Chicago Poet Ice Gayle Johnson at CCNY Poetry Festival on May 11th

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

Poems Published in Literary Anthology Celebrating William Carlos Williams

I am pleased to announce that 3 of my poems "Life With Clocks," "The Family Tree," "The Pursuit of Progeny" appear in the 4th edition of the The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow.  The literary journal also includes 6 poems and an excellent essay by John J. Trause, author of Seriously Serial (Poets Wear Prada, 2007) and several poems by Brant Lyon, author of  Your Infidel Eyes (Poets Wear Prada, 2006).

The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, No.4 - 2011 reflects a diversity of voices and styles rarely combined in one book. The fourth annual edition of the literary journal was published last month by the Red Wheelbarrow Poets.  A open call to poets connected with the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative Reading of South Bergen County, past features including guest poets from the Tri-State region and regulars open mic readers, as well as participants of the peer-to-peer poetry workshops at the GainVille Learning Center and Café. Thirty poets are featured: John Barrale, Céline Beaulieu, Sondra Singer Beaulieu, Marian Calabro, the late George de Gregorio, Milton P. Ehrlich, Mark Fogarty, Thomas Fucaloro, Davidson Garrett, Elissa Gordon, Roxanne Hoffman, Jim Klein, Melanie Klein, Janet Kolstein, Kathy Kuenzle, Brant Lyon, Zorida Mohammed, Rick Mullin, Mike O’Brien, Jane Ormerod, George Pereny, S. Gili Post, Tony Puma, Dan Saxon, Claudia Serea, Francesca Sphynx, Madeline Tiger, John J. Trause, Dorinda Wegener and Don Zirilli.


In addition to the poetry, four essays give insight into the life and work of the Rutherford doctor/poet: "William Carlos Williams and the Baroness" by John J. Trause; "The Poetry Reading" by Madeline Tiger; "Friendship and ‘The Figure 5’" by Marian Calabro and "Medicine, Languages, a River and the American Muses in the Work of William Carlos Williams" by Céline Beaulieu. Noted poet Jim Klein, who leads the Gainville poetry workshop, shares his thoughts on creating a painting in "Don’t Talk Unless You Can Improve the Silence," and Mark Fogarty gives a preview of his novel in excerpts from "It’s So Easy to Fall in Love."


The journal was launched on Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 7PM at the Williams Center in Rutherford, New Jersey.  Copies are available online at Lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/content/10922431) and will be available through Amazon.com by the end of the year. For more information and mailorders contact the Editors.

June 20: GENERATION BEAT at Yippie Museum Café in NYC

GENERATION BEAT

Date: Monday, June 20, 2011

Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm

 

Place:

THE YIPPIE MUSEUM

CAFE & GIFT SHOP

9 Bleecker Street

(near the Bowery)

New York, NY 10002

(212) 677-5918

http://yippiemuseum.org/

Admission: $2

Host: Gordon Gilbert

 

Featured Readers:
(Reading Their Favorite Beat Writer
& Their Own Work)

ALAN BAXTER
*

PETER CHELNIK
*

BOB HEMAN
* 

CINDY HOCHMAN
* 

ROXY HOFFMAN
* 

EVY IVY
* 

KIM KALESTI
*

RONNIE KORPAL
*

JOSH MEANDER
*

ORION 0.62
*

EVE PACKER
*

PUMA PERL
*

BOB QUATRONE
* 

CHRISTINE TIMM
* 

JOHN J. TRAUSE
* 

RICHARD WEST

Sorry, This is Not an Open Mic.

Beverage and Snacks Availalble at the Refreshment Stand.

COME EARLY

for 4 pm screening of a Lawrence Ferlinghetti documentary by Chris Felver.

Publisher Roxanne Hoffman will be performing "The Mummy Piece" by William S. Burroughs and her "Mum's The Word."

Author John J. Trause will be presenting the work of Gregory Corso and, time permitting, his own poetry. 

Other PWP Authors reading at the event include Bob Heman and Peter Chelnik.

Wed March 1 Poet MADELINE TIGER Reads at Williams Center for Arts, Rutherford NJ

Plus the words of William Carlos Williams

& open readings from the floor

This program is held at

Williams Center for the Arts

Marcus Theatre

One Williams Plaza

Rutherford, NJ 07070

Call the Rutherford Public Library at 201.939.8600 for more information

http://www.williamscenter.org/

Dear Family & Friends,

Although it was a cold and icy night last night, Lisa Sisler and Dorinda Wegener provided a strong and engaging feature, playing off their diversity, and Dorinda started off the evening with her reflections on the conflict between William Carlos Williams’s Romanticism as represented by his mother Elena’s influence and his scientific, Modernist commitment as represented by Ezra Pound’s influence. Once again I thank John Barrale and Claudia Serea for introducing our features.

I continue to host this excellent series, now in its sixth year, so please come by for this upcoming reading. Mark your calendars now!

