This is the week we have all been waiting for all year. The 2011 Albany Word Fest is taking place this coming Saturday at The Linda. The 12-Hour Open Mic has a couple of open spots left and the nighttime show is packed with the best poets and musicians Albany has to offer.
Some of the names that are already signed up for our biggest Word Fest Open Mic to date are a “who’s who” of regional poetry icons. These are the poets that have kept numerous open mic, poetry readings, and events like the Word Fest happening for all these years and without their support of the art, this very scene and community that we love so much would not exist as it does. Poets like Dan Wilcox, Therese L. Broderick, Karin Maag-Tanchak, Joe Krausman, A.C. Everson, Ronald D. Whiteurs, Bob Sharkey, Alan Catlin, Donald Lev, Ken Salzmann, Joan Pavlinsky, Don Levy, Judith Prest, Carol Graser, Jan Tramontano, Carolee Sherwood, Tess Lecuyer, Cheryl A. Rice, Mojavi, Shannon Shoemaker, Bless, Jacqueline Ahl, and Mike Jurkovic are what the local poetry community is all about and it is because of all of their continuous hard work that we say thank you.
If any poets still wish to signup, go to www.albanywordfest.com and click on “Signup”. There are only a few morning spots left.
The nighttime show, the Pycho Cluster F#*k ‘11, is again a great combination of music and spoken word with the talents of David Fey, Olivia Quillio, Avery, Daniel Nester, Poetyc Vyzyonz, Mother Judge’s Open Mic Showcase, Metroland’s Best Poets of 2011: Mary Panza, R.M. Engelhardt, and KC Orcutt. All of these performers are long-time supporters of not just poetry and spoken word, but all of the arts in the Capital Region.
Tickets for the entire day starting at 7:00AM are only $10 and are available online and at the door.
This is by far our biggest Word Fest yet, from the venue to the talent. We are celebrating 10 years of the Albany Word Fest and we could not have gotten here without the wonderful support of everyone in the poetry and arts community.
Below is the press release that we have been sending out regarding the event. We hope to see everyone out there for this celebration of the poetry, music, and spoken word of upstate New York.
In celebration of National Poetry Month, Albany Poets is proud to present the 2011 Albany Word Fest featuring the poetry, spoken word, and music of upstate New York. This year’s event will take place on Saturday, April 16, 2011 at The Linda (339 Central Ave., Albany).
This year's event is the 10th anniversary of the Albany Word Fest and with that in mind, Albany Poets is promising big things.
Thom Francis, Albany Poets President, says, "When we started this event ten years ago on a Saturday afternoon in Thatcher Park, we never thought it would become one of the biggest 'mark-your-calendar' events of each and every year. We are very proud of how we have been able to continue hosting one of the biggest poetry open mics in upstate New York for ten years."
The 2011 Albany Word Fest will kick-off with the 12-Hour Open Mic at 7:00AM at The Linda. Albany Poets Vice President Mary Panza says, “After the success of the last two 12-hour open mics, we have decided to do it again, but this time, during the day. This will give poets a better opportunity to share their work and also give the audience more time to appreciate the talent in the poetry and spoken word community.” This open mic for poetry and spoken word will be held from 7:00AM – 7:00PM.
Poets who wish to participate in the open mic can sign up online by going to the Albany Word Fest website, www.albanywordfest.com until 5:00pm on Friday, April 15. Performers will also have a limited opportunity to sign up at the event itself. Each poet will have 10 -15 minutes to share their work. The open mic is open to all poets and spoken word artists with no style or content restrictions.
After the Open Mic, starting at 7:00PM, the 2011 Albany Word Fest brings the annual Psycho Cluster F*#k to the The Linda featuring poetry, music and spoken word from upstate New York artistsDavid Fey, Olivia Quillio, Avery, Daniel Nester, Poetyc Vyzyonz, Mother Judge’s Open Mic Showcase, Metroland’s Best Poets of 2011: Mary Panza, R.M. Engelhardt, and KC Orcutt, and much more.
Admission for this event is $10.00. Tickets will be available for purchase on The Linda's website and at the door on the day of the event. This event is open to all ages ( 21+ with a picture ID required to drink).
The 2011 Albany Word Fest is sponsored by Albany Poets, McGeary's, The Linda, and the very generous donations of supporters of the arts in upstate New York.
