Punketry: Music and Poetry

A few weeks ago, a new friend (and incredible poet) Hayden Dansky asked me if I might fill in for them at a show they were going to do in Denver. Live punk music and poetry. I was nervous, but deeply excited to collaborate with local musicians and feel that aliveness that takes over my entire being when I perform.

It went so well, I get to do it again!

This Saturday, July 16th at 7pm, at the Trident in Boulder, CO, a great line-up of poets at an event called Punketry.

Punketry is the profane math of punk+poetry regularly occurring every second Wednesday at the Mutiny Information Cafe and now making not its first but its formal debut in the sandbox theater of downtown Boulder’s historic Trident Booksellers & Cafe!

Improvised psychrock by Black Market Translation in collaboration with feature readers:

Jade Lascelles
Aimee Herman
Kenny White
Eric Fischman
Trey Casen (Kolyah Shoni)

Hosted by Sarah Rodriguez of South Broadway Press.
Live painting by Kaitlyn Sterlace of Exist Vibrantly Art
$5 suggested donation goes to the artists, nobody turned away

BOOG and BOOKS

Today, I get to celebrate poetic theatrics and Brooklyn’s Book Festival.

First, BOOG Poets Theatre Festival
@ Bowery Poetry Club / 308 Bowery NYC
12-3pm
*I will be performing alongside the magnetic Trae Durica in a poetic movement I wrote called “The Forgiveness of Lightening Bugs”, which explores the end of a friendship and a yearning for forgiveness.
AND THEN….
Meet me at the Brooklyn Book Festival 
I will be signing copies of my novel, Everything Grows, at 4pm.
Find me at Three Rooms Press’s booth 333.

Today, a poetry performance in Brooklyn!!

I am excited to read some new poems and even a new Nirvana-inspired poemsong at Della Reading Series hosted by Caitlin McDonnell.

Della is located at 1238 Prospect Avenue in Brooklyn and the event is from 3-6pm.

Other wonderful features include Sarah Sala and Irene Villasenor.

 

Tonight! Performance in Boulder, Colorado!!!

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EAST MEETS WEST MEETS SOMEWHERE IN-BETWEEN POETRY READING

FEATURING :

j/j hastain  &  max wolf valerio 

&  rebecca diaz  & aimee herman

THURSDAY, JUNE 21ST 7PM-9PM

Trident Book shop is located at 940 Pearl St. / Boulder, CO

 max wolf valerio.jpg  Max Wolf Valerio is an iconoclastic poet and writer, and a long-transitioned man of transsexual history. A chapbook Animal Magnetism (eg press) appeared in 1984.  Recent works include a collaboration with photographer Dana Smith, Mission Mile Trilogy +1;  poems in the anthology Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (Nightboat Books, 2013). His memoir, The Testosterone Files (Seal Press, 2006) was a Lambda Finalist for 2006, and a book of poems The Criminal: The Invisibility of Parallel Forces is forthcoming soon from EOAGH Books in NYC.

 j:j hastain.jpg   j/j hastain is a collaborator, writer and maker of things. j/j performs ceremonial gore. Chasing and courting the animate and potentially enlivening decay that exists between seer and singer, j/j simply hopes to make the God/dess of stone moan and nod deeply through the waxing and waning cycles of the moon. j/j hastain is the inventor of The Mystical Sentence Projects and is author of several cross-genre books including the trans-genre book libertine monk (Scrambler Press)Apophallation Sketches (MadHat Press), Luci: a Forbidden Soteriology (Black Radish Books), The Non-Novels (Spuyten Duyvil) The Xyr Trilogy: a Metaphysical Romance of Experimental Realisms, and Priest/ess. j/j’s writing has recently appeared in Caketrain, Trickhouse, The Collagist, Apasiology, Lunamopolis, Aufgabe, and Tarpaulin Sky.

