Good

Free! & open to the public (just like the park)
Rain dates: the following Sundays, same time, same place

This event series is sponsored by the Poetry Motel Foundation & the Hudson Valley Writers Guild.  This project is made possible in part through COMMUNITY ART$GRANTS, a program funded through the State and Local Partnership Program of the New York State Council on the arts, a State agency and the Arts Center of the Capital Region.  For information call 482-0262.

Upcoming "Special Guests" at the Colony Café - Monday Night Open Mic for June 2008

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.

Upcoming "Special Guests":

Monday, June 2nd, 2008:
Northeast Center for Special Care - Resident Poets, Artists and Musicians

Monday, June 9th, 2008:
Steven Cleaver (poetry, fiction) - Steven Cleaver is a poet and fiction writer. His first novel, Saving Erasmus, was named Best of 2007 by Publishers Weekly and he was called an Original Voice by Borders Books. His poetry has won awards and has been listed on Poets Against the War. He brings a quirky sense of humor and a wry outlook on life to his writings. He is working on a book of poetry, Dear God, Or Whatever Your Name is Now and a second novel, The Gaps Between the Platforms.

Brett Bevell (poet) - Brett Bevell is the author of the illustrated poetry books America Needs a Buddhist President (White Cloud Press 2004) and America Needs a Woman President (Monkfish 2007), as well as The Reiki Magic Guide To Self Attunement (Crossing Press 2007).

Brett won the 1995 Paul Laurance Dunbar Poetry Prize, and has published his work in progressive and literary magazines around the country such as Chronogram and Earth First Journal. He lives and works at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY

Monday, June 16th, 2008:
Teresa Costa (poet) - Teresa Costa can be reached at: manxcat12491@yahoo.com

Jan Castro (poet) - I moved from St. Louis to New York City and Ulster County about a year ago, on June 22nd, 2005. Here are some of my many poetry publications, performances!  Published Poetry includes: Wax-Winged, libretto and letterpress by Eclectic Press, 2005; The Last Frontier, 2002, and poems in Eyeball No. 5,” New Letters; Memories and Memoirs… by  Missouri Authors; Poem for Julius Hemphill on WSQ CD, Justin Time Records, disk 137-2, 2000; Exquisite Corpse, Contact II, Telephone, Greenfield Review, Roof I, Weid, Abraxas; and the portfolio Thirteen Poets from Nevertheless Press.

Poetry Readings include: New Music Circle and other Jam Sessions, River Styx at Duff's, Community College, E. St. Louis; Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis Poetry Center, Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, University of Kentucky at Lexington, Cornell U., U. of Wisconsin, Edinburgh and London Arts Festivals, Washington U., Webster U., Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, St. Louis U., Laumeier Sculpture Park, U. of Louisville, Missouri Botanical Garden, Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines Conference at the University of Iowa; New College in San Francisco, U. of Missouri-St. Louis; Small Press Book Fair at New York U.; Staten Island College, Lindenwood U., and radio programs in California, Missouri, and other states. 1996 -2000: Cassis, France; Co-Host, New Music Circle on HDHX, Sept. 17;  Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club on Oct. 5; Obie's Pub: Sept. and Oct. 11;   Left Bank Books on Nov. 2; Brandt's Spoken Word Sundays on Dec. 7 ’97; Poetry for University City Municipal Commission, March 21; poetry for River Styx at Duff’s, April 19;  Day of the Dead Beats reading, Blueberry Hill, Nov. 1; Meramec Writing Festival 2000, March 31; 3rd annual “Howl” reading, April 16: biography panelist and poet, MO Center for the Book: U. of MO, Columbia, 11 Nov. 2000.  2001 - 2006: two concerts at the Galaxy club; poetry performance with Gash-Voigt Dance Theater; exhibition & reading of The Last Frontier for Special Collections Washington University, St. Louis; Southern Illinois U., E. St. Louis; Lindenwood U., St. Charles MO; “Poem for a Poet” danced at Forest Park Community College by Gash-Voigt Dance Theater; Taproots Arts Fair; and YMCA Meet the Authors at Arthur’s Picnic in the Park, St. Louis.

Author: Sonia Delaunay: La Moderne, The Art & Life of Georgia O'Keeffe, The Last Frontier (poetry); co-editor, Seeking St. Louis, Voices from a River City, 1670-2000, Margaret Atwood: Vision and Forms; Contributing Editor, Sculpture Magazine, 1996 to present; freelance writer: The Nation, American Poetry Review, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Black Renaissance Noire, belles lettres.

Curator and memberships: Midwest Sculpture (06), Sonia Delaunay: La Moderne (02); Guest Art Advisor, Sculpture Key West (06); humanities professor, guest lecturer, arts consultant at universities; Founding Executive Director and award-winning Editor for Big River Association; member of Board of National Coalition of Independent Scholars; member, New York’s PEN American Center. See Jan Garden Castro at www.google.com and www.sculpture.org

Monday, June 23rd, 2008 - 7pm:
Thom Francis (poet) - Thom Francis, an upstate New York native, has been a writer and spoken word artist since he was old enough to understand, and therefore question the nature of the world in which we all exist. His skepticism, an attribute that seems to have been instilled in Thom since birth, has only been strengthened by the struggles in which he has encountered throughout the course of his thirty years of survival. These various struggles have made Thom an extremely strong and empathetic person, as well as the perfect candidate to pursue a calling in which he exposes the peculiarity exhibited by the human race. His work, based upon personal experience as well as general observations, always reveals an outlook commonly overlooked by the average observer.

Since Thom has been involved in the Albany area poetry scene he 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), Poets in the Park (Washington Park), the Albany Word Fest 2001, 2002 (Thacher Park), 2003 (Valentines), 2006 (UAG Gallery), and 2007 (Tess' Lark Tavern), and LARKfest in 2006 and 2007.

Mary Panza (poet) - Mary Panza currently serves as the Vice President of Albany Poets.  She is the host of the monthly poetry and spoken word open mic, Poets Speak Loud, held at the Lark Tavern. She has been involved in the Albany poetry community for over a decade hosting events, performing her own work, producing a local poetry CD, and editing an anthology on the local Albany scene.

Monday, June 30th, 2008 - 7pm:
Craig Hancock & The Kinderhook Group (poetry) - Craig Hancock’s poems have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, most recently Hudson River Art and Peer Glass.  For the past twenty years, he has taught writing at UAlbany, working mainly with Educational Opportunity Program students, who help keep him honest, paid, and real. Most recently, he has been looking deep and hard into the heart of language.  One result, Meaning-Centered Grammar (Equinox, Ltd) appeared in late 2005.  He is now working on a follow-up book, a more fully integrated grammar and rhetoric.  He is a founding member and past President of the Hudson Valley Writer’s guild, founder of the Kinderhook Writer’s Group.  Most of his recent poems have come out as songs.

Planned July Schedule:
7/7 - Billy Internicola (poet); Frank LaRonca (poet)
7/14 - Allen Murphy (poet); Judy Lechner (poet)
7/21 - Joanne Pagano Weber (writer/painter); Bruce Weber (poet/art historian)
7/28 - Donald Lev & Home Planet News Benefit

Colony Café, 22 Rock City Road, Woodstock, NY
(845)679-5342 - www.colonycafe.com

Veterans’ Reading From the Anthology “Post Traumatic Press 2007”

Where: 'Over The Rainbow', 35 Hudson Ave, Nyack, NY (corner of South Broadway)
When:  Monday May 12th, 7:00 – 9:00PM

Come join us. Open mic, before and after features.  Sign up for open mic before or during reading. We also want to hear your voices!

Post Traumatic Press 2007 is a …

      …searing raw-whisky anthology by military veterans from World War II to Iraq.  New recruits like Jim Murphy who “just got in-country.” And seasoned writers like Richard Boes, Larry Winters and Marc Levy make art from “things that won’t let go.”
     Chronogram - Arts . Culture . Spirit .

Through poetry, prose and song, this book tells the stories of veterans with direct experience of the military. For some, the intense experience of war can only be expressed in writing, while others are driven by the need to say something openly political. The book includes veterans from World War II, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, peace time and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reading their own work are Vietnam veterans  Walt Nygard and Jerry McCarthy, USMC; Jim Murphy, USAF; Thomas Brinson, Dan Wilcox and Dayl Wise, US Army; and WW II US Army veterans Jay Wenk and Sam Weinreb among others...

PTP 2007 - $10 - Book proceeds to Post Traumatic Press.  Published by Post Traumatic Press, Woodstock, NY. Editor: D. Wise, dswbike@aol.com. Visit web site at www.PostTraumaticPress.org.

‘Over The Rainbow’ is an organic restaurant and cafe that provides a unique and welcoming place to share resources and to build a responsive community voice to social issues.

