Thom Francis

Thom Francis has been organizing, promoting, and hosting open mics and poetry / spoken word events in Albany such as Nitty Gritty Slam, School of Night, Albany Poets Presents…, and the Albany Word Fest for over 20 years. As a poet and performer, Thom has been featured at many of the upstate poetry and spoken word events from Saratoga to Woodstock as well as LarkFest, Art on Lark, 1st Friday, and the Albany Word Fest.

"RANDOM WRITING" Workshop in Saugerties on June 23

Here’s what previous workshop participants have said about RANDOM WRITING: “…A really comfortable workshop with no one person taking over.” “Cheryl, you gave me what I needed- time, place, prompt

Caffe Lena Open Mic Featuring Diane Lockward

Caffe Lena presents its monthly poetry open mic on Wednesday, June 6 (7pm sign up, 7:30 start) with featured poet Diane Lockward.  This open mic is hosted by local poet Carol Graser.  There

Woodstock Poetry Society Celebrates Second Saturdays

Woodstock Poetry Society & Festival joins in the celebration of the third annual WOODSTOCK ARTS DAY. On Saturday, May 26, WPS&F in association with the Woodstock Arts Consortium will present

Poetry Reading in Athens, NY

Two highly respected poets who live in the Hudson Valley, Therese Broderick and Dan Wilcox, will be the featured readers when Poetry at the Hudson meets at the Athens Cultural

Song of Myself Reading in Washington Park

This just in from Dan Wilcox: Celebrate the Birthday of Walt Whitman at the Robert Burns Statue Washington Park, Albany, NY A reading of “Song of Myself” by local poets

Pierre Joris Performing at "Behind The Egg"

We have stumbled upon a video of Pierre Joris from a recent performance at the “Behind The Egg” series.  In this video Pierre reads from “Meditations on the 40 Stations of

Bernadette Mayer at Caffe Lena

Poetry Open Mic on Wednesday, May 2 at Caffe Lena (47 Phila St, Saratoga Springs) with featured poet Bernadette Mayer.  Sign up at 7pm, reading starts 7:30.  Admission for this

One County One Book Nominations

Esther M. Swanker, President of the Board of Trustees of the Schenectady County Public Library has announced the leadership for Schenectady’s third One County One Book community reading program.  The

David Halberstam on Poetry, Bush, and Baseball

New York Magazine has an interview up with David Halberstam, who died in a car crash over the weekend.  Halberstam was a Pulitizer Prize winning journalist and author.  He began