There are a few great poetry events happening this week in the area, from Saratoga to Beacon. Here is a run down of what is going on.
Tuesday, August 2 – Albany Poets Presents at Valentines
Albany Poets Presents comes to Valentines on the first Tuesday of each month starting at 8:00PM.
Each month we present a No Gimmick Open Mic. Poets, musicians, comedians, spoken word artists are all invited to take the stage at Valentines.
Come over and join local poets and spoken word artists for an evening of conversation, cocktails, coffee, and, of course, poetry.
Sign up begins at 7:00PM, open mic starts at 8:00PM. There is a $3.00 suggested donation for this event. Albany Poets Presents takes place at Valentines Music Hall (17 New Scotland Ave.) on the first Tuesday of each and every month.
Wednesday, August 3 – Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic
The first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents: Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: John Roche $3 Hosted by Carol Graser Info: www.caffelena.org or 583-0022
John Roche has published three poetry collections. His latest, Road Ghosts, is now available from theenk Books. He’s edited and co-edited a few anthologies including Doing Time to Cleanse My Mind, a collection of poetry by inmates at Auburn Prison. He’s an Assoiciate Professor of English at RIT and has studied with Robert Creeley and John C. Clarke. Roche’s previous poetry collections, Topicalities (2008) and On Conesus (2005) are available from Foothills Publishing.
Saturday, August 6 – 3rd Annual CAPS Poetry Marathon in Beacon
This is a 12-Hour “Calling All Poets” event featuring some of the finest poets and spoken word artists in the state at the Howland Cultural Center (477 Main Street, Beacon, NY). Featured poets include Kevin Kenny, Florence Lenhard, Adam Bradley, Tony Pena, Steve Hirsch, Justin Parinello, Christopher Gazeent, Addison Goodson, Frank Boyer, Janet Hamill & Lost Ceilings, Cheryl A. Rice, Samuel Claiborne, Walter Worden, Sharon Butler, Rebecca Schumejda, Tanya Tyler, Haigan Smith, Don Lev, Teresa Marta Costa, Roberta Gould, Dennis Bressack, Barbara Adams, Franklin Schneider, Jim Kenny , Mary Panza, Jill Crammond, Murrow, Don Levy, RM Englehardt, Raphael Kosek, Sonia Lynch, Lynn Hoins, Adrianna Delgado, Glenn Werner, Ken Holland, Marina Mati, Terence Chiesa, Christopher Wheeling, Jim Eve, and Robert Milby. And if that is not enough, there will also be open mic sessions throughout the day.
Summertime in Saratoga! Poetry at Caffe Lena continues on Wednesday, July 6 as Carol Graser hosts the monthly open mic with featured poets from RA Press.
The first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents: Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic Wednesday, July 6, 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poets: RA Press Poets Charles Watts, Mary Anne Johnson, Chuck Gibson, and Mary L. Randal Admisstion: $3 Hosted by Carol Graser
Our feature will be four poets representing RA Press out of Burlington, VT. They will be presenting work from the “Backpack Classics” series, a set of books aimed to enhance any hike in the Adirondacks. Featured readers will be Charles Watts, Mary Anne Johnson, Chuck Gibson, and Mary L. Randall. These writers, all widely published, are featured in the anthology Karma in the High Peaks, RA Press’s newest publication. Karma in the High Peaks won the Peoples Choice award as best publication of 2010 at the Adirondack Literary Awards.
Mary Anne Johnson (author Wandering Through White Church and contributor to Karma in the High Peaks) grew up in Saranac Lake, a small town deep in the Adirondacks. She lived in Syracuse, St. Louis, and Dillingham, a tiny Alaskan fishing village, before she returned to her mountains. She settled down in Crown Point on the shores of Lake Champlain where she has lived in the same house for over forty years, never bothered by boredom. For most of those years she poured her creative juices into high-school classes in Moriah, part of the Adirondack community she writes about. Upon retirement, she realized that creative juices just don't stop, and here she is!
Mary Randall is the author of three novels: Nancy Never Married, Split Infinities, and Brio. Her short fiction and prose are collected in The Ghost of Starbuckville Dam and Not a Night for Dreaming. Her work appears in many anthologies, including: Christmas in Port Davis, Between Iraq and a Hard Place, Lyrics from a Dark wood, Cold Earth Wanderers, and Karma in the High Peaks.
