So this past weekend I was in Chicago, and what better way to wind down a weekend of baseball, scorching heat, NATO/99% battles, beaches,bars, and delicious dining than with a poetry slam? And not just any poetry slam,The Uptown Poetry Slam. That’s right, The Green Mill, the place where Al Capone sipped and shipped illegal booze, and the place where this whole slam movement of ours got started.

I’ve long since gotten over the nerves that accompany many poets prior to reading and/or slamming, but was overcome with a feeling of childlike wonder at how simultaneously unorganized and on point the whole thing felt. Regrettably, Marc Smith, the creator, founder and regular host of The Uptown was in France (poetry can take you places?), but filling in was renowned slammer J.W. Baz, who did an excellent job engaging the crowd and making the virgins (myself included) feel extra uncomfortable.

It was interesting to see the contrasts between a slam that’s as well established as the Uptown and one that is still relatively new like the Nitty Gritty. The banter between host and audience, the theme song at the beginning, the featured poets/singers/story tellers, the predetermined appropriate responses for what you like or dislike (hissing, grunting, stomping feet, snapping, shouting THAT WAS HOT SHIT) and the general atmosphere of the bar itself make the event truly unique.

According to Baz, they are “the only ones still doing it right”. It’s much more laid back than the Nitty Gritty, only two rounds, no discernible time limit or time keeper.  The accompaniment of a Jazz trio that can improvise literally any mood or phrase you give them (I asked can you guys do ‘day drinking’ and the drummer justnodded and smiled behind his sunglasses). Slammers allowed to read in the open mic (wish I’d known that at the beginning of the night) and a whopping $10 to the winner! It’s somewhat of a free-for-all…they are like that grandparent that probably shouldn’t start drinking at noon every day, but who’s going to tell someone that’s been around that long what to do??

Truly it was an inspirational experience. It is my sincere hope that our Nitty Gritty Slam (First and Third Tuesday every month at Valentine’son New Scotland)flourish and become what this event this event at the Green Mill was for me, an opportunity to witness amazing poets in a(n) (in)famous location. And the only way we’re going to get there is by paying our dues and coming out to support this awesome slam of ours.

Today must be the day for submissions calls, because here is another one from Black Lawrence Press looking for poetry with the theme of food for an upcoming book, Feast: Poetry and Recipes for a Full Seating at Dinner.

Here is all of the information from BLP on how to submit your work:

Black Lawrence Press is now accepting submissions for a book celebrating food and poetry. Feast: Poetry and Recipes for a Full Seating at Dinner is an invitation to host a dinner party and share a meal, as well as a poetic toast or two, with family and friends. “Much depends on dinner,” Lord Byron wrote in The Island, and we believe that much still does. We invite you to contribute to this project that seeks to nourish body and soul with a delicious dinner and scrumptious poetry.

Guidelines: Black Lawrence Press welcomes established as well as emerging writers to submit a poem and an accompanying recipe to Feast. Both a poem and a recipe are required for the submission to be considered.

A few notes:
1) The poem should evoke the spirit of a toast, which has been historically shared as an expression of celebration, goodwill or honor. We would like these “poem toasts” to link to some of the following wider themes: the value of celebration, good company, the enjoyment of food, and commiseration.

2) There is no word limit.

3) The recipe should be appropriate for 6 – 10 servings, and be tagged for one of the following sections: cocktails, appetizers, main courses, or desserts.

Multiple submissions are allowed!

Deadline: June 30, 2012

Follow this link to submit: http://blacklawrencepress.submishmash.com/submit

The Writers Institute is heading up north to Skidmore College in Saratoga again this summer and they are inviting us all to come up to the Spa City for some great guest speakers. The readings all being at 8:00pm and are free and open to the public at Davis Auditorium in Palamountain Hall on the Skidmore campus. More information on the visiting writers this year can be found on the Institute website.

The Summer Writers Institute offers courses for undergraduate and graduate credit, as well as noncredit courses. An extraordinary staff of critically-acclaimed, award-winning authors serve as Institute faculty members. Standard three-hour class meetings, three days each week, are supplemented by a series of Tuesday and Thursday afternoon discussions with visiting writers and other special events. Other distinguished writers-in-residence read book-length poetry or nonfiction manuscripts and offer advice for revisions and eventual publication submissions (additional fees charged). The program also offers public readings by visiting and staff writers Monday through Friday evenings. Weekend programs include publishing symposia, panel discussions, and student readings.

