Live From The Living Room, a featured reading series with an open mic afterwards is held on the second Wednesday of every month at the Capital District Gay & Lesbian Community Center, 332 Hudson Avenue, Albany, NY. The next reading is July 9th featuring local gay poet Jim Masters.
Jim’s bio:
I was born in Kansas City, Missouri one year before the great stock
market crash of 1929. In the public schools of Kansas City I picked up the notion that poetry consisted of writing in correctly formed iambic
pentameter or some other such rhyme/rhythm scheme. A poem I submitted for a senior yearbook, and which I labored over to get the rhyme/rhythm scheme correct, was rejected; and it was politely suggested that I stick with prose, although it was hinted that that was not much better than my poetry.The University of Kansas granted me A. B. and M. A. degrees, and the
University of Missouri at Kansas City granted me a Ph. D. I became a
Professor of Education at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana and taught not only in the Teacher Education program but also Integrated Liberal Studies, required of all freshmen, in which I attempted to help them improve in their prose (not poetical) writing. And one year I taught American History, in which I began at the present and moved backwards in time. I thought it interesting and I learned a lot; the students seemed to think it odd.My wife labored with some success for more than 50 years to stir up my
interest in poetry, and during the last years of her life, when she was
blind, I read her favorite poems to her every day. They became my favorite poems, too, and I remain ever thankful that we had that experience together before her death. One poem by e. e. cummings I read at her funeral–“I thank you God for most this amazing day….”
Sign up is at 7pm with 7:30 start time with host Don Levy and $2.00 suggested donation. For more info call (518) 462-6138. This is a straight-friendly reading.
