Albany Poets Presents, January 18

Of course you know AlbanyPoets, who for years have been bringing you poetry programming such as Poets Speak Loud!, the Nitty Gritty Slam, &, of course, Albany WordFest (next one coming up in April). They/It has been a singular force in the Capital District area bringing together poetically & socially diverse poets that reflect the grand diversity of the region. They do all this based on the contributions of poetry lovers & supporters who come to their program.

This program was a fund-raiser to both help the Nitty Gritty Slam Team to get to the Slam Nationals this year in Oakland, CA & to support their on-going programming. As to be expected the performers were as diverse as the world of poetry can be.

The first set included poets L-Majesty, Ezekial, Adam Tedesco, Avery & Shannon Shoemaker.

Sally Rhoades & I performed a shortened version (edited for time, not content) of our duet "Howl, a Poet Dances" in which I read Allen Ginsberg's masterpiece "Howl" while Sally improvises dance moves.

We were followed by AlbanyPoets executives Thom Francis (el presidente) & Mary Panza (Vice-President), then the 2013 Nitty Gritty Slam Team, Elliptical, K.P., Algorhythm, Daniella Watson, & Poetyc Visionz.

The final set included Bless, Mojavi & Jamal St. John.

There was also a silent auction & sales of poetry CDs & of the new journal Up the River. As the saying goes, a good time was had by all.