Tuesdays at Curley's

Welcome to PoemAlley, Stamford, Connecticut's eclectic venue for poets, poetry reading and discussion! Open to anyone living in Fairfield County and the surrounding area, we meet Tuesday nights at 7:30 pm at Curley's Diner on 62 Park Place (behind Target) . Come contribute, get something to eat, or simply listen!



Apr 24, 2012

Illuminating The Search For "Our True Reality"

This Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford, "The Mysteries of Light" poetry reading will honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of 1979 Nobel Laureate Odysseas Elytis and a creative career spanning over 40 years.

Odysseas Elytis
Crafting a form of poetry tapping elements from Ancient Greece, Byzantium and, in particular, contemporary Hellenism, Elytis tackled a broad range of topics with a concise, yet unapologetically romantic touch in a quest to reconstruct a mythology tailored to today's institutions.

West Nyack, New York-based poet and essayist Nick Samaras is the featured reader in a presentation including Faith Vicinanza, Pramila Venkateswaran (2011 Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Long Island Poet of the Year), George Wallace ( the first poet laureate of Suffolk County), and poet, painter/multimedia artist Mar Walker. (www.madmarwalker.com). PoemAlley facilitator Ralph Nazareth, Eleni Begetis Anastos, co-owner of Curley's Diner (weekly venue for the PA group), as well as Nick Miele, Rona Schenkerman, Eddie Wright, Eva-Maria Palevich, Carly Pierre and other PA members will also take part.
Nick Samaras








 Son of prominent Greek Orthodox clergyman and theologian Bishop Kallisto Samara, Nick Samaras was born in Patmos, Greece and has built a body of work enriched by stays in seven countries and thirteen states, first reflected in Hands of the Saddlemaker. The collection earned him the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for 1991. His poems have also appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, Poetry and other major publications. Read PA Advisory Committee Chair Bill Buschel's in-depth discussion with Nick from earlier this month here.

Elytis' The Monogram (1972)
Noteworthy milestones in Odysseas Elytis's own oeuvre include the early collections Orientations (1939) and Sun the First (1943), which unabashedly indulge in an open, free verse extollation of the warm sensuality of the sea,
skies, white cottages and ruin-dotted landscape of the Aegean islands. Holding rhyme and other popularly favored verse conventions as restrictive "vessels for the containment of the most heterogeneous material," Elytis prided himself on using French surrealism's emphasis on the subconscious and feeling to suit his own needs (namely, the promotion of human promise and renewal) and not the other way around.

"Axion Esti", an expansive patriotic counterpoint from 1959, was borne of intervening service on the Armenian front, a more grounded acknowledgment of contemporary Greek consciousness and a desire to address simultaneously where the world stood in the late 20th century and what it could become. Here's Mikis Theodorakis' musical interpretation of Elytis' three-part epic, which will be part of the program:



Speaking to the creative spirit of the event, program organizer Bill Buschel, who also hosts "Graffiti" on Hellenic Public Radio (91.5 COSMOS FM) observes, “I’m excited to hear how some of today’s finest poets, including: George Wallace, (past PA guest reader) Duane Esposito, Faith Vicinanza, Janet Krauss, and others, will approach the theme of 'The Mysteries of Light'. These are enormous talents whose skills have been honed through years of writing. I expect something magical to happen.”
George Wallace

Bill interviews Janet, Faith, Duane and Kathryn Fazio here on his blog, Just My Eyes. Duane gives two readings, both recorded by George Wallace, here and here, while Faith delivers a demonstrative performance of "Two Poems For My Grandson" below:


"I consider poetry a source of innocence full of revolutionary forces. It is my mission to direct these forces against a world my conscience cannot accept, precisely so as to bring that world through continual metamorphoses into greater harmony with my dreams. I am referring to a contemporary kind of magic which leads to the discovery of our true reality."--Odysseas Elytis


When:
3-5pm, Saturday, April 28, 2012

Where:
Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford
20 Forest Street
Stamford, CT

For further information contact:
Bill Buschel
Phone: 914-835-3092
Email: bill@billbuschel.com

Thanks to Christie Fountain of the UUSIS, The Mysteries of Light is listed at FCBuzz:
http://www.fcbuzz.org/events/literature/4985/

Apr 20, 2012

Celebrate National Poetry Month At the Fairfield University Bookstore Cafe

Phil Lemos
Look forward to presentations of poetry, prose and music tonight in the cafe at the Fairfield University Bookstore (former site of Borders) featuring Phil Lemos, Katie Schneider, Daisy Abreu, Jeanne DeLarm Neri, Jonathan Greenfield, Brian Hoover, Chris Madden and other members of the MFA in Creative Writing Group of Fairfield University.
Daisy Christina Abreu

Besides all being part of the university's MFA program, several of tonight's contributors also serve on the editorial board of Mason's Road, a literary/arts journal sponsored by Fairfield University (http://www.masonsroad.com).

As Fiction Editor, Phil Lemos writes the blog Life in the Philloverse (http://philloverse.blogspot.com/) and has published several short stories in the past year, including “Let It Go” and “BMW Supermodel". He is currently at work on a novel. You can follow him on Twitter.

Daisy Christina Abreu is Co-Editor of Creative Non-Fiction. A first generation Cuban-American born and raised in New York and New Jersey, Daisy also serves as New Haven's Deputy Director of the Town Green Special Services District and is on the Board of Directors of the Institute Library and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Her essay “Back and Forth” will be published in the spring 2012 issue of Label Me Latina/o (http://labelmelatin.com/). You can read her latest work and thoughts on Write Here, Write Now, her blog (http://daisywrite.blogspot.com/).  
Brian Hoover

Brian Hoover, Mason's Road Craft Essay/Writing Exercise Editor, is an MFA candidate in Creative Nonfiction and "thinks about writing all day long and invites you to parse that any way you wish."