NOTE that this series is held on FIRST Wednesdays each month.

Madeline Tiger

The WCW Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County is pleased to invite Madeline Tiger, noted poet and teacher, as the feature on Wednesday, March, 2011 at 7:00 p. m. As usual this monthly program will also feature the words of William Carlos Williams, this time by Madeline Tiger herself, and open readings from the floor. No advanced registration is required and all poets and poetry lovers are invited. Note that we are now holding the WCW Poetry Cooperative readings in the Marcus Theater of the Williams Center for the Arts (www.williamscenter.org ) located at 1 Williams Plaza in Rutherford, N. J.

Also, please remember that noted poet Jim Klein leads our peer-to-peer poetry workshops (Red Wheelbarrow Poets) on Wednesdays (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) when we do not have the readings at 7 p. m. NOTE that these have now been relocated to GainVille Learning Center and Café (http://www.gaincontact.com/ ):

GainVille Learning Center and Café
17 Ames Avenue
Rutherford, NJ 07070
Tel. (201) 507-1800 / Fax (201) 507-1888

Also, please see the Red Wheelbarrow website here:

http://redwheelbarrowpoets.wordpress.com/


Remember that the Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow Poets just published volume 3 of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, including three poems of mine, those of many others associated with the WCW Poetry Cooperative and literary life in Rutherford, some excellent essays, and as usual some original, previously unpublished work of Dr. Williams himself. Copies of the anthology are on sale now, so please contact the editors at redwheelbarrowpoets@yahoo.com , if you would like more information or like to purchase a copy or two. They make excellent birthday or holiday gifts for poetry lovers and anyone who loves literature and history.
Please come out and support these creative endeavors.
Thank you.

Love & Peace,

John J. Trause

* * *

About Our Featured Poet:

Madeline Tiger’s tenth collection of poems, The Atheist’s Prayer, appeared from Dos Madres Press, (Spring, 2010). Her other recent collections include The Earth Which Is All (2008) and Birds of Sorrow and Joy: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2000 (2003). Her work appears regularly in numerous local and national journals and anthologies.

Ms Tiger is also a noted teacher in the Writers-in-the-Schools Program of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Playwrights Theatre of NJ; The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Programs; The Montclair Adult School (Memoir Writing); and in private poetry writing workshops for adults.


She has garnered prizes and fellowships from the NJ State Council on the Arts: 1978, 1980, 1987; Virginia Center for the Creative Arts: 1987, 1988, 1990; Blue Mountain Center, 1988; Columbia University School of the Arts, 1985-86; Poetica Magazine, 2007; and Artist/Teacher award from Playwrights Theater of NJ, 1993. In addition, she was honored with the Pioneer Teaching Artist Award of the NJ Arts Education Collective in April 2008.

Born in New York City, Madeline Tiger has lived in NJ for most of her life. She was a resident of Montclair, NJ from 1963 until moving to Bloomfield in 2000 where she lives under a weeping cherry tree. Ms Tiger has five children and seven grandchildren.

Sat Mar 19: Greek American Writers w/ JOHN J TRAUSE 6pm Cornelia St Cafe NYC

Dear Family and Friends,


Please join us at this event at which I will be presenting my poetry on SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2011 ( St. Joseph ’s Day), 6 – 8 p. m.

The Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia Street
(Between West 4th & Bleecker Streets)
New York City
(212) 989-9319

A $7.00 entry fee includes one complimentary house drink.

Please see the attached flyer and also the announcement in elegant Papyrus by the eminent host of the series Dean Kostos:

* * *

Dear Friends,

On the night before the vernal equinox, five gifted poets will read at the Cornelia Street Cafe. For full details, please open the attached flyer.

Think spring,

Dean

* * *

I look forward to seeing you there.

Peace,

JOHN J TRAUSE

JOHN


P. S. No, I am not Greek or Greek-American, but I do a mean Sappho in her original Aeolic dialect.

MON Feb 7: Don Zirilli at Pianos in Bloomfield NJ for Rockstar Poets

SAVE THE DATE: RockStar Poets and Writers [Bloomfield Reading Series]

 featuring DON ZIRILLI on Monday, February 7, 2011

Please beat the cold and join the folks at Pianos Bar & Grill in Bloomfield, NJ on Monday, Febrnuary 7, 2011 at 7:30 p. m. for RockStar Poets & Writers [Bloomfield Reading Series]. The feature is Don Zirilli.

The event is FREE!

Don Zirilli is the co-editor of Now Culture. He has been writing poetry for over 20 years, and has been published in River Styx, Specs, Anti-, Iota, and elsewhere.

Bloomfield Reading Series, also known as RockStar Poets, is the series for which I (John J. Trause) was the inaugural feature in February 2008, and as we continue in our third year we are pleased to have such a distinguished poet and publisher appearing on Monday, February 7th. Note that this series holds a reading every FIRST MONDAY of the month at 7:30 p. m. at Pianos hosted by writer Sanjay Agnihotri. The readings take place on the back stage. Come early and have a drink or dinner. Remember to bring some work of your own as an Open Reading follows the feature.

