NYC Readings Roundup :: May 13-19
CA Conrad @ Kenny’s Castaways (photo credit Stacy Szymaszek) Editor’s note: welcome to the 11th iteration of our new weekly series, the Readings Roundup…which you might notice is growing steadily! Sorry if I’m repeating myself to some of you but if this is your first time here it bears noting that it’s long been a pipedream of ours to revive the NYC Poetry Calendar (started in 1977 by Bob Holman), to provide for the community... Read More
NYC Readings Roundup :: May 6 – 12
Middle Schoolers from the Poetry Outreach program read at the Annual CCNY Poetry Festival, now in its 41st year. Friday, May 10th (details below) Editor’s note: welcome to the 10th iteration of our new weekly series, the Readings Roundup…which you might notice is growing steadily! Sorry if I’m repeating myself to some of you but if this is your first time here it bears noting that it’s long been a pipedream of ours to revive the NYC Poetry... Read More
MAY 3-4 :: CHAPBOOK FESTIVAL and PRINT! DOCUMENT SERIES 1 READING at MELLOW PAGES
Poetry month has come to a close, but the poetry is still flowing all around us. This weekend will be packed full of amazing events. Exit Strata will be tabling at CUNY’s 5th annual Chapbook Festival. The two day event will have readings, workshops, and a book fair representing 60 organizations and publishers. In addition, Chapfest is putting... Read More
2nd ANNUAL NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 28 :: BUD BERKICH on WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
William Carlos Williams: Backyard Artist I first experienced the poetry of William Carlos Williams in the fall of 1994, as an English major at Rutgers College. For me, it was an unforgettable experience. Williams’ poetry shaped my own writing and philosophy from that point forward. Three things that a new reader of Williams should understand is that Williams is 1.) totally modern, 2.) totally minimalist and 3.) the quintessential “backyard... Read More
2nd ANNUAL NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 27 :: BENJAMIN WIESSNER on HARRYETTE MULLEN
I am going to start with an admission—I have a deep and varied past with the poetry of Harryette Mullen. Her masterpiece, Sleeping with the Dictionary, opened my eyes to so many possibilities in poetry. The experience I had is described best by her line, “I’ve been licked all over by the English tongue.” Read More Read More
2nd ANNUAL NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 23 :: JULIET P. HOWARD on PAT PARKER
I first discovered the phenomenal poet Pat Parker (1944-1989) in my early 20’s and immediately fell in love with her poetry. I discovered her poetry around the same time that she passed away, so unfortunately I never had the opportunity meet her, but she lives on through her poetry. The legacy she left behind was powerful, as she had the courage to speak out and write about feminist, racial and class issues. She was all about building community... Read More
2nd Annual NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 21 :: LUZ SANCHEZ on FOROUGH FARROKHZAHD
I like to believe I’ve always been a woman of culture, a student ready to learn about the world, a kid who might still believe that for as much as we are all so very different we are also so very similar and because of this we are somehow connected. I think I was carrying all that when I finally crossed paths with Middle Eastern literature. I was ready to absorb as much as I could. It was in that emersion that I discovered Forough Farrokhzad.... Read More
2nd ANNUAL NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 20 :: MICHAEL BROEK ON CHOOSING and CREELEY
I’m thinking about all the magnificent souls I’ve been reading lately and just, also, enjoying the pleasure of sidling up next to at the humble mid-20th century bar in my suburban Atomic Ranch, following a reading at my college, an hour and a world away from NYC—poets Laura McCullough, Paul Lisicky, Michael Waters, Suzanne Roberts, Mihaela Moscaliuc, Suzanne Parker, and my students and friends. How did I get so lucky? I’ve never had a mentor.... Read More
2nd Annual NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 16 :: JEFFREY GRUNTHANER on JOHN FORBES
I discovered the poetry of John Forbes during an especially precarious period of my life. Not that things have become more stabilized since, yet there’s something about injecting excessive amounts of cocaine and staying up lateLateLATE for nights on end—following the nowhere impetus of pharmaceutical amphetamines—that makes the poetry of John Forbes relatable and even liberating. I don’t wish to be militant regarding how one should approach... Read More
NYC Readings Roundup :: April 15-21
Editor’s note: welcome to the 8th iteration of our new weekly series, the Readings Roundup…which you might notice is growing steadily! Sorry if I’m repeating myself to some of you but if this is your first time here it bears noting that it’s long been a pipedream of ours to revive the NYC Poetry Calendar (started in 1977 by Bob Holman), to provide for the community here a true and cohesive overview of the vibrant scene that seems to birth... Read More
2nd Annual NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 14 :: DONNA FLEISCHER on LORI DESROSIERS
