JOEL ALLEGRETTI reads from THRUM Tues, 7/13 at 7 P.M.

Event: Word for Word Presents Poetry
Date: Tuesday July 13, 2010
Time: 7PM - 8:30PM
Place: Bryant Park Reading Room, West 42nd Street & 6th Avenue, New York City

American Poet JOEL ALLEGRETTI reads from THRUM (Poets Wear Prada, March 2010) and other work when Word for Word Presents Poetry in Bryant Park this Tuesday, July 13 from 7PM to 8:30PM. Joining him at the podium will be Timothy Liu, Jacob Scheier and Jeff McDaniel. This event is free and open to the public.

THRUM is Allegretti's 3rd collection of poetry and includes 22 poems on 20 string instruments or chordophones. Preview his book at http://www.previewthebook.com/book.php?id=2462

Signed copies of THRUM will be available for sale at this event courtesy of Kinokuniya Bookstore at Bryant Park.

Rain Venue(s):
*The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen
20 West 44th Street (between 5th & 6th Avenues)

*Not all rooms in The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen are handicapped accessible - we are sorry for the inconvenience.


THRUM
Poems by Joel Allegretti
ISBN 978-0-9841844-4-6
6" x 9" Saddle Stitched, 38 pp.
$12.00 (+ $2 S&H by Mail Order)
Release Date: March 2010
Perfect Bound Edition Now Available from Create Space
www.createspace.com/3447574
and on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Thrum-Poems-Joel-Allegretti/dp/0984184449/



In Thrum Joel Allegretti, deftly and delightfully, strums his magical musical instrument, which is poetry, as he forges fresh forms of songs and stories that are inspired by strummers' strings. “Context is everything,” Allegretti reminds us, and we’re planted in the heart of a global ancient/modern orchestra. Prepare yourself for the revelatory performance.

Martine Bellen
Author of Tales of Murasaki and Other Poems,
1997 National Poetry Series selection

Joel Allegretti's latest collection of poems is as enjoyable as it is different. Thrum takes the reader on a journey that explores known musical instruments, such as the mandolin, dulcimer and fiddle, as well as some not-so-known instruments, such as the oud, koto and theorbo. But what makes this journey unique is that each instrument is in a sense personified as the emotive element of each instrument is brought to life. Allegretti does a wonderful job tuning every poem so that the music of each instrument is realized again and again in the words on the page. An intriguing and must read for anyone who has a sense of all that culminates in the commingling of the arts.

Raymond Hammond
Editor, The New York Quarterly



About the Author

Joel Allegretti is the author of The Plague Psalms, which appeared in 2000 and is now in its third edition, and Father Silicon, selected by The Kansas City Star as one of 100 Noteworthy Books of 2006. Allegretti’s work has appeared in many national journals, including The New York Quarterly, Margie, The Laurel Review, Art/Life Limited Editions, Rattapallax, Slipstream, Confrontation, and Xcp Cross-Cultural Poetics. He is represented in the anthology Chance of a Ghost (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005), and his poem in that collection received an Honorable Mention in the 2006 edition of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, published by St. Martin’s Press. In April 2009, Kean University in New Jersey presented the world premiere of a song cycle based on Allegretti’s poetry, “A Cycle by the Sea” by Frank Ezra Levy, who served several decades as cellist with the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra and whose symphonic work is available in the American Classics series on Naxos. Allegretti is a graduate of New York University and lives in Northern New Jersey. His website is www.joelallegretti.com

David Elsasser at Poets-On-White Thur, July 15 at 7 P.M.

David Elsasser
will feature at

Poets-On-White

with Adriana Scopino
and Sarah Sarai

Thursday, July 15

7:00 p.m.

$4 Admission
Open Mic

Hosted by
Jack Tricarico
Evie Ivy
Cindy Hochman

Space on White
81 White Street, @Bway
New York, NY 10013
(212) 227-8600
Subway: N/R/J/6 to Canal Street

http://www.spaceonwhite.com/

Poets-on-White Thursday, August 19

Poets-on-White

Austin Alexis
Patricia Carragon
Karen Neuberg

Thursday, August 19
7:00pm

$4 Admission
Open Mic

Hosted by
Jack Tricarico
Evie Ivy
Cindy Hochman

Space on White
81 White Street, @Bway
New York, NY 10013
(212) 227-8600
Subway: N/R/J/6 to Canal Street

http://www.spaceonwhite.com/

More from John J.Trause...