Join MotherJudge and the poet Essence for a free evening of music and more to be followed by the Presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. 'Women for Obama,' a group of diverse women from throughout the Capital District, will host a night of unity and support for Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.
All are welcome!
Essence & MotherJudge will start off the evening at 6PM. Folding Sky, Rumdummies, The Last Conspirators, and improvisional skits by Albany-based theatre group Wit & Will round out the evening, with remarks by some of the Capital Region's prominent female Obama supporters.
In addition to enjoying an evening of free musical entertainment, poetry and theatre, attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about Obama's strong commitment to a variety of issues of deep importance to women as the 2008 presidential election draws near. Stay to watch the Presidential debate that evening between Obama and Republican candidate John McCain on the Public House's large screen television.
For more information, contact Janet K. Kash (518)368-0354 or (518)756-9501 JanetKKash@aol.com
WOMEN FOR OBAMA NIGHT OF UNITY Weds., October 15th, 6 to 9 PM Pearl Street Public House (formerly Pagliacci's) 44 North Pearl Street Downtown Albany (across from Times Union Center) FREE - NO COVER
Our friends at the Hudson Valley Writers Guild sent along the following announcements. For more information on these and other projects from the Guild, check out their website at www.hvwg.org.
Annual Meeting of the HVWG Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, 6:00-8:00, Colonie Town Library. Call for all Board Members to be there to introduce yourself to our membership. Please bring non-members who might be interested in joining, as well. (Directions: Travel north up Wolf Road until the last light at Albany-Shaker Road, turn right, then look for library driveway on your left.)
Community of Writers - Schenectady Mark your calendars for Sunday, November 18, 2007. There will be an excellent program held at the Schenectady County Public Library from 2:00-4:00 pm. Panel members include: Karen Guzzardi-James, Peter Heinegg, David Kaczynski, Ron Pavoldi, Bill Poppino, Kelly de la Rocha, Rosalyn R. Sollecito, and Jennifer Wells. Miki Conn will moderate. There will be a book signing from 1:30-2:00 and from 4:00-5:00.
The Schenectady County Public Library is at 99 Clinton Street. Contact Karen Bradley at 388 4533 with any questions you may have. Web site: www.scpl.org. The meeting will be in the McChesney Room. This program is sponsored by the Schenectady County Public Library, the HVWG, Hamilton Hill Arts Center and Electric City Poetry Productions with support from the Friends of Schenectady County Public Library.
Member Announcements: Nancy Klepsch, Mary McCarthy Nancy Klepsch will be offering a limited number of poetry tee-shirts at the following locations starting this fall and holiday season: Allblues, 199 Fourth Street, Troy, NY and The Shop at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, River Street, Troy, NY. She is also offering soup bowls with her poem "Eat" written on it at DEPARTURES, Albany International Airport. The tee-shirt was inspired by her poetry installation called "about this building," which was funded by an Arts Grant from the Arts Center of the Capital Region through the New York State Council on the Arts. Twelve 2' X 3' vinyl posters with her poem "about this building" printed on them were mounted on the facade of a building on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Jay Street in Troy's North Central neighborhood, where she rehabilitated her first home about 14 years ago. "I realized this building was here before I was born, and it will be here after I am gone. I wanted to honor Troy's architecture, and I was wondering if anybody felt the way I do. I made this tee-shirt for folks who feel like me about their homes." The tee-shirts come in sizes small to 3XL, are long sleeve, 100% cotton and white in color. The soup bowls were inspired by her downstate upbringing featuring her poem called "Eat." If you are from or visit the Queens, NY area, you will be familiar with such references as The Lemon Ice King, a Queens, NY institution, which makes homemade Italian ices from fresh fruit, in this poem. The ceramic bowls are white in color and feature hand lettering in black.
Mary McCarthy has an essay on her work for insurance reforms in the book Voices of Breast Cancer, just released by LaChance publishing. To order a copy of this anthology, or to find out about future readings, contact Mary at mamc@nycap.rr.com or 518-465-6706.
Area Announcements: Writing Group in Scotia, Food Writing Opportunity 1. We have a member who lives in Scotia who is looking for a peer writing group. She writes primarily short fiction. If you know of a group or are willing to form one, please contact her at woodswoman2003@aol.com .
