Poems -- & musings on the Albany (NY) poetry scene.
"It's not the Truth, but it's pretty darn close."
November 24, 2014
Yes! Reading Series, November 22
This series, curated by poets James Belflower & Matthew Klane, is held at the Albany Center Gallery, 39 Columbia St., Albany, NY & they characteristically mix the reading of poetry with other art forms. Tonight’s readers Michael Ruby & Marthe Reed was joined by dancer (& poet) Sally Rhoades. In addition the gallery was filled with the sculpture of Mary Pat Wagner adding a further aesthetic dimension to the evening’s performance.
James Belflower introduced Michael Ruby first & he read from his American Songbook (Ugly Duckling Press, 2013). Although he has nicely melodic reading voice, he barely moved except to turn the pages & look up. The poems used the words & phrases from pop songs that he then fills in with his words. It worked best with songs that I knew, like the Door’s “People Are Strange,” & where I was not familiar with the song’s lyrics it was hard, on only 1 hearing, to know where the poems were going. Some of the other songs he used were “Cigarettes & Coffee,” “You Know I Know,” & “Little Girl Blues,” among others.
He remained in his spot as James introduced Marthe Reed, then Michael & Marthe did a collaborative reading of a piece from her new book Nights Reading Lavender Ink, 2014), the poem having something to do with a talking knot. The rest of the reading she did solo, explaining that the book is based on The 1000 & One Nights translated by Richard Burton, the poems using stories, Burton’s commentary & her own analysis, many dealing with gender issues. Again, I was left wondering how the poems were put together, though I frequently got carried along by the music of the language. The poem “The Room” contained a line that made it into my notes, “narrative dancing in its own embrace.” There were also frequent quotes from poet/translator/scholar Rosemarie Waldrop.
Co-host Matthew Klane read short tribute poems to Michael Ruby & Marthe Reed in his signature cut-up method, then went on to introduce Sally Rhoades. She entered the darkened room with a candle that she placed on a small table containing a notebook & iPhone, then danced as she recited a poem “My Mother was a Mohawk…” about exploring her native ancestry traced back through both her mother & father’s familes, who had suppressed these roots when she was young. Her control of her memorized words & of her expressive movement was impressive. She then sat on a chair next to the small table & read 3 poems also referencing her native roots, “I Can’t Hear You,” “The Sky is My Witness” (about her father) & “A Silence.”
Yes! Reading Series can be found on FaceBook, as can the Albany Center Gallery — a community-based and community supported non-profit art space dedicated to exhibiting skillful contemporary art of the Mohawk Hudson region.
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