Early in his career, Charles Watts had an underground play (“Visigoths”) produced in Los Angeles, which led to script writing contracts for several TV series, including Kojack and Here Come the Brides. He soon fled Hollywood, got an MFA in poetry, and went to Iran to teach literature at several Universities. For five years, he edited Seizure, a magazine of poetry and fiction. Do not worry about his sanity; he has done many other things. Recent publications include three stories and twelve poems in lit journals, and ten poems in “Karma in the High Peaks,” an anthology from Ra Press
Chuck Gibson was written three books of poetry, two with Ra Press, and is known for poems that capture the spirit and soul of Adirondack ponds, storms, waterfalls, and other natural wonders. For over ten years he served as Director of Literacy Volunteers of Essex/Franklin Counties, based in Port Henry. He and his wife Ann are in the midst of preparing to move to Oregon in August.
This coming Wednesday, poet Mary Eliza Crane will be the featured poet at the Caffe Lena Open Mic in historic Saratoga Springs. Host Carol Graser sent along the following information on the event:
Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic featuring Mary Eliza Crane
The first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents: Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic Wednesday, May 4 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: Mary Eliza Crane $3 Hosted by Carol Graser Caffè Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs, 583-0022
Mary Eliza Crane grew up in New England and began writing poetry at age fourteen to reconcile the incongruencies of life. Poetry remains the one constant to which Mary always returns. In the Adirondacks she fell madly, passionately and desirously in love with the natural world. A transplant to the Cascade foothills of the Pacific Northwest, her voice lives in the understory and fog of the Snoqualmie River. A fusion of this one true love and a deep understanding of what makes us human, she writes simultaneously of the personal, political and natural world. A regular feature at poetry venues in the Puget Sound region, her first volume of poetry "What I Can Hold In My Hands" was published in 2009 by Gazoobi Tales Publishing. "At First Light" also by Gazoobi was just released in early 2011.
National Poetry Month is starting off strong with another busy week of poetry and spoken word here in the area leading up to the Word Fest on April 16th.
Tomorrow night at Valentines (17 New Scotland Ave., Albany) Albany Poets Presents returns for another open mic night. This is one of the longest-running open mics for poetry and spoken word in the Albany area. Come out and join Thom and Keith for a couple of drinks, some conversation, and a little bit of poetry. We will also have the signup sheet for the 2011 Word Fest Open Mic with us for everyone who has not yet signed up online.
Wednesday night is the first Wednesday of the month, which means only one thing…The Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic! This is truly one of the greatest poetry open mics in the area held in one of this countries most historic venues. This month host Carol Graser will have David Kaczynski as the featured poet. Here is the information from Carol:
the first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents:
Caffè LenaPoetry Open Mic Wednesday, April 6 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: David Kaczynski $3 Hosted by Carol Graser Caffè Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs www.caffelena.org 583-0022
David Kaczynski has published poetry, short fiction, opinion pieces, and a personal narrative on growing up with his brother Ted Kaczynski, the so-called "Unabomber." Since 2001, he has worked as executive director of New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. Prior to that, he was assistant director of Equinox Youth Shelter in Albany. In 2010, David published a 36-poem chapbook, "A Dream Named You," which he describes as an attempt to trace a spiritual journey from loss to affirmation. The 36 poems reflect various themes: the desert landscape in West Texas where David lived during the 1980's; his memories of his troubled brother, Ted; his love for Linda Patrik, whom he met in the 7th grade; and his understanding of art as a transformative process.
For the rest of the poetry events going on this week be sure to check out the Events Calendar.
A very busy week of poetry this week in the Capital Region. We have Poets Speak Loud tonight at McGeary’s, Albany Poets Presents tomorrow night at Valentines, and on Wednesday on of the best and longest running open mics in the area returns with featured poet Elaine Handley.
