| MUSELETTER | |
Hello and happy holidays, everybody! It’s been almost a year since the last NYC Museletter, and while a lot has changed, a whole lot has stayed the same—for example, our two long-running New Year’s Day poetry marathons.
NEW YEAR'S DAY ALTERNATIVE SPOKEN WORD EXTRAVAGANZA
The 9th annual iteration of the Alternative Spoken Word Extravaganza (which, for reasons of its own, chooses to change its name each year and in 2003 is known as “Boiling Point”) includes a collection of canned goods for City Harvest and coats for Barrier Free Living, which will be distributed to the homeless—a wonderful tradition that this reading established and which does not change from year to year. Performers include Laura Boss, Regie Cabico, Steve Dalachinsky, Bob Holman, Tsaurah Litzky, Kathy Price, Susan Sherman, Matvei Yankelevich, Yictove and about 150 others, including an open mike. The Alternative Spoken… er, the Boiling Point reading starts at noon and is held at The Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, www.alternativespokenword.com.
NEW YEAR'S AT THE POETRY PROJECT
The longer-running, less alternative, non-name-changing marathon is being held, for the 29th year in a row, at The Poetry Project at St. Mark's. This year’s performers include Penny Arcade, Eric Bogosian, Jim Carroll, Todd Colby, Brenda Coultas, Maggie Dubris, Maggie Estep, Kimiko Hahn, Janet Hamill, Richard Hell, Robert Hershon, Bob Holman, Vicki Hudspith, Lisa Jarnot, Patricia Spears Jones, Lenny Kaye, Rachel Levitsky, Brendan Lorber, Jackson Mac Low, Sharon Mesmer, Kristin Prevallet, Patti Smith, Christopher Stackhouse, Edwin Torres, Anne Waldman, Emily XYZ and John Yau. With rare and out-of-print items available on the book sales table, and a $20/$15 charge at the door, the marathon reading is The Poetry Project’s primary annual fundraiser. Founded in 1966 by the late poet and translator Paul Blackburn, the Project is dedicated to writing that proposes fresh aesthetic, cultural, philosophical, and political approaches to contemporary experience and is a major forum for experimental poets. The marathon kicks off at 2 pm and goes until 1 am at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, 131 East 10th Street @ Second Avenue, 212.674.0910.
BOWERY POETRY CLUB
The Bowery Poetry Club opened this year, with our own Bob Holman at the helm. And it seems to operate nearly 24x7, with several shows a day ranging from dialogues with Amiri Baraka to the BIPS improv poets headed by Galinsky, from Anne Waldman to Sekou Sundiata and a long-run play called Uncle Jimmy’s Dirty Basement. If you haven’t yet made your plans for New Year’s Eve, head on over to the club at 8 for a Jeliya Kwanzaa NYE party hosted by Jimmy “Blood” Ulmer and featuring Fina Kewulay Kamara, koras, balophones and the peerless Toni Blackman. Several regular series have also moved to the Club, including the monthly Four Way Books readings previously held at CCS, now transformed into Readings on the Bowery and held on the second Sunday at 2pm. The Urbana Slam Team, formerly headquartered at CBGBs, has also migrated across the avenue and now makes its home at the Club. Urbana took its third national slam championship (tied for first with Detroit, just edging out the Nuyorican) in Minneapolis this past August and now rocks the house from 7-10 every Thursday night. The Club, which opens at 9 am most days, is comfy and nurturing, with coffee, pastries, sandwiches and a growing bookstore. The Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery @ Bleecker, 212.614.0505.
KWANZAA IN THE BRONX
In what may very well become an annual holiday event, Ebony Washington is hosting a combination Kwanzaa celebration and 2nd anniversary bash on Thursday, December 26 at her venue in the Bronx, Kay's Kafe. The night includes a slam competition for a $50 cash prize and a special holiday buffet, all for a $10 cover. Kay’s Kafe is at 1345 Southern Boulevard (718.378.3434) and the festivities begin at 8 pm.
