Yes! a Reading, April 25

The final event of this series at the Albany Center Galleries was the usual eclectic mix — music, flash fiction, poetry (& some wine too, of course), with the introductions tonight done by Matthew Klane.

I was pleased to see/hear former members of a favorite local band of the past “Knotworking” performing with Nick Matulis as “Swamp Baby” — Mike Hotter on guitar, Megan Prokorym on violin, Frank Moscowitiz keyboards, with Matulis doing vocals & guitar. It was dreamy, dark, breathless string rock, the lyrics unfortunately indecipherable in the mix, but the sound was great.

Joshua Keller is a student at the University at Albany & read a series of short fiction pieces, beginning with flash/micro pieces “Nursing Home” about residents seeing Jesus in the static of an over-dubbed VHS tape, a piece about childhood Care-Bears “Mobile,” & the terrifying “Wall Ball.” His last piece was a draft about being at Occupy Wall Street, but mocking his characters.

Jared Schickling said he was reading from his new manuscript “Above the Shale” about fracking. His poems mixed the language of physics & place. He introduced his piece “Transforming Power” with an extended quote from Latin but not the translation, again mixing the language of life, of parenting, with technology. His last piece was introduced with a discussion of the surviving verbs from the Pleistocene era, like his other pieces in multi-parts, but chilled by “redacted” repeated throughout. Political, but the message overwhelmed by the experimental.

I hope this series continues in the Fall with the new semester; thanks to Matthew Klane & James Belflower for this past year’s cluster of poets & artists. There is always an intriguing mix of words, sounds & images, & having it at the Albany Center Galleries adds another dimension even if the art is not yet hung. They have a FaceBook presence & check the calendar at AlbanyPoets.com. Or give me a call.