Here is the list of the readings that will be starting on July 2, 2012: 

JULY 2 - Non-Fiction and Fiction Reading
Phillip Lopate (author, Against Joie de Vivre: Personal Essays; Waterfront) and Elizabeth Benedict(novelist, The Practice of Deceit; Almost)

JULY 3 - Poetry and Fiction Reading
Louise Gluck (Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for Poetry) and Caryl Phillips (novelist, A Distant Shore; Dancing in the Dark; In the Falling Snow)

JULY 4 - Fiction and Poetry Reading
Allan Gurganus (author, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All; White People) and Campbell McGrath (poet, MacArthur Award, Seven Notebooks; In the Kingdom of the Sea Monkeys; American Noise)

JULY 5 - Fiction Reading
Paul Auster (author, Winter Journal; Invisible; The Brooklyn Follies) and Siri Hustvedt (novelist, The Summer Without Men; What I Loved)

JULY 6 - Fiction and Poetry Reading
Joanna Scott (author, Follow Me; Liberation; Arrogance) and James Longenbach (critic and poet, The Art of the Poetic Line; The Iron Key: Poems )

JULY 9 - Poetry and Fiction Reading
Frank Bidart (poet, Star Dust; Watching the Spring Festival; Desire) and Claire Messud (author, The Emperor’s Children; The Hunters)

JULY 10 - Poetry and Fiction Reading
Jorie Graham (poet, Place; Sea Change; Dream of the Unified Field) and Victoria Redel (author, The Border of Truth; Lover Boy)

JULY 11 - Poetry and Fiction Reading
Rosanna Warren (author, Ghost in a Red Hat) and Margot Livesey (author, Eva Moves The Furniture, The Flight of Gemma Hardy )

JULY 12 - Fiction and Poetry Reading
Russell Banks (novelist, Lost Memory of Skin, The Reserve; The Darling) and Chase Twichell (poet,Horses Where the Answers Should Have Been; Dog Language)

JULY 13 - Fiction Reading
Joyce Carol Oates (National Book Award, Mudwoman; A Widow’s Story; them; We Were The Mulvaneys)

JULY 16 - Poetry and Non-Fiction Reading
Mark Strand (Former Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize, Blizzard of One; Almost Invisible;) and Honor Moore(author, Red Shoes: Poems; The Bishop’s Daughter: A Memoir)

JULY 17 - Poetry and Fiction Reading
Charles Simic (Former Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize,  The World Doesn’t End; Master of Disguises) andDanzy Senna (author, From Caucasia, with Love; You are Free: Stories)

JULY 18 - Fiction Reading
William Kennedy (Pulitzer Prize, Ironweed; Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes)

JULY 19 - Fiction and Poetry Reading
Ann Beattie (fiction writer, The New Yorker Stories; Walks With Men; Love Always) and Peg Boyers(poet, Honey with Tobacco, Hard Bread)

JULY 20 - Fiction and Poetry Reading
Amy Hempel (fictionist, The Dog of the Marriage) and Richard Howard (poet, Pulitzer Prize, Talking Cures; Inner Voices)

JULY 23 - Non-Fiction and Fiction Reading
Darin Strauss (author, More Than It Hurts You; Half A Life ) and Binnie Kirshenbaum (novelist, An Almost Perfect Moment; The Scenic Route)

JULY 24 - Fiction and Poetry Reading
Jamaica Kincaid (author, Mr. Potter; A Small Place; Lucy) and Henri Cole (poet, Touch; Pierce the Skin; Middle Earth)

JULY 25 - Fiction and Poetry Reading
Mary Gaitskill (author, Veronica; Bad Behavior; Don’t Cry) and Tom Healy (What the Right Hand Knows)

JULY 26 - Fiction and Poetry Reading
Rick Moody (fictionist, Demonology; The Four Figures of Death; The Ice Storm) and Francine Prose(novelist, My New American Life; Touch; A Changed Man)

JULY 27 - Special Panel Discussion:  Writers on the Presidential Election
Katha Pollitt (columnist, The Nation), James Miller (Democracy is in the Streets), and Robert Boyers(editor, SALMAGUNDI)

The good folks over at the Ginosko Literay Journal, out of California, are looking for submissions for the next and future issues. You can check out past issues and much more on their website.

Here is the information on what they are looking for, how to submit, and even how to advertise:

Accepting short fiction & poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews, social justice concerns, spiritual insights for Ginosko Literary Journal.

Editorial lead time 1-2 months; accept simultaneous submissions & reprints; length flexible, accept excerpts. Receives postal submissions & email—prefer email submissions as attachments in Microsoft Works Word Processor, Rich Text Format or Word. Copyright reverts to author. Read year around.

Publishing as semiannual ezine. Check downloadable issues on website for tone & style,http://ginoskoliteraryjournal.com/.   Downloads free, accept donations.

ezine circulation  8000+. Website traffic 500-750 hits/month.

