Poets Wear Prada | PWP Books: Barry Wallenstein

Hair stylist turned poet Ice Gayle Johnson to spotlight the 40th annual City College (CCNY) Poetry Festival featuring fellow Chicago native Patricia Smith.

Chicago Poet Ice Gayle Johnson

Chicago hair stylist, professional photographer Ice Gayle Johnson kicks off her book tour for “The Key: Lady Grizzly & Sir Charles Otter,” her debut collection of poems, with a spotlight reading at the 40th annual City College of New York (CCNY) Poetry Festival, Jack Cooper, Production Editor at Poets Wear Prada, announced today. Dubbed “Woodstock of the Spoken Word,” the all-day, all-verse event takes place Friday May 11, from 9:15AM to 5:00PM, in Theater B of Aaron Davis Hall located on campus at West 135th Street and Convent Avenue. Fellow Chicago native Patricia Smith, with Richard Tillinghast, originally of Memphis, Tennessee, will be featured guest poets this year.

Announcing publication of “The Key” recently, Jack Cooper described Johnson’s book as “profoundly beautiful: an unexpected turn of the lock. Hidden chambers of the heart lead from a girlhood kitchen to the panorama of windows that survive the woman's adult life.” Johnson, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, shares her very personal experiences of love and loss, first the familial and then the romantic, in her debut collection. Her mentor and longtime friend, the poet Barry Wallenstein, founder of The Poetry Outreach Center at City College, invited Johnson to take part in the festival where upwards of 150 students from as many as 50 New York public schools will recite their poems. Winners of the festival’s citywide high school contest will also read, the top-three receiving cash prizes awarded by Alfred A. Knopf, the New York publisher. Johnson will be among the invited published poets from around the country joining City College students, alumni, and faculty in reading their work to close out the event.

Barry Wallenstein
Founder of The Poetry Outreach Center, CCNY

Of Johnson, Barry Wallenstein, himself, author of six poetry collections, “Drastic Collections” (New York Quarterly, 2012) his most recent, has written “Ice is anything but cold,” and of her poems, “These confessions of unashamed love, expressed frankly and directly, are warm enough to heat a city.”

Johnson continues her book tour, visiting New Jersey next month to read on Wednesday June 6th at the Williams Center for the Arts, located at 1 Williams Plaza in Rutherford. In addition to reading from her new book, Johnson has been invited to make a brief presentation on the life and work of Williams. The event is sponsored by The William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County and hosted by the poet John J. Trause. Free and open to the public, the monthly first Wednesday poetry series starts at 7:00PM and includes an open reading. Also in attendance will be The Red Wheelbarrow Poets, participants of the local peer-to-peer poetry workshops led by Jim Klein.

The author returns to New York City as featured poet on July 9th for Peter Chelnik’s Go Cat Go! reading series, a monthly poetry event, at Gracie’s Corner Diner, 352 East 82nd Street (at 1st Avenue). Sign up for the open reading begins at 6:45PM. The reading starts at 7:00PM and continues till about 9:00PM. No cover, but a food/drink purchase is required.

Creator of “The Five-point Cut,” “Graduated Bob” and “Fire Fly,” Chicago-based stylist Johnson, a member of Intercoiffeur, the international honorarium and organization for hairdressing professionals, served on Clairol’s Presidential Council with First Lady Nancy Reagan’s colorist. An accomplished photographer, she has been represented by the Ward Nasse Galley of New York, her photos appearing on Marcel Schulman Greeting Cards, Signature Greetings, and others.

A founder and shaper of Uphook Press, Johnson co-edited and contributed to its debut collection, “A Cautionary Tale: Peer into the Lives of Seven New York Performing Poets,” in 2008. Three other anthologies have followed: “you say. say.” (2009), “Hell Strung and Crooked” (2010), and “gape-seed” (2011).

“The Key: Lady Grizzly & Sir Charles Otter” by Ice Gayle Johnson (Hoboken: Poets Wear Prada, 2012), 42 pages, ISBN-10: 0615606512, ISBN-13: 978-0615606514, list price: $12.00, is available in paperback from Amazon Books and other popular booksellers.

