Celebrate the LAST day of January with some incredible music and poems at Branded Saloon in Brooklyn.
Sunday, January 31st from 1-4pm, head to 603 Vanderbilt Avenue for some delicious brunch.
Head toward the back, grab a seat and listen to the incredible talents of:
& I’ll read a few poems too.
$15 for great food and to support this awesome venue that supports local talented talent.
dear patti,
I fell in love with you when I read your words about Robert [Mapplethorpe] and I grew jealous of your photo shoots and memories. And then I read your poems. And listened to the moan of your voice, rocking out into microphones. When I moved back to New York, I searched for you. Knew that we’d collide, but wondered when. Then, one Thursday or Tuesday, you read from a book at St Marks bookshop and I went there with some poet friends. Patti, I thought this would be our moment of meeting. This would be the time our eyes would meet and you’d notice the poet in me and the rebel and even the sad and you’d grab me. Patti, you’d grab me with your skinny arms and bring me into your chest. You’d kiss me. Not like first-base-French-style, but just like from one poet to another. And you’d rub your years into my skin and we’d run away together. Patti…..this did not happen. Because when my friends and I got to the bookshop, we could barely fit in. The place was Times Square crowded. I nudged myself behind some bookshelves and for an hour, I listened to you read, with the view of just your nose, between the stacks of books. Just your nose, Patti.
Tonight, I get to celebrate you without you (because you are in France or the Netherlands or somewhere too far to make it here.) But just know that because of your magic, many poets and writers will gather to read you. And sing you.
Where? you (may) ask.
Cornelia Street Cafe at 29 Cornelia Street in the West Village/ NYC
And what time? you (may) wonder.
6pm. And though it’s $8 to enter, that does include a drink.
So, who’s reading my words? you (may) inquire.
Madeline Artenberg, Meagan Brothers, Megan DiBello, Daniel Dissinger, Gordon Gilbert, Aimee Herman, Selina Josephs, Gabriel Levicky, Lulu Lolo, Jess Martinez & Zita Zenda
Summer is approaching……get out your paper and ink and sign up for Poetry Teachers NYC summer writing program at Shetler Studios in NYC!!!!
SUMMER WRITING DATES:
Week 1:
July 5th: 9:30AM-12:30PM
July 6th: 9:30AM-2:30PM
July 9th: 9:30AM-5:30PM
Week 2:
July 12th: 9:30PM-2:30PM
July 13th: 9:30AM-2:30PM
July 16th: 9:30AM-5:30PM
Week 3:
July 19th: 9:30PM-2:30PM
July 20th: 9:30AM-2:30PM
July 23rd: 9:30AM-5:30PM
Week 4:
Performance at Governers Island Poetry Fesival July 26th & July 27th (ALL DAY)
July 30th: 9:30PM-5:30PM
August 2nd: Closing Reading/ Party 6PM-12AM
SUMMER WRITING MISSION:
Immerse yourself for the month of July in New York’s historic poetry scene, drawing on the rich lineage of the the city’s creative community. Cultivate your craft under the guidance of professional New York poets and celebrated guest lecturers. Absorb the city’s signature entrepreneurial spirit and emerge equipped to publish, perform, and succeed in your own creative endeavors.
CURATE YOUR OWN READING
During the 4 weeks of the Summer program, students will learn what it takes to plan a Poetry or Multi-disciplinary event in New York. The venues we have chosen are The Sidewalk Cafe and The Cornelia Street Cafe. Both of these iconic venues are downtown staples to the performance community. Students will be tasked with choosing student readers, creating programs, finding a host, as well as marketing and promoting their events. Each event will need a title and a theme. Students will learn about managing logistical aspects such as time constraints, content, scripts, and pricing. They will also be able to figure in other creative aspects, such as music, visual art and dance.
STUDENT-LED PANELS
There will be 3 student-run panels, each with 4 presenters, held on Wednesdays, starting on July 16th. Each student will write their own paper in defense of a theme that the panel’s moderator will choose. After each student presents his or her paper (max time 15 minutes, including any tech needs), there will be a Q & A. The panels will each run for 2 hours total, from 6PM-8PM.