February 7, 2011 at 7:30PM
RockStar Poets
~features~

DON ZIRILLI
+ Open Reading
@
Pianos Bar & Grill
36 Broad Street
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
(973) 743-7208
http://www.pianosbarandgrill.com/
Host: Sanjay Agnihotri
No Cover (Please purchase food or drink to help support the venue.)


I encourage you to come out and support Don Zirilli and hang out with us.



NEXT MONTH: Monday, March 7, 2011, we look forward to poet and musician Joel Allegretti.

Love & Peace,

JOHN

WED Feb 2: Lisa Sisler & Dorinda Wegener at Willams Center, Rutherford NJ

Dear Family & Friends,

I continue to host this excellent series, now in its sixth year, so please come by for this upcoming reading.

NOTE that this series is held on FIRST Wednesdays each month.

The WCW Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County is pleased to invite Lisa Sisler and Dorinda Wegener, both poets, editors, and teachers, as the features on Wednesday, February, 2011 at 7:00 p. m. As usual this monthly program will also feature the words of William Carlos Williams, this time by Dorinda Wegener herself, and open readings from the floor. No advanced registration is required and all poets and poetry lovers are invited. Note that we are now holding the WCW Poetry Cooperative readings at the following location:


Williams Center for the Arts
Marcus Theater
1 Williams Plaza in Rutherford, N. J.

(http://www.williamscenter.org/) 

Also, please remember that noted poet Jim Klein leads our peer-to-peer poetry workshops (Red Wheelbarrow Poets) on Wednesdays (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) when we do not have the readings at 7 p. m. NOTE that these have now been relocated to GainVille Learning Center and Café (http://www.gaincontact.com/ ):

GainVille Learning Center and Café
17 Ames Avenue
Rutherford, NJ 07070
Tel. (201) 507-1800 / Fax (201) 507-1888

Also, please see the Red Wheelbarrow website here:

http://redwheelbarrowpoets.wordpress.com/

Remember that the Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow Poets just published volume 3 of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, including three poems of mine, those of many others associated with the WCW Poetry Cooperative and literary life in Rutherford, some excellent essays, and as usual some original, previously unpublished work of Dr. Williams himself. Copies of the anthology are on sale now, so please contact the editors at redwheelbarrowpoets@yahoo.com, if you would like more information or like to purchase a copy or two. They make excellent birthday or holiday gifts for poetry lovers and anyone who loves literature and history.

Please come out and support these creative endeavors.

Thank you.


Love & Peace,


JOHN

* * *

ABOUT OUR FEATURED POETS:

Lisa Sisler’s poetry has been described by Brian Henry as, “urgent, skillful, and necessary. [Lisa’s] poems are fiery, command your attention, and, for however disturbing or painful or difficult her poems can be, they often seek and ultimately achieve a sort of cathartic alchemy that we can find only in poetry.”
Lisa is currently working n her manuscript Belly Up and serving as a guest editor for the online journal OVS. She is the editor of Knocking at the Door: Approaching the Other, a poetry anthology forthcoming from Buddhapuss Ink/ Poet’s Lane in November 2010. She holds an MFA in Poetry from New England College and a Masters of Arts in English from Rutgers University. She teaches Writing and Literature at Kean University and at various other colleges in New Jersey where she resides with her boyfriend and their cat army.

Dorinda Wegener holds a MFA from New England College where she was a Joel Oppenheimer Award recipient. Her poems have been published in The Antioch Review, Indiana Review, Hotel Amerika, and Mid-American Review, among many others. Dorinda has had the honor of reading with the louderARTS Project in New York City. Her poems, “The Harvest” and “Evening Service,” were both finalist for the Marlboro Prize as judged by poet Edward Hirsch. She has been a featured poet at the Woodberry Poetry Room, Lamont Library, Harvard University through her work with Ibbestson Street Press. Walter E. Butts, New Hampshire Poet Laureate, selected Wegener for New Hampshire Poets Showcase, an online gallery hosted by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. She has served on editorial boards at OVS Magazine, Naugatuck River Review, and Summer Home Review. As a child, Dorinda lived in Robert Frost’s first New Hampshire home prior to his famous farm. She currently resides in Staten Island, New York, where she teaches poetry to youths and peers for the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Dorinda is actively seeking a literary press for her first manuscript, All I’s and O’s. In 2011, Wegener will join the editorial staff of Green Mountains Review as a reader.

POSTPONED: Poetry's Last Wednesday Pit Stop w/ JOHN J TRAUSE -- NOW Sat, Jan 29 7:30-10PM

Dear Family and Friends,

Because of the snow storm this event is being postponed  until

Saturday, January 29, 2011, 7:30 p. m. – 10 p. m.

