Salon Salvage, May 30

Matthew Klane is one of the co-hosts, along with Amie Zimmerman & Hajar Hussaini  who make this reading series happen every month; he announced that this was the 44th event in 46 months — an impressive run. Matthew & Amie shared the introduction for this night’s reading.

There were 4 readers this night; the first was Kate Colby who read from her new book, Paradoxx (Essay Press, 2025) a collection of essays & memoir poems, in 100 sections, all in the 1st person, notes during the pandemic. She teaches at Brown & said this was her 1st time in Troy, NY. She began with a piece about her father & a cold wood stove, another piece was a memoir of high school on “Slow Dancing to Heaven,” another was a dream of sex (or, was it really happening). She ended with a new poem, “White Noise White Smell” either the title or the 1st line. 

Darcie Dennigan read new work from the manuscript of “Commander,” again all in the 1st person, what could be a novel, funny, sexual, playing with gender roles, the Commander a character, & references to Russian writers. One section was a Marxist take on pregnancy, read with a friend joining her to read the other voice.

Sylvia Jones also said this was her 1st time in Troy (she lives in Baltimore, MD), she read from the actual page proofs of of her new collection of poems Dope Calisthenics, due out in October from Relegation Books. Since the pieces are all short, she was able to read a bunch of them, often based on statements from others, famous or otherwise, random thoughts, long titles to very short poems, often the title giving some context to what seemed like notebook jottings. But easily relatable topics & situations, including politics & government.

The final performer was Tia Brown with a full-fledged multi-media act including projected photos, some even from TV news casts, an amped ukulele on loop, & a guitar with split-screen videos. Some of the photos, documenting events with images from a plane, or a highway, became nearly abstract images. One series included TV interviews & videos of the streets of Buffalo during a snowstorm.

Catch this series on the last Saturday of the month at Upstairs Arts Collective, 403 Fulton St., Troy, NY at 7:00PM, donations (& purchases of the authors' books) gratefully accepted. Authors & artists from hither & yon. 

Book Launch & Signing - An Armsfull of Birds, May 15

Some of you reading this have heard me say (perhaps more than once), “If your family & friends don’t go to your readings, who will?” The truth of that was evident by the audience of this reading by author Cara Benson of An Armsfull of Birds: A Personal Field Guide to Love, Loss, and Commitment (Health Communications, Inc., 2026) at the venerable Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza — standing room only. I first encountered Cara as a performance poet in 2004 & saw her many times since at venues locally & regionally. She has given many writing workshops in the area & many of the folks at this event that I talked to had met her at workshops or at peer writing groups.

This day was the official publication date of An Armsful of Birds & the bookstore had not yet received a shipment, nor had I received my pre-ordered copy; Cara had a stack of her author’s copies which some in the audience had. I would have to wait.

She was joined by her friend, author Amy Halloran, as a moderator/interviewer. Care began with reading from Chapter 1, “American Goldfinches (Jon and I meet);” each chapter is titled with the name of a bird as if it were a guide for birders,. She said that the book started as an essay, from thoughts she had walking in the woods after Jon’s death. 

When asked “how was the process of writing the book different from the process of healing?” she replied that the writing brought him to life again. The importance to her of walking in the woods for her writing process was emphasized again in her reading of Chapter 21, “Winter Wren (The dream that is not a dream)” which she characterized as “a long prose poem.”

I have since received my copy of An Armsful of Birds & hope that you seek it out. It is the work of a poet, descriptive, lyrical & introspective. As Cara said at the reading, “We need to take care of each other.” 

Marathon Reading of Legs by William Kennedy, November 5

For the third year, a marathon reading of one of the novels from Kennedy’s Albany cycle at Albany Distilling on Livingston Ave., in Albany, NY, sponsored by the NYS Writers Institute. 

I was signed up for 3:00 but got well before to sit & listen. They were behind schedule, as always happens with readings like this. I had missed the beginning, had my copy of Legs, saw that they were somewhere in the section titled “Jack, Out of Doors.” My friend Roger Green from the Book Talk at the Albany Public Library was reading.

 

The lighting in the cavernous room was bad but I resisted using my flash until later in the day. I would sit & listen, sometimes just find where we were in my copy, take a photo. In the course of the next 3 to 4 hours I heard about 21 local folk read.