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival Reading Featuring Gretchen Primack and Allen C. Fischer

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival as part of the Woodstock Arts Consortium is sponsoring the following poetry event as part of the Woodstock Arts Week. For a full listing of Arts Week events, see: www.woodstockartsconsortium.org.

Poets Gretchen Primack and Allen C. Fischer will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, April 12th at 2pm. Note: WPS&F meetings are held the 2nd Saturday of every month.

The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

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.

Allen Fischer is not reluctant to draw on his business background in his poetry. Although he lives for the most part in Saugerties, NY, he splits his time between city (Brooklyn, NY) and country (Saugerties, NY) with one month a year near Hamburg, Germany, his wife's home town. His writing is also somewhat peripatetic as feelings and concerns are dealt with through the historic, social and scenic lenses of these various locations.

Retired as director of marketing for a nationwide corporation, Fischer's writing is as likely to mine the images and conflicts of the world of business as it is to describe the seasonal extremes of upstate New York.  From the Philadelphia area, a graduate of Haverford College, he attended Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies both in Washington DC and Bologna Italy. Later, he served in the US Army, also in Italy, thus setting in motion a life of changing locations.

Fischer came to poetry relatively late, beginning to write "whenever possible" in his forties.  For about 12 years, he worked closely with poet William Matthews.  Allen Fischer has published widely in journals such as The Greensboro Review, Indiana Review, The Laurel Review, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, Rattapallax and River Styx. In 1997, his poems were selected for inclusion in the Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry and Bright Hill Press' Out of the Catskills and Just Beyond, and in 2007, Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers.

Sally Rhodes Live From The Living Room

Live From The Living Room, a featured reading series with an open mic afterwards is held on the second Wednesday of every month at the Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Center, 332 Hudson Avenue, Albany, NY.  The next reading is April 9th with local poet/dancer Sally Rhodes   

Sally is a local poet who has, from time to time, incorporated dance into her public featured readings.

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.

Caffe Lena Open Mic And Chapbook Release

Two Caffe Lena posts in one day...

The first Wednesday of every month Caffe Lena presents
CAFFE LENA POETRY OPEN MIC on Wednesday, April 2.  Doors open at 7:00PM, reading starts at 7:30. $3.00 admission. 

This months featured poets are contributors from Caffe Lena's first poetry publication, EVERY DROP OF WATER: VOICES FROM CAFFE LENA POETRY STAGE with short readings from A.C. Everson, Barbara Ungar, Francelise Dawkins, Rob Faivre, Therese Broderick, Bob Sharkey, Dan Wilcox, Barbara Garro, Sue Jefts, Kristen Day and Sarah Craig.

Please joins us to celebrate the official release of Every Drop of Water:Voices From Caffe Lena Poetry Stage. In the summer of 2003, Carol Graser stepped forward to revive Caffe Lena's long neglected poetry program. Since then Caffe Lena has enjoyed monthly poetry open mics, each highlighting a featured poet. This chapbook, the first ever released by the coffeehouse , contains poems written by features form the open mic's first two years. some authors will be present to read their work throughout the evening and the chapbook will be available for sale for the first time.

This month is sponsored by: Saratoga Poetry Festival, Dedicated to Poetry in Public.

Caffe Lena Celebrates National Poetry Month

On Sunday, April 6th, 2:00PM at Caffe Lena (47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs, NY), in celebration of National Poetry Month, Caffè Lena offers a program of poetry written by and about women. Five award-winning poets will read their works: Barbara Ungar, Nancy White, Elaine Handley, Marilyn McCabe and Mary Sanders Shartle.

In addition, Handley, McCabe and Shartle will be joined by Lauren Vanko and Caroline Seligman in reading from Emma Saves Her Life, a book of poems based on the letters of author Naton Leslie's grandmother. Born in the mountains of Appalachia in 1907, Emma tells stories about her life which reverberate with wisdom, humor and pathos.

Don't miss this unique event at Lena's.  Cost is $5. 

For more information contact Mary Sanders Shartle at sar-poetryzone@sals.edu.

Reading From The Anthology "Post Traumatic Press 2007: poems by veterans"

On Thursday, April 3, 6:45 - 8:45 pm at the Bethlehem Public Library (451 Delaware Ave, Delmar ) Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, Veterans For Peace & Post Traumatic Press presents a reading from the anthology "Post Traumatic Press 2007: poems by veterans", edited by Dayl Wise. The featured readers will  include Dayl Wise, Jim Murphy, Thomas Brinson and Dan Wilcox. 

"Post Traumatic Press 2007: poems by veterans" was put together to tell the stories of veterans with direct  experience of the military.  For some, the intense experience of war can only be expressed in poetry, while others are driven by the need to say something openly political. The contributors includes veterans from World War II, the Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, peace time and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Copies of the anthology will be available and proceeds supports Veterans For Peace.

This event  free and open to the  public and will include an open mic for community poets.  For more information, call 518-391-2830. 

 

Horowitz, Seaton, and Hirsch at the Bowery Poetry Club

Horowitz, Seaton, and Hirsch in one show at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, New York, NY (@ Bleecker just north of Houston) on Sunday March 30 at 3:00PM.

Mikhail Horowitz is a widely excoriated performance poet who has perpetrated his literary lampoons, impenetrable parodies and metaphysically unfit riffs at the Taos World Heavyweight Poetry  Championship, Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival, the annual convention of the UAW, St. Peter's "Jazz Church" and at clubs, coffeehouses, correctional facilities, and all-night laundromats all over the country. 

The author of Big League Poets (City Lights), The Opus of Everything in Nothing Flat (Outloud/Red Hill), and Rafting Into the Afterlife (Codhill Press, 2007), Horowitz has been featured for his performance work on a dozen CDs, including The Blues of the Birth (Sundazed Records), a collection of his jazz fables, and two albums with guitarist and fellow clochard Gilles Malkine: Live, Jive & Over 45 and Poor, On Tour,  & Over 54.

In the tradition of Ezra Pound, Kenneth Rexroth and Paul Blackburn, Bill Seaton’s work mixes avant-garde maneuvers with classical tradition.  Balancing sound, sense, and image in poetry (and some remarkable rich and riffing prose), he constructs texts in which the colloquial and the everyday jostle myth and science and rhetoric.

Associated with the Cloud House poets of San Francisco during the Seventies, Seaton has been active in poetry performance throughout his career, having participated in numerous artistic and performance events, including what were
called "happenings" in the Sixties, co-produced the radio series Poetry for
the People and directed the television series Words in the Air and.  For over
fourteen years he has produced the Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance
series in Middletown, New York.  He will read from Tourist Snapshots (CC Marimbo,
Berkeley, CA, ‘07) and the recently published Spoor of Desire: Selected Poems
(FootHills Publishing, Kanona, NY).

Poet Steve Hirsch is the publisher/editor of the long running and widely influential Heaven Bone press and magazine.  Through savvy distributorship, psychedelic cover art and genre-defying literature, he networked a national audience along his own interests in surrealist art and Eastern meditation.  A musician and founding member of the drum circle Spirithawk, he studied writing and drama at Naropa Institute in Boulder where he was a student and apprentice of Allen Ginsberg and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. 

A hard-driving, Harley riding, stream-of-consciousness poet, his work has appeared in Hunger, Napalm Health Spa Report, For Immediate Release, Pudding, Big Scream, Hazmat Review, Muse Apprentice Guild, and Etcetera. In addition, he is the author of Ramapo 500 Affirmations (Flower Thief, 1998).

A Program of Poetry at the North Chatham Free Library

In honor of National Poetry Month, the North Chatham Free Library is pleased to present Dr. Jeannine Johnson with a program entitled: "Why Read Poems? Why Do People Write Poems?"

Jeannine Johnson graduated with a BA from Haverford College, and a PhD from Yale,  Dr.  Johnson went on to teach at Yale, Wake Forest, and Harvard.   Currently, she is  a visiting Assistant Professor in Writing and English at Wellesley Her first book, “Why Write Poetry?  Modern Poets Defending Their Art,” was published in 2007.

At the library, on Sunday, April 13,  Dr. Johnson will be talking about modern poets and why they defend the value of poetry in their own poems. This is a relatively widespread and strange  phenomenon in modern poetry, which today enjoys a popularity that is unparalleled in our country's history.  Why do poets need to defend their poetry?   Dr. Johnson will share some of her ideas about the impulse to preach to the choir, as it were, and about some of the effects of doing so on poets, poetry, and readers.

The library chose this topic especially, to encourage people who are leery of poetry.  Because Dr. Johnson has special expertise, we invited her to this series even though she is not a resident of Columbia County.  The program begins at 3:00 pm.  It is free and open to the public. For any questions, please call the library at 518-766.3211.
This series is made possible with public funds from the Decentralization Program of the NYS Council on the Arts, administered in Columbia County by the Columbia County Council on the Arts through the Twin Counties Cultural Fund.