2. Michelle Bowan writes: I am the publisher & editor of "Edible Upstate" magazine which will be launching in the upstate NY region in Spring 2008. As proud member of Edible Communities, our mission is to transform the way our community shops for, cooks, eats, and relates to the food that is grown and produced in our area. We value local, seasonal, authentic foods and culinary traditions, and we strive to put a face on every farmer, chef and food artisan as we tell their stories and champion their efforts toward a more sustainable and safe food system.
I am looking for local/regional writers to contribute to our quarterly publication. If you have members that are interested in writing about food and agriculture, please pass on my contact information: Michelle Bowen at Edible Upstate by phone 518.281.2918 or email michelle@edibleupstate.com
On Saturday, November 10 at 8:00PM a Harvest Celebration with multimedia artist Nicole Peyrafitte, saxophonist Joe Giardullo and poet Pierre Joris will take place at the Sanctuary For Independent Media (3361 6th Ave., Troy).
The trio will celebrate, harvest, and gather together non linear momentum through their music, poetry, voice, visuals and yes, a soup! Nicole, who recently moved to Brooklyn, will cook an "Inner-State" soup that will be shared with the audience.
About the Artists:
French Pyrenean-born Nicole Peyrafitteis a performance artist who mixes voice, video, poetry, painting and cooking. She draws on an eclectic heritage to perform works based on her transcontinental experiences of negotiating her identity across two continents and four languages. Her projects have been performed nationally and internationally. She often collaborates with poets and musicians such as Pierre Joris, Dave Brinks, George Muscatello, Mike Bisio, Jérôme Pizzato, Yuko Kishimoto, Greg Haymes, Ben Chadabe, Danny Whelchel and Mitch Elrod.
She released her latest CD, The Bi-Continental Chowder / La Garbure Transcontinentale, last February at the WAMC Linda Norris auditorium. Indie-Music.com called it “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.”
In 2005: Peyrafitte was named “best performance artists of the Capital Region,” and in 2006 her Monday Night Experimental Cabaret that ran once a month at Tess’ Lark Tavern for 2 consecutive years won “best performance venue of the Capital Region”.
Joe Giardullois Brooklyn-born, and raised on the South Shore of Long Island, New York. He grew up on R&B music, playing tenor sax in club and regional bands and moved north to the Woodstock area in the 1960's.
After a short period living in Amsterdam, Holland in the late 70’s, Joe Giardullo returned to live and work north of New York. Meeting Joe McPhee in 1991 marked the beginning of a continuing collaboration. He is a charter member of Joe McPhee's Bluette (with Mike Bisio and Dominic Duval), and has collaborated with a long and growing number of important creative musicians, including Milford Graves, Bobby Bradford, Carlos Zingaro, Alex Cline, Marilyn Crispell and Pauline Oliveros, whose Deep Listening concepts have had a lasting effect on him. The Oliveros Foundation has commissioned two works by Giardullo ("Elemental Odes" and "Autumn Rhythm: For Jackson Pollack").
Pierre Jorisis a poet, essayist, translator and anthologist. His 2007 poetry publications include the CD Routes, not Roots (with Munir Beken, oud; Mike Bisio, bass; Ben Chadabe, percussion; and Mitch Elrod, guitar; & Nicole Peyrafitte, vocals and radio) issued by Ta’wil Productions; Aljibar (a bilingual volume of poems w/ French translations by Eric Sarner, published in Luxembourg by Editions PHI) and Meditations on the Stations of Mansour Al-Hallaj 1-21(Anchorite Press, Albany). Rain Taxi praised his Poasis: Selected Poems 1986-1999 for "its physical, philosophical delight in words and their reverberations." Recent translations include Lightduress by Paul Celan, which received the 2005 PEN Poetry Translation Award, and, with Jerome Rothenberg, Pablo Picasso, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz & Other Poems. Joris and Rothenberg also edited the award-winning anthologies Poems for the Millennium. Joris teaches at SUNY-Albany, when he is not on the road reading his poetry alone or with musicians. His collaborations with vocalist & multimedia artist Nicole Peyrafitte include the multimedia show SumericaBachbones, performed throughout Europe and the US.
