The Holy Local, September 29

With the Social Justice Center being closed during the pandemic then subsequently due to structural repairs, I’ve been thinking about starting another spoken/written word open mic mainly to get us back together in the same room, an IPR if you will (i.e., In Person Reading). Quite by chance, at a Friends of the Albany Public Library reading by Micki Conn, I met Mokka, a young woman who said that she has an art gallery in her home on Myrtle Ave., around the corner from Albany Medical Center. I visited the gallery a few days later, met her husband Ebu, & found the space to be the kind of small, community setting I had been thinking of, filled with art, some of it wearable, & filled with messages of peace, social justice & community. The High Ethic Stalwarts Gallery is on 345 Myrtle Ave., Albany, NY, just a few houses off New Scotland Ave.

“The Holy Local” is a phrase taken from Vincent Ferrini (1913 - 2007) one of the great poets of Gloucester, MA, so it was only appropriate for me to invoke him as this inaugural evening’s Muse by reading his poem “The Gold,” short enough to quote in its entirety:

The Gold 

The suddenness flowers have

startle the air

with their fire and ether

as we do with what is ours

because we are

the gardeners of each other.

First up on the open mic list was a regular at the Third Thursday Poetry Night, as well as other literary events in the area, Joe Krausman, with a couple of poems of sex & humor, “Two-Part Invention,” & “Sunnyside Egg.” I’m always pleased when a new face/new voice shows up at open mics & here we were for the first time here & the new face/new voice of Tamara Grey with 2 descriptive pieces, one written this Summer, another about the wind.

Sylvia Barnard

The next 3 poets are, like Joe, regulars at the Third Thursday readings as we await the re-opening of the Social Justice Center. Sylvia Barnard’s 2 poems were for a friend who had died, “Green Man” invoking the mythical British figure, then another about teaching at Doane Stuart School & thinking of her friend. Sally Rhoades said her poem that she read about the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland reflects on being often wrong, sometimes right, then on to a poem about dancers (“I dance…”) “We Are the Village.” Anthony Bernini, said he was glad to be back in person, philosophized about the meaning of “Old Fences,” then a piece entitled “Social Studies Note.”

Anthony Bernini

Joan Geist has recently relocated to the city streets of Albany, making it easier for her to get to open mics as they open up to IPRs, she hadn’t planned to read but ended up reading OPP (other people’s poetry), a poem about apartheid, & another titled “I Am Music” by that prolific poet Anonymous.

I finished out the night with a poem about open mics that I wrote when the Third Thursday Poetry Night was at Changing Spaces Gallery on Hudson Ave., “One Poem.”

The Holy Local will be back each last Wednesday (except for November this year), 7:30 signup/8:00 start, at the High Ethic Stalwarts Gallery, 345 Myrtle Ave., Albany, NY. Keep writing.