Two noted and prolific poets who live in the Hudson Valley, Roberta Gould and Donald Lev, will be the featured readers when Poetry at the Hudson meets at the Athens Cultural Center, 24 Second Street, on Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 2 p.m. An open mike follows the featured readings, and pianist Don Yacullo will play selections at three points in the event.
Gould is the author of eight books of poems. Her most recent books are In Houses With Ladders, published by Waterside Press, and Pacing the Wind, issued by Shivistan Publishing. Her recent poems have appeared in Confrontation, Home Planet News, and Chronogram, as well as in several anthologies and online zines, including Void and Poetz. She has read widely in the Hudson Valley, where she lives, and in the Metropolitan area, and she has edited several poetry journals, including Light: A Poetry Review. Esta Naranja, one of her books, was published in Spanish in Mexico, where she lived for some time. While there, she organized an educational campaign for international tourists on fairly tipping hotel personnel and waiters. She has a master’s in Spanish, studied geology at SUNY Ulster, and is an amateur pianist. Poems and other information about her work can be found at www.robertagould.nett.
Lev, who was born in New York City in 1936, attended Hunter College, worked in the wire rooms of the Daily News and the New York Times, and then drove a taxi cab for 20 years (with a six-year hiatus in which he ran messages for, and contributed poetry to, The Village Voice and operated the Home Planet Bookshop on the Lower East Side). His earliest poems appeared in print in 1958, and he started his first small press magazine, HYN Anthology, in 1969. The most recent of the 13 collections of his poetry, Yesterday’s News, was published in 2002 by Red Hill Outloudbooks, in Claryville. A chapbook, Grief, will be published by Bard Press/Ten Penny Players, in Staten Island, in the fall and should be available at the end of October. His brief underground film-acting career pinnacled with his portrayal (he wrote his own lines) of “The Poet” in Robert Downey Sr.’s 1969 classic Putney Swope. He and his reclusive cat Kit Smart live in High Falls, where he spends most of his time publishing the literary tabloid Home Planet News, which he and his late wife Enid Dame founded in 1979.
Yacullo has played the piano and composed music since the age of five. He has been a classical accompanist, church organist, laborer, and special educator. He has performed and recorded music with classical and original rock and jazz ensembles (SeLah, Joe Montini, and Joe Lentine) and currently performs all over the United States with Potential Unlimited, a troupe of exceptionally talented musicians who have developmental disabilities. Yacullo also performs with The Princes of Serendip, a musical threesome based in Woodstock, and has since 1995.
The readings will be hosted by area poet Bob Wright. There is a suggested donation of $3. To reach the Cultural Center, proceed on NY 385 into the village of Athens and turn west onto Second Street; it is the second building on the right. For additional information, call 518-444-4561.
