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In this 12th episode of the Next Up to The Mic podcast, we welcome Mary Panza who was the featured poet at the Albany Poets Presents reading at Restaurant Navona in Albany, NY on June 15, 2016.
From Dan Wilcox‘s blog:
Mary began with a poem about her daughter, “The Little Blond,” then on to a funny (as she often is) Housewife Tuesday about family & grocery shopping. A poem for poet Chris Rizzo was based on Charles Olson’s famous statement from his essay Projective Verse, “Form is never more than an extension of content.” She wrote about hope in “Prisoners of a Cardboard Story,” & about herself & self-realization in a piece set in a club “I Want You To Know.” She ended with a Housewife Tuesday piece from a recent trip to Hawaii that brought her back to forgiveness & her roots as a Catholic through a Buddhist monk’s chanting.
Mary Panza originated and hosted the poetry open mic at Border’s and has been a driving force in the poetry community for almost 30 years. She has been active in promoting, hosting, and participating in many arts events throughout Upstate New York. Until last spring, Mary hosted the long-running Poets Speak Loud series at McGeary’s.
Mary has published a number of poetry chapbooks with Gina Grega (Hair Buffet, Komic Kunts, and Bite Me: Love Poems) and Paul Weinman (Three Poets and One Bed, Mary Eats Paul, and Vise Versa). Mary produced and wrote the liner notes for the CD “Volume”, a compilation of Albany area poets performing their work at local readings and open mics, and “A Little Nip” a compilation of female singer/songwriters. She has been published in countless publications such as Rant, In Your Face, OTHER:___, Revival: Spoken Word from Lollapalooza 94, and Open Mic: The Albany Anthology. Mary served as the Poetry Editor for the short-lived Capital Region edition of Chronogram. She currently writes the Housewife Tuesday column on the Albany Poets website and is an editor of the literary journal, Up the River.
Please welcome, next up to the mic, Mary Panza.
Bonus Video
Mary Panza reading her poem “The Tattooed Crowd at Daycare” as the featured poet at the Caffe Lena Poetry Open Mic on Wednesday, May 1, 2013, in Saratoga Springs, NY
Thank you!
Thank you for listening to Next Up to The Mic. We couldn’t do it without the very generous supporters of local poetry and spoken word. If you would like to support this or other Albany Poets projects, please go to albanypoets.com/donate. And if you are a business and want to sponsor this podcast, send an email to albanypoets@gmail.com.
Music Credit
Our opening music was “Coast to Coast” by Dieljel Zambo License code: CL1AM1GRBRPMHA9X
Our closing music was “Imagination” by Danijel Zambo. License code: 44TCGFPF1L1434BE