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS
Each week’s round table discussion will feature a new theme built around relevant topics such as publishing, entrepreneurship, life in New York, creative process, submissions, and New York City’s distinct history. Guest writers, publishers, and people in business will be visiting the table to offer ideas and encouragement and spark open discussion. This is a great opportunity for students to ask questions and to network with creative influencers. Guest Writers: Kristin Prevallet, Lisa Jarnot, Brenda Coultas, Advocate of Wordz, Joyce LeeAnn, Peter Rugh, Daniel Dissinger, Aimee Herman, and Megan DiBello along with other guests. Guest publishers will include Great Weather for Media, Fact-Simile, and Monkey Puzzle Press.
ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS
Throughout the 4 weeks, each student will have the opportunity to meet with each of our 3 teachers individually, outside of class. We do this so that each student has a chance to showcase and discuss his or her work and receive personalized feedback and advice. We also chat with students about their personal and artistic goals and help them plan the next steps in their creative lives.
WEEKLY WORKSHOPS
Workshops will be held on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. We will provide a comprehensive source book to accompany the workshop series, containing information about local resources, open mics, and events. Reading and writing exercises will be assigned. Students will write letters to one another regarding their work. The focus of these workshops is to cultivate a students’ distinct creative voices, both written and performative. Voice, stage presence, eye contact, and diction are all performance aspects that will be covered in these classes.
Tonight, watch how words can grow new limbs when poets, performance artists and activists come together to create an evening of creative exploration!
Poetry Teachers NYC presents an interdisciplinary event from a vocal, musical, creative, and performance art perspective. This event will showcase LANGUAGE moving through and from the body as different modes of communication.
With Performances By:
Daniel Dissinger
Aimee Herman
Megan DiBello
Eric Alter
Audrey Dimola
Joyce LeeAnn
LaVonne Natasha Caesar
Steve Dalachinsky
Kimmy Cunningham
Jatlin Gill Thompson-Thompson
Shawn Randall
Peter Rugh
Tonight. See over fifteen poets. Two artists create art right in front of you. Music. Projected language. Collaboration. Remix’d Poetics.
Poetry Teachers NYC is excited to host a night where language and art comes alive.
Where? Pomegranate Gallery 137 Green St. NYC
When? What Time? Saturday, 16 November, 2013/ 7pm FREE!!!
Who will be performing? Travis Cebula, Sara Suzor, Peter Rugh, Thomas Fucaloro, Aimee Herman, Sara Nolan, Sam Jablon, Daniel Dissinger, Megan DiBello, Moira Williams, Todd Anderson, Nichole Acosta , Jane LeCroy , Selina Josephs (artist), Nikhil Melnechuk, Angelo Daniel, Ngoma Hill, and Oded Halah.
I have moved quite a bit in my life. Pushed things into garbage bags and backpacks and makeshift suitcases. I have traveled across the country to find my place on pages and stages and classrooms. With each move, I always gravitated toward the local open mics. Here is where I always found my people.
In Connecticut, just outside of Hartford, I went to a Wednesday open mic full of mostly musicians, and one other poet who was drenched in romanticism and spirituality. We gathered every week, mainly the same faces and occasionally a few new, curious ones. Eventually, we started collaborating. I was accompanied by a bassist, harpist, electric guitar player and percussion. If we had met in any other way, we’d barely notice each other. But music and poetry sewed us into this small cafe each week.
In Colorado, in a mountainous town called Boulder, I found an open mic in walking distance to my studio apartment on Folsom Street. I met a tall, illuminating man from Long Island and two young poets who later became my first friends there. We poem’d so hard and fierce, that we later collaborated our languages onto a much bigger stage in a theater. This is where I fell in love with a human who got me; this is where I saw the power of stretching arms and stanzas into performance; this is when I knew there was no back-up plan. I could be nothing else but a poet. But a performance artist. But this slinger of words.