Francesca Sphynx-Ball of The Ain't Never Scared NYC Poetry Collective started a new poetry series at Peanut Butter Blues Café in Allendale (Bergen County), N. J. Francesca and I were both published this past autumn in hell strung and crooked, the latest issue of the Uphook Press anthology.

Rescheduled: I will be featuring for Poetry's Last Wednesday Pit Stop at Peanut Butter Blues Café on Saturday, January 29th at 7:30 p.m.. You will get 30 minutes of John J. Trause, and I promise a rich and diverse presentation. There will also be an open reading.

Sat., Jan. 29, 2011, 7:30–10PM  <==NEW DATE & TIME!

Poetry's Last Wednesday Pit Stop

JOHN J TRAUSE

+ Open Reading
@

Peanut Butter Blues Cafe

86 W Allendale Ave

Allendale, NJ 07401

(201) 825-5950

http://www.pbblues.com/

Hosted by Francesca Sphynx-Ball

Please see also the updated listing on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155597277823382&num_event_invites=0


It would be a pleasure to see you at the reading this coming Saturday, so please come out and support this event.

Love & Peace,

JOHN

* * *

SAVE THE DATES: JOHN J. TRAUSE'S UPCOMING POETRY READINGS IN JANUARY 2011



John J. Trause

 Dear Family and Friends,


I hope 2011 is a year of promise for you. I am appearing in two poetry readings this month, one a feature in New Jersey, the other as a participant in a group reading in Manhattan. It would be great to see you at one or both, so please save the dates:



Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 6:30 p. m. – 10 p. m. – Poetry's Last Wednesday Pit Stop

Francesca Sphynx-Ball of The Ain't Never Scared NYC Poetry Collective has started a new poetry series at Peanut Butter Blues Café in Allendale (Bergen County), N. J. Francesca and I were both published this past autumn in hell strung and crooked, the latest issue of the Uphook Press anthology.

I will be featuring for Poetry's Last Wednesday Pit Stop at Peanut Butter Blues Café on Wednesday, January 26th at 6:30 p. m. You will get 30 minutes of John J. Trause, and I promise a rich and diverse presentation. There will also be an open reading.

Wednesday, January 26th

Poetry's Last Wednesday Pit Stop 

6:30PM-10PM

w/ JOHN J. TRAUSE

+ Open Reading

@

Peanut Butter Blues Cafe

86 W Allendale Ave

Allendale, NJ 07401

(201) 825-5950

http://www.pbblues.com/

Hosted by Francesca Sphynx-Ball

$3 cover (can be applied towards the purchase of any item on the dinner menu) 

Please see also the listing on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=155597277823382&num_event_invites=0

Friday, January 28, 2011, 6:30 p. m. –  Voices in Italian Americana

Bordighera Press celebrates 20 years of publishing VIA: Voices in Italian Americana, Italiana, three book series (VIA Folios, Crossings, Saggistica), and the Bordighera Poetry Prize.

I have two poems in the forthcoming issue of VIA: Voices in Italian Americana, copies of which will be available that evening.

Bordighera Press publishes literature and poetry by and about Italian and Italian/American authors. Many of their titles are consistently utilized in university courses, and the journal, VIA: Voices in Italian Americana, is subscribed to by more than fifty university libraries in the United States and Canada. Bordighera Press continues to reflect the most current nuances in the literary world. The press was founded in 1989 by Fred Gardaphé, Paolo Giordano, and Anthony Juilan Tamburri.

The three co-founders, Chiara Mazzucchelli (current editor of VIA), Deborah Starewich, and Lisa Cicchetti (editorial & production managers and book production designers), and numerous authors, including me John J. Trause will be present.

The event will take place at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at the address below:

Friday, January 28, 2011

6:30PM - ?

Voices in Italian Americana

Bordighera Press celebrates 20 years of Publishing

@

John D. Calandra Italian American Institute

25 West 43rd Street, 17th floor

New York, New York 10036

(Between 5th and 6th Avenues)

It would be a pleasure to see you at both readings, so please come out and support these two events.



Love & Peace,



JOHN

Sun Dec 12: JOHN J. TRAUSE @ THE LITERARY LOUNGE, West Orange NJ

Dear Family and Friends,

Please join me and my fellow writers, Janet DenBleyker and Julia Roberts, in an unusual program of readings and author interviews. This is designed especially for those of you who want to know more about John J. Trause.

The Literary Lounge

Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 6:30 p. m.

Janet DenBleyker, Julia Roberts & John J Trause

@

Luna Stage

555 Valley Road

West Orange, NJ 07052

(973) 395-5551

Hosted by Mike Traynor

A $5 Suggest Donation Benefits the Featured Writers

For more details, please see the program flyer attached to this message as a JPG.

