Friday, Jan 23 and Monday, Jan 26

Hey Everyone

We hope you are sticking to your New Year's resolutions and that one of them is more poetry. We have a great line up at the UAG, 247 Lark Street, this Friday, January 23rd @ 7pm. We are pleased to have Miriam Axel-Lute and Amanda Rose.

Miriam Axel-Lute is a mother, Albany resident, freelance writer and copy-editor, and columnist for Metroland. Her poetry has been published in various journals and anthologies, including You Are Here: New York City's Streets in Poetry and Hunger Enough: Living Spiritually in a Consumer Society. Miriam has performed in pulpits, bookstores, bars, and living rooms all over the Northeast, and has two chapbooks, Souls Like Mockingbirds and Packing to Stay.

Amanda is the quintessential Gemini, floating in and out of the Albany poetry scene since 1998. A passionate woman, an unabashed workaholic and an insomniac, she previously hosted "Alchemy of the Word" open mic at the old Lion-Heart and has been featured at Mother Earth's, Changing Spaces, Valentine's & Poets Speak Loud at the Lark Tavern. After 10 years of writing mostly about the chaos of love (be it romantic, sexually deviant, platonic, spiritual or familial), she realizes that she still has a lot of learning & living yet to do...and a lot of tales left to write.

Keep your long underwear on because on Monday, January 26th at Tess' Lark Tavern we have our special POETS SPEAK LOUD anniversary/beret toss/fundraiser for The Tom Nattell Memorial Scholarship open mic. This is so special that we have a special guest host...Dan Wilcox! The sign-up will go out at 7:30 and the mic begins at 8pm. $3 donation and all donations that night go the Tom Nattell Memorial Scholarship.The beret toss became a tradition in 2005 and we brave the weather every year to the Robert Burns Statue. If you want to know what happens next...well you should show up. Bring anything you have to say and the attitude to say it. We have freedom of speech. We suggest you use it.