Admission for this event is $10. For more information contact Nicole Peyrafitte at garbure@mac.com or 518-281-5407
Welcome back to the Dan Wilcox Open Mic Commentary Round-Up. This is the third edition of the round-up that brings all of Dan’s commentaries from his blog together in one place. This time around we have two open mics and the first Frequency North of the new season.
One often wonders whether this open mic really happens or just exists in the fantasy of alcohol & memory. Once some years ago I read a poem here & a lady I had invited told me later that's when she fell in love with me. On some nights the-nameless-we just sat around & told outrageous stories & bought each other beers. On the Road is filled with such lies & similar fabrications. "October in the railroad earth..."
I've realized that "October is the Columbus-day month breeding racism & death in the continent..." so I have started including Tom Nattell's "Columbus Fantasies" in my readings. These were poems written in 1992 to commemorate the Indians discovering an Italian mercenary for Spain landing on their shore. After doing a new poem of my own, "Starting the Wine," I did #23.
This is the third year of this reading series at St. Rose, run by new poppa Daniel Nester. This year the readings have been moved from St. Joseph's Hall auditorium, with the big stage & curtains, to the Library. Same number of people showed up, just looked more crowded. I mean if the same 40 people showed up at the Knickerbocker Arena -- I mean Pepsi Arena -- whoops, no, Times-Union Center -- folks would say, "there was nobody there." Like skinny girls in tight pants.
As always, be sure to check out Dan’s blog often for these commentaries and poetry from Dan and other area poets.
After the Banned Books event at the library, be sure to head down to Madison Ave and check out what is looking like a great poetry reading at the CDFI.
Behind the Egg: A Reading Series at The Capital District Federation of Ideas, 383.5 Madison Avenue, Albany returns on Saturday, October 6 at 4:00PM with Cara Benson, Carol Graser, and Randall Horton. This series is curated by Daniel Nester and Erik Sweet.
Cara Benson currently believes in the accessibility of the inaccessible poem. Her work has, is, or will appear in 88, pom2, HOW2, EOAGH, Sentence, and BoogCity. Her wee-e-chapbook "Bound" is forthcoming from Dusie. She is editing a collection of writing for Chain Magazine, and her "Quantum Chaos and Poems: A Manifest(o)ation" is forthcoming from BookThug. Benson makes poems every Tuesday afternoon with male inmates at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility in upstate NY.
Carol Graserhosts a monthly poetry series at Saratoga Spring's legendary Caffe Lena and has performed her work at various events and venues around NYS. Her work has been published in many literary journals including Chaffin, artisan, Berkeley Poetry Review and Grasslands.She is the author of The Wild Twist of Their Stems (Foothills Publishing 2007). Find her blogging at MotherVerse.
Randall Horton,originally from Birmingham, Alabama, resides in Albany, New York. He is a former editor of Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas (Fall 2005) and co-editor of Fingernails Across the Chalkboard (Third World Press, 2006). He received his undergraduate education at both Howard University and The University of the District of Columbia (B.A. English). He has a MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Poetry from Chicago State University, and is now a doctoral student at SUNY Albany. He received an Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker Foundation Summer Scholarship to attend Fine Arts Workcenter at Provincetown in 2005. He is also a Cave Canem fellow.
Frequency North is kicking off its third season tonight at Saint Rose with poet, editor, and critic David Lehman.
Lehman will read at The College of Saint Rose Thursday, October 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Neil Hellman Library, 392 Western Ave., Albany. Copies of Lehman's works will be available for purchase and signing.
Frequency North is sponsored by The College of Saint Rose School of Arts and Humanities and the English, Spectrum and Identity student organizations and is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact series coordinator Daniel Nester at 518-454-2812 or nesterd@strose.edu.
Lehman has authored several collections of poems, most recently When a Woman Loves a Man (Scribner, 2005) and Jim and Dave Defeat the Masked Man (with James Cummins, Soft Skull Press, 2005). His books of criticism include The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets (Anchor, 1999), which the New York Public Library named a "Book to Remember 1999." He is series editor of The Best American Poetry, which he initiated in 1988, and is general editor of the University of Michigan Press's Poets on Poetry Series. In addition, Lehman is editor of a new edition of The Oxford Book of American Poetry, a one-volume comprehensive anthology of poems from Anne Bradstreet to the present.
Lehman's honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award.