Also looking for books, art, music to post on website, and links to exchange.

Ads in issues:  $80 1/8 page, $120 1 / 4 page.

Ginosko (ghin-océ-koe)
To perceive, understand, realize, come to know; knowledge that has an inception, a progress, an attainment. The recognition of truth by experience.

Member CLMP.  Est 2003.

Ginosko Literary Journal
Robert Paul Cesaretti, Editor
PO Box 246
Fairfax, CA 94978

Alan Casline sent along the following annoucement about the next reading at the Pine Hollow Arboreteum (16 Maple Ave., Slingerlands, NY) this coming Friday, May 25 featuring Helen Ruggieri. Helen is a busy poet this week as she is featuring at Word Thursday at the Bright Hill Center.

Helen Ruggieri will be the featured poet at the Pine Hollow Arboretum open mic. She is reading in Woodstock on Thursday and is going to be riding up to here with Judith Kerman of Mayapple Press.  Hopefully the Delmar Writers Group, Rootdrinker members and other local poets will all be in attendance.Maybe a mini Cloudburst reunion will take place.

For those who are interested in an Arboretum Tour John Abbuhl is going to be leading one starting at 4:30. Call John or Kay at (518) 439-6472 to reserve a spot or e-mail (acasline@aol.com)  and I’ll pass your names on. Wear good walking shoes for the tour.

Helen is one of the great woman poets I have met. I’ve known of her work since the 1970’s and when I was able to bring in some poets from a bit farther away she was one of the first I thought of. A writer of both prose and poetry Helen lives in Olean, NY and taught at the University of Pittsburg, Bradford, PA. She spent a semester teaching in Japan at Yokohama College and has a FootHills published book The Character for Woman of short prose pieces (haibun) from that period. She teaches workshops on Japanese verse forms (haibun, haiku, senryn) Her own Japanese verse forms have appeared in publications in Turkey, Japan, Belgium, England, Russia and Slovakia. She has been published in Rootdrinker, Normanskill: Open Fields and in Benevolent Bird Broadside. She read poetry and participated in the Cloudburst Council May 2012. She has studied with Bill Stafford and tries to pass on Stafford’s process, witnessing for poetry.  Ruggieri is a master gardener and has a black sash in Tai Chi.  She will be reading from a new book, Butterflies Under a Japanese Moon from Kitsune Press.

Others poets can read three short poems or two longer poems. Also two pages of prose will be acceptable. Light refreshments. Donations welcomed. Contact Alan Casline at acasline@aol.com for more information. Funding to support this Reading Series comes from Hudson Valley Writers Guild and Rootdrinker Institute.

Starting off the open mic was a new voice at the Social Justice Center, Joe Mangini, with advice in rhyme “If you’re going to win this race…” Amy Nelson Hahn works with photos & ekphrastic poetry &, also a new voice here, got choked up reading “Fox Bones.”

Faith Vicinanza is a Connecticut poet & publisher of poetry who accompanied our featured poet here to Albany; she read a tender, loving poem, “Confession,” for her husband who died 4 years ago. Avery showed up with no paper & was excited to recite by heart “OM, a Kundalini Experience.” Joe Krausman read a poem titled “A True Story,” which he says so many of his poems are. Tess Lecuyer‘s poem, “What Riches May I Bring to Your Table,” was started in April & she “just slapped a ending onto it”.

Our featured poet, Elizabeth Thomas started with “Poetry Is…” a collaborative poem by 4th graders in Hartford. A good way to start for this advocate of youth in the arts. She continued with her favorite poem, “Revelation”, about a young student. “On Words & English Teachers” was about her addiction to words, the teachers who encouraged her, passing it on to her students, then “5th Grade Poetry Workshop.” Her poem “Speak” was inspired by a woman in a poetry workshop whose son had been sent to Iraq, twice, but can’t find a job. The sad, ironic “Hero” was read — & sung — in memory of Dave Van Ronk, & soldiers returning damaged. Another favorite, “Mother’s Work,” was a tribute to the birthing woman of the world, then she ended with another collaborative poem, this from a writing workshop at a Senior Center, “Home is the Place…” A stellar performance, one the audience loved & responded to throughout.

