We have a lot going on this week in Poetryland. Here is a quick rundown of what is going on so you can make plans for some great poetry and spoken word in the area, wherever you are.
Poets Speak Loud open mic with featured poet Elizag
Tonight at McGeary’s Elizag will be the featured poet at Poets Speak Loud, our monthly open mic for poetry and spoken word hosted by Mary Panza. Elizag has been a force at the Nitty Gritty Slam series and will be showcasing her wide range of poetry tonight with what promises to be a great reading.
Club Harmony featuring Cheryl A. Rice
Cheryl Rice will be the featured poet at the Club Harmony open mic at Wok ‘N Roll Cafe (52 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock, NY). We last saw Cheryl at the 2012 Word Fest Open Mic reading from her new book. This will be a great reading from one of the best poets in the Hudson Valley.
Club Harmony is a weekly poetry open mic with featured reader hosted by Michael Platsky.
Nitty Gritty Slam #17 at Valentine’s
Tomorrow night we are storming back into Valentine’s for Nitty Gritty Slam #17. We had a great slam two weeks ago during Word Fest week. We had some new poets join us from the New Paltz slam team on their way to the 2012 College Unions Poetry Slam.
The winner of NGS #16, Karly Fesolowich, went on to win Best Persona Poem with her piece “Alexander Gram Bell” at the national event.
Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic featuring Djelloul Marbrook
On Wednesday, May 2, the poetry train continues on to the Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic (47 Phila Street, Saratoga Springs) with featured poet Djelloul Marbrook.
Djelloul Marbrook is the author of Guest Boy, the first novel of a trilogy, Light Piercing Water, making its debut at the London Book Fair in April. His first collection of poems, Far From Algiers (Kent State University Press, 2008), won the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and the 2010 International Book Award in poetry. His second book of poems is Brushstrokes and Glances (Deerbrook Editions, 2011). A story, “Artists Hill,” set in Woodstock, New York, adapted from the second book of the Light Piercing Water trilogy, won the Literal Latté first prize in fiction in 2008. His novella, Saraceno(Blissplot Press, forthcoming 2012), is also available as an e-book and an audio book. He is also the author of Artemisia’s Wolf (Prakash Books, 2011), a novella set in New York’s art world. It is an homage to Artemisia Gentileschi, Camille Claudel and all oppressed women. His poetry has been widely published in journals, and he is working on a third collection of poems.
This open mic series, hosted by Carol Graser, is one of the finest mics in the area bringing in a great mix of poets and performers of all ages. Sign up for the open mic starts at 7:00pm with the reading starting at 7:30pm.
And that is just the first three days of the week. Check out the Events Calendar for the full listing of everything that is going on in the upstate poetry and spoken word community.
