NYC Readings Roundup :: June 10-16
Editor’s note: welcome to the 15th 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
FEATURED EVENT:
Friday, June 14th, 6pm-2am (panel discussion @ 8pm) | free admission
EXIT STRATA PRESENTS :: PRINT! DOCUMENT EXHIBIT A @ LaunchPad
As the name suggests, EXHIBIT A is not purely show but study, investigation, a document offered as evidence in the query of RE/PRODUCTION and RE/PRESENTATION, and the creative person’s continued battle with and around these actions as they seek validation and “success” in an industry wherein one has traditionally relied on others for survival.
The show will feature RE/PRODUCTION, both in the gallery as well as in the “store” — which is also re/presented as part of the show itself, a nod to the creative, conceptual act of self-narration that can intentionally speak to and include an assertion of art work as site of cultural production and capital generation — not only for the gallery or publication, but for the artist.
Attendees to EXHIBIT A are invited to purchase and order re/productions at a range of value levels, from the humble postcard to small, flexible books and folios assembled onsite to posters, prints, and reproductions on a variety of other media such as t-shirts, mugs, or bags, much the options you might find at a museum shop. In addition, the e-commerce model built in tandem with EXHIBIT A will expand far and long past the physical, geographic, and temporal bounds of the show, offering attendees, community members, and artists alike the opportunity to continue to re/produce, purchase, and foster dialogue around the translation of their work into saleable media.
The panel discussion, on the show’s opening night, invites the public — both artists and non — to engage in this question with EXHIBIT A’s curators, artists, and other community members already practicing creative economic modelling. The panel will be livestreamed on exitstrata.com during the event itself to encourage realtime, offsite dialogue in our extended international community, as well as available for viewing, sharing, and download in perpetuity.
Curated by Exit Strata Managing Editor Lynne DeSilva-Johnson with Production Assistance from Ben Wiessner, Taylor Quilty, Kevin William Reed, and Georgia Elrod. Featuring music from DJ Mickey Perez.
MONDAY 6/10
7-9pm | free admission
Tim Liardet & Jennifer Militello@ KGB Bar
The featured writers will read from their most recent collections.
8-10pm | $3 donation requested
Saturn Series Poetry @ Revival Bar
Saturn Series Poetry is a writers’ open mic every Monday night. This is not a slam. Poets, playwrights, screenwriters and novelists perform prose, poetry and sometimes a song or two. Featuring Cindy Hochman and Bob Heman. Sign up begins at 7:45.
8pm | $8, $7 students and seniors, $5 members
Poet In New York: Reading Lorca @ The Poetry Project at Saint Mark’s Church
Eighty-four years ago, on June 26, 1929, Federico Garcia Lorca arrived in New York City from Madrid and began one of his greatest works, Poet In New York. Join Lorca scholars and translators as they recite favorite passages from Poet in New York. This event is being held in conjunction with “Back Tomorrow,” an exhibit at the New York Public Library (April 5-July 21) devoted to the book Poet in New York and the artistic environment in which it was created. Featuring John Giorno, Monica de la Torre, Frederic Tuten, Aracelis Girmay, Paul Auster, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Wayne Koestenbaum and more. Co-presented with the Fundación Federico García Lorca.
TUESDAY 6/11
7-8:30pm | free admission
BOA Editions: Bryant Park Poetry Series @ The Bryant Park Reading Room
For the Bryant Park poetry series, four poets with new books are invited by their publisher to read on a particular date. Featuring Christopher Kennedy, Craig Morgan Teicher, Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Michael Waters. All the poets’ titles in print are available for purchase at the reading.
7pm | free admission
Mystery Writers of America @ KGB Bar
The MWA Reading Series features established and emerging authors from the Mystery Writers of America. Featuring Jillian Abbott, Alison Gaylin, Nancy Hughes, Ken Posthauer, Cornelia Read, S.A. Solomon, R.J. (Ralph) Westerhoff and Elizabeth Zelvin.