I was pleased to read 2 sections, a pretty hot & steamy in section “Playing the Jack.” After me, Wanda Fisher, who has hosted a radio program for years year read a section with multiple “fucks,” something she doesn’t get to say ever on the radio.

It was late afternoon, Happy Hour. My back & ass were sore from the metal folding chair, so I went up to the bar for a drink. I got a bourbon & soda, Ironweed, the title of the book we read in another marathon 2 years ago. Talked with lots of folks I knew, some had just read, others waiting to go on later. 

Bill Kennedy arrived with his entourage & was greeted heartily by a roomful of fans, as well he should be. He read later, towards the end. It was time for me to go, hoping to return later for the finale but didn’t make it. I had taken photos of those I had heard read, not always getting the name correct. I have the printout of the signup sheet but there are always substitutions & no-shows so I can’t entirely match up my shots with the list, or my notes for that matter. Lots of others have shared their photos on Facebook so there certainly is an archive.

I finished reading the rest of Legs that weekend, enjoying the play of language & the vitality of the characters in Kennedy’s inventive prose. Eventually I will post what I have on my Flickr site. One can find the shots from the marathon reading of Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game in November 2024 here.

Read for Your Rights: Banned Books Readout, October 7

This is an event held each year, unfortunately because many books continue to be banned Nationwide. The flyer for the event proclaimed "Censorship is so 1984." It was held at the Albany Public Library Washington Ave. Branch, presented in partnership NYCLU (Capital Region Office), League of Women Voters of Albany County, Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood, & Albany Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Opening remarks were by Andrea Nicolay (APL), Sharon Cates-Williams (Delta Sigma Theta Sorority), & Joanna Palladino (NYCLU) who served as the host & MC. 

Joanna Palladino

According to the website of the American Library Association, there were "... attempts to remove 2,452 unique titles in 2024." See below for more from the ALA.

At the APL this night there were 11 folks from the community who read brief excepts from 11 books. The readers & the books that they read from were;

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 

read by Q. Sales.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood 

read by Laura Graver

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins 

read by Gary Hoffmann

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn 

read by Josephine Tracy

Monet Thompson-Young

Crank by Ellen Hopkins 

read by Monet Thompson-Young

Pink is for Boys by Robb Pearlman

read by Kathleen Carey

Howl by Allen Ginsberg

read by Dan Wilcox

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

read by Dona Bulluck

Bob Resnick

Me, and Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

read by Bob Resnick

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

read by Dr. Jacquline Kane

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Read by Gary Maggio

This is an excerpt from the website of the American Library Association:

“The 2024 data reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) shows that the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries. Parents only accounted for 16% of demands to censor books, while 5% of challenges were brought by individual library users. The 120 titles most frequently targeted for censorship during 2024 are all identified on partisan book rating sites which provide tools for activists to demand the censorship of library books.

The most common justifications for censorship provided by complainants were false claims of illegal obscenity for minors; inclusion of LGBTQIA+ characters or themes; and covering topics of race, racism, equity, and social justice.

Since 2021, ALA has tracked a sharp spike in censorship attempts in libraries. In 2024, ALA recorded the third highest number of book challenges since tracking began in 1990: ALA documented 821 attempts to censor library books and other materials in 2024 across all library types, a decrease from 2023, when a record high 1,247 attempts were reported. ALA recorded attempts to remove 2,452 unique titles in 2024, which significantly exceeds the average of 273 unique titles that were challenged annually during 2001–2020.”

Book Launch:Burning the Ghost Light, September 21

What could be better? Poetry on a Sunday afternoon, at a brewery, & hanging out with other poetry friends: a redhead (Carolee), a blond (Jill), & Avery (the mushroom man) — a most pleasant afternoon. 

The book launch was for poet Caitlin Conlon’s book Burning the Ghost Light (Central Avenue Poetry, 2025) with a reading & reception at Warbler’s Brewery in Delmar, NY. The place was filled with the author’s friends & family, as well as surprised bar customers, & a nice spread of snacks to soak up the beer. I had seen Caitlin read at open mics in Albany sometime ago, enjoyed what I heard, & was curious about her book.

The book is structured as a play in 4 acts, with an intermission. Each of the acts is focused on a specific character, the Mother, the Father, the Lover, & the Self. And yet, it is a very personal series of poems.