Founded in 2006, Poets Wear Prada publishes beautifully designed, well-crafted poetry chapbooks from Sinatra’s hometown, the birthplace of professional baseball.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Jack Cooper
atelierprincipen@gmail.com
201.253.0561

Poets Wear Prada announced today publication of Ice Gayle Johnson’s debut poetry collection “The Key: Lady Grizzly & Sir Charles Otter,” her very personal account of love and loss, both familial and romantic.

(Hoboken, NJ – May 6, 2012) Poets Wear Prada today announced release of “The Key: Lady Grizzly & Sir Charles Otter” by Ice Gayle Johnson. Creator of “The Five-point Cut,” “Graduated Bob” and “Fire Fly,” Chicago-based stylist Johnson, a member of Intercoiffeur, the international honorarium and organization for hairdressing professionals, served on Clairol’s Presidential Council with First Lady Nancy Reagan’s colorist. An accomplished photographer, she has been represented by the Ward Nasse Galley of New York, her photos appearing on Marcel Schulman Greeting Cards, Signature Greetings, and others. Jack Cooper, Production Editor at Poets Wear Prada, said “I am happy and proud to announce ‘The Key’ by Ice Gayle Johnson. It is profoundly beautiful: an unexpected turn of the lock. Hidden chambers of the heart lead from a girlhood kitchen to the panorama of windows that survive the woman's adult life. Its author already distinguished for her perspective gained through the camera lens and in fashioning the human head turns observant eye and scissor-hands to literary style.”

THE KEY
By Ice Gayle Johnson

Johnson’s debut poetry collection shares her very personal experiences of love and loss, first the familial and then the romantic. The books begins with scenes from life with a mysterious, mysteriously well-educated father, lone survivor of Nazi tyranny in a Lithuanian town living out his days as a janitor in Chicago; a neurotic, often-abusive mother, rival for the father’s affection; and an older sibling, rival for the mother’s. Mother and daughter become estranged, reuniting shortly before the mother’s death. The book ends with a sequence of love poems recounting romances mostly broken but still treasured.

“The appeal of this book begins in its generosity as a memoir. The real-life scenes seem triggered by the discovery of a shoebox full of unsorted snapshots, the same moments seen again and again, different angle and lens -- out of focus, in focus, telescopic to panoramic. In fact, they are carefully selected and laid out on the kitchen table steadily to reveal ‘the big picture,’ as the author matures, accepting the truth about her family, her lovers and herself,” said Poets Wear Prada Publisher and Senior Editor Roxanne Hoffman.

Leni Zumas, author of “Farewell Navigator: Stories” (Open City, 2008) writes “These poems are raw, brave, and sometimes hilarious. Ice Gayle Johnson searches the hidden rooms of family history with a determined eye. From nuns to nightmares to cheesecake, she traces with great compassion the debris of haunted relationships.” Barry Wallenstein, author of six poetry collections, “Drastic Collections” (New York Quarterly, 2012) his most recent, writes “Ice is anything but cold. These confessions of unashamed love, expressed frankly and directly, are warm enough to heat a city.”

Author Ice Gayle Johnson

A founder and shaper of Uphook Press, Ice co-edited and contributed to its debut collection, “A Cautionary Tale: Peer into the Lives of Seven New York Performing Poets,” in 2008. Three other anthologies have followed: “you say. say.” (2009), “Hell Strung and Crooked” (2010), and “gape-seed” (2011). Ice Gayle Johnson has performed her poetry, coast to coast -- from the Bowery Poetry Club in New York to The Beat Museum in San Francisco. Her spoken word tracks have been featured by Stay Thirsty Media and Poetz.com. Eponymous CD and DVD are available at CDbaby and at DVD.com.

“The Key: Lady Grizzly & Sir Charles Otter” by Ice Gayle Johnson (Hoboken: Poets Wear Prada, 2012), 42 pages, ISBN-10: 0615606512, ISBN-13: 978-0615606514, list price: $12.00, is available in paperback from Amazon Books and other popular booksellers.

Founded in 2006, Poets Wear Prada publishes beautifully designed, well-crafted poetry chapbooks from Sinatra’s hometown, the birthplace of professional baseball.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Jack Cooper
atelierprincipen@gmail.com
201.253.0561