For more information and a complete schedule, visit the series' website at www.FrequencyNorth.com. All readings are free and open to the public.
Welcome back to our second edition of the Dan Wilcox Open Mic Commentary Round-Up, where we list the most recent poetry open mic and reading commentaries from Dan's blog.
Another third Thursday at the Social Justice Center, with your fantastic (objectively speaking) host, Dan Wilcox -- hey, that's me. And the muse was the late Grace Paley -- "It is the responsibility of society to let the poet be a poet..." ("Responsibility").
Twice in one week the featured poet doesn't make it to his/her reading -- global warming or the war in Iraq -- or just the Full Moon? Robert Milby had car trouble last Wednesday & Barbara Vink had pneumonia tonight. I'm guessing that both will be rescheduled eventually. So the host, Mary Panza read Barb's poem "The tavern keeper" from her new chapbook Heat Wave (Benevolent Bird Press, PO Box 522, Delmar, NY 12054 -- handsewn, individual wood block print covers, edition of 100 copies, from Alan Casline).
Be sure to check out Dan's blog often for more commentary on the upstate New York poetry scene.
Did you know that there are many poets that are not only on the Albany Poets website, but also on the social networking powerhouse, MySpace? Here are some of the area poets and spoken word artists that can be found on MySpace.
For more links to poets and other resources be sure to check out our links page. If you would like to be added to the links page, send us a brief email to info@albanypoets.com and let us know about yourself and your website.
Since Dan began his blog where he features his thoughts on the open mics and poetry readings that he goes out to, many people have mentioned his "reviews" while on stage. With that in mind, we thought we would start a new feature here on the Albany Poets Blog where we would round-up the previous weeks commentaries on Dan's blog.
I'm not a big fan of these festivals, especially for poetry -- over-priced vendors, the same hot dogs & pizza & lemonade everywhere (I did find some decent clam chowder, overpriced, of course), crowds, wobbly port-a-johns, sanitized bands, cute honeys (oh, wait, that's a good thing). But Albany Poets did the best it could under the circumstances, & I think having poets do short, zingy sets between bands was a good idea.
This was a reading/performance, organized by Denie Whalen of New York Expressive Arts & co-sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild. The performers were Elizabeth Gordon McKim & Steve Clorfeine. They had conducted a workshop for New York Expressive Arts earlier in the day & their performance was in the Nia-Yoga space on the main floor of 4 Central Ave. It was perfect venue for these performers, an open space with the city through floor-length windows on one side, mirrors on the other, & a bank of plants & ceramics behind them.
I was proud to be a participant in this reading bringing together writer-veterans who are included in Post Traumatic Press 2007: poems by veterans. I have a great deal of affection for Dayl Wise, the editor, & his co-conspirator/copy-editor/wife Alison Koffler (both read at Poets in the Park this year), & for the other veterans/activists/writers included in the anthology.
At the NightSky Cafe in Schenectady, with our host, Shaun Baxter (substituting for the substitute host, Liz King, who had been scheduled to host for Shaun Baxter -- or something to that effect). And the scheduled featured poet, the whirling dervish of mid-Hudson Valley (& beyond) poetry, Robert Milby was stuck somewhere else with car trouble.
Be sure to check out Dan's blog often for more commentary on the poetry scene and also for his own poems that he frequently posts, which are always a great treat.
That headline does not have any hidden meanings, you read that right, Dain Brammage will be on The Edge.
This Sunday night, September 9, at 10:00PM Dain Brammage and Mary Panza will be on 104.9 FM, The Edge, with Ralph Renna on the Capital Underground show. Dain will be performing a couple of his poems in the studio during the show. Dain and Mary will also be talking about the upcoming LarkFEST event and more.
For more information on Ralph Renna, Capital Underground, and to listen live on your computer on Sunday night, go to The Edge's website.
Local poets Shaun Baxter, Debbie Bump (with John Weiler on guitar), Caffe Lena open mic host Carol Graser, John Raymond, and Erik Sweet will be performing their poetry and spoken word in the Poetry Tent throughout the day during LarkFEST on Saturday, September 15.
Check back for information on more poets and artists that will be performing at this years event.
“Frequency North,” the visiting writers reading series at The College of Saint Rose, returns for its third season with another aggressively eclectic mix of award-winning poets, authors, essayists, and one comedian/playwright/actor/bartender.