Dear Family & Friends,

Last night’s annual Open Reading was well attended with some regular participants, with some features and participants from the past, and with some new faces and voices. Sondra Singer Beaulieu started the evening with her clear and informative lecture on how William Carlos Williams made a point in creating an American identity and stance as a writer and citizen.

I continue to co-host with Jane Fisher, Rutherford Free Public Library Director, 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 Davidson Garrett and Caterina Belvedere, two poets with rich poetic voices and diverse backgrounds, as the features on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 at 7:00 p. m. As usual this monthly program will also feature the words of William Carlos Williams 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. Download a program flyer here:

www.rutherfordlibrary.org/aug2010poetry.pdf

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 published last year volume 2 of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow anthology including five poems of mine, those of many others associated with the WCW Poetry Cooperative and literary life in Rutherford, and some excellent essays. 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

By George, Held's Done it Again

Lebron to Announce Retirement

By George Held

Winesburg, OH. (INS) – ESPN has announced that LeBron James, the most famous American since Michael Jackson, will hold a prime-time press conference on Thursday, July 8. At that time, most of his 100 million FaceBook friends assume, he will announce which NBA team he will graciously allow to sign him to a $1 billion contract. Now, however, Briney Sudsacker, the Pulse of Ohio basketball authority, tells INS that LeBron has told him that he will instead announce his retirement.

Briney, 65, who coached LeBron to a second-place finish in the Sherwood Anderson Classic for Ohio ten-year-olds, frequently meets James for supper at the Winesburg Pizza Hut, and it was

there just last night that The King let Briney in on his secret.

“He told me,” Sudsacker said, “he’s fed up with the fairy dust, the grueling travel schedule in his private jet and being in the limelight. All this publicity has just gone too far for his natural humility, so he’s going live in prime-time to bow out.”

When asked if he knows LeBron’s plans, Sudsucker said he was sworn to secrecy, but hinted that the key to the future lies in the hoopster’s nickname, The King. After a few more beers at George’s Tavern on Main Street, however, Sudsucker spilled the LeBron beans.

“That young man” he confided, “has always had a religious streak. For him ‘The King’ actuallymeans Christ the King. Get it?

Yep, LeBron is leaving this weekend for a monastery in northern Minnesota, where he is going to become a Carmelite nun.”

As if there wasn’t already enough interest in LeBron’s press conference, ESPN is now expecting the highest ratings in TV history on Thursday at 9 PM. INS (Infauxtainment News Service) will be there with instant reporting on FaceBook, Twitter, and UPS teletype. Stay tuned.

More Awesome Austin News...

Austin Alexis has a poem, "Snowflakes in July," appearing in Quill and Parchment.
http://www.quillandparchment.com/


His short story "Behind the Cathedral" is being used as a text by the Situ Dance Company in an evening performance on July 9 in the Woodstock Diamond Dance Festival at the Woodstock Diamond Sokolow Dance Theatre in Woodstock, New York.
http://www.wkze.com/node/5112


He will be a featured reader in the Saturn Series at Nightingale's Lounge, 213 E. 13 St., corner of 2nd Ave. and 13 St. on Mon., July 12 @ 7:00. Open reading is included. $3 donation, plus patronize the bar. $10 minimum.
http://www.supolo.com/Saturn_Series_Poetry.html

Peter Chelnick and Susan Maurer Hit The Epoch Times

Read about Peter Chelnik's and Susan Maurer's interview at the Poets House Showcase in the July 1st issue of The Epoch Times

online at

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/38392/

Poets House Showcase A Literary Treasure Trove For Modern Bards

By Annie Wu

Poetry lovers are open to peruse the over 2,000 titles at the 18th Annual Poets House Showcase at 10 River Terrace near Battery Park. (Annie Wu/ The Epoch Times)

With a collection of over 50,000 volumes of poetry books and an impressive panoramic view that overlooks the Hudson River, there are more than enough reasons for any poetry enthusiast to take a trip down to Poets House by Battery Park in New York City.

“Can I die here?” remarked a Poets House patron.