Additional funds are provided by the Town of Chatham and donations to the library.

Any Questions?  Please contact Vicki Kurashige at 518-766-3211 or Julie Kabat, Executive/Artistic Director, Concerted Effort, Inc., PO Box 407, North Chatham, NY 12132

Powell to Read at Poetry on the Loose

Shirley Powell (who was one of our features at the 2006 Albany Word Fest) will read her 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 April 5.  Following the featured poet, others are welcome to read original work on any theme.  Admission is free.

A volume of Powell's selected works, Other Rooms (Poet's Press), was published in 1998.  Her poetry is also available in The Adventures of Margaret, Villages and Towns, Rooms, Rooms Two, Parachutes, and Alternate Lives.  Womansong (Poets Press), an anthology she edited, was one of the first literary products of the Women's Movement in the 1970s.  Her novel, Running Wild, was published in 1981 by Avon Books.  In addition, she has worked as a journalist for such newspapers as The Kingston Freeman and The Times Herald-Record.

With Alan Silverman, she started the Stone Ridge Poetry Society readings at the Stone Ridge Library and remained a leader in the organization, editing its magazine, Oxalis, throughout its twenty-three issues over six years of publication.  She has taught writing workshops and literature at Marist College in Poughkeepsie and for Poets in the Schools, now called Poets in Public Places.  She is a past-President of the Dutchess-Ulster Chapter of the National League of American Pen Women.

Robert Waugh will be featured on May 3.

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

Poetry at the UAG

This Friday poetry returns to the UAG Gallery with poets Jacqueline Jones LaMon and Carol Graser. 

Jacqueline Jones LaMon is the Associate Director of the Indiana University Writers' Conference. A Chancellor's University Fellow and an associate poetry editor of the Indiana Review, she is in her third year of her MFA studies in poetry at Indiana University Bloomington. Her poetry has appeared/will appear in Crab Orchard Review, Natural Bridge, Fugue, and WarpLand among other journals. Her first novel, In the Arms of One Who Loves Me, was published by One World/Ballantine Books in 2002. (2005)

Carol Graser hosts a monthly poetry series at Saratoga Springs legendary Caffe Lena and has performed her work at various events and venues around New York. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals. Foothills Publishing has just published her first book of poetry, The Wild Twist of Their Stems.

Albany Poets and Jawbone Productions Reading series present Poetry @ the UAG on the second and fourth Friday's of each month starting at 7:00PM.  This series is sponsored by Scratch Bakery Cafe.

Poets Speak Loud Featuring John Raymond

The next Poets Speak Loud will be on Monday, March 31 at Tess' Lark Tavern with featured poet John Raymond followed by an open mic for poetry and spoken word.

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.

We will also have the sign up sheet for the 2008 Albany Word Fest Friday Night Open Mic for all of those poets and spoken word artists that have not had a chance to sign up for upstate New York's largest open mic

Poets Speak Loud is a monthly open mic for poetry and spoken word with a featured poet. This mic is hosted by Mary Panza and held at the Lark Tavern (453 Madison Ave., Albany) on the last Monday of each month. Sign-up for the open mic is 7:00pm, start time is 7:30pm.

Poetry in Athens in April

Two widely regarded Hudson Valley poets, William Seaton and Susan Sindall, will be the featured poets when Poetry at the Hudson meets at the Athens Cultural Center, 24 Second Street, on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 2 p.m.  An open mike will be part of the occasion.

Seaton, who for 14 years has produced the "Poetry on the Loose" reading/performance series in Middletown and now Warwick, has been active in poetry performance throughout his career, including happenings in the '60s, street readings in the '70s, and a 2006 show in Budapest with a hurdy-gurdy player as the opening act.  He has taught in a wide variety of settings, including the Nigerian bush and a New York State prison, as well as at Long Island University and Adelphi.  His most recent publications are Spoor of Desire: Selected Poems (FootHills Publishing) and Tourist Snapshots (CC Marimbo).  His poetry and translations have appeared in such journals as Chelsea, Wordsmith, Mad Blood, Home Planet News, Copulation, and Heaven Bone, as well as in four anthologies (including the recent Riverine from Codhill Press), and his scholarly studies have appeared in Mystics Quarterly, the Iowa Journal of Literary Studies, and in several volumes of Bruccoli Clark's Dictionary of Literary Biography series.

Sindall, who has been the managing editor of Heliotrope, a journal of poetry, since its inception in 1998, has had roles in both writing and dance.  With a diploma in dance from the Julliard School of Music and an MFA in writing from Warren Wilson College, she has been associated with the 92nd St. YM-YMHA Dance Center, been a Teaching Artist in NewYork City schools for the Lincoln Center Institute, taught movement education at Manhattanville College, and taught poetry for Poets in Public Service and for Poets House, in New York City.  Currently living in Shady, she also teaches a writing workshop in nearby Kingston at the Universalist Unitarian Church of the Catskills.  She has read her poetry at various venues in New York City and the Hudson Valley, been featured in a poetry/music performance at the 92nd St. Y with Peter Schickele, and has read at both the Woodstock Poetry Festival and the Chattaqua Institute.  Sindall's poetry has appeared in such publications as The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, The Seattle Review, Negative Capability, Pivot, Salamander, and the California State Quarterly, and she will be published shortly in the  Hawai'i Pacific Review.

The readings will be hosted by area poet Bob Wright.  There is a suggested donation of $3.  To reach the Cultural Center, proceed on NY 385 into the village of Athens and turn west onto Second Street; it is the second building on the right.  For additional information, call 518-444-4561.

Chris Brabham Live From The Living Room

Live From The Living Room, a featured reading series with an open mic afterwards is held on the second Wednesday of every month at the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Center, 332 Hudson Avenue, Albany, NY.  The next reading is March 12th with Chris Brabham.

Chris has read in many venues in the region including The Lark Tavern, The Night Sky Cafe, Washington Park and 2007 Larkfest.  He is also the winner of Albany Poet's first ever bad lyric reading competition with his rendition of the classic "Fishheads".

Sign up for the open mic is at 7:00pm with 7:30pm start time with host Don Levy.  There is a $2.00 suggested donation for this reading.  For more info call (518) 462-6138.  This is a straight-friendly reading.

Caffe Lena Open Mic Featuring Jan Marin Tramontano

The first Wednesday of every month Caffe Lena presents Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic on Wednesday March 5. Doors open at 7:00PM, reading starts at 7:30PM. This months featured poet is Jan Marin Tramontano. This reading is hosted by Carol Graser and there is a $3.00 admission.  This month has been sponsored by Coral Crosman

Caffe Lena is located at 47 Phila St. Saratoga Springs. For more information contact 518-583-0022 or go to their website, www.caffelena.org

Jan Marin Tramontano’s poems and stories have appeared most recently in: Poets Canvas, Women’s Synergy, Byline, Knock, Chronogram, American Intercultural Magazine, New Verse News, Mom’s Literary Magazine, Ophelia’s Mom, and Surviving Ophelia. She has also written a poetry chapbook, Floating Islands, her father’s memoir, I am a Fortunate Man, and she is a contributor to the Times Union’s Book Section. She is on the advisory board of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild.

Urban Renewal

I was downtown looking at an apartment
in a building once elegant, now shabby.
The brown stones marred, exposed
to the harsh air, weathered like the face of
an aging starlet.

There was a crack in the glass door
and a can rolled down the stairs
bouncing down each step
its rhythm even and steady.

I stopped it with my foot,
picked it up and started slowly
up the wide, creaky stairs
ready to see if charm was enough.

I pushed hard on the door
swelled in a frame that opened reluctantly
into a room filled with pitiless light
and a tattered, familiar couch.

I ran my hand over the scarlet fabric
now worn and stained and sat down,
feeling at home in a place
once grand, now merely dependable.

Woodstock Poetry Society

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival as part of the Woodstock Arts Consortium is sponsoring the following poetry event as part of the Woodstock "Second Saturdays" Art Events. For a full listing of "Second Saturday" events, go to their website at:  www.woodstockartsconsortium.org.

Poets Barbara Louise Ungar, Sparrow, and Sylvia Mae Gorelick will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, March 8th at 2pm. Note: WPS&F meetings are held the 2nd Saturday of every month.

The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free, open to the public, and include an open mike.

Barbara Louise Ungar - Barbara Louise Ungar won the 2006 Gival Press Poetry Award for her collection entitled The Origin of the Milky Way, which appeared from Gival Press in December of 2007. She is also the author of Thrift, and the chapbooks Sequel and Neoclassical Barbra, as well as the essay Haiku In English, forthcoming in Simply Haiku. An associate professor of English at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, she lives in Saratoga Springs with her son Izaak.