And Never Look Back: On Lori Desrosiers’ “Three Vanities” Not since Edward Field’s 1964 book of poems Stand Up, Friend, With Me, have I read a narrative voice formidable, tender, and singular as that of Lori Desrosiers in Three Vanities. These are poems of perspective, intimacy, and origin, in an as urgent, taut, and stripped down a voice as one can get, and I trust it. This poet knows how to chronicle and narrate the stories of people’s... Read More
2nd ANNUAL NAPOMO :: DAY 10 :: CHRISTOPHER MARTIN on STEPHANIE GRAY
Stephanie Gray. photo by Christopher Martin. Stephanie Gray & The Sound She wants to know how it sounds. The bunting at the bodega. The slow sudden closing of a neighborhood. What shut down to make way for more chains. She is listening to history on the radio. It sounds blue. Blue collar, blue jeans. Ripped at the knees. It sounds like we’re just talking. But how? And who? Boston. Metallica. All of us packed into this same train car and all... Read More
2nd Annual NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: Day 9 :: Bibi Deitz on Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon. photo credit Rachel Eliza Griffiths The first time I heard Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon read was at a writing residency at Bennington College in Vermont this past January. I was tipsy on whisky and came in from the cold laughing, carefree. Soon I was struck by the beauty of her poetry and by her honest, often difficult subject matter―but moreover was stunned by simply the quality of her voice, the way she spoke in a clear... Read More
NYC Readings Roundup :: April 8-14
Allen Ginsberg, QE2, Albany, NY, 11/29/90 Editor’s note: welcome to the 7th iteration of our new weekly series, the Readings Roundup…which you might notice is growing steadily! Sorry if I’m repeating myself to some of you but if this is your first time here it bears noting that it’s long been a pipedream of ours to revive the NYC Poetry Calendar (started in 1977 by Bob Holman), to provide for the community here a true and cohesive overview... Read More
2nd ANNUAL NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 8 :: MONTANA RAY ON ALICE NOTLEY
Alice Notley. Alice Notley. Alice Notley is a miracle worker. That much we know is true. I heard –from Rachel Zucker– she didn’t care where she published. See: the tightly wound ball of rage that is “As Good as Anything.” See here: “Written and judged by. Those befoibled guys / who think –you know– / the poetic moment’s a pocket in / pool; where can I publish it; what can / I do to my second or... Read More
2nd ANNUAL NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 6 :: UCHE NDUKA on FRIEDERIKE MAYROCKER
Friederike Mayrocker The poems of Friederike Mayrocker are instances of suspense of a peculiar sort. They luxuriate in thematic and stylistic instability. She handles the unknowability inherent in life with both delicacy and daring. She can be deeply accessible and edgily complex. Ambiguity is an enduring locus in her art. To her, most belief systems are hoaxes. She is not daunted by the idea of questioning history, nationality, autobiography. She... Read More
2nd ANNUAL NAPOMO 30/30/30 :: DAY 5 :: ANDRE BAGOO IN DEFENSE OF DH LAWRENCE
IT UNCOILS itself slowly. Only after a good few years do you realise that D.H. Lawrence’s great poem ‘Snake’ has never quite left you – first read so innocently in a childhood bedroom housed under the strange-scented shade of a great mango tree at Belmont, Trinidad, and then, somehow miraculously, found again to be at the centre of everything decades later, still as hot and intense as that noon when, in the words of the narrator of the poem,... Read More
2nd Annual 30/30/30 Poetry Month Series :: Inspiration, Community, Tradition :: Day 1 :: Overview / Editor Lynne DeSilva-Johnson on Noah Eli Gordon and Anis Mojgani
The fisherman from Anis Mojgani on Vimeo. HOOOOOOOWOW! Poetry month is upon us once more, and do we ever have a line up for you this year! Last year we initiated a series that generated such an outpouring of goodwill and gratitude that before it was over we were already taking names to participate in the 2013 effort, which I am honored to kick off today. If you are new or newish to Exit Strata, and aren’t familiar with the series’ intentions,... Read More
NYC Readings Roundup :: April 1-7
John Giorno reading in the St Mark’s Church, sometime before the 1979 fire destroyed the Parish Hall. Editor’s note: Welcome to the 6th iteration of our new weekly series, the Readings Roundup, which you might notice is growing steadily! Sorry if I’m repeating myself to some of you but if this is your first time here it bears noting that it’s long been a pipedream of ours to revive the NYC Poetry Calendar (started in 1977 by Bob Holman)... Read More
FIELD NOTES :: SARAH PINDER’S WEST COAST GREAT TOUR
So I went to the west coast for a week on a mini tour. The first stop was Portland, OR, at Future Farm for a house reading with Jessalyn Wakefield, Seth Brown and Imogen Binnie. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen Jessalyn, and last we were together, she was living in Sacramento. She’s working on this epic, sprawling poem on masculinities that I’m excited to be tinkering on / editing with her. We spent a morning in a cafe, going through... Read More