The first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents:
Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic Wednesday, March 2 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: Elaine Handley $3 Hosted by Carol Graser Caffe Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs, 518-583-0022
Elaine Handley is Professor of Writing and Literature at SUNY Empire State College. She has published poetry and fiction in a variety of magazines and anthologies, and has won the Adirondack Center for Writing Best Book of Poetry Award, with writing partners Marilyn McCabe and Mary Sanders Shartle, in 2005 and 2006; they have recently released Winterberry, Pine: Three Poets on Adirondack Winters. Their new book of poetry, Tear of the Clouds, will be released by Ra Press this spring.
Handley's most recent chapbook of poetry is Letters to My Migraine and she is completing a novel, Deep River, about the Underground Railroad in Upstate New York.
This Wednesday night Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs welcomes poet Rebecca Schmejda as the featured poet at the monthly Caffe Lena Poetry Night. Host Carol Graser sent along the following info about the event.
the first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents:
Caffe LenaPoetry Open Mic Wednesday, December 1 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: Rebecca Schumejda $3 Hosted by Carol Graser Caffe Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs www.caffelena.org 583-0022
Rebecca Schumejda is the author of Falling Forward, a full-length collections of poems (sunnyoutside, 2009); The Map of Our Garden (verve bath, 2009); Dream Big Work Harder (sunnyoutside press 2006); The Tear Duct of the Storm (Green Bean Press, 2001); and the poem "Logic" on a postcard (sunnyoutside).
She received her MA in Poetics and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and her BA in English and Creative Writing from SUNY New Paltz.
Her work has been, or will be, published in the following online and print journals: Brouhaha, Chronogram, Controlled Burn, Full of Crow, Home Planet News, Mannequin Envy, My Favorite Bullet, The New York Quarterly, nibble, Night Train, Outsider Writer, Rattapallax, Rusty Truck, Somerville News, Thieves Jargon, Underground Voices, Wilderness House Literary Review, Word Riot, Words Dance, Zygote in my Coffee, and many other publications.
Currently, she is working on a collection of poems exploring the pool hall subculture, inspired by her short-lived experience as a co-owner of a pool hall.
She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her husband and daughter. She teaches at an alternative high school program in Hudson, NY.
If you are not in the Saratoga area on Wednesday night, you can check out the special edition of “Ghost in the Machine” at the Fuze Box. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, R.M. Engelhardt moved the monthly open mic for poetry and more to this coming Wednesday.
Here is more information on the event from Mr. Engelhardt’s Facebook page:
***DUE TO THE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY GHOST IN THE MACHINE WILL BE HELD ON WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1st Same Ghost Time, Same Ghost Channel!***
GHOST IN THE MACHINE: AN OPEN FORUM FOR ALL PERFORMERS & ARTISTS
Now At The Fuzebox (The Old QE2) GHOST IN THE MACHINE , is a new performance~experimental forum for artists, musicians, poets & playwrights as well as an place where appreciation for new & experimental work by capital region artists is fostered!
FREE EXPRESSION! NETWORKING!
So keep what matters in the Albany, NY~Upstate area going. This is a group & a true open mic for performers, artists, musicians, poets & writers who don't necessarily consider themselves these things based on all styles,
GHOST IN THE MACHINE: Special Thanksgiving Holiday Version, Wednesday DECEMBER 1st! AT THE FUZEBOX, 12 CENTRAL AVENUE ALBANY,NY 8pm Signup*8:30pm StartTime Hosted By R.M. Engelhardt With Our Housband BROKEN GLASS & CIGARETTES *$4.00 Suggested Donation.
Saratoga’s Caffe Lena is hosting a fantastic weekend of poetry, workshops, and spoken word coming up next month. Here is the info from Carol Graser:
For the second year running Caffe Lena will devote a weekend to the art of the spoken word, with more than a dozen accomplished poets offering words of freedom, beauty, challenge, and revelation. The festival will open on Friday evening with a full-length performance by renowned NYC slam poet Taylor Mali, and will continue on Saturday with workshops and readings throughout the afternoon and evening with poets Don Levy, Naton Leslie, Christine Gelineau, Lyn Lifshin, Frannie Lindsay, Susan Deer Cloud, Paul Pines, Joseph Bruchac, Diane Lockward, Lucyna Prostko, Daniel Nester and Barbara Ungar & Nancy White performing From Eve to Barbie: women in myth and history…
Taylor Mali Friday, Jun. 4 • 8 PM $15 advance / $17 at the door www.taylormali.com
Saturday, June 5 Workshop Schedule: 12:30 – 1:30 Diane Lockward Weird Is Good 12:30 – 1:30 Lucyna Prostko Writing the Deepest Self 1:45 – 2:45 Christina Gelineau Exploring Beyond the I 1:45 – 2:45 Naton Leslie Writing Linked Poems 3:00 – 4:00 Frannie Lindsay Writing the Ugly Truth 3:00 – 4:00 Daniel Nester Poetry Workshop with Daniel Nester
Each workshop is $10. Workshop descriptions are on the website. We’ll have phone reservations for the workshops set up at 583-0022 in the near future. In the meantime, you can contact cgraser@nycap.rr.com to reserve your spot.