 rebecca diaz.jpg   Rebecca Diaz graduated from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. She grew up in rural Minnesota beside the Red Lake River (in the ugliest county in America) and it taught her almost everything she knows about life and writing. She is a poet and fiction writer whose work examines the tributaries of language, healing, and spiritual practice. She has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Loft Literary Literary Center in Minneapolis, Intermedia Arts Program for Emerging Writers, and has received support from the Jerome Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

 

 aimee herman.jpg   Aimee Herman is a queer performance artist, writer and teacher currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. Aimee has two full-length books of poems, meant to wake up feeling (great weather for MEDIA) and to go without blinking (BlazeVOX books), and has work featured in a range of journals and anthologies including Troubling the Line: Trans & Genderqueer Poetry & Poetics (Nightboat Books)  Aimee is also a singer/ukulele player in the poemusic band Hydrogen Junkbox.

 

Upcoming Performance in Boulder, Colorado!!!

131072_1501790622.jpg

EAST MEETS WEST MEETS SOMEWHERE IN-BETWEEN POETRY READING

FEATURING :

j/j hastain  &  max wolf valerio 

&  rebecca diaz  & aimee herman

THURSDAY, JUNE 21ST 7PM-9PM

Trident Book shop is located at 940 Pearl St. / Boulder, CO

 max wolf valerio.jpg  Max Wolf Valerio is an iconoclastic poet and writer, and a long-transitioned man of transsexual history. A chapbook Animal Magnetism (eg press) appeared in 1984.  Recent works include a collaboration with photographer Dana Smith, Mission Mile Trilogy +1;  poems in the anthology Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (Nightboat Books, 2013). His memoir, The Testosterone Files (Seal Press, 2006) was a Lambda Finalist for 2006, and a book of poems The Criminal: The Invisibility of Parallel Forces is forthcoming soon from EOAGH Books in NYC.

 j:j hastain.jpg   j/j hastain is a collaborator, writer and maker of things. j/j performs ceremonial gore. Chasing and courting the animate and potentially enlivening decay that exists between seer and singer, j/j simply hopes to make the God/dess of stone moan and nod deeply through the waxing and waning cycles of the moon. j/j hastain is the inventor of The Mystical Sentence Projects and is author of several cross-genre books including the trans-genre book libertine monk (Scrambler Press)Apophallation Sketches (MadHat Press), Luci: a Forbidden Soteriology (Black Radish Books), The Non-Novels (Spuyten Duyvil) The Xyr Trilogy: a Metaphysical Romance of Experimental Realisms, and Priest/ess. j/j’s writing has recently appeared in Caketrain, Trickhouse, The Collagist, Apasiology, Lunamopolis, Aufgabe, and Tarpaulin Sky.

 rebecca diaz.jpg   Rebecca Diaz graduated from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. She grew up in rural Minnesota beside the Red Lake River (in the ugliest county in America) and it taught her almost everything she knows about life and writing. She is a poet and fiction writer whose work examines the tributaries of language, healing, and spiritual practice. She has been awarded grants and fellowships from the Loft Literary Literary Center in Minneapolis, Intermedia Arts Program for Emerging Writers, and has received support from the Jerome Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

 

 aimee herman.jpg   Aimee Herman is a queer performance artist, writer and teacher currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. Aimee has two full-length books of poems, meant to wake up feeling (great weather for MEDIA) and to go without blinking (BlazeVOX books), and has work featured in a range of journals and anthologies including Troubling the Line: Trans & Genderqueer Poetry & Poetics (Nightboat Books)  Aimee is also a singer/ukulele player in the poemusic band Hydrogen Junkbox.

 

Thank you DUSIE for publishing my poem

Thank you to Rob Mclennan of DUSIE press for publishing my poem, two strangers underneath a city.

This is a poem about finding love on the subway and the intimate space shared with strangers. I have since turned this poem into a song called Plastic Seats for my poetryband collective Hydrogen Junkbox also featuring David Lawton and Zita Zenda.