This summer, there is yet another incentive, in the form of the 18th Annual Poets House Showcase, where all the poetry books published in the United States in the past year are on display for the public. This year, there are over 2,000 titles on exhibit, published by both large and small presses, and some by artists’ collectives. The showcase includes chapbooks, which are small booklets of poems, multimedia works, and poetry in other quirky presentations, including as scrolls inserted in cigarette cases.

The showcase includes anthologies, scholarly works, and translated poetry in 26 different languages. Many of the translated texts are presented in both English and the original language, including a translation of Chinese philosopher Lao Zi’s seminal work, “Tao Te Ching” (also spelled Dao De Jing).

Maggie Balistreri, the librarian at Poets House, explained that the showcase is all-inclusive and democratic, intending to include all the poetry that they can find. Poets are also invited to send in their work. The showcase includes first editions of works and those hot off the press, contemporary poetry as well as poetry from earlier periods. Every book is donated by publishers and artists.

“It’s an annual harvest of the field that is poetry,” said executive director of Poets House, Lee Briccetti, who conceived of the idea in the early years of the House’s history. With the books organized by publisher, visitors can see the breadth and diversity of the art, reminding them that poetry is still very much alive. This showcase is a place for poetry lovers to explore a wide range of literature that one cannot find in bookstores, and to expose them to “the different kinds of poetry and find one that’s bound to be right for you,” said Briccetti.

At the same time, Briccetti noted that through the showcase, poets get to be documented into the history of poetry. A large, eclectic crowd of up-and-coming poets showed up at the opening reception of the showcase on June 28. Some were poets who also ran their own reading series, which then developed into a publishing press, like Patricia Carragon’s Brownstone Poets based in Brooklyn, and Rachel Levitsky’s Belladonna Books.

Others like Peter Chelnik and Eugenia Macer-Story are poets and playwrights. Chelnik describes himself as an “American Highway poet,” who was once nominated for the coveted Pushcart Poetry Prize. Macer-Story writes about supernatural phenomena and also composes music for off-off-Broadway musicals.

Susan Maurer published her first e-book of poems called “Perfect Dark” from a Swedish publisher, ungovernable press. Meanwhile, Alan Baxter was at the reception to view the works written by poets from Kairos Poetry Café, a café in Greenwich Village where he is the curator and host of open mics that give poets a space to perform their work, often to music and under “the theme of peace and justice,” Baxter said.

These poets all have their works exhibited at the showcase, which will run from June 28 to July 31. After the showcase, the books will be moved to the library’s growing collection upstairs, which is also open to the public year-long.

Poets House is located at 10 River Terrace, New York, NY. Go to http://www.poetshouse.org/ for more information.

Susan Maurer's "Perfect Dark" Reviewed by George Wallace on BigCityLit

Peering Through Perfect Dark: New Poems by Susan Maurer

Reviewed by George Wallace on BigCityLit Spring 2010

http://www.bigcitylit.com/bigcitylit.php?inc=spring_2010/reviews/wallace

ungovernable press; e-book, 2009; 57 pages 
Free download at: 
http://www.ungovernablepress.weebly.com

Book Trailer: THRUM by Joel Allegretti

George Held Selections on The Hyper Texts

If you click on George Held's name under "Spotlight," you'll find a collection of his poems, including some that will appear this fall in his book AFTER SHAKESPEARE: SELECTED SONNETS (Červená Barva Press).

http://www.thehypertexts.com/

Happy July 4th William Carlos Williams Reading and More

Happy Independence Day!

John J. Trause will co-host with Jane Fisher, Rutherford Free Public Library Director, this excellent series, now in its fifth year, so please come by for this upcoming reading. Mark your calendars now!

NOTE that this series will be on FIRST Wednesdays each month from now on!

The WCW Poetry Cooperative of Southern Bergen County is holding the annual Open Reading as our next feature on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 7:00 p. m. All poets are invited to share their work in a full evening of poetry. As usual this monthly program will also feature the words of William Carlos Williams 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. Download a program flyer here:

www.rutherfordlibrary.org/july10poetryR.pdf

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 published last year volume 2 of The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow anthology including five poems of mine, those of many others associated with the WCW Poetry Cooperative and literary life in Rutherford, and some excellent essays. 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.

OUTSIDE GIRL by Cyndi Dawson