This coming Wednesday, May 5, Jared Smith will be the featured poet at the monthly Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic. Always a great reading up in Saratoga at the historic Caffe Lena with a fantastic host, Carol Graser.
The first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents: Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic Wednesday, May 5 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: Jared Smith $3 Hosted by Carol Graser -and the Caffè Lena poetry fest is coming up June 4 & 5!
Jared Smith’s seventh volume of poetry, The Graves Grow Bigger Between Generations, was released by Higganum Hill Books in the spring of 2008 and was nominated for a Tufts Award. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee (2007 and 2008). In addition his book Where Images Become Imbued With Time was nominated for The National Book Award in 2007 His second CD, Controlled By Ghosts, was released by Practical Music Studio in combination with CD Baby in October 07, with music by alternative jazz composer Lem Roby. He has had hundreds of publications in literary journals across the nation over the past 30 years, in addition to several foreign countries. He has published reviews of the works of such major contemporary poets as Ted Kooser, C.K. Williams, and W.S. Merwin. He has also been on National Public Radio and Pacifica. He has given readings, workshops, and classes at colleges, schools, libraries, and coffee houses around the country.
On the first Wednesday of every month, Caffè Lena presents:
Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic Wednesday, April 7 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: Jeanetta Calhoun Mish $3 Hosted by Carol Graser Caffè Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs www.caffelena.org 583-0022
Jeanetta Calhoun Mish is a native Oklahoman returned home after twenty years to earn her Ph.D. in American Literature at the University of Oklahoma and to grow good tomatoes. Her second poetry collection, Work Is Love Made Visible, was published by West End Press in March 2009 won the 2010 Western Heritage Award. She has participated in poetry readings and workshops for more than 20 years at acclaimed venues including the Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival, Telluride Institute’s Native American Writers Program; The Taos Poetry Circus Invitational Reading; Red Dirt Book Festival; Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, and The Knitting Factory in New York City. Jeanetta’s chapbook, Tongue Tied Woman, won the Edda Poetry Chapbook Competition for Women in 2002. She is currently the Visiting Poet-Scholar at World Literature Today.www.tonguetiedwoman.com
Nicole Peyrafitte will be back in the area next month for two performances. She will be at Caffe Lena’s Poetry Open Mic on Wednesday, November 4th and at Justin’s on Lark Street the next night. Her performances are always a great time and not to be missed.
Here is all the info from Nicole herself.
Performance artist Nicole Peyrafitte returns to the Capital District for 2 performances.
Wednesday November 4th 7 PM Caffè Lena Featured reader at the Caffè Lena Monthly Poetry event $3 at the door http://www.caffelena.org/cal-2009-11.htm#04 Nicole will read & sing (all a capella) her recent work.
Thusday November 5th 9 PM Justin’s accompanied by: Mike Bisio – Double Bass Georges Muscatello – Electric Guitar
301 Lark Street Albany NY 12208 reservation preferred: (518) 436-7008 Cover: $3
Nicole worked for many years with both Bisio and Muscatello. With Mike Bisio they signed the CD “Whisk! Don’t Church” (Ta’wil production 2009). With Muscatello they co-wrote some of “The Bi-Continental Chowder” (Ta’wil production 2007) tunes and together toured the performance of the same name both in France and the USA.
Tonight their reunion will celebrates music, poetry and improvisation through selections of Peyrafitte’s originals texts, but also contemporary poetry by Pierre Joris, Henri Michaux, Frida Kahlo & Occitan songs.