Caitlin described Act II as the most “true” with poems written about her father after he died, while Act IV she described as “the most personal.” However, in her reading selections, she got the most emotional in reading “The Lover’s Finale” in Act III. In the poem “The Moveable Future” in Act IV there is the bittersweet line, “All you can do with a memory/ is remember it.”

Caitlin has put together a impressive book tour taking her out to Ohio & Michigan, but if you miss her on the road you can order her book online, or perhaps get one from her if you catch her at a local open mic. As my button says, “Support Your Local Poet!”

Susan Oringel — Carnevale Book Launch, March 17

This reading & book-signing was held at the Unity Church in Albany on King St. The Senior Minister is the Rev. Brigid Beckman  There was diverse audience in the Sanctuary of friends, fellow members of the congregation, & poets. Sue is well-known in the poetry community, & has a previous chapbook of poems, My Coney Island from Finishing Line Press (2019).

Sue read a hefty selection of about 30 poems from her new book, Carnevale (David Robert Books), beginning, appropriately enough given the setting, with what sounded like a prayer, “Poor Everybody.” Then on thru the book.

There were memoir poems of her parents & Coney Island & food (“Chopped Chicken Livers,” “Not Just Any Old Food,” “My Father’s Workshop,” “Sundowning,” “Mom & Dad Barbecue in Heaven,” etc.). 

The section titled “Carnevale” contains love poems, grieving poems for her late partner Don, memories of good times & later. At one point she paused the poems to acknowledge the support the community of Unity Church provided her during her grief.

The final section of the book, “Beyond Us, Something,” is what might be called “spiritual reflections,” with titles like “Middle-Aged in Spring,” “Jim’s Theology of Ice Cream” (for a former pastor of Unity Church), & others, ending coming full circle with the poem titled “My Coney Island.”

The poems with their stories, little & big, kept the audience in rapt attention, a pleasant way to spend some time on a Sunday “after church.”

Carnevale is available from the publisher’s website or from the poet directly at her readings, & I’m sure your local Independent bookstore can order it for you. 

Support Your Local Poet.

 

Buddhist Ruminations by Diane di Prima

I first encountered a poem by Diane di Prima (along with the beat-chic sexy photo of her at a poetry reading sitting on top of a piano) in th quintessential Beat text edited by Elias Wilentz, photographs by Fred McDarrah, The Beat Scene (Corinth Books, 1960) sometime in the mid-1960s. It has been in my library wherever I’ve moved in my life. Over the years I’ve accumulated many of her books, including her great pornographic novel, Memoirs of a Beatnik (Traveller’s Companion/Olympia Press, 1969), & her stunning series Revolutionary Letters (Last Gasp of San Franciso, 2007 & City Lights, 1971 - 1980), as well as a couple of her Selected Poems.

In October, 2010 I saw her read at the Charles Olson Centennial Celebration & was able to get my own photos of her (not sitting on a piano). 

Recently Shivastan Publishing issued a beautiful hard-bound edition printed on hand-made paper in India of a bouquet of di Prima’s Buddhist themed poems, Buddhist Ruminations. The book contains 60+ pages, 20 poems, an introduction by poet Anne Waldman, & many old woodcuts of Buddhas, & other illustrations. It even smells great.

I love di Prima’s Revolutionary Letters, which you can find at City Lights Books. Jason Crane has been posting his reading of the Letters at his podcast A Brief Chat.  I would much prefer to hear her read her poems, but I have not found more than a handful of recordings of di Prima herself reading the Letters which is very disappointing (she read, among other works, some of the Letters at the Olson Celebration noted above), but you can buy the book (or get it from your local library) & read them yourself. 

For Shivastan Publishing chapbooks & broadsides visit the website or contact Shiv Mirabito at woodstock108@hotmail.com. You can also find it by visiting the Shivastan Bookshop & Art Gallery, 6 SGT Richard Quinn Dr./Hillcrest Ave., Woodstock, NY — the orange cabin in back.

