On Wednesday, August 2, Caffè Lena will present poetry readings by Bertha Rogers and Liv McKee. An open reading will follow. Doors open for sign-ups at 7pm and the readings will start at 7:30. The host for the event will be Carol Graser and the cost is $5. Free for students
Caffè Lena, 47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs, 583-0022, www.caffelena.org
Bertha Rogers is a poet and visual artist, and founding director of Bright Hill Press and Literary Center of the Catskills. More than 600 of her poems have been published in literary journals and anthologies and in collections. Her translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf was published in 2000; it will be published in a new edition in 2018. Her translation of the Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Poems from the Exeter Book (c.975), Uncommon Creatures, Singing Things, is forthcoming. She has received grants and awards from the MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony, Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers in Scotland, Saltonstall, Caldera, Jentel, and others. A master teaching artist, her essays have appeared in Open the Door and the Asia Society’s Education Week. She frequently reads her poetry throughout New York and elsewhere.
Liv McKee is a queer spoken word artist, dancer, musician, and farmer living in the Capital Region of New York. Liv has featured and organized poetry events at venues all over the Northeast and currently competes with Albany’s Nitty Gritty Slam. She placed 33rd out of 100 poets at the 2016 Individual World Poetry Slam in Flagstaff, AZ this past year, and took 1st at the 2016 Emily Dickinson Slam in Amherst, MA, the 8th Annual QEW Regional Slam in Buffalo, NY, the WordxWord Women’s Invitational in Pittsfield, MA, and Wordfest in Troy, NY. Apart from (or wildly integrated within) writing and performing poetry, in her free time you may find Liv swimming, singing, mountain climbing, having conversations with the moon, and playing old time fiddle music. She hopes her poetry leaves you cut, bandaged, bathed, and heartened.
