Poets in the Park is celebrating over 25 years of bringing poetry in July to the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park, Albany, NY. The series was started in 1989 by the late Tom Nattell and is now run by Albany poet and photographer Dan Wilcox. This year the readings will be on Saturdays July 9, 16, and 30; the readings start at 7:00 PM. The readings are free and open to the public; donations are accepted. Rain site is the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany.
The series is co-sponsored by the Poetry Motel Foundation & by the Hudson Valley Writers Guild.
The 2016 readers are:
- July 9: Catherine Arra & Jan Barry
- July 16: Mary Crane & Victorio Reyes
- July 30: Sarah Browning & Bunkong Tuon
The Robert Burns statue is located near where Henry Johnson Blvd. passes through Washington Park and crosses Hudson Ave. Please bring your own chairs or blankets to sit on.
For more information contact Dan Wilcox, at dwlcx@earthlink.net; 518-482-0262.
Catherine Arra is a native of the Hudson Valley. A former English and writing teacher, her poetry and prose have been published in various journals online and in print. Her chapbooks are: Slamming & Splitting (Red Ochre Press, 2014) and Loving from the Backbone (Flutter Press, 2015).
Jan Barry is a poet, author and journalist based in New Jersey. He is the author of Earth Songs: New & Selected Poems, Life After War & Other Poems, and coeditor of Winning Hearts & Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans, among other works. A member of Veterans For Peace, he volunteers with Warrior Writers, which provide creative arts programs for military veterans and family members.
Mary Eliza Crane from the Cascade foothills of the Pacific Northwest, writes poetry which fuses the natural, political and personal world. A regular feature at poetry venues in the Puget Sound region, she has two volumes of poetry published by Gazoobi Tales Publishing, and her work has appeared in several journals and anthologies.
Victorio Reyes is an activist, poet & performer, & former director of the Social Justice Center in Albany. He is a teaching assistant at University at Albany and Adjunct Professor at Siena College, & the author of the poetry collection “The Rebirth of Krazy Horse: Poems for The Struggle.”
Sarah Browning is co-founder and Executive Director of Split This Rock: Poetry of Provocation & Witness and an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. Author of “Whiskey in the Garden of Eden” and co-editor of “D.C. Poets Against the War: An Anthology,” she is the recipient of artist fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, a Creative Communities Initiative grant, and the People Before Profits Poetry Prize.
Bunkong Tuon is a writer, critic, and professor at Union College. He is the author of “Gruel” (NYQ Books, 2015); more importantly, he is the father of a one-year old baby girl.