Sparrow - Sparrow divides his time between studying French, doing Sudoku, and running for President of the United States.  (Look for his campaign literature on http://www.groundreport.com/sparrow.)  Sparrow plays ocarina and mop handle in the band Foamola.  (See them on YouTube.)  He owns one (pink) watch, which he bought at a 99¢ store, and which is 2 hours and 36 minutes slow.

Sylvia Mae Gorelick - Sylvia Mae Gorelick is sixteen years old. She began writing poems in September and has put together one book of poems called (bank of america) (in parentheses). She does not go to school and lives in Phoenicia with reluctance.

Also, why not become a 2008 Member of the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival?
Membership is a nominal $15 a year. (To join, send your check to the Woodstock Poetry Society, P.O. Box 531, Woodstock, NY 12498. Include your email address as well as your mailing address and phone number.)  Your membership helps pay for hall rental, post-office-box rental, the WPS website, and costs associated with publicizing the monthly events. One benefit of membership is the opportunity to have a brief biography and several of your poems appear on this website.

For more information contact Phillip Levine at pprod@mindspring.com

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.

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.

Jawbone Returns This Friday with Michael Peters and Thom Francis

This coming Friday (January 25) Albany Poets and Jawbone are bringing poetry and spoken word back to the UAG Gallery on Lark Street with a new season of this long-running series featuring both local artists and visiting poets from around the country.

The doors open at 6:30PM with the poetry beginning at 7:00PM with writer, poet, and musician Michael Peters and Albany Poets own Thom Francis.

About Michael Peters

The “writing” attributable to “Michael Peters”—his poetry, his visual poetry, his fiction, his critical writing—has appeared in publications such as SleepingFish, Word for/Word, Lungfull, Xtant, Tool a Magazine, Spinning Jenny, Posted, American Weddings, and Kostelanetz’s Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes, to name a few. His visual poetry has appeared in galleries, anthologies, and exhibits, and can be found in various special collections and avant-garde libraries, among these: The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry. As a musician and a sound-text performer, most notably in Poem Rocket, his recordings have been released on a variety of independent labels. In 2007, Atavistic (the avant jazz and rock label based out of Chicago), released Poem Rocket’s fourth full-length recording, a double-CD titled Invasion! Vaast Bin; n Ephemerisi is his first book.

For more, go to: http://www.calamaripress.com/vaast_bin.htm

About Thom Francis

Thom Francis, an upstate New York native, has been a writer and spoken word artist since he was old enough to understand, and therefore question the nature of the world in which we all exist. His skepticism, an attribute that seems to have been instilled in Thom since birth, has only been strengthened by the struggles in which he has encountered throughout the course of his thirty years of survival. These various struggles have made Thom an extremely strong and empathetic person, as well as the perfect candidate to pursue a calling in which he exposes the peculiarity exhibited by the human race. His work, based upon personal experience as well as general observations, always reveals an outlook commonly overlooked by the average observer.

Since Thom has been involved in the Albany area poety scene he 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), Poets in the Park (Washington Park), the Albany Word Fest 2001, 2002 (Thacher Park), 2003 (Valentines), 2006 (UAG Gallery), and 2007 (Tess' Lark Tavern), and LARKfest 2006 and 2007.

For more, go to: http://www.albanypoets.com/poets/francis

Poets Speak Loud, January 28

The annual Poets Speak Loud Tom Nattell Memorial Open Mic and Beret Toss will take place on Monday, January 28 (the Last Monday of the month) at Tess' Lark Tavern, Madison Ave., Albany, NY starting at 7:30PM.  The guest host will be Dan Wilcox, the host of the monthly Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center.  The event includes an open mic for community poets and a post-reading parade to the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park to place a beret on the head of Robert Burns in honor of poet and environmental activist Tom Nattell who left us in January 2005 to join that Great Open Mic in the Sky.  The reading is free, but donations to support the Tom Nattell Peace Poetry Prize are appreciated.

Albany Poets sponsors "Poets Speak Loud", a poetry reading and open mic, on the last Monday of every month at the Lark Tavern at 7:30PM.  Tom Nattell was the host and organizer of the annual Readings Against the End of the World, Poets in the Park, and the open mic at the QE2 held on the last Monday of the month, among many achievements.  He had been scheduled to read at the first Poets Speak Loud! in January 2005, but died that morning.

Poetry Readings This Week

Here is some information on a couple of the fine poetry readings that are happening here in the Capital Region.

Zounds! at the Night Sky Cafe on Wednesday, December 19

Poetry open mic Wednesday December 19th 7:30pm
Night Sky Cafe
402 Union St, Schenectady, NY
with an open mic before and after the feature: J'Dalaba
hosted by Shaun Baxter

Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center on Thursday, December 20

The Poetry Motel Foundation presents Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY

Thursday, December 20, 2007.  7:00 sign up; 7:30 start
Featured Poet: Daniel Nester with open mic for poets before & after the feature & a special holiday visit from Sanity Clause.
$3.00 donation.
Your constant host: Dan Wilcox.

Daniel Nester is the author of “The History of My World Tonight” (BlazeVox, 2006), “God Save My Queen” (Soft Skull Press, 2003) and “God Save My Queen II” (2004). His work has appeared in “The Best Creative Nonfiction,” “The Best American Poetry 2003,” “Poets & Writers,” and “Time Out New York.” He edits the online journal Unpleasant Event Schedule. He is an Assistant Professor of English at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. Find him at www.danielnester.com. 

Frequency North Featuring Nalini Jones and Wayne Koestenbaum

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.

Word Thursdays Last Reading of 2007 Featuring Robert Milby and Christopher Zegers

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.

Carol Graser at Caffe Lena Sunday, November 25

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.

Sax Soup Poetry & Voice

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

The Dan Wilcox Open Mic Commentary Round-Up

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.

Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center, October 18

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.)

What If They Gave A Reading & No One Showed Up?, October 20

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. 

The State of the Art...Your Comments

It looks like the most recent post on Dan Wilcox's blog (about low attendance at the latest "Community of Writers" event sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild) has touched off a big discussion on the state of poetry and spoken word in the area.  There are a lot of different ideas and thoughts on the local poetry scene and open mics as a whole.  As of this writing, there are 25 comments on the issue. 

Click here to read the post and the comments and feel free to add your own to the mix.

After reading the comments and even adding some of my own, it got me thinking about a greater issue that I have been dealing with for a few months now since I started working on a project for OTHER:.  The issue is, what is poetry to you?  So, I am going to open it up to you, the poets, to let me know what poetry is to you.  Go to the comments and speak your mind.

November 2007 "Special Guests" at the Colony Café Monday Night Open Mic

The featured readers for the November open mics have been announced.  Below is information on all of the upcoming readings.  The Monday Night Open Mic at the Colony Café (Colony Café, 22 Rock City Road, Woodstock) takes place every Monday night starting at 7:00PM with and open mic before and after the featured readers. All events include an open mic of poetry/prose/performance hosted by Phillip Levine.

Monday, November 5th, 2007: Resident Poets, Musicians, and Artists from Northeast Center for Special Care
A select group of poets, musicians and artists from Northeast Center for Special Care will be performing original music and poetry, and exhibiting original paintings, prints and drawings at the Colony Cafe on Monday night,  November 5th.

The Northeast Center for Special Care is an innovative long-term care, rehabilitation, recovery and community reentry program for individuals recovering from multiple disabilities acquired from complex injuries, mainly traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries.

Monday, November 12th, 2007: Efrayim Levenson and Deborah Emin
Efrayim Levenson's poems have been published in Above Water, ArtVoice, Bflo Journal, Blatherskite, The Buffalo News Poetry Page, Earth's Daughters, Foist, The Grin, Medicinal Purposes Literary Review, Pure Light, Swift Kick, and Tempus Fugit.  His new chapbook, Dances With Tears, published in March 2007 by Poets Wear Prada, was a featured selection in Poets House's 2007 Showcase.

More information can be found at http://efrayimlevenson.blogspot.com, http://timessquareshoutout.blogspot.com, and www.chabadrego.org/poetry

Deborah Emin is the author of the novel, Scags at 7. Set in the 1950s suburban world outside of Chicago, the story is told by the seven-year-old Scags about her summer vacation. Believing she is about to embark on a lazy, fun-filled couple of months, it is anything but that as her beloved Pops falls apart and with him the world as she knew it.

Sample pages of the novel are available on the publisher's website: www.kedziepress.com. More than you may want to know about Deborah's other work is on her website: www.deborahemin.com.