7:30-11pm | $10
Organic Open Mic @ Bareburger (East Village)
Produced by the Inspired Word open mic series, this open mic is open to all types of performing artists – comedians, musicians, storytellers, singers, poets, fiction/nonfiction writers, playwrights, spoken word artists, performance artists, dancers. Doors open for open mic sign-up @ 7pm.
WEDNESDAY 6/12
7-9pm | free admission
FACE OUT: Maximizing the Visibility of Emerging Writers @ Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
“This celebratory event features short readings from exceptional emerging writers supported through CLMP’s FACE OUT program, which grants publisher/author teams funding for technical assistance to help spotlight independent, experimental titles. Readers include: Cynthia Cruz (Four Way Books), Farrah Field (Four Way Books), Michael Leong (Black Square Editions),Albert Mobilio (Black Square Editions), Jon Leon (Futurepoem Books), Francis Richard (Futurepoem Books), R. Erica Doyle (Belladonna Books), LaTasha Diggs (Belladonna Books), Dan Magers (Birds, LLC) and Ana Bozicevic (Birds, LLC).”
7pm | 1 drink minimum, no cover
Not a Rose: Readings, Conversations, Performance, Live Music, & more… @ KGB Bar
“The new CHARTA publication: Heide Hatry, Not a Rose, addresses the nature of our relationship to flowers. Hatry’s serene scenes of flowers are photographs of trompe l’oeil arrangements of the offal, sex organs and other residues of animals. Elegant yet deeply disturbing, these works call into question the foundations of aesthetic perception and the ethics of our use and abuse of nature.
Her images and the writing of 101 prominent intellectuals, writers, scholars and artists together channel Richard Wagner’s pursuit of the “Gesamtkunstwerk”, an interdisciplinary “total artwork”. Contributing writers include Jonathan Ames, Jonathan Safran Foer, Mary Caponegroo, Jessica Hagedorn, Donna Haraway, Siri Hustvedt, Lucy Lippard, Robert Kelly, Fiona Maazel, JW McCormack, Kate Millett, Rick Moody, Steven Pinker, Avital Ronell, Stanley Rosen, Peter Singer, Klaus Theweleit, Franz Wright, and Luisa Valenzuela.”
Wednesday’s reading features Brenda Coultas, Thyrza Nichols Goodeve, Siri Hustvedt, Heide Hatry, Christine Isherwood, Jennifer Peters, Lutz Rath and Iris Smyles.
7pm | free admission
Real Characters @ McNally Jackson Books
“Andy Ross’s monthly showcase invites writers, actors and stand-ups to read funny essays or perform their latest laughable stage creations. Past performers include writers, journalists, actors, and stand-ups who have appeared on the Moth Mainstage, This American Life, BBC’s The World, HBO’s Funny or Die and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
This month’s line-up: Rosie Schaap (columnist for New York Times Magazine & author of Drinking With Men), Jason Roeder (Senior writer for The Onion & co-author of Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk) and Margot Leitman (performer for Stripped Stories & author of Gawky: Tales of an Extra Long Awkward Phase).”
8pm | $8, $7 students and seniors, $5 members
Lee Ann Brown & Annabel @ The Poetry Project at Saint Mark’s Church
The featured poets will read from their recent work.
9pm | $7
Wednesday Night Slam Open @ The Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Open to the first 20 poets to sign up so arrive early if you want to slam. The night’s winner will eligible to perform in the Nuyorican’s famed Friday Night Poetry Slam. Hosted by Jive Poetic.
THURSDAY 6/13
7-9pm | free admission | RSVP by e-mail info@infinityskitchen.com, Facebook or Google+
Infinity’s Kitchen Release Party @ The Old American Can Factory
Infinity’s Kitchen magazine will host a release party to celebrate the magazine’s sixth issue of experimental literature.
Founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 2008, Infinity’s Kitchen is a graphic literary journal of experimental literature and conceptual writing. The publication is designed to explore new and innovative forms of literature, via print, performance and technology. The sixth and latest issue contains poetry, short fiction, essays on literary process and visual poems from 14 international contributors.
