NYC Readings Roundup :: June 24-June 30
Editor’s note: welcome to the 17th 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:
Thursday, June 27, 6pm | free admission
The 21st Annual Poets House Showcase Opening @ Poets House
Join Poets House for the opening of their one-of-a-kind annual showcase, a free exhibit featuring all of the new poetry books and poetry-related texts published in the United States in a single year from over 650 commercial, university, and independent presses.
Look out for our PRINT!: DOCUMENT Series 1 – we’ll be under “E” for Exit!
This diverse and inclusive landscape will be on view through August 3.
MONDAY 6/24
7pm | free admission
The Half King Reading Series @ The Half King
The Half King Reading Series has become a literary institution in Chelsea. The series features non-fiction and fiction readings and showcases magazine journalism on Magazine Night (one Monday per month).
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 Anoek and George Wallce. Sign up begins at 7:45.
TUESDAY 6/25
7pm | free admission
Girls Write Now Anthology Launch Party @ McNally Jackson
Celebrate writing and women at the Girls Write Now Anthology Launch Party. Join us to get a first look at the 2013 anthology, New Worlds, featuring original work by NYC’s best teen writers and the professional women who mentor them. Fiction, poetry, sci-fi, memoir — meet the writers, hear their stories, and get to know Girls Write Now.
Distinguished as one of the top 15 after-school arts and culture programs in the nation by The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, Girls Write Now is New York’s first and only organization with a writing and mentoring model exclusively for girls. From new writers to professionals, GWN is a community of women writers dedicated to providing guidance, support, and opportunities to high school girls developing their creative, independent voices.
Over the past 15 years, more than 4,500 underserved teen girls have benefitted from the GWN community and 100% of seniors in our flagship mentoring program go on to college—bringing with them portfolios, awards, scholarships, skills, and confidence. Girls Write Now has built a record of achievement and innovation recognized twice by the White House, by The New York Times, and Youth, I.N.C., and evidenced by the hundreds of Scholastic Art & Writing awards our girls have earned.
7-9pm | free admission
Le Chat Noir @ KGB Bar
A poetry reading featuring a stellar line up of accomplished poets. With Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, Jessica Flynn, R. A. Villanueva and Lee Anderson.
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.
9pm | $3 admission
Penny’s Open Mic @ UNDER St. Marks
Open mic for storytellers, poets, and performance artists of all sorts.
WEDNESDAY 6/26
7pm | free admission
59 @ Nelson A. Rockefeller Park
1959 celebrates a turning point in contemporary American culture, music, and spoken word artistry. Grammy Award-winner, Terri Lyne Carrington brings together jazz greats including Antonio Hart, Gregoire Maret, Jeremy Pelt, Chris Potter (tenor saxophonist with Pat Metheny, Steely Dan, and others) to perform new arrangements of music released in 1959, including Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, Dave Brubeck’s Time Out, Charles Mingus’ Mingus Ah Um, along with music of Billie Holiday and Sidney Bechet, as well as poetry and spoken word pieces from the Beat generation.
7:30pm | free admission
Guerrilla Lit Reading Series @ Jimmy’s No. 43
“Because the pen is mightier than the Kalashnikov (we hope).”
8pm | free admission
How I Learned Little Things Are Big @ Happy Ending Lounge
Hostess Blaise Kearsley chooses writers, comedians, bloggers, and performers to present a mash up of the personal, the biographical, fact, fantasy – you name it. The monthly series offers such educational topics as How I Learned To Be Super Successful!, How I Learned To Steal From The Liquor Cabinet, and How I Learned Everyone Is Against Me. Learn life lessons in a dimly let, self-indulgent, sexually tense environment fueled by booze and experience a little education that works.
This week: “Remember in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN when Lily Tomlin’s character went on “The Mike Douglas Show” and he sang the song “Little Things Mean A Lot” because she was so little? I do.
Come out for NYT’s bestselling author JACOB TOMSKY, celebrated comedian BROOKE VAN POPPELEN, and KATE GREATHEAD who’s been cleaning up at The Moth all year.”
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 6/27
7-9pm | free admission
Sideshow Goshko @ KGB Bar
Award-winning storyteller Leslie Goshko (Huffington Post, SiriusXM, WNYC) invites some of NY’s top writers, comedians, and storytellers to share true, bizarre tales about their lives. There’s live accordion music, a challenging trivia game, and a free wine giveaway. Featuring David Crabb, Emily Epstein White and Jake Hart, with music by Dr. Leona Godin
FRIDAY 6/28
7-9pm | free admission
Paragraph reading @ KGB Bar
Julie Cooke, Rosie Misdary and Megan Foley will read from their recent work.
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 6/29
12-4pm | free admission
Writing On It All: Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture @Governor’s Island (Building 6b)
Writing On It All is a series of events taking place on Governor’s Island in New York Harbor. Under the direction of Alexandra Chasin, New School faculty member, and 2012 NYFA Fellow in Fiction, the project unfolds through a series of discrete sessions in which artists, writers, and interested members of the public will write on the interior of an out-of-use house. By using the house as a surface for writing, Writing On It All foregrounds the material nature of writing; working in a group underscores its social character.
This giant collaborative writing experiment is open to the public and requires registration.
4-6pm | free admission
The Enclave Reading Series @ Cake Shop
The Enclave Reading Series features established and emerging authors who create innovative and ambitious work. It has hosted monthly readings in downtown Manhattan since 2006.
This week: “For the Enclave’s season closer we’re giving you a truly blockbuster line-up. Literary legends Jessica Hagedorn and Michael Cunningham will be accompanied by debut poetAngelo Nikolopolus. Don’t sit this out! And as always admission is free, the drinks are cheap, and the lights will be down low.”
SUNDAY 6/30
12-4pm | free admission
Writing On It All: Anne Carson, Robert Currie: Ébauche @Governor’s Island (Building 6b)
Writing On It All is a series of events taking place on Governor’s Island in New York Harbor. Under the direction of Alexandra Chasin, New School faculty member, and 2012 NYFA Fellow in Fiction, the project unfolds through a series of discrete sessions in which artists, writers, and interested members of the public will write on the interior of an out-of-use house. By using the house as a surface for writing, Writing On It All foregrounds the material nature of writing; working in a group underscores its social character.
This giant collaborative writing experiment is open to the public and requires registration.12-4pm | free admission
4-6pm | 2 drink minimum (tea is available)
great weather for MEDIA presents spoke word Sundays @ The Parkside Lounge
Begins with a featured performance by Michelle Whittaker and Thuli Zuma, followed by a poetry open mic hosted by David Lawton.
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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
Voice Places | Literary 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!