Monday, November 19th, 2007: Tim Verhaegen, Patricia Martin and Gus Mancini
Tim Verhaegen was raised on Long Island.  He has been living in the Capital District since 1980.  He is a member of the Every Other Thursday Poetry group in Voorheesville and the Armchair Poets in Troy. His poetry appears in Many Waters and Poetry Don't Pump Gas, an anthology created by the Voorheesville poets.  His poetry is inspired by his Long Island childhood, his gay identity, his insatiable curiosity about the workings of people, and the stories of the people that surround him.  Wordsmiths Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, David Gray and Melanie Safka are his lyrical heroes. He has featured at nearly every poetry open mic in the capital district.  He will be featuring at Caffe Lena in Saratoga November 7th. He loves the spoken word, he chooses his most personal, intimate poetry for the spoken word experience.  http://www.thursdaypoets.blogspot.com/

Join the irrepressible duo Mancini and Martin to experience some live IN the Moment sharing-- a rich aura/aural tapestry of original music and evocative words, selected from their upcoming same-titled cd.

Monday, November 26th, 2007: Cate McNider and Cheryl A. Rice
Cate McNider is an artist in her own residence in West Hurley four days out of the week. Originally from North Carolina, she migrated to NYC after a two year stint studying acting and modern dance in London. While auditioning and acting, the writing became more satisfying and creatively expedient. She has read her work at St. Marks Church, NYC, The Knitting Factory and various Brooklyn café’s.

Cate’s work has been published in several journals, The Westmoreland News, VA, and at www.thelisteningbody.com. In 1990, ”Guardian’s Trust” was made into a song by the late Michael Hedges on his Road to Return album. Cate continues to write lyrics, collaborating with the musician/lyricist & Oscar nominee Ramsey McLean of New Orleans.  Their song ‘Straydog Mountain’ is a hit.  A collection of her poems is on the way.

Born on Long Island in 1962, Cheryl A. Rice has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. She has had both poems and prose published in Chronogram, The Country and Abroad, The Florida Review, The Gathering of the Tribes, Home Planet News, Mangrove, Other:, The Temple/El Templo, Ulster Magazine, and The Woodstock Times, and online at www.albanypoets.com, www.poetrypoetry.com, and www.thehiddencity.com. She has lived in New York's Hudson Valley for over 25 years.

For further information about the Monday Night Open Mic or possible bookings contact Phillip Levine at pprod@mindspring.com. For information about the Colony Café contact Mariann Harrigfeld at mariann@colonycafe.com or call 845-679-5342.

The Dan Wilcox Open Mic Commentary Round-Up

Welcome back to the Dan Wilcox Open Mic Commentary Round-Up.  This week we have Dan's comments on Shaun Baxter's open mic at the Night Sky Cafe and a special report from Miss Mona about the Allen Fisher reading at the UAG.

Allen Fisher Reading at UAG Gallery, October 12

I asked my old friend, Miss Mona, to cover this event for me while I was in Philadelphia. Miss Mona used to comment on the gossip scene in Albany years back & has just been growing old since.

Zounds!, October 17

The monthly open mic at the NightSky Cafe on Union St. in Schenectady, with our host Shaun Baxter. I note that Shaun seems to have responded to fact that he is not the shortest open mic host by producing the smallest open mic flyer, just over 3x4 inches. He started us off with Raymond Carver's "Where Water Comes Together with Other Water", then challenged us to parody William Carlos Williams' "This is just to say...", you know, the plums-in-the-fridg poem.

Be sure to check out Dan's blog for more on the poetry scene here in Albany.  Dan also has a post about a recent visit from Charlie Rossiter (of the Three Guys from Albany).

Aaron Belz, Peter Davis, Daniel Nester, and Michael Schiavo Behind the Egg

Behind the Egg: A Reading Series returns on Saturday, October 27 at 4:00PM with Aaron Belz, Peter Davis, Daniel Nester, and Michael Schiavo

Aaron Belz writes poetry in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. His work has appeared in Boston Review, Fence, Painted Bride Quarterly, Black Clock, and other places, and his first full-length book, The Bird Hoverer, was published by BlazeVOX in 2007. Another of his manuscripts, Clementines, was selected as a runner-up for the 2006 Marsh Hawk Press contest by Denise Duhamel, who writes: "Aaron Belz is a gravely hilarious poet . . . his ferocious intelligence, his love of glitz, and his wry take on relationships (both human and animal) are irresistible. Belz's voice is bold, wise, inimitable."

Peter Davis' book of poems is Hitler's Mustache. He edited Poet's Bookshelf: Contemporary Poets on Books that Shaped Their Art. His poems have appeared in places like Octopus, Court Green, McSweeney's, and La Petite Zine. His music project, Short Hand, is available through Collectible Escalators records. He lives in Muncie, Indiana, with his sweet wife and sweet children. Find more about him as well as his other projects at www.artisnecessary.com.

Daniel Nester, along with Erik Sweet, is co-curator of Behind the Egg: A Reading Series. He is the author of God Save My Queen: A Tribute (Soft Skull, 2003) and God Save My Queen II: The Show Must Go On (2004), as well as The History of My World Tonight (BlazeVox 2006). His work has appeared recently in The Best Creative Nonfiction, Third Rail: The Poetry of Rock 'n Roll, 32 Poems, Gulf Coast, among other
places. He writes essays and articles for Poets & Writers, Bookslut, Time Out New York, and PoetryFoundation.org. He is assistant professor of English at The College of Saint Rose in Albany. Find too much about him at www.danielnester.com.

Michael Schiavo's poetry and nonfiction have appeared in The Yale Review, Tin House, Seneca Review, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Believer, LIT, 1913: A Journal of Forms, and Forklift, Ohio, among other publications. He is a contributing editor to CUE: A Journal of Prose Poetry and is currently the Writing Coordinator at the Vermont Studio Center.

Behind the Egg: A Reading Series takes place at The Capital District Federation of Ideas, 383.5 Madison Avenue, Albany and is hosted by Erik Sweet and Daniel Nester. For more information on the series, check out their website at www.unpleasanteventschedule.com/behindtheegg/

The Dan Wilcox Open Mic Commentary Round-Up

We are back with the Dan Wilcox Poetry Open Mic Commentary Round-Up. This week Dan did not comment on any open mics, but he did give his views of the new Behind the Egg reading at the Federation of Ideas and the Banned Books reading at the Albany Public Library.

Banned Books Read-Out, October 6

An annual event at the Albany Public Library, co-sponsored with New York Civil Liberties Union, Capital Region Chapter. John Cirrin, the Public Information Officer for the Library introduced Joanna Palladino who put the event together & was the M.C., with some opening remarks by Melanie Trimble, the NYCLU-CRC Executive Director. As usual, readers from the community picked their favorite of books that have been banned/challenged over the years. Many of these were books for children & young adults.

Behind the Egg at Point 5, October 6

Not quite literally behind the Egg, this series began it's new season with 3 powerful poets from the area, Randall Horton, Cara Benson & Carol Graser. The hosts are Erik Sweet & Daniel Nester

As always, be sure to check out Dan’s blog often for more commentaries of local poetry events, readings, and yes, open mics.

Poetry and Spoken Word in The Valley

Here is a great resource for poets and spoken word artists in the Western Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut areas.  The site is updated every week by Lori Desrosiers with a complete (and I mean complete) listing of the poetry open mics, readings, and events throughout New England. 

Be sure to check it out if you are heading east and want to go out to a reading or two. 

Miriam Axel-Lute Live From The Living Room

Live From The Living Room, a featured reading series with an open mic afterwards is held on the second Wednesday of every month at the Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Center, 332 Hudson Avenue, Albany, NY.  The next reading is October 10, 2007 featuring poet and Metroland scribe Miriam Axel-Lute.

Miriam is a performance-oriented poet from Albany, NY.  Her poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies.  She has written 2 chapbooks, Souls Like Mockingbirds and Packing To Stay.  Miriam lives with her wife, her husband and her daughter.

Sign up is at 7:00PM with a 7:30 start time with host Don Levy. There is a $2.00 suggested donation.  For more info call 518-462-6138.  This is a straight-friendly reading.

News and Upcoming Events From the Adirondack Center for Writing

The Adirondack Center for Writing has had a VERY busy season. Check out these upcoming programs. This fall is PACKED with outstanding literary events, and taking place all over the region. Visit our website, www.adirondackcenterforwriting.org, for even more listings.

October 14, 2007 - The Chronicle Book Fair
Annual book fair featuring regional authors, readings and panels. (Great opportunity for published authors to have a tabletop and sell their books!) ACW member, Kate Messner will be there signing her new book, Spitfire and ACW member, Ruth Lamb will also be there signing copies of, At the End of the Road: Reflections on Life in an Adirondack Valley At the Queensbury Hotel, Glens Falls, NY. For more information, contact Cathy DeDe, Arts Editor, The Chronicle. Tel: (518) 792-1126.