BIO: Pyrenean-born Nicole Peyrafitte is a performance artist who sings, paint, films, writes & cooks. She draws on her eclectic heritage to perform songs ranging from French cabaret to jazz standards and contemporary poetry. Her voice work is often integrated into multimedia stagings based on her visuals (paintings and/or videos) and writings. Her multimedia performances projects often involve the onstage preparation and cooking of a dish, shared with the audience. Her work addresses the experiences of negotiating her identity across two continents and four languages.
She performs domestically and in France. After her Capital district mini-tour she will be in Angoulême, France for a performance at the International Symposium : L'art, L'éducation & le politique. Her current projects involve the co-direction of a documentary on sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens and she keeps a blog “Collectages: Recordings of Foods & A®titudes” (http://nicolepeyrafitte.com/blog/)
QUOTES : "Nicole Peyrafitte is a brilliant and most original performer. Her vocalizations, her songs, her gestures are provocative: both stunningly beautiful and powerfully unnerving at times. She is the chthonic goddess come to tempt you, scare you, transform you. She is in the poetic lineage of Greek tragedy, Café Voltaire antics, of dada and surrealist play but with a post-modern, hip sensibility. I am transfixed when she's on stage." -- Poet/Performer Anne Waldman
Review of: "Whisk!Dont Churn!" By: Greg Haymes Music Editor at the Times Union Parade of CDs - New music blossoms in the Capital Region (First published: Thursday, March 12, 2009) After hibernating through much of the long winter, Capital Region musicians are beginning to emerge from their dark recording-studio lairs with brand new CDs in their hot, little paws. First out of the box this week is the dynamic twosome of vocalist Nicole Peyrafitte and bassist Michael Bisio, who will join forces on stage tonight at Justin's in Albany to celebrate the release of their debut live album, "Whisk! Don't Churn!" on the Ta'wil label.Both are fearlessly adventurous musicians, and the performance on this disc — recorded at Justin's in November — captures it all magnificently. Spoken-word and multilingual vocalizations engage in masterful swordplay with sonic bass explorations. As CD producer Pierre Joris says, the two artist-musicians "have developed an ongoing and challenging conversation based on their unconditional dedication to their chosen modes of expression." Open your ears wide and if you listen close enough to the provocative sounds of Bisio and Peyrafitte, you'll hear the sound of a kitchen whisk played like a Stradivarius.
About her 2007 CD:
“…Performance artist Nicole Peyrafitte serves up some very interesting sound-scapes and emotional improvisations on her new CD entitled “La Garbure Transcontinentale / The Bi-Continental Chowder”. Alternating between French and English poetics, Peyrafitte attempts to help the listener make the connection that she has made through her heuristic research in America and in France... the Bi-Continental Chowder is 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. --Darryl Gregory - Indie-Music.com
This month the Caffe Lena Open Mic has two featured poets plus an open mic. Here is the info from Carol Graser:
Timothy Mason has been actively performing poetry and promoting folk music since the 1980's. He honed is performance style in the early poetry slams and at the fabled Kerrville Folk Festival giving the songwriters a run for their money. His first book Gently, Like Water, Cracking Stone was released in April 1997. His most recent work, Feral Voices, published in February 2009, is a collection of poetry giving a non-human voice and sensibility to the 21st century experience on our shared planet. From Anchorage, Toronto and Ottawa to Boston, Austin and Oakland, festival and club appearances have solidified his place among contemporary New England artists and international audiences. "...beautiful imagery and solid structure mixed with an intense performance style...." www.timothydmason.com
Refusing to characterize her poetic style as either academic or performance, LisaAnn LoBasso considers herself most at home among artists. With over 20 years experience, she has produced countless readings and collaborative arts events, such as the Up Close, Let Loose Traveling Poets’ Reading Series, and Operation Soapbox, while still racking up her own credentials, including Poet Ambassador of Kern County in California, as well as appearances at venues and universities from West Coast to East. LisaAnn’s work has been lauded as both dynamic and boundary-breaking; dubbed a poetry minstrel by Las Vegas City Life Weekly, she has featured with diverse and noteworthy poets, such as Nicholas Roerich Prize winnerLee McCarthy, California Poet Laureate Al Young, and Paterson Award Winner Indran Amirthanayagam. Twice nominated for California Poet Laureate 2008, she has two poetry books in print: In the Swollen a poetry collection (2003), and Oleander Milkshake, (2008). In her spare time, LisaAnn develops creative writing programs, theatre scripts, arts-education programs, and public arts installations with artists as far as England. She travels worldwide and recently just returned from living in India for three months. LisaAnn has worked closely with Gluck Award winner Frances Mconnel, National Book Award finalist and critically acclaimed author Susan Straight, and Pulitzer Prize nominee Maurya Simon.
