Brass Tacks: Poetry & Spoken Word, August 7

Bar flies at The Low Beat

Otherwise known as getting down to the low beat. Thom Francis, el presidente of AlbanyPoets was is host for a most eclectic mix of poets, in styles, age, sobriety, appropriateness, physical appeal, etc., etc.

The first of the new voices, Emily Litwin, read 2 poems about an ex-boyfriend (emphasis clearly on the “ex-“), the first titled “Melonballer” summed up in the last line “you were just a tool,” then another attack titled “Field Corn.” Luciano Ferarra must be a musician because he said he’d been on this stage before but never to read his poetry, did 4 poems, “Overreaching Reactor” in sort of half hip-hop rhymes, others playing off music of the words, another from a series, like pressured writing, sometimes rhymed, bouncing from image to sound to image.

I had more mercy on the audience, just read one poem, “A Traney’s Story.” Julie Lomoe took the opposite tack (not brass) with a long, rambling intro, then read parts 1 & 2 of a prose memoir/journal entry “Rocky Mountain High” about buying pot cookies in Leadville, CO. Caroline Bardwell brought back rhymes with another ex- poem “Liar,” then one titled “Indecision” about her worries about the future with her new-found freedom.

Sarah Fountain said she had never read her poems out in public before tonight but did a fine job with 2 thoughtful poems, “Drivers” about bus riders (like her) versus people in cars with the running refrain “clang, clang…” then “The Past” pondering what people mean when they suggest “just let it go.” Algorhythm started with a positive, intense love story for his wife, then a short work-in-progress, & ended a piece on horror drug memories, mostly from memory.

Algorhythm can't believe he took his shirt off!

Joshua RA Dundas has already established a reputation for taking his shirt off at readings & did it again tonight for his 2nd poem, but first read a poem from his “light side” then one from his dark side called Sin Byron, reading from his book which he hypes as a life-changer. Yusuf followed, he more of a musician than a poet, read 2 parts of a piece wondering if there is a purpose anymore. Amanda was also a nervous, first-time reader like her friend Sarah, but gave a unique performance singing from a journal-like piece titled “Just Some Thoughts” talking about herself, her hesitation, her hiding inside.

It was mostly fine up to this point, then Vincente Maurice took the stage thinking it was a Tuesday comedy night, with some purposefully outrageous ramblings that make people laugh more from nervousness than from any humor, & I left. Besides, I’d finished my beer.

So you too can get down to Brass Tacks: poetry, spoken word, each 1st & 3rd Tuesday of the month at The Low Beat, 335 Central Ave., Albany, NY — but not so-called comedy, that’s the other Tuesdays, please!