  

***

In the world of JOHN J. TRAUSE :

• A visit to the barber is a trip to Auschwitz or a glimpse at a gangland slaying.
• Walter Hudson is not really the 1,200 lb. man on Long Island, but a giant pre-hibernating dormouse.
• Eleanor of Aquitaine gets caught up in mirrors and mazes.
• Animals are found in the zoo and outside the zoo, and owls whisper.
• The Emperor Caligula loves (no, I mean really loves) bridges.
• Georgia O’Keeffe never grows old, and Rose Kennedy never dies.
• Sappho and Lewis Carroll perform cunning stunts, and Nico, Lou Reed, and theBrothers Grimm interface. John Giorno reveals all.

John J. Trause

SAT, NOV 20: SENSATIONS MAGAZINE W/ DAVID MESSINEO & JOHN J. TRAUSE @ POETS HOUSE, NYC 4-6PM

Dear Family and Friends,

Please join us for this exciting program:

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 20, 2010, 4-6PM

DAVID MESSINEO, FORMAL 2010 Tour Conclusion 

and

The Debut of

 SENSATIONS MAGAZINE ISSUE 48

"21ST CENTURY AMERICA" 

@

THE STANLEY KUNITZ CONFERENCE ROOM

POETS HOUSE

10 River Terrace

NEW YORK CITY

SENSATIONS MAGAZINE concludes its three-year, six-issue "American Century" series with the debut of Issue 48, "21st Century America," in the Stanley Kunitz Conference Room at Poets House. The new Poets House facility will be a key location for American poetry in the 21st century, given their added storage space and 50-year lease, making it the ideal location to debut "21st Century America ." Readers will be limited to reading poems published in SENSATIONS MAGAZINE Issues 47 and 48 only, and there is no open mic. Also, Publisher David Messineo will conclude his 2010 FORMAL Tour at this location, AND John J. Trause will be presenting his own poetry from Issue 48, "21st Century America " and interpreting the work of Jaruth Jones.

Poets House | 10 River Terrace | New York , NY 10282 | (212) 431-7920 |
website: http://www.poetshouse.org/
Also, please see the additional information below from publisher David Messineo.

Love & Peace,


JOHN

*****

SENSATIONS MAGAZINE is pleased to be the first New Jersey literary magazine to debut a new issue at the new Poets House, 10 River Terrace, in lower Manhattan, and looks forward to your participation in what should be a sensational afternoon. The reading will be videotaped, so please dress nicely. (I'll be in a tuxedo, but formal attire is not required.)

BASICS

SENSATIONS MAGAZINE Issue 48, "21st Century America," Fall/Winter 2010 (last of the six-part "American Century" series) will debut this Saturday, November 20, 4-6pm, at the Stanley Kunitz Conference Room. The reading also will include the conclusion of the 2010 Formal Tour by David Messineo, who will read a 5-poem feature set from FORMAL, in tuxedo, to close out his tour. That reading will fall after the "September 11, 2001" section, and before the "America , 2011-2100" section.



ATTENDING

As of this writing, we are expecting 13 poets from 4 states in attendance.

Coming from New Hampshire: Dianalee Velie.

Coming from Rhode Island : Brett Rutherford.

Coming from New York state and city: Dennis Wayne Bressack, Aza Derman, Davidson Garrett, Steven Koenig, Eugenia Macer-Story, and Jacqueline de Weever.

Coming from New Jersey : David Messineo, Cheryl Moore, Pina Pipino, Susanna Rich, and John J. Trause.

Others confirmed as attending: Eric Kleber de Freitas, Marilyn Hartl, and Mort Rich.

In short, this will be our largest gathering of published SENSATIONS MAGAZINE poets since our 20th anniversary celebrations in 2008.

Paul Nash and Denise la Neve will be on the road to Indiana, and send best wishes to all. Other published poets have been invited to read, so that number may go up - and there may be one or two surprise appearances, as well. Additional poets - from Australia , North Carolina , New York , and Tennessee - send regrets they cannot attend.

There will be no open mic opportunity for anyone not published in Sensations Magazine.

While this is a free to attend event, we encourage guests to bring $20 if they wish to purchase a copy of Formal, or $25 if they wish to purchase a subscription that includes Issue 48. Parents should not bring children to this event.

The room will open around 3:45, and we'll start the reading right at 4pm. Some of you might want to arrive much earlier, so you can tour the facility and see some of their 50,000 volume poetry collection.

ARRIVAL BY CAR/SUBWAY

Paid parking in the area is approximately $10 per hour. You will have to browse the surrounding blocks for metered or paid parking.

If coming by subway, you can take the 1, 2, 3, A, or C to Chambers Street . Walk Chambers toward the Hudson River until it ends at Rockefeller Park and River Terrace. Turn left on River Terrace. Poets House is at 10 River Terrace, near the corner of Murray Street.