Check out the poem HERE

Performance on March 18th: Night in the Naked City

I’m excited to perform a new piece exploring subway love this coming Saturday, March 18th, at Cornelia Street Cafe, alongside some of my favorite NYC poets: Steve Dalachinsky, Matthew Hupert, Jane LeCroy, Puma Perl, Thomas Fucaloro, and George Wallace.

Cornelia Street Cafe: 29 Cornelia Street/NYC  @ 6pm   $10  (includes a beverage)

 

Hydrogen Junkbox: Two upcoming performances

Someone once asked me: do you play any instruments? 

I answered: My mouth. And also my hands to turn the dial of the radio.

Now, I can say: ukelele. And cookie drum. And stoop sale tambourine a bit too.

I am part of a marvelous poetry/music collective called Hydrogen Junkbox, alongside David Lawton and Starchilde. We aim to merge poetics and various forms of instrumentals to create something a little magical on stage.

 

I’m excited to announce two upcoming performances:

MONDAY FEBRUARY 20th: VOICES OF THE RESISTANCE @ LA MAMA  8:00-9:30PM

Poetry Electric Presents:
VOICES of the NEW RESISTANCE
Against the President on President’s Day!

TICKETS $10
@ LaMaMa (the downstairs space) located at : 66 E. 4TH STREET/ NYC
Beats of THE BEATBOX HOUSE (Kaila Mullady & crew)
along with all-star POETS & PERFORMANCE ARTISTS:
Liza Jesse Peterson, John S. Hall, Puma Perl, Alex Tatarsky, Jane LeCroy, Jeff Wright, Heide Hatry, Maria Muentes, Peter Spagnuolo, Susan Yung, Norman Stock, Bruce Pandolfo, Hydrogen Junkbox (Aimee Herman, David Lawton, & Starchild), Jimi Pantalon & friends

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 24TH : ICONS IN ASH: DEATH IN ART @CENTRAL BOOKING 6-8PM

CENTRAL BOOKING gallery  located at 21 Ludlow Street / NYC
ICONS IN ASH, DEATH IN ART group show, curated by Maddy Rosenberg and Heide Hatry
Book Party with Conversations, Readings, Spoken Word performances & Music

Performers include: Linda Weintraub, Sigrid Sarda,Jennifer Elster,  Heide Hatry, Daniella Blau, Jane LeCroy, Dusty Wright, Robert Brashear, Aimee Hermann and David Lawton
Exhibition: through Sunday, February 26
Artists include: Roberta Allen, Dianne Bowen, Theresa Byrnes, Kathline Carr, Jennifer Elster, Max Gimblett, Heide Hatry, Richard Humann, Gregg LeFevre, Julia Kissina, Kate Millett, Jim Peters, Herbert Pföstl, Michelle Ross, Sigrid Sarda, Carolee Schneemann, Aldo Tambellini, Linda Weintraub and Brenda Zlamany

 

Two Upcoming Performances

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2017:

BIG WORDS, ETC. reading series @ Wendy’s Subway  379 Bushwick Ave, Brooklyn  7-9pm  

This month’s theme is a meaner way to say it. I’ll be performing a new poem-song written just for tonight!

 

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2017:

FISHFOOD MAGAZINE FREE FORM MIC NIGHT @ Parkside Lounge 317 E. Houston NYC 7:30-9:30pm

FishFood Magazine is doing what it does best, enthralling itself in all forms of art and sharing it with others along the way! The literary and creative arts mag is hosting a small free-form mic show, featuring poets, spoken word artists and musicians. Individuals will come together and showcase their talent either poetically or musically or both. Stop by if you’re in the area!

FREE Admission / TWO drinks minimum – Come one, come all!

Hosted by Aimee Herman~

Performers include:
Aimee Herman and David Lawton (Hydrogen Junkbox)
Yesenia Montilla
Craig Kine
Cheryl J. Fish (as read by Natalie Rogers)
Jeanann Verlee
Omar Holmon
Gabriella Belfiglio
Jane Ormerod
Marcio Garcia