Contributors to the new issue will read and/or discuss their work during the event. These contributors include: Billy Cancel, whose poems are collages of found phrases and ideas; Greg Gathman, an experimental filmmaker whose video combines cellphone footage and music to accompany interlaced lines from different poems; Gary Heidt, author of an essay exploring the idea of the Word Square; Erica ESH Henry, who combines the use of musical notational symbols with written poetry; and Katie Morales; a dancer and choreographer whose essay offers “erratic thoughts on an art form nobody cares about unless Natalie Portman is making out with a girl.”
7-9pm | $25; $15 for students, seniors and NYPL Friends
LIVE from the NYPL: Chinese dissident poet Liao @ South Court Auditorium (NYPL)
Liao Yiwu is one of the most prominent and outspoken Chinese writers today. He spent four years in prison for writing an incendiary poem in the wake of the Tiananmen Square Massacre; for many years since, the Chinese government has considered his writings subversive because they expose the negative aspects of the socialist system, and all of his books are currently banned in China. Liao fled the country in July 2011.
Two years later, Liao Yiwu appears at LIVE from the NYPL to celebrate the US publication of his memoir, For a Song and A Hundred Songs, which Yiwu’s his dark experience of crowded Chinese prisons and the humanity he discovered in his fellow prisoners. Yiwu sits down with Paul Holdengräber and translator Wenguang Huang for a discussion of poetry, protest, and prison. The evening will also feature a musical performance by Liao on the xiao – a Chinese flute – and a reading of “Massacre, ”the poem that lead to his imprisonment.
7-9pm | free admission
Poets Adam Fitzgerald, Benjamin S. Grossberg and Michael Klein Read
@ Bureau of General Services–Queer Division
The featured poets with read from their most recent selections.
FRIDAY 6/14
7-9pm | free admission
At the Inkwell @ KGB Bar
Featuring interdisciplinary readings from Kaylie Jones, Beverly Donofrio, Hal Stucker, Loren Kleinman.
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 6/15
7-9pm | free admission
Tyrant @ KGB Bar
Featuring interdisciplinary readings from Ken Baumann, Michael Kimball, Kendra Grant Malone and Matthew Savoca.
SUNDAY 6/16
4-6pm | 2 drink minimum (tea is available)
great weather for MEDIA presents spoke word Sundays @ The Parkside Lounge
This Sunday features Exit Strata contributing poet Jack Tricarico alongside Chocolate Waters, followed by a poetry open mic.
7-9pm | free admission
Berlinica Publishing@ KGB Bar
Berlinica Publishing presents two new books; Mark Twain, “A Tramp in Berlin. New Mark Twain Stories”, and Kurt Tucholsky, “Berlin! Berlin! Dispatches From the Weimar Republic”. Featuring a reading by author, performer, educator, activist, actor, screenwriter David Henry Sterry. In a reenactment of Tucholsky‘s own first book presentation, everybody who buys a book gets a free shot of vodka or whiskey.
7pm-12am+ | Full $25; Member $20; 30 & Under $15; Group $15
32nd Annual Bloomsday on Broadway @ Symphony Space
Celebrate Bloomsday with a marathon reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses marathon. Featuring over 50 actors, writers and avid Joyceans performing selections from Joyce’s masterpiece, including Fionnula Flanagan’s performance of the entire Molly Bloom soliloquy. The evening’s readings will be interspersed with traditional Irish music performed by Lisa Flanagan, Adam Harvey, Kevin Rockower and the Rogue Diplomats.
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Resources:
Poets.org Events Calendar
Poets and Writers (P&W) Literary Events Calendar (Filter by City, State)
Poetry Project Calendar
Belladonna* Reading Series
KGB Bar Calendar
Nuyorican Poets Cafe Calendar
Poets House Calendar
Time Out New York | Book Events
The series is overseen by Managing/Poetry Editor Lynne DeSilva-Johnson and maintained by Taylor Quilty, Exit Strata Program Assistant. Please email editors@exitstrata.com to submit your event/organization with READINGS ROUNDUP in the subject line for inclusion in future listings!
