In the cozy parlor of the Pride Center, our host, Don Levy, presented the featured poet, Avery, to a small, intimate audience.
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| At Cafe Web, 4/20/2000 |
Avery began with reading a poem he did in at my Third Thursday open mic when it was held at its first location, Cafe Web, on Madison Ave.; the poem was titled “Blossoming Flower”, a “motivational” piece in rap-type rhyme & rhythm. He followed that up with a poem that can be found on his FaceBook site, “On Equality,” responding to the issue of gay marriages. His main piece was a long “letter-poem-story” (as he described in), “What Do You Choose?” in which he worked in pop song lyrics, mixed with philosophical ponderings & self-help style advice. He topped off his reading by bringing out his guitar to sings the Muppet classic, “The Rainbow Connection.”
Starting the open mic, Carolee Sherwood read a poem from this past Spring that she hadn’t read out yet, “Fly,” then her newest poem, written only yesterday, & as yet untitled. I followed, also with a poem from late Spring, “First Vegetables,” then the older piece, “Those Big APR Poems.”
Don Levy, a connoiseur of anthologies, read a couple poems from the old collection edited by Mark Strand, American Contemporary Poetry, the first by Randall Jarrell, then one by Kenneth Koch.
We were just about to go when Caitlin (also known as “Bacon”), who had been working the Center’s cafe, read a short piece in progress from her laptop.
Second Wednesday of each month, the Pride Center of the Capital Region on Hudson Ave. in Albany, NY, starts about 7:30 & a modest donation helps pay the poet.