The 2007-08 series kicks off Thursday, October 4, with David Lehman, acclaimed author of several collections of poems and series editor of The Best American Poetry. Author Nalini Jones and essayist Wayne Koestenbaum follow in November. Spring will bring readings by poet Gregory Pardlo, the first writer of color to win the American Poetry Review/Honickman Prize; author Darcey Steinke; Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, founder and host of a three-time National Poetry Slam Championship venue in New York; and Shappy Seasholtz, slam poet, playwright, comedian, actor and head bartender at New York’s Bowery Poetry Club.
Frequency North is sponsored by the The College of Saint Rose School of Arts and Humanities and the English, Spectrum and Identity student organizations.
All readings begin at 7:30 p.m. and are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the series’ website at FrequencyNorth.com or contact Daniel Nester, Assistant Professor of English and series curator, at 518-454-2812 or email nesterd@strose.edu.
Poets George Nicholson and Will Nixon will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 2:00pm.
The readings will be hosted by Woodstock area poet Phillip Levine. All meetings are free and open to the public. For information about the group, and its activities, visit http://www.woodstockpoetry.com.
George J. Nicholson is a local Woodstock poet and visual artist working in various media. He has been writing poetry since 1975, when a series of eight poems spontaneously flowed upon his first exposure to Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. George is an active performer within the Hudson Valley poetry scene.
George’s poetry is steeped in the nuances of feeling and his passionate search for meaning. Symbol, archetype, and the dynamics of transformation as reflected in nature, human relationship, and the questing human soul comprise the core themes of his work. His deep personal affinity to ancient Greece is also interwoven throughout much of what he has written.
George is a firm believer in a greater intelligence “behind the scenes” and considers himself to be at his most creative when he is acting as a “stenographer to the unconscious.”
Among his most salient influences are the mystic, poet saints of India: Tukaram Maharaj, Alama Prabhu, Mirabai, and others. He has also drawn inspiration from Basho, Dante, Eliot, and the poets of ancient Greece, many of them anonymous.
George has self-published the chapbook First Light. He is currently completing work on Ancient Heart: Dialogues with Stone, inspired by the ancient marble sculptures housed in the Athen's museum, and Voice Within the Silences, a cross section of his work that spans 30 years. George's poetry has appeared regularly in Journeys, a Jungian inspired periodical and is included in the anthology, Vines of Victory (2001).
Will Nixon has published two chapbooks, When I Had It Made (Pudding House) and The Fish Are Laughing (Pavement Saw) plus poems in many journals and magazines. He has finished a cyberpunk epic, Lyndon Baines Takes a Fare to the Palace of Wisdom, about a Gotham cabbie in 2063. Now he's working on a poetry manuscript inspired by the movie Night of the Living Dead and on another about living in Hoboken in the 80s, Love in the City of Grudges. He lives in Woodstock.
Way back in 1993, MTV (which, at that time, was a television channel that aired programs that featured music) had a series called Unplugged, where some of the biggest names in music would play in a small studio with acoustic instruments. On one episode of the show poetry and spoken word took the stage and gave the mainstream audience of the time a taste of what was going on in the cafes and bars of the time all around the country.
Fast forward to 2007 and poetry is returning to the MTV family of fine networks on mtvU, their 24-hour channel that is broadcast to more than 750 college and university campuses across the United States. There are two new "landmark initiatives" underway to get young people more involved in reading and writing poetry.
Here is the text from the CNN/Money website with the story:
"This semester, mtvU introduces two new landmark initiatives to help inspire the next generation of great poets and poetry readers. First, the network is honored to name John Ashbery - one of the most vital and acclaimed American poets of the 20th century - as the first-ever mtvU Poet Laureate. Throughout the fall and spring semesters, mtvU will place poetry from Mr. Ashbery's storied career, along with new poems, front and center on the channel, exposing his work to millions of students who may not already know it. The first in a series of eighteen promo spots, with excerpts from standout books including "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror," "Where Shall I Wander?" and "Can You Hear, Bird?" begins airing on mtvU today. Each spot directs viewers to mtvU.com, where they can read more of Mr. Ashbery's work and share it with their friends.
