Readings like a String of Beads, October 10 - 13

Among the 17 reasons I love living here is the number, variety, diversity of poetry events within a short distance of my house. Last weekend was great example.

Thursday, October 10

Actually, “the weekend” began Thursday evening with a Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Africana Studies Department at UAbany with a lecture/reading co-sponsored by the NYS Writers Institute by the poet, “activist, mother, professor, firebrand, healer & sage” Nikki Giovanni. She was presented to the standing-room-only audience in the huge Campus Center Ballroom by the eloquent Dr. Leonard Slade.

Nikki Giovanni’s remarks dealt with her life & relationships, with learning, with race, I expect drawn from her latest book, A Good Cry: What We Learn from Tears and Laughter, a wide-ranging memoir about aging, about violence in her life & that of her parents, & people who have helped her & gave her life meaning, including her students. I got lost in the relaxed flow of her story-telling, & only wrote down one quote, about birth: “what goes in is a lot smaller than what comes out.”

She ended with some poems, “I Married My Mother,” “I Heard Maybelle,” & a poem beginning “Like a fading piece of cloth…” She had the audience of young & old, those scribbling notes for class, those listening & smiling, enraptured.

Friday, October 11

Jan Marin Tramontano had lived in Albany up to a few years ago when she & her husband moved to Florida. She attended open mics, was active with the Hudson Valley Writers Guild, & peer groups, while she worked as an editor, published 3 poetry chapbooks, & wrote novels. Her first novel was Standing on the Corner of Lost and Found (2011). Her latest novel is What Love Becomes (Adelaide Books, 2019) & this day she did a reading & book-signing at Albany’s independent bookstore, The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza.

I had heard Jan read from What Love Becomes back in May when the book first came out, & subsequently read it, but was glad to be at The Book House to see her again. She read the first chapter, as she had back in May, but I was glad to hear it again too as I hadn’t returned to it once I put the book down. One of the considerate things about the book is the short chapters — 90, spread out in 3 major sections over 400+ pages. It’s a love story, of sorts, about 2 couples, plus. Good writing, like good music, is always a pleasure to hear again, & again.

Saturday, October 12

 Some months ago folks from the Lansingburgh Historical Society asked Troy poet, artist & educator Nancy Klepsch for help in organizing an event to celebrate the 200th birthday of Herman Melville. She asked me to collaborate on the project & we came up with a call for entries & contest titled “Dear Herman.” We asked writers to submit short works on themes relating or responding to Melville’s writing & themes. We received a variety of work from a number of mostly local writers that were sent to me, then I passed them on to Nancy without the authors’ names for her to select the “winners.” We received a grant from the Hudson Valley Writers Guild & were able to award prize money to 4 writers. The winners were Tom Corrado, Susan Carroll Jewell, Mark W. O’Brien, & Dianne Sefcik.

On this date we gathered at the Melville House, now the home of the Lansingburgh Historical Society, for a reading by not only the winning 4 but also by other contestants who could make it. Each read their submitted work from the porch of the House to the audience seated on the lawn. The other readers were Thomas Bonville, Kathy Shongar, Ellen Rook, & the contest judge Nancy Klepsch.




 Sunday, October 13

 

The final bead on this string of readings was a reading & book-signing once again at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza by Michele Battiste & Barbara Ungar. Michele’s new book is Waiting For The Wreck To Burn, winner of the 2018 Louise Bogan Award by Trio House Press. She grew up in this area & sharpened her nails at area open mics before moving on to elsewhere & publishing stunning poetry. She read exclusively from Waiting For The Wreck To Burn, explaining it is “a Book of Sorrows,” about loss of many kinds, centered around the fictional town of Ruination, a river & the town on the over side of the river.  A painful & moving book of poems, but not without touches of humor. (One caveat, the notes at the back of the book, which are helpful, have the incorrect page numbers.)

Barbara Ungar also has a new book Save Our Ships, but not quite out yet, from which she gave us a taste, but first read a few poems from Immortal Medusa (The Word Works, 2015). She described Save Our Ships (Ashland Poetry Press) as “an alphabet book” & the first piece she read was the letter V, based on a translation of a medieval Latin text, & had Sylvia Barnard read the Latin for her. The book will be out very soon, perhaps by the time some of you are reading this.

These events all happened in a radius of about 10 miles from my house, with most of them taking place about 3 miles away. What a rich & marvelous area to live in with so many poets so near.

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