David Messineo
Publisher, SENSATIONS MAGAZINE

Red Wheelbarrow Poets Monday, November 8, 2010

picture from this website, http://red.jerryandmartha.com/

Dear Family & Friends,

I am pleased and honored to be asked to appear along with some of my fellow Red Wheelbarrow Poets in Oradell, N. J. at the Oradell Public Library, of which I have been Library Director since March 2010. A number of us will be presenting our poetry, which has recently been published in the third annual volume of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, on this evening.

The Friends of the Oradell Public Library have arranged for the Red Wheelbarrow Poets to be featured at a special program on Monday, November 8, 2010, and we are grateful to them and to the Red Wheelbarrow Poets, especially Sondra Singer Beaulieu, who helped coordinate this program.

The program is free and light refreshments will be served.

Here are the specifics:

WHAT: Featured poets and an open mic, if time permits.

WHERE: Oradell Public Library, 375 Kinderkamack Road (with the entrance on Church Street), Oradell, NJ 07649. Phone: 201-262-2613 – Website: http://oradell.bccls.org/index.html

WHEN: Monday, November 8, 2010

TIME: 7 p. m. The Library closes at 9 p. m.

Copies of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow will be on sale.

This group just had a very successful reading at neighboring Haworth Public Library on Monday, October 12th.

For me this is an even more special honor, since this takes place at the Oradell Public Library, which has become a second home to me. I am pleased and proud to serve the community of Oradell in such a beautiful place.

Please come out and support us.

Love & Peace,

JOHN

Short Poem Enthusiasts and Emily Dickinson Fans Get Ready for Brevitas at the Bowery Poetry Club

Short Poem Enthusiasts and Emily Dickinson Fans Get Ready for Brevitas at the Bowery Poetry Club

Short Poem Enthusiasts and Emily Dickinson Fans Get Ready for Brevitas at the Bowery Poetry Club

 New York, NY, October 15, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Short poem enthusiasts and Emily Dickinson fans get ready. City Lore, an organization devoted to urban folk culture, and the Bowery Poetry Club will present the 7th Annual Brevitas Festival of The Short Poem on Sunday, November 14 from 2 to 6 p.m. Brevitas is an internet community of invited poets who email one to two original poems (14 lines max) to the group on the 1st and the 15th of each month. This reading and book release party is the annual occasion for Brevitas poets to actually meet in person. The program features each poet's top hits for 2010. Brevitas’ founders are poets Jim Pignetti and Steve Zeitlin, founder and executive director of City Lore. This year’s host is poet Flash Rosenberg, also known as a cartoonist, photographer, humorist, turtle wrangler and Artist-in-Residence for Live from the New York Public Library.

Brevitas will honor Emily Dickinson as Historical Guest Poet for her divine role as Patron Saint of the Short Poem. Poet and performer, Shelley Miller, will read a selection of Emily’s poems. There will also be a screening of “Emily Dickinson – Her True Self” an animated short by Flash Rosenberg, produced by the Lower Eastside Girls Club.

Also, a special Brevitas poetry dedication will be made for jailed Chinese dissident and recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace prize, Liu Xiaobo.

The following Brevitas poets will be reading:

D. F. August, Susan Gerardi Bello, Iris Berman, Claudia Carlson, Patricia Carragon, Gil Fagiani, Sanford Fraser, Christian Garaud, Bob Heman, Eileen Hennessy, Cindy Hochman, Judy Kamilhor, Andrew Kaufman, Susan T. Landry, Maria Lisella, Tsaurah Litzky, Georgia Luna, Sue Machlin,James McMenamin, Katrinka Moore, Jim Pignetti, Leslie Prosterman, Flash Rosenberg, Dorothea Hutton Scher, Susan Schipke, Zev Shanken, Hal Sirowitz, Ed Smith, Esther K. Smith, Richard Storm, Juanita Torrence-Thompson, John J. Trause, Alicia Vasquez, Angelo Verga, Carolyn Wells, Steve Zeitlin

The 2010 brevitas book of short poems will be presented to all who attend.

Guest poets will be invited to sign up for the Short Poem Open Mic (14 lines max).

7th Annual Brevitas Festival of the Short Poem

Sunday, November 14 from 2 to 6 p.m

Bowery Poetry Club

308 Bowery (between Houston & Bleecker Streets)

New York City - 212-614-0505

www.bowerypoetry.com

Admission: $7

###

From John J. Trause

Dear Family & Friends,

The past First Wednesday was another bittersweet one as we shared the news that Jane Fisher will be leaving her position as Director of the Rutherford Free Public Library by the end of the month to accept a position at the New York Public Library in coordinating seventeen libraries in the Bronx.  We know she will thrive personally and improve library services to those communities, but we will miss her and her guiding wisdom very much.  It was Jane Fisher who had the idea of starting the William Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative in response to the success of the first William Carlos Williams Poetry Symposium in September 2005.   Over these past five years, she has done innumerable things to help keep it grow, and in the process she herself became a poet – and a published one at that!  Jane assures us that she will still reside nearby and poke in on our series when she can.

