NYC Readings Roundup :: May 27-June 2
Edwin Torres performs.
Editor’s note: welcome to the 13th 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 EVENTS:
Saturday, June 1, 5pm & Sunday, June 2, 5pm | free admission
PUBLISH! (an underground publishing event) @ S2A
“S2A is pleased to host LA-Based Writ Large Press. PUBLISH! Questions the notion of writing as a private, solitary act and re-imagines the publishing process as an act of announcing. Over the course of this two–day event, typewriters, keyboards and voice technologies will be used to gather attendees’ real time reports and reflections into a book, a process that will break down the mechanisms of publishing and amplify the magic of writing. Open to all. Everyone who attends is a co-author!
The event begins Saturday at 5pm with the launch of the book that will be written and ends Sunday afternoon with a bookbinding of content generated by participants.
Featuring live blogging by Ed Lin, and more! and readings by Thaddeus Rutkowski, Melancton Hawks, Robin Grearson, Mariette Papic, Alex Morris, Ama Birch and YOU!”
Sunday, June 2, 3-5:30pm | free admission
Tenth Annual ‘Song of Myself’ Marathon @ The Granite Prospect in Brooklyn Bridge Park (Pier One)
The annual marathon reading of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” led by NYU Professor Karen Karbiener, declares Whitman’s all-embracing lines from Brooklyn’s front stoop in full and magnificent view of his beloved Mannahatta.
You don’t have to read to participate–but if you’d like to, please email songofmyselfmarathon@gmail.com with your favorite three sections of “Song of Myself” (using the 1891-1892 edition’s breakdown of 52 sections). Readings will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.
If you’re a reader, please arrive no later than 2:30 p.m.
MONDAY 5/27
7-9pm | free admission
Tara Ison and Annapurna Potluri @ KGB Bar
The featured fiction writers will read from their most recent collections.
7-9pm | free admission
Word Canvas: Garden of Poetics @ Bluestockings Bookstore
A celebration of the feminist poetics with a reading and discussion of selected work from Monica Hand, Metta Sáma and DuEwa Frazier. Discussion hosted by poet Robert Gibbons.
8-10pm | free admission
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.
TUESDAY 5/28
7pm | $10; $7 for students/seniors; free for Poets House Members
May Swenson Centennial Tribute @ Poets House
In celebration of the centenary of May Swenson’s birth, this reading will showcase the breadth of her poetic output, from nature poems displaying her keen observation of wildlife to exuberant and erotic love poems celebrating beauty and passion, to place poems recording her travels to the American southwest, France and Italy and her residence in New York.
7-9pm | free admission
Women’s / Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike @ Bluestockings Bookstore
Come out and deliver (up to) 8 minutes of your poetry, prose, songs and spoken word. Featuring Geri De Luca and Deborah Hauser, and hosted by Vittoria Repetto.
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 5/29
6:30pm | free admission
The Riot Grrrl Collection Launch @ The Fales Library & Special Collection (NYU)
Join editor and archivist Lisa Darms and contributors (including Kathleen Hanna, Johanna Fateman, and Ramdasha Bikceem!) to celebrate the launch of this new collection, available for pre-order at feministpress.org
8-11pm | free admission
The Ear Inn Series @ Ear Inn
The Poetry Society of New York writes: “Ted Greenwald and Charles Bernstein founded the Ear Inn series in Fall 1978 with the Lally/Ashbery reading. The series migrated around the city and ran for another 15 years. Now [we are] bringing it back to the Ear Inn and featuring Charles Bernstein, Lucy Ives and Danniel Schoonebeek. The Ear Inn resides in the historic James Brown house, built in 1817. Help us welcome Bernstein back! We’ll be upstairs–behind the black door, beneath the red light.”
8pm | $8, $7 students and seniors, $5 members
Kazim Ali & Rebecca Brown @ The Poetry Project at Saint Mark’s Church
The featured poets will read from their most recent collections.
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.
FRIDAY 5/31
7-9pm | free admission
Paragraph reading @ KGB Bar
Carol Bartold, Kirsten Major and Richard Jeffrey Newman will read from their recent work.
7pm | free admission
Stain of Poetry @ Goodbye Blue Monday
Showcasing a range of poetry and reading styles. Featuring LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Lynn Melnick, Rachel Levitsky, Kathleen Rooney and Lee Ann Roripaugh.
8pm | $8, $7 students and seniors, $5 members
Andrew Durbin & Iris Cushing @ The Poetry Project at Saint Mark’s Church
The featured poets 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 6/1
2:30-5pm | free admission
Brooklyn Brownstone Poets @ Park Plaza Restaurant
An open mic that combines diner food and poetry. Curated by Patricia Carragon; featuring Ron Kolm, Eve Packer and Ron Price.
SUNDAY 6/2
1pm | free admission
Soap Box Poets @ Thompkins Square Park
“Poetry moves Poetry happens Poetry radiates. Join us in the park for an afternoon of madness and beauty!” Featuring Exit Strata contributor Jeffrey Grunthaner.
4-6pm | $2 suggested donation
Great Weather Presents Spoken Word Sundays @ The Parkside Lounge
A poetry open mic featuring Simone Davis & John W. Snyder.
7-9pm | free admission
The Nervous Breakdown Literary Experience @ KGB Bar
The KGB Bar Sunday Night Fiction showcases contemporary fiction from new and emerging writers. Featuring Caroline Leavitt, Jessica Anya Blau, Allison Amend and Elizabeth Crane.
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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!
