IN MEMORIAM: GEORGE HARRISON & LARRY DONOVAN
First, I want to acknowledge the passing of George Harrison. When I was 10, the Beatles came to America and like so many millions, my life was changed forever. I was, and remain, one of the biggest Beatles fans in the world. Goodbye, old friend.

Miami poet Larry Donovan has died. We will read his work and remember him by talking about his life as a poet, teacher and artist in South Florida, come July 2002. Larry was a friend and mentor to many poets in South Florida. He was also a talented artist, working often in pen and ink. In both his writing and his drawings, his themes were often about South Florida. We miss you, Larry.

MOMA MIA!
Looks like there's a relatively new poetry kid in town. They've been sending out an e-newsletter and when I inquired about the who, what, where, when, they replied:

Hollywood Florida-based MOMA Poetry is a cultural arts organization committed to supporting artists and their craft, especially the spoken word. Melkisedek, spoken word artist, is President/CEO of the organization. MOMA Poetry began at the start of 2001 and has done some major work in the poetry scene. In February, we brought down Bruce George, Executive Producer of Def Poetry Jam, who works directly with Russell Simmons. Bruce came down to view the top 15 poets of South Florida to screen them for Def Poetry Jam, a new HBO special. One of the poets in that show, Rashida Bartley, was chosen and her appearance on HBO's Def Poetry Jam is scheduled for December 2001.

MOMA Poetry has also hosted the Gospel and Jazz Explosion with Spoken Word and the Slam Shut! Spoken Word Celebrity Grudge Match, featuring Roger Bonair-Agard, the 1999 Individual National Slam Champion, from the Nuyorican. The Grudge Match featured five of Florida's top poets and the winner walked away with a $200 prize and free studio time. MOMA Poetry is planning an extensive spring show series, with monthly performances featuring the biggest names in spoken word. Tryouts will be held in January 2002.

The Spoken Word Vibe! e-zine is the newsletter for MOMA Poetry, in which upcoming MOMA Poetry events are announced and local spoken word venues are listed. It's distributed to more than 1,500 people, to forward the art of spoken word.

A DOWN TO EARTH KINDA GUY
Jim Daniels read at Broward Community College on October 17. I wasn't familiar with his work and was glad to be introduced to it by hearing him read. Daniels read from an old chapbook which is in the shape of a 45 rpm record. The subject matter, of course, is music of the 60s. Is it called Red Vinyl, Black Vinyl? Afterward, a few of us took him to dinner where we gossiped: This is where you learn about how rude, how nice, who's sleeping with whom to get a book published, etc. You know, the dish on the “famous” poets, the Big Shots... My lips are sealed.

But all was not gossip. Broward poet Gary Kay had a stimulating conversation with Denise Duhamel about signifiers. I asked Kay to tell me what exactly signifiers are. His reply: A signifier is a referent, a word or image that carries meaning, what is signified. From a postmodern perspective, however, these meanings are politically, culturally, and gender and economically determined. Also, the meanings favor the dominant groups and genders. Thus, males are privileged over females, whites over blacks, western culture over eastern, and upper class over the lower. Also, from a feminist perspective, women derives her meaning in relationship to the male, to whom she is subordinate. Thus, a married woman's identity is defined in relation to the male, whose last name she takes. One of the many things Denise seems to be doing is mocking and transforming the competing interconnections between male and female signifiers and roles. But she makes a frontal attack on body parts, taking aim at the penis and recontextualizing the vagina. So in “Him-Whose-Penis-Never-Slept,” the man becomes identified totally, savagely and pathetically as mere male brute masculinity. At the end his organ becomes mere liquid sliding down a wall. The irony and tragedy being that semen could be the means of creation and procreation, where here it is brutal destruction. Now when she refers to the vagina, things get tricky, or clever. Because vagina is also a mere body part, but also the essence of what woman is. Here the reference cuts several ways. On one level, this portrays women as mere sex objects. Yet on another it allows women to speak from that which separates them from men and defines them biologically, a far more fruitful approach, and a way that can allows them to reveal their inner identity. Anyway, need to get back to the “little woman” and wash the dishes, make the bed and get ready for the week when I bring home the bacon to wife and family. Tough job, but we males have no choice.

7TH ANNUAL FLORIDA-BRAZIL FESTIVAL
Miami poets came out to read for the FlaBra Festival on November 6 at Books and Books. Among them were Emma Trelles, Mia Leonin, Adrian Castro, Michael Hettich, Diane Thiel and Jesse Millner. Trellis told me, “I think they're making a chapbook afterwords (sic). It should be pretty cool.”

SOL THEATRE SHINES IN LAUDERDALE
Robert Hooker, founder of Sol Theatre Project, says, “We are a new 'scene' in Fort Lauderdale, and we're getting ready to offer our first in a series of interactive, performance poetry slam and improv evenings. We have a troupe of regular players who will put together a performance piece surrounding a theme, and the audience will interact with their own poetry, thoughts, improv, music,etc.” I went to the second and third editions of Sol Theatre and I'm betting it becomes a major city on the theater/poetry map in South Florida. The actors are highly professional. The improv/slam featuring poets that come out of the audience is first class. I caught Marya Summers, who dazzled them with her “12-Step” performance piece (“I drink too much, I love too much, I fuck too much…”).

