The Operating System and Liminal Lab

NYC Readings Roundup :: APRIL 23-28

Editor’s note: welcome to the 9th iteration of our new weekly series, the Readings Roundup…which you might notice is growing steadily! Sorry if I’m repeating myself to some of you but if this is your first time here it bears noting that it’s long been a pipedream of ours to revive the NYC Poetry Calendar (started in 1977 by Bob Holman), to provide for the community here a true and cohesive overview of the vibrant scene that seems to birth a new event every day.

How does a poet new to New York or just new to the readings landscape figure out where to go, what these different events and organizations represent and offer?

We have a habit of biting off more than we can chew, so even though we have an overwhelmingly robust spreadsheet we’re working on making into an interactive page on the site, in future, we decided not to wait. In the meanwhile, we’ll start small — featuring in particular long running events and venues, making sure always to keep a healthy balance between styles and associations. We are judgement free and love filled, we’re just excited people are writing, reading, and sharing this important form. Come out!

– Lynne DeSilva-Johnson, Poetry/Managing Editor

TUESDAY 4/23
6:30 pm  (reading starts at 7), free
CROSSING BOUNDARIES @ Teachers & Writers Collaborative
Join Teachers & Writers Collaborative for a multidisciplinary evening of images, words, and music from T&W writers  Joanna Fuhrman, Linda Morel, and J. Kathleen White.
7pm, free
Our Man in Iraq: Robert Perisic in conversation with writer & Black Balloon Publishing managing director Buzz Poole  @ HousingWorks Bookstore Cafe

“Robert Perisic is a light bright with intelligence and twinkling with irony, flashing us the news that postwar Croatia not only endures but matters.” —Jonathan Franzen
In his home country of Croatia, Robert Perisic is a bestselling novelist, critic, journalist, and poet. He is oft-proclaimed as an essential voice of his generation, and his work came to prominence during the 1990s when he began writing with a clear anti-war sentiment. The novel Our Man in Iraq, available this April from Black Balloon Publishing, is the first of Robert’s works to be translated into English. Named one of The Millions “Most Anticipated Books of 2013,” Our Man in Iraq features Perisic’s characteristic humor and insight, and examines the heart of lives made and remade by war. www.ourmaniniraq.com
Co-sponsored by Croatian Consular General of New York & Black Balloon Publishing.
 
7-9pm | free admission
True Story Nonfiction @ KGB Bar
An evening of non-fiction featuring Alfred Nerz.
WEDNESDAY 4/24
12 noon, free
Richard Blanco reads at City College
Richard Blanco, the inaugural poet for Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration, reads at City College. The author of several celebrated poetry collections, Richard Blanco was the first immigrant, the first Latino, and the first openly gay person to serve as the U.S. inaugural poet. Co-sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures and the Division of Humanities & the Arts with the participation of the English Department.
North Academic Center, 1/203
The City College of New York
*RSVP to jchaffee@ccny.cuny.edu or on Facebook to attend.
6:30 pm, $5
Beyond Relief: Two Writers’ Work & Words:
CELINA SU & ARIANA REINES; moderated by Alissa Quart @ Poets House
A reading and conversation with activist writers Celina Su and Ariana Reines as they read poetry and prose, ask and answer questions, hold forth, and generally illuminate the politics and poetics of their original, radical, “relief” work on the Thai-Burmese border and Haiti, respectively.
7:30 pm, free
Greenlight Poetry Salon: National Poetry Month Extravaganza Edition! @ Greenlight Bookstore ; Hosted by Angel Nafis
Featuring poets Stevie Edwards, author of Good Grief
Safia Elhillo, author of The Life and Times of Susie Knuckles
Cornelius Eady, author of Book of Hooks, performing with the band Rough Magic