October 19-21, 2007 - Facing Pages Literary Conference
Join the New York State Literary Community for a weekend retreat in Blue Mountain Lake.  Every year the New York State Council on the Arts and several New York State literary organizations join forces to present an outstanding conference geared towards literary presenters, presses, writers, and teachers. This year the conference is being held in our own back yard-- Blue Mountain Lake! For a full conference brochure visit www.littap.org. Registration deadline is October 5th. The conference is free for locals; the only costs are for meals and lodging if you need it, but you must register so we have an accurate headcount.

October 25, 2007 - NaNoWriMo in the Adirondacks
The Second Annual NaNoWriMo Kickoff Celebration is being held on Thursday, October 25, from 6-7 pm at the Town of Johnsburg Library on Main St. in North Creek. NaNoWriMo (pronounced Nan-Oh-Rye-Mo), is celebrated each year in the month of November. NaNoWriMo challenges each participant to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It's the fun, zany, and crazy literary sensation that's sweeping the globe. Do you think you don't have time? Then you're the perfect candidate for NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo gathers adults, children, and teens in a supportive community to share the joys and agonies of the novel-writing process. Join us in North Creek as we kick-off our second November of non-stop novel writing, fellowship, and fun. Write-ins and read-ins will be scheduled during November at cafes, the town library, bookstores, and in area restaurants, wherever madly scribbling writers are tolerated. For more information, call Judith Harper at 518-251-3006 and visit the official NaNoWriMo website http://www.nanowrimo.org

November 3, 2007 - ACW's Annual Publishing Conference
This year the conference will be held at Silver Bay, on Lake George just south of Ticonderoga. This popular day-long event features lectures, workshops, and manuscript critiques with editors and authors of both nonfiction and fiction. Visit out website, www.adirondackcenterforwriting.org, for a complete schedule and presenter bios. Contact ACW to reserve your spot today.  Submission deadline for manuscript critiques is October 18th!

November 29, 2007 - Andrea Barrett
The Adirondack Center for Writing and Paul Smith's College present, Andrea Barrett, author of several novels, including Ship Fever, which won the National Book Award and Servants of the Map, which was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize. Her newest book, The Air We Breathe, is set entirely in Saranac Lake.

For more information on the Center, go to their website or call 518-327-6278

Behind the Egg with Cara Benson, Carol Graser, and Randall Horton

After the Banned Books event at the library, be sure to head down to Madison Ave and check out what is looking like a great poetry reading at the CDFI.

Behind the Egg: A Reading Series at The Capital District Federation of Ideas, 383.5 Madison Avenue, Albany returns on Saturday, October 6 at 4:00PM with Cara Benson, Carol Graser, and Randall Horton. This series is curated by Daniel Nester and Erik Sweet.

Cara Benson currently believes in the accessibility of the inaccessible poem. Her work has, is, or will appear in 88, pom2, HOW2, EOAGH, Sentence, and BoogCity. Her wee-e-chapbook "Bound" is forthcoming from Dusie. She is editing a collection of writing for Chain Magazine, and her "Quantum Chaos and Poems: A Manifest(o)ation" is forthcoming from BookThug. Benson makes poems every Tuesday afternoon with male inmates at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility in upstate NY.

Carol Graser hosts a monthly poetry series at Saratoga Spring's legendary Caffe Lena and has performed her work at various events and venues around NYS. Her work has been published in many literary journals including Chaffin, artisan, Berkeley Poetry Review and Grasslands.She is the author of The Wild Twist of Their Stems (Foothills Publishing 2007). Find her blogging at MotherVerse.

Randall Horton, originally from Birmingham, Alabama, resides in Albany, New York. He is a former editor of Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas (Fall 2005) and co-editor of Fingernails Across the Chalkboard (Third World Press, 2006). He received his undergraduate education at both Howard University and The University of the District of Columbia (B.A. English). He has a MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Poetry from Chicago State University, and is now a doctoral student at SUNY Albany. He received an Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Foundation Summer Scholarship to attend Fine Arts Workcenter at Provincetown in 2005. He is also a Cave Canem fellow.

David Lehman at Saint Rose

Frequency North is kicking off its third season tonight at Saint Rose with poet, editor, and critic David Lehman. 

Lehman will read at The College of Saint Rose Thursday, October 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Neil Hellman Library, 392 Western Ave., Albany. Copies of Lehman's works will be available for purchase and signing.

Frequency North is sponsored by The College of Saint Rose School of Arts and Humanities and the English, Spectrum and Identity student organizations and is free and open to the public.  

For more information, contact series coordinator Daniel Nester at 518-454-2812 or nesterd@strose.edu.

Lehman has authored several collections of poems, most recently When a Woman Loves a Man (Scribner, 2005) and Jim and Dave Defeat the Masked Man (with James Cummins, Soft Skull Press, 2005). His books of criticism include The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets (Anchor, 1999), which the New York Public Library named a "Book to Remember 1999." He is series editor of The Best American Poetry, which he initiated in 1988, and is general editor of the University of Michigan Press's Poets on Poetry Series. In addition, Lehman is editor of a new edition of The Oxford Book of American Poetry, a one-volume comprehensive anthology of poems from Anne Bradstreet to the present.

Lehman's honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award.

For more information and a complete schedule, visit the series' website at www.FrequencyNorth.com.   All readings are free and open to the public.

Poetry at Caffe Lena with Michael Czarnecki

Tomorrow night, the first Wednesday of the month, Caffe Lena presents its Poetry Open Mic night with featured poet Michael Czarnecki.

This open mic is hosted by Carol Graser. There is a $2.00 admission. Sign up at 7:00PM, the reading starts at 7:30PM. Caffe Lena is located at 47 Phila St, Saratoga Springs.

Michael Czarnecki is the founder of Foothills Publishing, which he began in 1986 for the purpose of getting into print the words of poets whose only outlets were readings or in the occasional magazine. Since then, Foothills Publishing has released more than 250 chapbooks or books. As a poet, Michael has given over 200 featured readings across the country in venues as varied as wine festivals, colleges and coffeehouses.  As a prolific poet, publisher, oral memoirist and encourager, Michael lives simply with his family in the hills of central New York.

The Echo Of What Has Passed

T'ao Ch'ien would understand.
I sit drinking wine
chanting poems
dreaming of mountains.
Bills pile high at the door.
White hairs infiltrate my beard.
Daughter approaches womanhood.
Young son no longer crawls.
Late Autumn, already snow
has covered the ground.
Sipping, wine, I shiver
as a chill breeze
caresses me from behind.

October Poetry Readings in Kingston

Teresa Costa sent us information on the open mics that she is hosting this month in Kingston. If you are in the area, be sure to check out these great events.

Wednesday, October 3 at 7:30PM at the Muddy Cup, 516 Broadway in Kingston with featured poets Barbara Boncek and Donald Lev.

This reading is hosted by Teresa and Shirley Powell

Thursday, October 11 at 7:00PM at the Bohemian Book Bin, Kings Mall, Rt 9W in Kingston with featured poets Gloria Bernstein and Roberta Gould.

This event is also hosted by Teresa Costa.  The open mic portion of the night is limited to five minutes. There is a $3.00 suggested donation.  Refreshments will be available.

For more information on these poetry readings, email teresacosta101@msn.com

The School of Night...On Hiatus

THIS JUST IN, The newly re-started School of Night is on hiatus.  The scheduled poetry and spoken word open mic for this coming Thursday night at Ballingers has been cancelled until further notice. 

Host R.M. Engelhardt says that the long time open mic will indeed start up again, so stay tuned to albanypoets.com for more information as it is released. 

While you are waiting for "School" to start again, you can head over to the Poetry Calendar and check out the other poetry open mics, readings, and events that are going on in the area. 

Albany Poets Presents Tonight at Valentines

We hope you had a great weekend and were able to rest up because October is promising to be another great month of poetry.

Tonight is Albany Poets Presents at Valentines, 17 New Scotland Avenue, Albany NY. 7:30 sign-up, 8:00PM start. Hosted by our own Fancy Leader, Thom Francis.

Wednesday is Cafe Lena in Saratoga.

Thursday is vOLUME at Prof Java in Colonie.

Wednesday October 10th is Live From The Living Room at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center in Albany. *This is a straight friendly reading.*

Friday, October 12th, 7:00PM, UAG Gallery on Lark Street in Albany, we are proud to present Allen Fisher. For more info on the event go to www.albanypoets.com

Yikes, that is just the first two weeks of October.  Remember to pace yourselves through poetry.

Allen Fisher in Albany For Two Events

English poet, painter, scholar and publisher Allen Fisher will be in Albany on Friday, October 12, 2007 for two events.