DRESSED IN DRAG AT LUMONICS
For Halloween, Lumonics, a Fort Lauderdale gallery of artists who make light sculptures, continued a recent trend: offering poetry slam/readings. Nick Carbo was among the first to read at this new poetic venue, and I recently read at Lumonics with Stacie Kiner and Richard Ryal. Lumonics is the brainchild of artist Dorothy Tanner, who adds her creative touch to the new poetry scene by making video poems. The dark room filled with poets, old hippies, artists and kids sucking candy pacifiers (it helps them not grind their teeth while doing Ecstasy, I was told) lights up with psychedelic blobs and geometric shapes throbbing to background space music, while Tanner's voice leads listeners into her poetic journey-dream. Far out, man. Afterwards, the night I was there, a group of “aliens” broke out the congas, bongos and drums for an ecstatic drum circle. Having never participated in one before, I joined in when my feet could not stop tapping. We drummed for about a half hour, but I was ready to go another few hours. What a great release of tension! The nubile 20-something lass dressed like an Arabian princess bellydancer who writhed, undulated and gyrated made for an erotic flame on the candle of the night. (Oooh, that was bad?) Following the drum circle, DJs in the back rooms played trance music. The kids came in dressed in glow sticks and every once in a while broke out into a spontaneous writhing mass of arms, heads, breasts, buttocks and legs. Then, just as spontaneously, they'd stop and go on talking like nothing happened. (And I thought we did strange things while listening to “In a Gadda Da Vida” in the 60s.)

Lumonics also offers “Links of the week” when it sends out notices of upcoming events. Here are two worthy ones:

• Helping.org
• Tolerance.org

GOLDBARTH ON THE GOLD COAST
It took a few years, but the Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation (new official Web site is in the making as we speak) finally brought Albert Goldbarth to South Florida. While the number of attendees who came out to hear him November 13 at Florida Atlantic University was a big disappointment, Goldbarth read as if the house was packed. If you've never read anything by him (can you call yourself a poet if you have not?), then you are missing a vital piece of the poetry puzzle. Adjectives like “brilliant,” “witty,” “clever” and “mythological” have been used to describe his work, and with good reason. Add “humorous” to that list. Goldbarth spent a week with us. Over lunches and dinners, you get to see that his sarcasm is a ruse and his heart is as big as the topics of his poems. While he was down, Goldbarth also came to Florida International University to teach a class for Denise Duhamel. Afterward, we took him to lunch at one of the landmarks on Miami Beach, Rascal House. I had the pleasure of taking Goldbarth around Dania Beach to what is known as “Antique Row” -- Goldbarth is an avid collector of certain archaic things: old science fiction books, comics, and he has about 13 antique typewriters and other printing-related machines around his house, he told me.

AT THE MIAMI BOOKFAIR INTERNATIONAL

GEORGE WALLACE TAKE TWO
Long Island Quarterly and Poetrybay editor and publisher George Wallace was to lecture and read here in South Florida in September. However, the terrorist attacks of September 11 postponed his trip. He will be down Saturday, January 12 to lecture on “The Differences and Similarities Between Editing and Publishing Online and in Print.” The lecture will take place at 8 pm at Books and Books, 265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables.

NEW NATIONAL POETRY COMPETITION UNVEILED
The Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation is sponsoring its first annual Ed and Fay Phillips Memorial Prize in Poetry. $500 will be awarded to the winner and the winning poem will be published in Gulfstream Magazine. Entry fee is $5. Send up to three poems to Lenny DellaRocca, 2660 SW 22nd Avenue, Apt. 1204, Delray Beach, FL 33445-7749. Include your email address, phone or snail mail address with SASE. The judge is Denise Duhamel.

ALL EYES ON JACKSONVILLE
Nokturnal Escape in Jacksonville reports:

All Eyes on Egypt Books and Cultural Center, 4770 Barnes Road #4 (behind Krystals on University Blvd.), Jacksonville, FL, 904.379.2209, totheopent@yahoo.com, will host the following fundraising events:

• Friday, December 14, 7 pm
  Experience an evening of new grooves and soul with this special CD listening party of downtempo, neo-soul, nu-soul, latin rhythm, chilled out drum and bass, rare grooves and more. Ambiance, coffee, and herbal tea provided. Bring your pillows for this chill-out session. Hosted by Emanuel. Admission $5.
  
  
• Saturday, December 15, 1 pm
  Sisters Empowerment Group will discuss “Improving Your Sex life Holistically,” video presentation, sisterly conversation and lunch will be provided. Facilitated by Patricia and Malikah. Admission $5.
  
  
• Wednesday, December 26
  Kwanzaa celebration. More information TBA

Poetry Is Our Second Language is the title of Nokturnal Escape's performance series, held at All Eyes on Egypt Books. Upcoming features:

• Saturday, December 22, 7 pm
  Live and direct, hold on to your seats, David "Ghettoprophet" Pugh and Kenneth Walker, from Lyrical Paintings at Fuel, join forces for a high octane explosion. Kicking off the night, all poets, singers, rappers and storytellers are invited to sign to perform in an explosive open mic at 7 pm. Admission $3. For more information, call 904.728.4636.
  
  
• Saturday, January 5
  Our featured poet The Songbird, ASOULFLOWER, aka Bridgett Hogan, comes home with Sworn Testimony II, from Lakeland, FL, her way of exposing the initimate side of everyday life through poetry and music.

Ciao for now,

Leonardo DellaRocca