Today mtvU also unveils a first-of-its-kind opportunity for a top college poet to be published by HarperCollins as part of the prestigious National Poetry Series (NPS). For nearly 30 years the NPS has held an annual competition to find and expose the best emerging and standout poets in the country, and next year, for the first time, one of the series' five published titles will be designated as a book-length manuscript composed by a college student. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa will judge submissions for the National Poetry Series mtvU Prize, and the winning student will interview Mr. Komunyakaa for an episode of mtvU's series "My Shot With..." Submissions will be accepted beginning later this fall, and the winning manuscript will be published in 2008 as part of the NPS' 30th anniversary series.
mtvU is committing the equivalent of at least $750,000 of airtime to showcasing Mr. Ashbery's poetry and promoting the National Poetry Series mtvU prize during the 07-08 school year."
To read the rest of the article and to find out what else is happening this semsester on mtvU, click here to head over to CNN/Money.
James Kilpatrick has an opinion piece up on Yahoo! News talking about the newest US Poet Laureate Charles Simic. Kilpatrick touches on the fact that he had never heard of Simic or his poetry until last month, even as a poet and poetry lover himself.
"The United States has a new poet laureate. He is Charles Simic of New Hampshire. In the small world of poetry, his name is known quite well. Born in Yugoslavia in 1938, he immigrated to the United States in the 1950s. After a brief period in Chicago, he settled in New England. He has written 18 books of poetry and half a shelf of other works. He won the Pulitzer for poetry in 1990. This year he won the $100,000 Wallace Stevens award for poetry.
Until he became our poet laureate earlier this month, I had never heard of the gentleman. And I have loved poetry, and written bad verse, since I first met Mary and her little lamb 80-odd years ago..."
For those who do not know who he is, Charles Simic has been regarded as one of America's finest poets who has the ability to write about the deeper meaning in the ordinary aspects of life. He is the author of 18 books of poetry. He is also an essayist, translator, editor and professor emeritus of creative writing and literature at the University of New Hampshire Some of his books of poetry include Night Picnic: Poems (2001), Jackstraws (1999), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Walking the Black Cat (1996), a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry; A Wedding in Hell (1994); Hotel Insomnia (1992); and Selected Poems: 1963-1983.
In celebration of National Poetry Month, Albany Poets is proud to present the 2011 Albany Word Fest featuring the poetry, spoken word, and music of upstate New York. This year’s event will take place on Saturday, April 16, 2011 at The Linda (339 Central Ave., Albany).
Join MotherJudge and the poet 
Our friends at the Hudson Valley Writers Guild sent along the following announcements. For more information on these and other projects from the Guild, check out their website at 
On Saturday, November 10 at 8:00PM a Harvest Celebration with multimedia artist 
Welcome back to the Dan Wilcox Open Mic Commentary Round-Up. This is the third edition of the round-up that brings all of 
After the 
Frequency North is kicking off its third season tonight at Saint Rose with poet, editor, and critic David Lehman. 
Welcome back to our second edition of the Dan Wilcox Open Mic Commentary Round-Up, where we list the most recent poetry open mic and reading commentaries from 
Did you know that there are many poets that are not only on the Albany Poets website, but also on the social networking powerhouse, MySpace? Here are some of the area poets and spoken word artists that can be found on MySpace. 
Since 
That headline does not have any hidden meanings, you read that right, Dain Brammage will be on The Edge. 
Local poets Shaun Baxter, Debbie Bump (with John Weiler on guitar), Caffe Lena open mic host Carol Graser, John Raymond, and Erik Sweet will be performing their poetry and spoken word in the Poetry Tent throughout the day during LarkFEST on Saturday, September 15. 
“Frequency North,” the visiting writers reading series at The College of Saint Rose, returns for its third season with another aggressively eclectic mix of award-winning poets, authors, essayists, and one comedian/playwright/actor/bartender.
Poets George Nicholson and Will Nixon will be the featured readers when the Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival meets at the Woodstock Town Hall, 76 Tinker Street, on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 2:00pm.
Way back in 1993, MTV (which, at that time, was a television channel that aired programs that featured music) had a series called Unplugged, where some of the biggest names in music would play in a small studio with acoustic instruments. On one episode of the show poetry and spoken word took the stage and gave the mainstream audience of the time a taste of what was going on in the cafes and bars of the time all around the country.