After the short break, we continued with the open mic & I read a new piece, “Lilacs, Again.” Jim Eve, one of the hosts of the “Calling All Poets” series at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, was in town & read about being at a lousy poetry reading (not here). Bob Sharkey read, again, his poem “Cycles” that he had read at Don’s open mic, the poem now revised from its earlier “wretched version” (his words). Elizag has been working on a new poem, “To the Company Making Shooting Targets that Look Like Trayvon Martin” (for real, unfortunately) & tried out the beginning. Moses Kash III got a ride from across the river & began with a ramble about his life in NYC, then struggled with a section from a book about the Obama family. The final poet for the night, D. Colin, appropriately enough read “On Being a Teacher, Part I: The Things I Can’t Say,” the next generation takes it on. Here’s to all those dedicated, imaginative (& under-paid) people who are teaching our children & grandchildren, making the future.

Join us at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY on the third Thursday of each month for a featured poet & many fine local poets who read in the open mic — $3.00 donation helps pay the featured poet, helps the SJC & promotes other readings in the area.

Cheryl Rice, the poetry diva of Kingston, just picked up more copies of her new book, “My Minnesota Boyhood” and she is ready to sell them to you. These collections of poetry are handcrafted by local small press publisher Dayl Wise at Post Traumatic Press.

If you do not know about Cheryl Rice and all that she does, here is a quick rundown:

Cheryl A. Rice’s work has appeared in Baltimore Review, Chronogram, Florida Review,  Home Planet News, Mangrove, Metroland, Poughkeepsie Journal, The Temple, Woodstock Times, and in the anthologies Wildflowers, Vol. II (2002: Shivastan Publishing),Riverine (2007: Codhill Press) andFor Enid, With Love (2010: NYQuarterly). She is the author ofA Thousand Candy Vaginas: Poems 1989-1995 (1997, Palaver Press), Aleums (1999, Flying Monkey Press), Egypt (2001, Flying Monkey Press), Nobody Slept Last Night (2003, Another Poor Bastard Productions, CD),Auction (2004, Flying Monkey Press; 2nd edition 2010), Girl Poet (2007, Flying Monkey Productions, CD), Roses: three poems (2011, Flying Monkey Press), and Outside (2011, Flying Monkey Press). Founder and host of the Sylvia Plath Bake-Off, Rice has held her RANDOM WRITING workshops throughout the Hudson Valley, where she has lived for over 30 years, after growing up on Long Island.

As many know Cheryl is one of the leaders and driving forces of the poetry scene in the Hudson Valley. She has hosted open mics, events, and workshops all over the region for many years, keeping the the art alive in upstate New York. And now is your chance to take a little bit of Cheryl home with you with this great new book, which I heard has been appearing on the desks of major players in the poetry world.

Here is what Cheryl says about the book:

“MY MINNESOTA BOYHOOD” is a collection of poems based part on fantasy, part on raw reality. In it, I compare my own upbringing on Long Island in the late 1960s with that of a friend’s who was raised at the same time in the hinterlands of Minnesota. Home Planet News publisher Donald Lev said of MY MINNESOTA BOYHOOD, “…with a novelist’s skill, [Rice] carves ice, water and fish into Moby Dick-like metaphor that sinks deep and stays…”

“My Minnesota Boyhood” is available from Post Traumatic Press (PO Box 544, Woodstock, NY 12498) or from Cheryl herself at Flying Monkey Productions, 16 S. Farrelly St., Kingston, NY 12401.

We have another busy week of poetry this week in upstate New York and one the big events that will be happening down in Treadwell at the Bright Hill Center for the Word Thursdays series hosted by Bertha Rogers. The two featured poets that Bertha lined up for this month, Helen Ruggieri and Judith Kerman are both well  published, much respected poets in the area.

At 7 pm on May 24, Word Thursdays will presents Olean poet Helen Ruggieri and Woodstock poet Judith Kerman; they will read from their work after the open mic, which begins at 7 pm, and during which all those attending are invited to read their own work or that of others for up to five minutes. The readings take place in the Word & Image Gallery (now featuring the mixed media works of Samir Sobhy) at Bright Hill Literary Center, 94 Church Street, Treadwell, one block north of Barlow’s General Store (Rtes 14 & 16).

HELEN RUGGIERI has been writing and publishing her work for thirty years. She has a book of short prose pieces (haibun) from Foothills Publishing called The Character for Woman, about living in Japan and a new book of poetry from Kitsune Books called Butterflies Under a Japanese Moon which has been nominated for a Pulitzer. Other books are Glimmer Girls from Mayapple Press about growing up female in the 50s; Concrete Madonna about the pink collar experience; and Rock City Hill Exercises about hiking in the Alleghenies. Japanese verse forms (haibun, haiku, senryu) have appeared in many American and international publications in Turkey, Belgium, England, Ireland, Russia, Slovakia and in Japan where her haiku have been published in Japanese/English newspapers and have won awards for haiku in English. She will be reading from her new book and other work.