Sand Lake Center for the Arts Authors Series, January 12

“It was a dark & stormy night…” is perhaps not the best way to start a story, but this description of the night it was indeed accurate, but inside the Sand Lake Center for the Arts (SLCA) it was warm & cozy. This was the inaugural Authors Series of readings, writers talk, & book signings here at the SCCA in Averill Park, NY. Tonight’s kick-off of the series featured author Paul Grondahl who was interviewed by Chet Opalka. Paul is the Director of the New York State Writers Institute, was a long-time reporter for the Albany Times Union, & still contributes regular columns to the TU, & biographer of Mayor Erastus Corning, of Theodore Roosevelt, among other books. Chet Oplaka is a local businessman, community leader & philanthropist, founder of the Opalka Gallery at the Russell Sage College Campus in Albany, & known for wearing a button that says “Collaborate, Collaborate.”

Paul began by talking about his arrival at the University at Albany in 1981 as an English major, immediately meeting William Kennedy (who was here tonight in the front row, as he is at most the the Writers Institute events). Paul said that he never took a journalism course, but felt that his job as a reporter at the TU gave him a privilege & a sacred trust to be invited into the homes of community people for them to share their stories of their tragedies, their struggles.

The ensuing conversation included his work on the Corning biography, & how he learned so much about the history of Albany by reading through the newspaper’s files of clippings on the Mayor & on the Democratic Party boss Dan O’Connell. Among the mentors & elders that Paul mentioned were, of course, Writers Institute founder William Kennedy, legendary newspaper editor Harry Rosenfeld, & journalists Andy Rooney & Walter Conkrite. 

Back on October 21, at the Opalka Gallery in Albany, there was a celebration of 20 years of the Gallery honoring Chet & his wife Karen & for their ongoing support of the collaborative arts community. The program included pop-up performances by Albany Pro Musica, the REP, the Black Theatre Troupe, Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, & the NYS Writers Institute, who had commissioned me to write & perform a poem on the theme of “Collaboration” for the event.

The SLCA Authors Series, which has a schedule of literary events in many genres, continues through November 9. For a full list of the events, including theater & musical productions visit their website at https://slca-ctp.org

Albany Book Festival, September 17

Phew! 21 literary events spread out from 10:30AM through 4:40PM — panel discussions, conversations with authors, featured authors, “open mics,” even a “tribute,” including a local author marketplace & exhibitors filling 2 locations, even children’s literary activities spread throughout the Campus Center complex of the University at Albany Uptown Campus. How much can an aging, mortal bibliophile local poet attend? As much as I could, including schmoozing & wandering through the great hall of exhibitors, & generally hanging out.

This was the 5th annual event, & I’d missed a few, so I’d made a commitment to myself to be there throughout the day. Like I said, “Phew!”

I started off the morning with “Conversation with Robert Pinsky & Robert Boyers,” around Pinksy’s new book Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet, a memoir of growing up in Long Branch New Jersey, a work which he described as about the anti-intellectualism of American culture. As a conversation it leapt & weaved between a variety of topics & themes. At one point Pinsky described improvisation as America’s great gift to the art world, starting with the improvisation inherent in jazz music, inspiring improvisation in writing & the visual arts. Touching on culture in general he said that culture is appropriation, that culture, citing James Baldwin, is every child’s birthright.

Asked about his teaching poetry, he said that 1 thing he asks students to do is to make their own anthology of poems they have liked, not to be graded, but to be used for discussions about poetry. He also suggests to his students (& others, like us) to look up literary journals for the year of your birth to see who the poets were that were being published then.

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I skipped the next round of panels to wander the vast Campus Center Ballroom filled with tables of authors & their books & the browsing public, & I couldn’t walk but 10 feet before talking to someone, either book sellers, or other browsers — it was like “Walmart on the weekend.” I came away with 4 books from writer friends, Across the River Jordan: The Journey to Bring My Son Home, a memoir by Holly Planells McKenna; Murder in the Gilded City, novel by Angela Kaufman; One Branch, Haiku by Stuart Bartow; & a lovingly hand-stitched Edge, eco-poems by Barbara Ungar.

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I spent the rest of afternoon interlude before the final panel at — surprise! — “Open Mic Readings,” both held at The Orb Stage on the ground level of the Campus Center.