POETS IN THE HOUSE
This year Poets House expanded into a larger space to give its incomparable library of poetry (measuring more than 40,000 volumes) room to grow. They held another successful holiday sale this December, and I happily went home with books by Carolyn Forche, Louise Gluck, C.K. Williams, Linda Gregg, Joshua Beckman, Denise Levertov, Stephen Dunn, and Laurie Sheck. A friend of mine had the foresight to go on the last day of the sale, when prices are at their lowest, and snagged herself a bandit’s bagful! The holiday sale is one of several ongoing events sponsored by Poets House, others include the Poets House Showcase, an annual exhibit of more than 1,300 new poetry books from commercial, university and independent presses across the nation; the annual Bridge Walk where poets such as Galway Kinnell and Marie Howe lead a tribe of poetrylovers across the Brooklyn Bridge; and the biennial People’s Poetry Gathering, the largest poetry festival regularly held in New York City. The next People’s Poetry Gathering, which is co-sponsored by City Lore and The Bowery Poetry Club, is scheduled for April 11-13, 2003. The theme of next spring’s Gathering is Ballads & Epics: check the PPG website for soon-to-be-released details on scheduled performances, and get your tickets early!
THE WHAT'S-NEW CATEGORY
...wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the fact that poetry has finally made it to Broadway, with last month’s debut of Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam at the Longacre Theatre. The nine performers, Staceyann Chin, Steve Colman, Mayda del Valle, Suheir Hammad, Black Ice, Lemon, Georgia Me, Poetri and Beau Sia, come from all over the country and were originally featured on the TV show of the same name. While reviews are mixed (raves and rants), there’s no doubt that the very high profile of the television show and its subsequent Broadway release has updated the face of poetry for many people who previously wouldn’t have given a second thought to the possibility that they might—gasp!—actually enjoy a poetry reading. And if you don't care for slam-style work (and there’s no doubt that Def Poetry is entirely rooted in the slam/hip-hop tradition), the recent grant of $100 million to Poetry magazine, way over on the other side of the poetic house, has stimulated an equivalent amount of attention for those with a taste for more traditional work. Any way you slice it, 2002 has put poetry on everybody’s radar screen.
A SERIES GROWS IN BROOKLYN
The Frequency Reading Series, that is. Founded by Daniel Nester and Shanna Compton at the request of SoftSkull publisher Richard Nash, in its initial year the series featured such poets as Maggie Estep, Hal Sirowitz, Gregory Pardlo, Susan Wheeler and Todd Colby. The spring 2003 lineup includes T. Cole Rachel (who was just selected by Inscape magazine as 2002 “Poet of the Year”), Regie Cabico, David Lehman and Matthew Zapruder. The series was named by accident, when Dan Nester mis-remembered the name of the Soft Skull bookstore, which is called “Short Wave,” as being the Frequency Bookstore. Serendipitous misnomering, no? Shanna and Dan are equal partners in selecting the readers, and try to put people together who don't make sense, but are still compatible: fiction and poetry, monologues with flash fiction, essayists with humorists. Both curators are well-respected writers in their own right: Dan’s first book, God Save My Queen, will be published by Soft Skull in April, and he has work forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2003. Shanna, the editor of LIT, has been published in dozens of journals and recently completed her first collection, Brand New Insects.
LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST
Please come by any Friday night to my series, The Pink Pony West Poetry Reading at The Cornelia Street Cafe. We start at 6 with an open mike that has been called the best open reading in Manhattan. Our feature goes on at 8 -- that could be anyone from Hal Sirowitz to Angelo Verga to Emily XYZ to Colette Inez. The Cafe has a fabulous sound system, excellent food, and $6 at the door gets you a free drink. Come on over and join our fabulous Friday poets! The Cafe is at 29 Cornelia Street, between Bleecker & 6th Avenue.
