The great folks over at WordXWord in Pittsfield is bringing in one of the biggest and brightest stars on poetry and spoken word, Jon Sands, on Tuesday, January 22 for their Writers Room series at yBar. Jon was part of the WordXWord Festival over the summer and has read his work in Troy last year at the Arts Center and recently at Paul Smith’s College.
Jon Sands is one of the most exciting young voices to work at the intersection of written and spoken word, with work that is riveting both on and off the page.
Sands is a Brooklyn based author whose book The New Clean was released in 2011 by Write Bloody Publishing. He starred in the award winning 2011 web-series Verse: A Murder Mystery from Rattapallax Films. He is Director of Poetry Education at the Positive Health Project (a syringe exchange center located in Midtown Manhattan), an adjunct with the City University of New York, as well as a Youth Mentor with Urban Word-NYC. He has represented New York City multiple times at the National Poetry Slam and tours extensively, both nationally and internationally.
Sands will read from his book The New Clean (available on Amazon.com) as well as other recent work.
This event is just one part of a very exciting series of readings and open mics happening this month in Pittsfield at the Writers Room. It all takes place at yBar, 391 North Street, Pittsfield, MA starting at 8:00pm. There is a $5.00 suggested donation at the door.
Jon Sands // A Poet Profile from Danny Corey on Vimeo.
“Sands scours buses in Queens, faceless bullets, and a city full of “back talk” to find a place where we can all “fall madly in Jon,” and we do. Always fresh, The New Clean is a poetics of triumph.” – Michael Cirelli, Executive Director of Urban Word-NYC
“With the groundbreaking and deftly crafted ‘The New Clean,’ Jon Sands has brashly shifted the landscape, changing what we know about the limits of stanzas that spill so helplessly from the self. These are poems of a city’s insistent romances and our determination to root ourselves in its clutch, a clutch that nurtures us while taking our breath away. These are poems of backslap and revelation. No one but Jon could have done this.” – Patricia Smith, National Book Award Finalist, author of Blood Dazzler