Alex

First it was the Albany Student Open Mic Reading, featuring students from ARCH the undergrad online literary journal & from the Young Writer’s Project program. The co-hosts were Sarah Rucker & Eric Turner. I hung out with Jil Hanifan, much like we used to hang out at the QE2 when she was a student here herself, now Jil is a faculty advisor to these young writers. There were 15 readers, a variety of topics, but, of course, a number of love/relationship poems, descriptive pieces, even a sestina. Troy read a stunning introspective prose piece about being in the Army, built around a psychiatric interview. Juan’s piece “I Used to Believe” was a rap rant complete with stylized Slam gestures, & Alex’s tender piece “The Letter I Never Sent to my Mom” I remember hearing at a recent open mic in the community.

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Christy O’Callaghan-Leue, editor of Barzakh Magazine, introduced the Capital Region Poetry Workshop group that began with support of the NYS Writers Institute. Each of the readers introduced the next reader, beginning with Elizabeth Grisau who said she likes rhyme & meter, even included a Sestina in the poems she read, &, among others, a poem with a great title “A Guide to Parisian Elevators.

Caroline Grondahl began with a poem like a letter, & one on a topic familiar to lots of students, “A Poem About Credit Card Debt,” & a cluster of others. One of Melissa Hurt’s poems, “Dissonance in New York” was in the voice of a woman in a Hopper painting.

Jonathan Lloyd was the most animated performer of the lot, with a fairy tale of dragons, & the humor of “The Truth About My Underwear” & “The Man in the Saliva Suit.” Marilyn Paarlberg began with a sound poem composed of funny words, a couple poems on the sacred in the ordinary, & poems about things owned by her grandmother & by her mother.

Unlike others in this group, Ellen White Rook has been at the occasional open mic in the area; she also had a poem/letter, & a poem on Demeter, titled “After Harvest” & I was worried when she read her poem titled “Musica Humana” (the sounds of the human body), but it was a tender piece about her husband snoring — he was in the audience & seemed to take it well. 

Sue Whitaker’s poem “Dying in Pet Smart” was about going to the pet store with her mother before she died, also some descriptive nature poems, such as “Yoga Light” about a river & how things change (do I sense the influence of Mary Oliver among a number of these poets?). Gary Maggio, who was the original creator of this group, read just one poem, “Time Out” on the dead.

The group meets twice monthly & is now managed by Marilyn Paarlbert & Ellen White Rook.

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The final event of the night was the Hunter S. Thompson Tribute & it was quite a show. The panel consisted of Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University, the Presidential Historian at CNN, &, as the literary executor of the Hunter S. Thompson estate, editor of two books of HST’s letters; William Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist & the founder & executive director of the NYS Writers Institute, Kennedy’s friendship with HST began in the 1950s when Kennedy was running a new English-language newspaper in Puerto Rico & HST applied for a job there (he didn’t get it); & Garry Trudeau, the creator of the comic strip Doonesbury, & one of his best-loved characters is “Uncle Duke,” an unauthorized caricature of Gonzo journalist HST. It was a spirited exchange among 3 literate raconteurs, moderated by Mark Koplik, NYSWI Assistant Director.

The conversation was full of anecdotes, some quite outrageous, particularly about what HST would've like to do to Garry Trudeau, for example HST once sent sent thru the mail a package containing used toilet paper to Trudeau, because of the cartoon character "Uncle Duke." Trudeau said that he first encountered HST’s work when he read HST's book on the Hells Angels for a college class, didn’t like it, but he became a huge fan later on, & later HST told an interviewer he had “made peace” with “Uncle Duke.

Douglas Brinkley commented on how well read HST was, on the popularity of his work now, & Brinkley compared the “acerbic wit” in HST’s work to the demeanor one sees frequently on social media today.

William Kennedy described HST as soft spoken in person, & very smart, & talked of his long friendship with him. There is an hysterical account by Kennedy, "A Box of Books: An Exchange, on Matters Literary and Postal, with Hunter S. Thompson" in Bootlegger of the Soul: The Literary Legacy of William Kennedy, edited by Suzanne Lance & Paul Grondahl (State University of New York Press, 2018). As part of the event they showed a brief clip of a conversation between HST & Kennedy from June 13, 2018, which one can find on YouTube. Kennedy said the whole Gonzo approach to writing & life was something new in the world. 

Someone pointed out that this was the first time these 3 writers were on the same stage together.

& I guess this is what this annual event has become, not just a gathering of community & academic poets & writers, but the celebration of everyone who loves literature, books or just a good tale. See you there next year.