Burt Kimmelman and Jon Curley, colleagues in Humanities at New Jersey Institute of Technology, shared generously of their work, both published and new, and provided a nice coupling of voices.  To begin the evening Joel Lewis gave a lecture on four of Dr. Williams’s lesser known “disciples”.

I continue to host this excellent series, now in its fifth year, so please come by for this upcoming reading.  Mark your calendars now!

NOTE that this series is held on FIRST Wednesdays each month from now on.

The WCW Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County is pleased to invite Rick Mullin and Colleen Russell, two poets who excel at both formal and free verse and who have made a mark on the online poetry communities, as the features on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 7:00 p. m.  As usual this monthly program will also feature the words of William Carlos Williams (presented this month by me, John J. Trause) and open readings from the floor.  No advanced registration is required and all poets and poetry lovers are invited.  Note that we are now holding the WCW Poetry Cooperative readings on the Terrace of the Williams Center for the Arts (www.williamscenter.org) located at 1 Williams Plaza in Rutherford, N. J.

For more details, please see the program flyer attached to this message as a Word document.

Also, please remember that noted poet Jim Klein leads our peer-to-peer poetry workshops (Red Wheelbarrow Poets) on Wednesdays (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) when we do not have the readings.  These will continue in the Rutherford Free Public Library (www.rutherfordlibrary.org).  Please see the flyer here:

www.rutherfordlibrary.org/wedworkshops.pdf

Also, please see the Red Wheelbarrow website here:

redwheelbarrowpoets.wordpress.com/a-red-wheelbarrow/about

Remember that the Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow Poets just published volume 3 of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, including three poems of mine, those of many others associated with the WCW Poetry Cooperative and literary life in Rutherford, some excellent essays, and as usual some original, previously unpublished work of Dr. Williams himself.  Copies of the anthology are on sale now, so please contact the editors at redwheelbarrowpoets@yahoo.com, if you would like more information or like to purchase a copy or two.  They make excellent birthday or holiday gifts for poetry lovers and anyone who loves literature and history.

Please come out and support these creative endeavors.

Thank you.

Love & Peace,

JOHN

3 Oldies but Goodies Now Available at CreateSpace!

We just converted 3 of our older chapbook titles to perfect bound editions: PAYDAY LOANS by Jee Leong Koh, TWO NAKED FEET by Maria Lisella and PHASED by George Held. They are now available for sale at CreateSpace.com and will soon be available on Amazon.com.




PAYDAY LOANS
Poems
  by Jee Leong Koh
Original Publication Date: March, 2007
Publisher: Poets Wear Prada
ISBN/EAN13:  0981767893 / 9780981767895
Perfect Bound Paper Back: 36 pages
List Price: $10
https://www.createspace.com/3481468

Smart, irreverent, often unnerving, these sonnets smirk, smile, argue and bless. Jee Leong Koh has taken a month of days and rendered a very contemporary version of the artist as a young man. Cash in your paycheck and buy this book."--Marie Howe



TWO NAKED FEET
by Maria Lisella
Original Publication Date: September 2009
Publisher: Poets Wear Prada
ISBN/EAN13:0984184414 / 9780984184415
Perfect Bound Paper Back:  34 pages
List Price: $10
https://www.createspace.com/3477735

TWO NAKED FEET is brilliantly wired with the tension of paradox. It is about exile and the movement of peoples, the destruction and pastiche of cultures, the chasm between the idealized world and the colloquial one. Lisella writes with depth and simplicity. Her "I" rarely steps outside of the observing eye to become autobiographical, and yet the poems are remarkable for their passion.--Stephanie Dickenson, award-winning author of HALF GIRL and ROAD OF FIVE CHURCHES

PHASED
Poems, etc.
by George Held
Original Publication Date: August 2008
Publisher: Poets Wear Prada
ISBN/EAN13: 098176780X / 9780981767802
Perfect Bound Paper Back: 34 pages
List Price: $10
https://www.createspace.com/3479883

A delightful, entertaining, and attractively presented collection celebrating our sidereal companion, the moon.

--THE ICONOCLAST

From John J.Trause

Dear Family & Friends,

I am pleased and honored to be asked to appear at the Haworth Public Library in Haworth, N. J. along with some of my fellow Red Wheelbarrow Poets. A number of us will be presenting our poetry, which has recently been published in the third annual volume of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, on this evening.

Susan Rappaport (formerly of the Rutherford Public Library), who now works at the Haworth Library, has arranged for the Red Wheelbarrow Poets to be featured at a special program next Tuesday night, October 12, 2010. Susan herself is a published in The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow, and we are grateful for her invitation and participation.

Here are the specifics:

WHERE: Haworth Municipal Library,

300 Haworth Avenue (Haworth Avenue and Stevens Place),

Haworth, NJ.