Poetry Open Mic Wednesday July 1 doors open 7PM, readings start 7:30 Featured Poets: Tim Mason and Lisa LoBasso $3 hosted by Carol Graser Caffè Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs www.caffelena.org 583-0022
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.
Forgot to add this to the list of upcoming poetry events. Sunday, May 24 is Open Stage day at Caffe Lena in Saratoga. Here is all the info:
This Sunday, May 24, 7:30 PM, is Caffe Lena's 5th annual Memorial Day Open Stage. The Saratoga Peace Alliance is co-sponsoring the event along with the Adirondack Chapter of Veterans for Peace. Join us for poetry, song, storytelling and reflection, patriotic or otherwise! Performer sign-up goes from 7- 7:30. Caffe Lena is located at 47 Phila St. in Saratoga Springs.
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.
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.
Poet Edward Tick will be the featured poet this month at the Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic this coming Wednesday, February 4 in historic Saratoga Springs. Carol Graser hosts this great open mic for poetry and spoken word.
Edward Tick, Ph.D. is a holistic psychotherapist, writer, educator, journey guide, activist and veterans’ advocate. His poetry is featured in the publication THE GOLDEN TORTOISE: VIET NAM JOURNEYS (2005), He has dedicated much of his life and work to veterans and survivors of war, violence and trauma since the late 1970s. He specializes in using psycho-spiritual, cross-cultural, and international reconciliation practices to help veterans, communities and nations heal. He is founder and Director of Soldier’s Heart: A Veterans’ Safe Return Program. This program is of national and international scope with home offices in Troy, N.Y. Dr. Tick is an adjunct professor in both Communication and Global Studies at the Sage Colleges. He leads international educational, healing and reconciliation journeys to Greece, Viet Nam and other countries. Dr. Tick has published 4 books (2 with Quest Books): SACRED MOUNTAIN, ENCOUNTERS WITH THE VIETNAM BEAST (1989), THE PRACTICE OF DREAM HEALING (2001), WAR AND THE SOUL, winner of ForeWord Magazine’s Best Psychology Book of 2005, and WILD BEASTS AND WANDERING SOULS (2007). He is also a poet and is the author of almost 100 articles in psychology, holistic health, mythology and spirituality, literature, philosophy, culture and travel. Ed is a frequent guest lecturer at numerous institutions around the country and world, most recently including Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Sign up starts at 7:00PM, the reading starts at 7:30PM. There is a $3.00 admission for this event. More information at www.caffelena.org.
The Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic returns this Wednesday, January 7 with featured poet Mary Cuffe Perez.
Mary Cuffe Perez is a writer and amateur naturalist living in Galway, New York. She has a poetry book, The Woman of Too Many Days, published with Calyx Press and most recently, a children’s novel , Skylar (Philomel Books 2008). Her short fiction has appeared in New England Quarterly, Groundswell, 13th Moon and Salvage magazines. and her poetry has appeared in numerous literary magazines over the years, including the Washout Review, Blueline, Bitterroot, Yankee Magazine and the Seattle Review.
Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic Wednesday, January 7 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: Mary Cuffe Perez $3 Hosted by Carol Graser Caffe Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs 518-583-0022
This month sponsored by the members of the Story Quilt Committee of the Galway Public Library
Philip Memmer is the author of two books of poems, most recently Threat of Pleasure, which was published in June 2008 by Word Press. Word Press also published his Sweetheart, Baby, Darling in 2004. He is also the author of three chapbooks of poems, including Greatest Hits (Pudding House Publications), The Apartment (piccadilly press) and For Resident (FootHills Publishing). His third collection of poems, Lucifer: A Hagiography, was selected for the Idaho Prize from Lost Horse Press, and will be published in February 2009.