JUDITH KERMAN is a poet, translator and publisher. She has published eight books or chapbooks of poetry, most recently Galvanic Response (March Street Press, 2005) and the bilingual collection, Plane Surfaces/Plano de Incidencia (Santo Domingo: CCLEH, 2002), with Spanish translations by Johnny Durán. Her two books of translations of Spanish-language poetry are Praises & Offenses: Three Women Poets from the Dominican Republic (BOA Editions, 2009) and A Woman in Her Garden: Selected Poems of Dulce María Loynaz (White Pine Press, 2002). Kerman was a Fulbright Senior Scholar to the Dominican Republic in 2002, translating the poetry and fiction of Dominican women writers. She runs Mayapple Press (1980-present) and was founding editor of Earth’s Daughters (1971 to present). She is the founder/coordinator of the Rustbelt Roethke Professional Writers’ Retreat (now Woodstock Mayapple Writers’ Retreat, 2003-present) and has led community writing groups since 1991. She was Dean of Arts and Behavioral Sciences (1991-1997) and Professor of English (1997-2011) at Saginaw Valley State University. Now Professor Emerita of English, she relocated from Michigan to Woodstock, NY, in summer 2011.

This reading, hosted by Mimi Moriarty at the Pine Hollow Arboretum in Slingerlands, featured 5 poets published this year by Finishing Line Press.

I am most familiar with Jan Tramontano‘s Paternal Nocturne which she has been reading around at various venues, including Albany WordFest. This evening she read 2 poems from each of the 3 sections of the chapbook, poems based on letters home written by her grandfather in the 1930s & 1940s. She ended with “the most personal” poem in the book, her own tender letter to him, “Letter 2011.”

Mimi Moriarty & her brother Frank Desiderio‘s chapbook Sibling Reverie pulls together some of their “companion” poems they have been writing & performing for a number of years. They read 4 sets, some like “A Matter of Substance on my TV” (Frank) & “Mummers Parade, January 1, 2010″ because they were both there; others pairings, notably “Afternoon Recreation” (Frank) & “Jesus at Bat” (Mimi) came about because they discovered that each had written about Jesus & baseball (which would almost get me to go to church again).

Jan Tramontano, Linda Sonia Miller, Mimi Moriarty, Frank Desiderio & Cecele Kraus

I was least familiar with the work of Linda Sonia Miller, whose chapbook from Finishing Line Press is titled Something Worth Diving For, which she said was an oblique reference to Adrienne Rich’s work. She began with a few recent poems not in the chapbook, “The She-bear’s Lament” & one about living in Paris in her youth, another about Thanksgiving. The poems she read from the book included the marvelous childhood memoir in the Bronx, “Poetry,” & one about watching herons.

I’ve also recently heard Cecele Allen Kraus read from her captivating chapbook, Tuscaloosa Bypass, memoir poems of growing up in Alabama. She read the beginning (“Every Sunday Morning”) & concluding (“Mississippi Encounter”) poems, & others. I was particularly moved by the poem “Mirror” about a dead brother, & the companion piece “Three Sisters.”

After the reading, the group fielded questions about being a poet & their experiences with the process of being published by Finishing Line Press. All in all a pleasant evening of poetry in the front room of the Pine Hollow Arboretum, a light & airy setting for small readings.

Tonight at The Linda (339 Central Ave., Albany) Urban Guerilla Theatre is back with the annual “Heartbreak Hotel” show. This is always a great night of poetry, music, spoken word, and whatever else Mojavi, Leslie Michelle, and the rest of the  UGT team can come up with.

Join the UGT team as we celebrate the return of “HEARTBREAK HOTEL” with some jaw-dropping poetry from the insatible BKLYN SHAY, SE’LAH THE AUTHOR, and the ever luminous Q DIAMOND.

Then meet and greet our newest member ERICA JOHNSON as she pours her heart out while the ever so sexy CARLOS GARCIA returns to the UGT stage! And that’s not all!…there will be some tear-jerking music from the fantastic duo NECCO & QUINTIN PIPER, ALICIA “VIDA” ORTIZ, jams from the UGT BAND and much much more!

Keep your eyes open for further details and keep in mind you can purchase your tickets right now online at: www.thelinda.org

Urban Guerilla Theatre is a Poetry/Spoken Word/Performance artists’ collective based in Albany, NY dedicated to reviving, redefining, and revolutionizing spoken word. The group employs various styles of poetry, music, spoken word and theatre to address life, love, relationships, social and societal issues. UGT also uses their open mic readings to host events and create an artistic space to house and develop artists and upcoming poets.

Here is a video highlighting last month’s “Skit Happens” show, part of the 2012 Albany Word Fest.