On Wednesday, January 2, the long-running Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic series kicks off the new year at the historic Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs with video and poems by Mary Kathryn Jablonski and Laura Frare followed by an open mic for poetry and spoken word.
Collaborative video/poems by Mary Kathryn & Laura have appeared at Poetry Film Live (UK), Quarterly West, and Tupelo Quarterly, and have been screened at the Peoples Pixel Project Film Festival and screened and shortlisted for the O’Bheal Prize in Cork, IRE. Their video/poems were recently exhibited at Saratoga Arts in the “Then & Now” exhibition and in the Mohawk Hudson Regional exhibition at SUNY Albany, where juror Jean Shin awarded them both a purchase award (to be included in the SUNY Albany permanent collection) and the Howard J. Cure Juror’s Award in memory of Marijo Dougherty.
Visual artist/poet Mary Kathryn Jablonski has been a contributor at Numero Cinq magazine and is the author of To the Husband I Have Not Yet Met. Her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals including Beloit Poetry Journal, Blueline, Poetry Ireland Review, and Salmagundi. Her book Sugar Maker Moon is forthcoming from Dos Madres Press in 2019.
Laura Frare is an artist and experimental filmmaker as well as a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, playing a variety of electronic and digital instruments, making audio field recordings, loops, and samples.
This monthly event, hosted by Carol Graser, takes place on the first Wednesday of every month and includes an open mic reading as well as featured poets. Sign up for the open mic starts at 7:00 and readings start at 7:30. Each open mic poet reads two short poems (less than one page) or one longer poem. All styles of poetry are welcome.
Before the open mic, at 6:00 p.m., there is a Poetry Discussion Group, sponsored by Saratoga Springs Public Library. This month the discussion group will cover poems selected from The Poetry Foundation’s collection of immigration-related poems.