Upon moving back to Brooklyn to start my graduate degree several years ago, I found myself searching again. I tried out a few in Brooklyn, then traveled underground toward Manhattan. I started to notice similar faces. The thing about poets is we tend to be shy before the poems come out. Once we unzip, we are animals. I found my zoo of NYC poets early on and have been howling with them ever since.
That Long Island poet who I met in Boulder (who became my mentor), told me: Aimee, make sure you pay it forward. I am paving the way for you and you must do the same for as many others as you can.
So, I search out the ones who move me and make space for them. More than that, I tell them how they impact me, because oftentimes we forget to say out loud how much these words and gestures mean.
*
Almost a year ago, I was approached to be part of something that incorporated all of my favorite things: poets creating a space for other writers to create. Founded by Megan DiBello, Poetry Teachers NYC is a collective of poets and creative humans offering affordable, creative writing workshops around New York City. We also host an array of performance events and open mics. Its been a journey and this road will continue. Today, some PTNYC poets can be found in Brooklyn (including the fantastic, experimental remix’r Daniel Dissinger) , burning up the Way Station stage. Next month, we can be found at the Dumbo Arts Festival. In October, we will be hosting a variety of workshops through Bowery Arts & Sciences. Sign up. It will be more than experience; it will be a disrobe to all the languages and poetics inside you.
An evening of NYC small presses featuring In Stereo Press published poets: Megan DiBello, Sam Jablon, Daniel Dissinger (founder, editor, poet) and Aimee Herman.
There are times we meet someone who has so much to say, they run out of ink and paper. When I first met Daniel Dissinger, I had a feeling I should probably run out and buy more pens because I just knew his poetics would inspire more out of me and it has.
If you are unfamiliar with his magical vision, In Stereo Press, go there now. Read/listen/submit.
If you are looking to run out of ink as well, attend a Poetry Teachers NYC writing workshop (affordable and open to all) or one of the many performances we curate. Our next one is in Brooklyn at the The Way Station. It will be a collaboration with the wonderful NYC press, great weather for media. Featured readers will include: Dan Dissinger, Megan DiBello, Fiona Bloom, Todd Anderson, John Snyder, and Thomas Henry.
Tracing The Shape…
Daniel Dissinger
I forgot to stop you and mention that before I heard your words, my innards were in place.
I forgot to stop you and mention that after I opened your book and devoured the spaces and language, all of my organs shifted their position and grew into thunders.
I met Daniel Dissinger in a mountainous village called Boulder, Colorado. The ghost of Ginsberg and Kerouac floated between the tiny buildings that resembled more of a summer camp than a university.
Gender did not matter when he tore open his binder full of thick lines, fluttered like a mad DJ between poems, scratching one into another. Anyone who ever experienced love for any type of person could enter into these ruminations.
Now, I own his chapbook, put out by Shadow Mountain Press, Tracing The Shape. This is a digestible journey of longing, body/earth salutations and connect-the-dot images of soil and skin.
and moving onto this skin of rain to get to her throat…
Dissinger questions within the observations of bone’s movements.
and then your hand reaches me where (?) I first feel thirst/ behind my lungs where (?) I realize the shape of dreams/ …she pulls at their arms and kisses the fragile forearms and wrists I imagine she could see mountains where (?)/ an explosion leveled this city and tulips where (?) a/ mother lost her child…
Within disfigurement, there are beaches. An ocean of want and promise. How to erase the stains of life from another?
this perfection
that is your(s)
scar …because he places
his lips over it
specifically
…
I am often moved by the oddities around me. Beyond poems. Sometimes, it is just through a simple gesture of a man getting up to allow exhausted woman a place to sit on subway. Or, maybe it is a tiny bird testing out its wings in the middle of an empty street in Brooklyn. Or a performer on a small stage revisiting childhood and the memory of what used to be in a (newer) body finally executed correctly.
When I am moved, I rarely say so. I just gather up its sound and sensations and continue on.
Into this book, I speak:
yes
I feel:
gathered and guessed
I want:
more of this
Aimee Herman 