When:
Friday, April 20, 2012
7 PM

Where:
Fairfield University Bookstore
1499 Post Road
Fairfield, CT 06824

Phone:
203-255-7756



Apr 17, 2012

Psyche, Self & Soul: A Poet’s Journey Into Words & Silence


In response to a request by his peers to define the psycho- analytic process, tonight's featured reader once described it as "... a clinical treatment that helps individuals feel real, competent and involved in their world (by addressing) those experiences... that block or distort achieving such integration."

In this spirit, Gerald J. Gargiulo, Ph. D., contributor to the forthcoming anthology Between Hours: A Collection of Poems by Psychoanalysts by Salman Akhtar, will discuss with PoemAlley steps in his own progression from a painful childhood toward wholeness, as recounted in his 2008 memoir, Broken Fathers/Broken Sons: A Psychoanalyst Remembers. Beginning with early refuge into classic literature and consideration of the priesthood in his teens, Gerald's journey of self-affirmation and healing eventually drew him to the healing of others, expressed through his present practice (split between Stamford and Manhattan), which places a sensitive emphasis on forgiveness and acceptance.

Not settling for confining his compassionate outreach to the customary one-to-one consultative setting, Gerald posts numerous commentaries on today's culture through a series of in-depth entries in his blog, "The Psychotherapist's Corner" (http://www.geraldjgargiulo.com/home/), assaying the enduring appeal of Van Gogh's art, what makes for a functional democracy and other topics.* If you would prefer to listen to his musings, click on "The Talking Cure", "Work: Finding Who We Are", or "Inside/Outside and the Problem of Anxiety" for some representative podcasts.

Gerald has also written Psyche, Self & Soul (2005) and has co-edited Soul on the Couch: Spirituality, Religion, and Morality in Contemporary Psychoanalysis (2003). Professionally, Gerald serves as a faculty member and former president of The Training Institute of the National Psychological Association of Psychoanalysis, as well as of the International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education. He has lectured extensively here and abroad and has published close to 100 articles for both lay and peer readers.

___
*Melancholia is a lavish, richly-layered speculation into the interpersonal, societal and even cosmological repercussions of submitting to an external, received definition of self and reality. Watch the trailer of the Lars von Trier below:



Apr 9, 2012

Dressing To The Nines At 7:15

In acknowledgement of National Poetry Month, this evening's featured speaker at Barnes & Noble's Open Mic is David Messineo, founder, publisher, researcher and editor of the highly-accoladed Sensations Magazine (www.sensationsmagazine.com), which will release its final regular issue on April 15, following a quarter-century's worth of celebrating freedom of speech and expression. In the thematic spirit of Formal, his 2006 collection of formal, structured and art-inspired, or ekphrastic verse, David will present his work wearing a tuxedo and invites the audience and fellow poets, if they like, to "dress to impress" for an elegant evening. 

Author of five previous collections, including First Impressions, Suburban Gothic and Restoration, David has shared his work in performance readings in 48 of the 50 states before turning 40--a feat attained by few others--and is one of fewer than 40 people in the United States to serve as a literary magazine publisher and poetry editor for over 25 years, earning him a 2009 New Jersey State Jefferson Award for Public Service and Sensations, a National American Literary Magazine Award three times from 1994 to 1996.

For his equal devotion to historical research into the craft, the New Jersey Institute of Technology gave David an Author Award in 1994 for his extensive "Rediscovering America in Poetry" series--the first multicultural collection of American poetry, spanning the years 1565 through 1700, which ran in Sensations serially from 1990 to 1999. Most recently, he also earned the 2011 Dwyer Award for Journalism in New Jersey History. 

Reflecting the magazine's uniquelly non-grant funded, independent commitment to community and social outreach, David Messineo is especially proud of Sensations' successful raising/distribution of $6,500 to the needy, including $2,400 to New Jersey-based food pantries in 2010 and 2011.   

Hosted by Frank Chambers and PoemAlley's Nick Miele, the Barnes & Noble's Open Mic Poetry program meets the second Monday of each month in the cookbook section on the main floor of the bookstore (located in the Stamford Down Center), beginning at 7:15 p.m.

For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
Stamford Town Center
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009, Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248

Apr 3, 2012

At War With A Government At War With Its Own Laws

In the spirit of Smedley Butler and Ron Kovic, poet, author and Korean War veteran Walter Piestch will present his critique of political corruption, globally- suffocating imperialism and creeping authoritarianism that has come to characterize American domestic and international affairs over the last 40 years.
 
In addition to his poetry, Walter will read this evening from They Stole Our Country: We're Taking Her Back!, his 2002 memoir recounting his unprecedented attempted citizen's arrest of a sitting President (read his testimony against Richard Nixon here under search entry "434 F.2d 861") and his efforts to press lawsuits against Washington's undeclared wars in Vietnam, Nicaragua and Iraq as far as the U.S. Supreme Court.

As an "evolutionary revolutionary" who sees no expression of poetry that is not political, Walter will also discuss a way back from the Homeland Security state, TSA gropings, military commissions, drone surveillance/assassinations and the NDAA, through a three-pointed proposal to "expand democracy", ultimately transitioning society away from a culture of perpetual fear, repression and pathological profiteering, to one of love and care.