12:35PM: Lecture
HU 354, Humanities Building, University at Albany
Sponsored by the Department of English, The University at Albany

“CONFIDENCE IN LACK”
Allen Fisher's talk will address and skirt around the problems for poetics (and thus poets) with logical thought and ideas of coherence. The thesis is to celebrate a confidence in lack, a celebration of decoherence and the potentials of neg-entropy.

7:00PM: Poetry Reading
Upstate Artists Guild Gallery, 247 Lark Street, Albany NY 12210
Sponsored by Jaw-Bone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the New York State Writers Institute. 

Allen Fisher is a poet, painter, publisher, editor and art historian, lives in Hereford, Crewe and ‘in transit’, works at the Manchester Metropolitan University, Cheshire, where he is Head of Contemporary Arts. He has exhibited in many shows including London 2003, Hereford 1994 and York 1993. Examples are in the Tate, the Living Museum, Iceland and various private collections. His last four books were Place, Entanglement, Gravity and Singularity Stereo. The third and final volume of the poet’s twenty-three year project Gravity as a consequence of shape will be published later this year by Salt Publishing under the title Leans.

California Poetry Fest A Great Success

Poets and those who appreciate the art we out supporting poetry and spoken word at the California Poetry Festival recently with former US poet laureate Robert Hass, Victoria Chang, and Diem Jones. 

Over 100 people filled the seats on Saturday morning at History Park to listen to the poets discuss, among other topics, how poetry has changed in the eyes of popular culture.

Poetry is losing the culture war, appealing more to niche audiences while movies, music and television lure the masses. Gone are the days, said Kevin Arnold, president of the Poetry Center, when wordsmiths like Edwin Markham were "like rock stars."

Check out the entire article at the San Jose Mercury News website. 

Two Hudson Valley Poets to Perform in Athens

Two Hudson Valley poets with their own distinctive voices, Ken Holland and Mary Panza, will be the featured readers when Poetry at the Hudson meets at the Athens Cultural Center, 24 Second Street, on Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 2 p.m.  An open mike will be part of the event.

Ken, who lives in East Fishkill, has had fiction and poetry published in a dozen-plus literary journals, including the Portland Review, the Laurel Review, Poem, American Poets & Poetry, and Lullwater Review.  He has poetry forthcoming in Blue Unicorn.  The story published in the Laurel Review was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Ken placed second in this year's Vanguard Voices Poetry Competition, judged by Eamon Grennan, and he is the recipient of a New York State Arts Council writing fellowship based on a fiction competition in which he placed first.  He works for one of the major publishing houses in New York City and has been making that long commute for the last twenty-five years.

Mary, a mainstay of Albany poetry since 1988, is the vice president of Albany Poets, a non-for-profit dedicated to bringing poetry and spoken word to the Capital Region and beyond.  She originated and hosted the poetry open mike at Border's; is the host of the Albany Poets' monthly poetry open mike, "Poets Speak  Loud," at the Lark Tavern; has been the host of the singer/songwriter stage at the annual LarkFEST street fair since 2004; and is the poetry editor for Chronogram: Capital Region Edition.  Mary has been published in countless underground zines over the last nineteen years.

The readings will be hosted by area poet Bob Wright.  There is a suggested donation of $3.  To reach the Cultural Center, proceed on NY 385 into the village of Athens and turn west onto Second Street; it is the second building on the right.  For additional information, call 518-444-4561.

Palm Beach Poetry Festival

Palm Beach Poetry Festival, in partnership with Old School Square Cultural Arts Center in the heart of Delray Beach, Florida, is proud to present the fourth annual festival featuring six days of readings, lectures and workshops.  From January 21 - 26, 2008  at the Old School Square Cultural Arts Center, a national historic site blocks from the beach at 51 North Swinton Avenue in Delray Beach, Florida

The lineup for 2008 includes Kim Addonizio, Claudia Emerson, Major Jackson, Thomas Lux, Campbell McGrath, Malena Mörling, Sharon Olds, and C.K. Williams.  We will also welcome Florida poets Lola Haskins and Spencer Reece for a special reading.  Roger Bonair-Agard and Marty McConnell will grace the stage for performances at our annual late-night Coffee House event.

To register for the workshops and other events during this years festival, go to www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org and click APPLY.  The deadline to apply is October 31, 2007.

Third Thursday Poetry Night Featuring Miriam Herrera

The Poetry Motel Foundation presents Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY on Thursday, September 20, 2007 (7:00 sign up; 7:30 start). This month’s featured poet is Miriam Herrera with open mic for poets before and after the feature. There is a $3.00 suggested donation. Your “persistent” host is Dan Wilcox.

KIVA AT CHACO CANYON

The kiva meditates on herself
On the roundness of the soul
On the eagle's circular vision.

Lie on your back, little girl—
Notice the sky! It's contained
In its own infinite funnel.

I know this kiva. We are old friends—
The mother we never had.
I recognize her! It's she
Who forces one toward the middle.

In the kiva there is only middle.

Looking out through her bald blue eye
It's me:
Looking in, looking out.

Her poetry has been published in New Millenium Writings, ArtLife, Blue Mesa Review, New Zoo Poetry Review, Nimrod: International Journal of Prose and Poetry, Black Maria, ECOS, and other journals.  She is an active member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers in Lake Tahoe, CA; a member of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Society of America, and the National Council of La Raza.

For more on Miriam, check out her blog:  http://miriamherrerapoems.googlepages.com/

Poetry Returns to LarkFEST This Saturday

Albany Poets will be back at LarkFEST this Saturday on the Hometown Stage and in our very own Poetry Tent on the corner of Lark and Chestnut. The poetry starts at noon in the poetry tent with Chris Brabham and continues throughout the day.

Be sure to come by and pick up your copy of OTHER:EIGHT.

Here is the schedule for the Hometown Stage and the Poetry Tent

11:30 – Last Conspirators
12:00 – Chris Brabham (in the Poetry Tent)
12:10 – Hannah Imbesi
12:30 – Erik Sweet (in the Poetry Tent)
12:40 – Albany Poets Dain Brammage, Mary Panza, and Thom Francis with John Weiler, K.J. Spencer, and more
1:10 – Carol Graser (in the Poetry Tent)
1:20 – Gay Tastee
1:45 – John Raymond (in the Poetry Tent)
1:55 – Ramblin’ Jug Stompers
2:20 – Shaun Baxter (in the Poetry Tent)
2:30 – Jim Gaudet
3:00 – Debra Bump w/John Weiler (in the Poetry Tent)
3:10 – Palatypus
3:50 – Mother Judge and Mitch Elrod
4:25 – Ben Karis
5:00 – Black Fuel

Poetry and Performance with Elizabeth McKim and Steve Cloreine

After LarkFEST this Saturday, September 15, the Hudson Valley Writers Guild and New York Expressive Arts are hosting a special poetry and performance event with visiting poets Elizabeth McKim and Steve Cloreine starting at 7:00PM at 4 Central Ave., in Albany.

An engaging poet-performer and teacher, Elizabeth Gordon McKim works out of the oral tradition of song, story, and poem. For many years she has performed her poetry with Swiss musician Paolo Knill and she has worked with dancers, poets, visual artists, musicians and teachers in the U.S., Europe, Indonesia and Israel. She has written five books of poetry, the latest entitled The Red Thread (Leapfrog Press, 2003). McKim has worked with countless children and teachers, and expressive arts practitioners throughout the U.S. and internationally. She is a national faculty member at Lesley University in the Department of Creative Arts in Learning and Poet Laureate of the European Graduate School.

“McKim’s poems offer you immediate pleasure. Carry them home and take them into you.”  -  Marge Piercy

Steve Clorfeine has been writing, performing and directing theater pieces since 1975. His productions have been presented in theatres, public schools, libraries, senior centers and art centers throughout the United States and Western Europe. Steve is on the theater faculty of Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. His latest collection of poems is Field Road Sky (2006).

“Clorfeine’s day to day experiences read like a series of prose haikus...there is a clarity in his writing...a habit of seeing the ordinary and the extraordinary, the marvelous in the mundane”  - Woodstock Times

There is a $3.00 suggested donation for this event.

For more information contact Denie Whalen at denwhale@newyorkexpressivearts.com or 518-434-2412 or the Hudson Valley Writers Guild at hvwginfo@gmail.com or 518-449-8069.

Pierre Joris 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 September 12th with Pierre Joris.

Pierre's most recent books are Aljibar and Meditations on the Stations of Mansur Al-Hallaj.  Amoung his publications are Permanent Dispora and The Rothenberg Varations and Poasis: Selected poems 1986-1999.  He also has a CD called Routes from Ta'wil Productions.

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.

