Frequency North: Writebloody Publishing Poetry Showcase

On Thursday, April 15, the day before the 2010 Albany Word Fest, Dan Nester is hosting some big name poets at St. Rose for Frequency North.  Here is the info:

Frequency North: Writebloody Publishing Poetry Showcase with Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Derrick Brown, and “Mighty” Mike McGee

With incendiary writers, a grassroots DIY ethos, and a unique books that use modern painters, photographers and rock album designers for all our book cover art, it’s no surprise that Filter Magazine says that Writebloody Publishing (writebloody.com) is “quickly becoming the number one indie press on the market.” Join us this evening for a showcase of two of Writebloody’s authors, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz (another return visitor to the series, having read in the 2007-2008 series), “Mighty” Mike McGee, and press founder Derrick Brown.

Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is the author of the nonfiction book, Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam (Soft Skull Press, 2008), as well as the author of five books of poetry, most recently Everything is Everything (Write Bloody Press, 2010). When not on tour, she can be found loitering at NYC’s Bowery Poetry Club, where she helps run the Tuesday night poetry slam series, NYC-Urbana, and dates the surly barkeep, poet Shappy Seasholtz. Her website is at http://www.aptowicz.com.

Derrick Brown, a former paratrooper for the 82nd Airborne, gondolier, magician, and fired weatherman, now travels the world and performs his written work. From Nashville, he is dedicated to bringing American poetry into rock and roll status. He has consistently been the opening act for indie rock act Cold War Kids and has been booked with The White Stripes and performed with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. His work has been featured in books with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, Viggo Mortensen, Jeff Buckley and Jim Carroll. As one of the most original and well-traveled writer/performers in the country, Derrick Brown has gained a cult following for his poetry performances all over the U.S. and through Europe. To date, Brown has performed at over 1200 venues and universities internationally including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, La Sorbonne in Paris and The Nuyorican Poets Café in NYC. Known for a moving show that incorporates spoken word, minimalist music, and even sound fx, Brown is unique for being an outstanding performer but is foremost a page poet. He has won the California Independent Book Critics’ Award in 2004, and his performance poetry has won six first-place poetry slam finishes in Venice Beach, England, and Germany. His website is at http://www.brownpoetry.com.

“Mighty” Mike McGee is an international spoken word artist, writer, performer, speaker, slam poet and comic. He has performed in thousands of venues all over North America, and was one of the first Americans ever to perform poetry at the University la Sorbonne in Paris, France. McGee began performing comedy and poetry to audiences at home in San Jose, California in 1998. As a Poetry Slam competitor in the U.S., Mike has competed at the National Poetry Slam on team San José several times. In 2003, McGee won the coveted National Poetry Slam Individual Grand Championship, besting over 300 nationally ranked poetry slammers. He has since toured over 300,000 miles throughout the United States and Canada where fellow National Poetry Slam Indy Champ, Shane Koyczan and beat-boxer poet extraordinaire C.R. Avery (of Vancouver, B.C.) joined him to form the group Tons of Fun University in 2004. They have since headlined music festivals across Canada, bringing their unique blend of poetry-laden “talk rock” to massive audiences all over the great north. In 2006, McGee became the first person to win two separate individual titles by being crowned the 2006 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, besting over 70 of the world’s best ranked slam poets. His “stand-up poetry” has been written about in Writer’s Digest magazine, and been featured on NPR, HBO and CBC. Mike McGee books internationally and is on tour damn-near 300 days a year. His website is at http://www.mikemcgee.net.

This event is free and open to the public at the College of St. Rose, St. Joseph Auditorium on Thursday, April 15 starting at 7:30PM.