Philip Memmer's poems have appeared widely in literary journals, including Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Southern Poetry Review, Mid-American Review, Epoch, Tar River Poetry, and many others. His work has also appeared in several anthologies, including 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, edited by Billy Collins. Memmer is the director of the Arts Branch of the YMCA of Greater Syracuse, where he founded the Downtown Writer's Center in 2001. He is the editor of Two Rivers Review, associate editor for Tiger Bark Press, and the current poetry editor of the journal Stone Canoe.
Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic Wednesday, October 1 7pm sign up, 7:30 readings start Featured Poet: Philip Memmer $3 Hosted by Carol Graser Caffe Lena, 47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs www.caffelena.org 583-0022
I recently started running poetry workshops at Tryon Girls Center, a New York State juvenile detention center. I’ve been impressed with what fluid, expressive writing they produce and how much they love poetry. These girls have a lot of difficulty in the classroom but they sit attentively through the poetry workshop, are supportive of each others writing and engage in very profound discussions of the poems I bring for them to read. They would benefit greatly from more exposure to poetry but unfortunately, their library is doesn’t provide much.
If some of you would be willing to donate a volume or two of poetry (or any book you feel would be relevant to them), it would go long way to helping these kids. The majority of girls in the Tryon are 15- or 16-years-old, although some are as young as 12. Almost 73 percent are African American or Hispanic, and many come from poorer neighborhoods in New York City. The majority of girls have suffered past physical and sexual abuse, and many need mental health care as well as treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.
You can bring your donations to Caffè Lena on poetry night, Wed. Oct. 1. or contact me at cgraser@nycap.rr.com and we’ll figure something out.
If you are able to help Carol out, please do what you can. This is a great cause and will be a good home for your poetry books.
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.
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.
Albany Poets Presents comes to Valentines on the first Tuesday of each month starting at 8:00PM.
The first Wednesday of every month Caffè Lena presents: Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic
This is a 12-Hour “Calling All Poets” event featuring some of the finest poets and spoken word artists in the state at the Howland Cultural Center (477 Main Street, Beacon, NY). Featured poets include Kevin Kenny, Florence Lenhard, Adam Bradley, Tony Pena, Steve Hirsch, Justin Parinello, Christopher Gazeent, Addison Goodson, Frank Boyer, Janet Hamill & Lost Ceilings, Cheryl A. Rice, Samuel Claiborne, Walter Worden, Sharon Butler, Rebecca Schumejda, Tanya Tyler, Haigan Smith, Don Lev, Teresa Marta Costa, Roberta Gould, Dennis Bressack, Barbara Adams, Franklin Schneider, Jim Kenny , Mary Panza, Jill Crammond, Murrow, Don Levy, RM Englehardt, Raphael Kosek, Sonia Lynch, Lynn Hoins, Adrianna Delgado, Glenn Werner, Ken Holland, Marina Mati, Terence Chiesa, Christopher Wheeling, Jim Eve, and Robert Milby. And if that is not enough, there will also be open mic sessions throughout the day.
National Poetry Month is starting off strong with another busy week of poetry and spoken word here in the area leading up to the 
This Wednesday night Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs welcomes poet 
If you are not in the Saratoga area on Wednesday night, you can check out the special edition of “Ghost in the Machine” at the Fuze Box. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, 
Saratoga’s Caffe Lena is hosting a fantastic weekend of poetry, workshops, and spoken word coming up next month. Here is the info from 
This coming Wednesday, May 5, 
On the first Wednesday of every month, Caffè Lena presents:
This month the Caffe Lena Open Mic has two featured poets plus an open mic. Here is the info from 
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. 
Forgot to add this to the list of upcoming poetry events. Sunday, May 24 is Open Stage day at 
The 
Poet Edward Tick will be the featured poet this month at the Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic this coming Wednesday, February 4 in historic Saratoga Springs. Carol Graser hosts this great open mic for poetry and spoken word. 
The 
This month sponsored by the members of the Story Quilt Committee of the Galway Public Library 
This is from our friend Carol Graser:
The next 
Two Caffe Lena posts in one day...