Phone: 201-384-1020

Website: http://haworth.bccls.org/

WHEN: Tuesday, October 12, 2010

TIME: Program begins at 7:30 and ends at 9:00 (The library is not open on Tuesdays. They have scheduled this as a special event and are opening up for it.).

Here too is the posting from the Haworth Municipal Library website:

Tuesday, October 12th - 7:30-9:00pm -

RED WHEELBARROW POETS which grew out of the Williams Carlos Williams Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County, has just published their third volume of poetry.They will be reading from the anthology. Other poets are invited to share their own poetry during the open reading. Please join us for an interesting evening.

Copies of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow will be on sale.

For me this is a special honor, since this takes place at a library near the Oradell Public Library, of which I am the Director, and that is also a member of the same consortium, the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS).

Please come out and support us.

Love & Peace,

JOHN

Pianos Bar & Grill in Bloomfield, NJ on Monday, October 4

Dear Family and Friends,

Please join the folks at Pianos Bar & Grill in Bloomfield, NJ on Monday, October 4, 2010 at 7:30 p. m. for RockStar Poets and Writers [Bloomfield Reading Series]. The feature is the noted poet, publisher, professor, and painter Jim Klein.

The event is FREE!

Jim Klein has published more than 100 poems in publications including The Berkeley Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Joe Soap’s Canoe, Oxford Magazine, The Plastic Tower, Onthebus, Pulpsmith, Gandhabba, and many times in The Wormwood Review, including a Feature Section. He has also published articles in The Christian Century, James Joyce Quarterly, College English. He founded two literary magazines, Lunch, at Fairleigh Dickinson, Rutherford, in the seventies, and currently The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow. Blue Chevies, his first book, came out in conjunction with the Williams Symposium in September, 2008. To Eat Is Human Digest Divine, his second, came out this month.

Bloomfield Reading Series, also known as RockStar Poets, is the series for which I (John J. Trause) was the inaugural feature in February 2008, and as we continue in our third year we are pleased to have such a distinguished poet appearing on Monday, October 4th. Note that this series holds a reading every FIRST MONDAY of the month at 7:30 p. m. at Pianos hosted by writer Sanjay Agnihotri. The readings take place on the back stage. Come early and have a drink or dinner. Remember to bring some work of your own as an Open Reading follows the feature.

Pianos Bar & Grill

36 Broad Street

Bloomfield, NJ 07003

(973) 743-7208

http://www.pianosbarandgrill.com/

I encourage you to come out and support Jim Klein and hang out with us.

Love & Peace,

JOHN

More from John J.Trause...

Dear Family & Friends,

Please join us for this eventful evening of poetry and music. Here is the message from hosts Denise LaNeve and Paul Nash:

************

Saturday, September 25, 2010

The North Jersey Literary Series

presents

poets Jamie McNeely Quirk and Barbara Blatner

8 PM in the Special Events Room of the

Classic Quiche Café

330 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck , New Jersey

Teaneck, NJ

FREE

2 Sets by our features plus Open Mic

Space and sound are unrivaled by any other venue

Hosted by Paul Nash and Denise La Neve

Café phone: 201 692 0150

Come early and enjoy a relaxing meal.

The quiches are famous, and there are also other wonderful entrees,

as well as coffees, teas, & desserts

JAMIE MCNEELY QUIRK writes, edits, and knits near Princeton , New Jersey , where she works at both a private school and a public library. Two of Jamie’s poems have recently been published in the new anthology entitled Beyond the Rift: Poets of the Palisades, for which she also acted as proofreader. Her work has appeared in various journals, including The Macguffin, Journal of New Jersey Poets, and The Lyric. For four years (1999-2003) she hosted a monthly open mic series in Paramus and led workshops through various adult education programs in northern New Jersey . Having earned an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College , she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science at Rutgers University .

BARBARA BLATNER is a playwright, poet and composer. Her full-length poetry collection The Still Position has just been published by the New York Quarterly Press. Her play Years of Sky was given a workshop production in New York City last summer by Scripts Up! and is the recipient of a $10,000 grant from the Driehaus Foundation. Barbara’s verse play for Epiphany No Star Shines Sharper was produced for stage and radio by the Mystic Theatre Company in 2004, having also aired on National Public Radio. Her play Grassy Knoll was produced in the First Annual Boston Theatre Marathon (1999) and appeared in the Baker’s Plays anthology of theatrical productions selected from that event. Barbara has written and produced at least eight other plays and musicals. Her poems, fiction and reviews have appeared in Heliotrope, Beloved on this Earth (anthology), House Organ, Poetry Northwest, The New York Quarterly, Lift, Apalachee Quarterly, 13th Moon and others. Ms. Blatner teaches Creative Writing and Composition at Yeshiva University . She received a Doctor of Arts in English from the SUNY-Albany, an M.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University , and a B.A. in Music Composition from Vassar College .

************

I hope to see you there!

Love & Peace,

JOHN