Created by Greenlight’s own Angel Nafis, Greenlight Bookstore’s quarterly poetry series, the Greenlight Poetry Salon, welcomes locally and nationally celebrated poets. This special Poetry Month edition features incredible talents both emerging and established, and special musical guests! Stevie Edwards is the editor-in-chief ofMUZZLE Magazine and has been widely published in literary journals; Good Grief is her first full-length collection of poetry. Safia Elhillo, author of The Life and Times of Susie Knuckles, is currently a senior at New York University, and has shared the stage with Gil Scott-Heron. Cornelius Eady has published eight books of poetry, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. His works in poetry and musical drama have received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the NEA, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Eady is the co-founder, with Toi Derricotte, of Cave Canem. Book of Hooks is his third combined publication of music and poetry, and he will perform with the band Rough Magic!
starts 8pm | $8, $7 students and seniors, $5 members. 6-7:30pm | free admission
Poetry Reading: Frederick Feirstein & David Dalton Yezzi @ NYU Bookstore
Poets will read from their most recent collections.
8pm
Rae Armantrout & Alan Davies @ The Poetry Project at Saint Mark’s Church

Just Saying, Rae Armantrout’s most recent book of poems, was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2013.Versed (Wesleyan, 2009), received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award.  Next Life (Wesleyan, 2007), was chosen as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2007 by The New York Times. Armantrout received an award in poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2007 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008. She is Professor of Poetry and Poetics at the University of California, San Diego. Writing in Poetry magazine, Ange Mlinko has said, “I would trade the bulk of contemporary anecdotal free verse for more incisive, chilling poetry like Armantrout’s.”
Alan Davies is the author of Active 24 Hours, Name, Signage, Candor, Rave, and Raw War, among other books. Odes & fragments is forthcoming in 2013. He lives in New York City.
THURSDAY 4/25
7pm | $10; $7 for students/seniors; free for Poets House Members 
PASSWORDS: Jennifer Scappettone @ Poets House

Poet, translator and scholar Jennifer Scappettone discusses the work of the Italian poet and musicologist Amelia Rosselli (1930-1996) — whose first book was introduced by Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1964 — and will read from her award-winning translation. Rosselli’s upbringing as a self-defined “child of the Second World War” led her to compose among three languages and synthesize a hybrid literary heritage stretching from Dante and the troubadours through Ezra Pound and John Berryman, recasting both the tradition and the future of Italian poetry.
 
8pm | free
Greetings 2013 #1 : Andrew Dieck, Georgia Faust, Jean Ann Dara @ Unnameable Boox
ANDREW DIECK and GEORGIA FAUST reading, JEAN ANN DARA brings the music.
The evening begins at 8pm with a meet n greet as the sun’s last rays are swallowed by the horizon. Weather permitting the event will be in the backyard strung with a rope of red & blue lights & a field of white stones which echo the slightest sensation of movement.

6:30 pm | $10 suggested donation, $5 members
FRIDAY 4/26
Broadsides Reading Series @ The Center for Book Arts
co-hosted by Krystal Languell, Marcella Durand and the Belladonna* Collaborative.

starts 10pm | $10
Friday Night Slam @ The Nuyorican Poets Cafe
NYC’s first poetry slam was held at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in 1989 and 20 years later it is still going strong. Watch poets perform and compete. Judges are 5 randomly chosen audience members.

SATURDAY 4/27
2pm | free
NYU Veterans Writing Workshop Reading @ Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House

4:30-6:30pm | $5
The Segue Reading Series @ Zinc Bar
featuring ALVIN LUCIER, ROBERT FITTERMAN & MASHINKA FIRUNTS
Alvin Lucier is a composer of experimental music and sound installations. Since the mid-1960s, he has explored the natural characteristics of sound and the spaces in which they are heard. He is the author of the booksReflections (MusikTexte, 1995) and Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music(Wesleyan, 2012).
Robert Fitterman writes: “I will endeavor to spare you from the long series of colorful expletives that are sure to be a part of our hero’s vocabulary, but otherwise, to the best of my ability, you will see and hear everything exactly as it takes place.” More at the link.
Mashinka Firunts is a writer, artist and doctoral student in the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives and works in collaboration with Danny Snelson. More here.
SUNDAY 4/28
5:30pm | $5 admission goes to the readers
Zinc Bar Reading Series: Curated by Lungfull!@ Zinc Bar
This week: Arlo Quint and Eddie Berrigan
7-9pm | free admission
Sunday Night Fiction @ KGB Bar
The KGB Bar Sunday Night Fiction showcases contemporary fiction from new and emerging writers. Featuring Brando Skyhorse, Soren Stockman and Mary Hanlon.
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