Celebration of John Ashbery on his 80th birthday

If you're a big John Ashbery fan, you won't want to miss the celebration at Bard College September 14-16. Details in this Bard College press release:

On September 14–16, to celebrate Ashbery's 80th birthday and his remarkable career as a poet, critic, editor, and translator, Bard will host "This Feeling of Exaltation," a weekend of poetry readings, panel discussions, and music at the College. Among those scheduled to participate are poets Charles Bernstein, Peter Gizzi, Robert Kelly, Ann Lauterbach, Joan Retallack, Reginald Shepherd, Susan Stewart, and Cole Swensen; writer and editor Bradford Morrow; art critic Jed Perl; and literary critic and scholar Susan Stewart. Highlights of the three-day celebration include a concert by the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Botstein, on Friday, September 14. All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Along with Frank O'Hara and Kenneth Koch, Ashbery is a central figure in what came to be known, in 1961, as the New York School of poets. His genre-breaking poetry and critical prose on the visual arts, music, film, literature, and culture have profoundly influenced artists, scholars, writers, and the public for decades. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and Bollingen Prize in Poetry, as well as MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Fulbright fellowships, Ashbery remains today—more than half a century since the publication of his first book in 1953—one of the most innovative and defining voices of our times.

John Ashbery's recent books include A Worldly Country (2007), Where Shall I Wander (2005), Chinese Whispers (2002), Selected Prose (2004), and Other Traditions (the Norton Lecture at Harvard, 2000). He received the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and National Book Critics Circle Award for Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975). He was New York State Poet Laureate (2001–02), a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets (1988–99), and a MacArthur Fellow (1985–90). He received the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets (2001), Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1997), Robert Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America (1995), and Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize for Poetry, Rome (1992), among other honors, and was made an officer of the Légion d'Honneur of the Republic of France by presidential decree (2002). He is currently Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
"This Feeling of Exaltation"
Bard College Celebrates John Ashbery on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday
September 14–16, 2007
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Friday, September 14
4:00–6:00 p.m. Poetry Reading
Charles Bernstein, Peter Gizzi, Reginald Shepherd, Susan Stewart, and Cole Swensen
Bradford Morrow, introduction
(This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc., with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.)
Theater Two, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts

6:45 p.m. Preconcert Talk
Richard Wilson, American Symphony Orchestra Composer in Residence
Sosnoff Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts

8:00 p.m. American Symphony Orchestra*
Leon Botstein, Conductor
Johannes Brahms (1833–97), Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 (1880)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921), Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Op. 103 ("Egyptian") (1896)
Jacques Ibert (1890–1962), Quatre Chansons de Don Quichotte (1932)
Antonín Dvorák (1841–1904), Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 ("From the New World") (1893)
Sosnoff Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. *Tickets are $20/$30/$35.

Saturday, September 15
10:00 a.m.–noon John Ashbery: The Early Work
Charles Bernstein on Rivers and Mountains
Reginald Shepherd on Some Trees
Susan Stewart on Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
Peter Gizzi, Moderator
László Z. Bitó '60 Auditorium, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation

2:00–4:00 p.m. John Ashbery: The Later Work
Robert Kelly on Chinese Whispers
Joan Retallack on Girls on the Run
Cole Swensen on Hotel Lautréamont
Peter Gizzi, Moderator
László Z. Bitó '60 Auditorium, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation

4:00 p.m. Reading by John Ashbery
Ann Lauterbach, introduction
László Z. Bitó '60 Auditorium, Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation

Sunday, September 16
11:00 a.m. "Off-Center Intensity: Reflections on John Ashbery and the Visual Arts"
A Talk by Jed Perl
Reception to follow
Avery Arts Center Theater
*All events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. Programs are subject to change.

Workshops, Readings, and Dance All This Weekend

Writing from Art and Architecture at Albany City Hall, Saturday, September 8

Guided Tour by Assemblyman John J. McEneny  from 10 AM - 11 AM.  The guided tour is free and may be taken without attending the writing workshop; reservations suggested.

Writing from Art & Architecture Workshop with Dan Wilcox from 11:15 AM - 1 PM.  Fee for the workshop: $10 for members of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, or the Historic Albany Foundation.  $12 for non-members.

To register or for more information, send an email cphilo@nycap.rr.com, or call 518-459-3266

Sponsored by Hudson Valley Writers Guild and Historic Albany Foundation and funded with an Albany City Arts grant

Painters, Poets, Politicians, Saturday, September 8

There will be a reading and reception for the new exhibit, "Painters, Poets, Politicians" on Saturday night at the new Bad as Art Gallery (316 Delaware Avenue)from 6:00 – 9:00PM.   The evening will feature work by Marcus K. Anderson, R. M. Engelhardt, Sid Stein, Matthew Klane, Ford McLain, Ben Ellis, Rebecca Rentz,

More information can be found at www.badasart.com.

Goshen Writers' Group, Saturday, September 8

Poets! Goshen Writers' Group on the cusp of Autumn...
Saturday, September 8 at 7:00PM at the home of Ted and Jane Gill (83 Lower Reservoir Rd., Goshen, NY).  Bring poems, very short stories, storytelling skills, an acoustic instrument or two, snacks to share, and your magnanimous selves.

For more information call 845-294-5010

Presence and Possibility, Sunday, September 9

Presence & Possibility, a dance workshop taught By Sally Rhoades at The Yoga Loft , 540 Delaware Ave, Albany, NY.  Four sessions beginning on September 9 and continuing October 7, November 11 and December 9 all from 2:00 - 4:00 PM.

"We will discover together our tasks as human beings to bring presence into our lives. The possibilities that exist without our bodies are nothing compared to the possibility within us.

Class consists of a vigorous warm-up of the muscles, joints, connections and a concentration on the spine and its purpose to not only hold us up but allow us to move. Each class is tailored to the group.

Wear comfortable clothing, bring a journal or a drawing pad and a desire to discover."

Cost for this workshop is $15.  For more information, please e-mail lucy1299@aol.com or call 518-456-4993.

The School of Night Returns...Again

THIS JUST IN, The School of Night, "Albany, NY's Most Innovative Poetry Open Mic", is returning, but this time to a new building.  Ballingers will be the latest venue to host the "long running" open mic series hosted by R.M. Engelhardt with the band "Love is the D3vil".  The School of Night has previously been held at Valentines, Fuze Box, and most recently at Red Square. 

This "New" School of Night will be held on the first Thursday of the month, starting this coming Thursday night, September 6. 

According to the news released by Engelhardt, the event will be followed by Ballingers weekly "Ladie's Night" dance party, ABSINTHE, featuring "Alt-Indie rock, 80's Old School Goth, Metal and New Wave". 

Professor Engelhardt will be ringing the sign up bell at 7:30pm, start time at 8:00pm.  There is a $4.00 tuition donation requested.   Ballingers is located at 42 Howard Street, Albany. 

For more information, go to www.ballingers.com or www.schoolofnight.com.

Poets Performing in the Poetry Tent at LarkFEST 2007

Local poets Shaun Baxter, Debbie Bump (with John Weiler on guitar), Caffe Lena open mic host Carol Graser, John Raymond, and Erik Sweet will be performing their poetry and spoken word in the Poetry Tent throughout the day during LarkFEST on Saturday, September 15. 

Check back for information on more poets and artists that will be performing at this years event.

Rhodora Penaranda to Read at Poetry on the Loose

Rhodora Penaranda will read her original work at the next Poetry on the Loose event.  The program will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 1 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 6 Orchard Street (at Main) in Middletown.  Her presentation will be followed by an open reading during which anyone may participate.   

Penaranda has written short stories as well, but finds what she calls the “pithy intensity of poetry” more suitable to her nature.  Her work has been collected in the volumes Touchstone and Unmasking Medusa.   

Originally from the Philippines, Penaranda was at first under the impression, as she says, that she wanted to be “a woman of the material world.”  She worked in retail, then in journalism and public relations before deciding she had to “commit to art, or perish.” 

Of her writing, Penaranda says, “Coming home to poetry and finding the art and language of others are a way of coming home to myself and making something of my past,  maybe even transforming it.  I’ve come close to closing the book on myself; art is my way of opening it again, to be daring, inventive; to find that love again as a self-expressing creature in this world we live in.” 

The October 6 Poetry on the Loose reading will feature Sally Rhoades.

The Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance series is supported this year with funding from Orange Arts/Orange County Tourism and the County of Orange.

September’s Special Guest at the Colony Café Monday Night Open Mic in Woodstock

Phillip Levine (Chronogram Poetry Editor) has sent in the lineup of featured poets and performers for September 2007 at the Colony Café Monday Night Open Mic in Woodstock. There is an open mic for poetry, prose, and performance in addition to the “special guests”. Start time of the Monday Night Open Mic is 7:00PM. Features read for approximately 20 - 25mins each, beginning around 8:00PM.

Monday, September 3rd, 2007 - Max Schwartz (poet, photographer)

Monday, September 1