Where Books Don’t Circulate, But Imaginations Do

Join Andrew Beccone this evening at the Franklin Street Works as he combines selected text and imagery to bring original, experiental meaning to the Reanimation Library, the current exhibit he founded, which opened at the FSW gallery April 6.

The Reanimation collection specializes in books that have fallen out of routine circulation with more standard institutions, yet transcend factual, cultural or ideological datedness due to their unique, often indelible, visual content. Rescued from thrift stores, stoop sales, and throw-away piles, the books are now presented as a resource for artists, writers, cultural archaeologists, and other parties seeking new creative inspiration and insight from something old.

Tonight’s “An Incomplete Portrait of the Reanimation Library” will offer several readings, comprised completely of excerpts from FSW branch holdings, married to projected visuals from the Library’s image archive.

The random-access methodology of Beccone’s presentation is both a demonstration of but one way ‘patrons’ can make expressive use of the Library (photocopying and scanning facilities are available), as well as a means to give the collection of the Stamford branch its own voice: (While) “most of it was not intended to be (read aloud)… I have started unearthing small fragments--from a sentence to a few paragraphs--that strike me as particularly unusual."

Tonight’s free performance is one of eight programs Franklin Street Works organized for the art space’s current group exhibition Strange Invitation, which includes the Reanimation Library branch, featuring some 40 locally-sourced titles and artworks by Brooklyn-based artist Pradeep Dalal.

An artist and writer, Dalal’s work was recently included in exhibitions at Higher Pictures in New York and the Aljira Center for Contemporary Art in Newark. His reviews and interviews have run in ARTWURL, Teaching Photo and Village Voice.

The performance takes place in the Reanimation Library FSW branch located in the upstairs gallery and cafe space. Strange Invitation runs through June 16.

About the Reanimation Library:

Founded in 2006 in the Brooklyn-based Proteus Gowanus interdisciplinary gallery and reading room, the Reanimation Library is a small Independent Presence Library which, while non-circulating, is open to the public and, beyond encouraging reading and learning, strives to inspire the production of new art, as well. Now represented by five short-term branches in gallery spaces around the country, the next one to open will be in Mexico City this August.

Situated in an old row house near the UCONN campus, Franklin Street Works is less than one hour from New York City via Metro North and about one mile (a 15 minute walk) from the Stamford train station. On-street parking is available on Franklin Street (metered until 6 pm except on Sunday), and paid parking is available nearby in a lot on Franklin Street and in the Summer Street Garage (100 Summer Street), behind Target.

When:

Thursday, May 30, 2013

6:30-8 PM

Where:

Franklin Street Works

41 Franklin Street

Stamford, CT 06901

Contact:

Terri C. Smith, Creative Director
203-253-0404

terri@franklinstreetworks.org 

Bursting Out At DoubleTree

Tomorrow’s “A Day of Contemporary Music” at the DoubleTree Hotel in Norwalk will feature Debbie Hawkins, Rachel Carruthers, Steve DeTroy and nearly 20 other jazz performers over the course of six hours of live music, beginning at noon. 

Organized by musician and enthusiastic PoemAlley member Neddy Smith, this festival is held in support of the local food bank (be sure to bring a non-perishable item along with a suggested donation of $15).

Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Neddy grew up immersed in the music of Motown, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and the Montego Bay Boys & Girls Club, among many other influences. Falling deeply in love with Funk, Jazz and Latin grooves, as well as regional Jamaican music, Neddy began working professionally in the 1970s with numerous acts prior to heading The Banana Boat Club with singing sensations Alvin J. Brown and Sweeney Williams and went on to study with acclaimed pianist and Julliard graduate, the late Cecil Lloyd, to whom Neddy credits advancing his education in Jazz--especially in regard to musical theory, arrangement and composition.

Neddy Smith jamming with friends

Subsequent tutelage under renowned guitarist Ernest Ranglin ingrained in Neddy the value of stretching bass performance to its creative limits at a young age—an infectiously creative ethos he has translated into all his later endeavors, spanning music instruction, live programming and broadcast graphics, as well as the original songs compiled in 2008's Turnaround. The pulsing reggae/rock foundation of “Walking Talking (with my friends on the street)” makes the song a particular highlight of the album. Here’s the original unreleased 1987 video version, performed by Neddy with his band Transwave...

... and below, a clip from Steve DeTroy (performing with his band), one of the 17 artists contributing their musical passion to the charity event:

Find out about Neddy’s new album in the works, Bursting Out, along with his other activities and services, at NedGJean International.

When:

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Noon-6 PM

Where:

DoubleTree Hotel

789 Connecticut Avenue

Norwalk, CT 06854

Contact:

Neddy Smith

Phone: 203-838-3959

Email: info@nedgjean.com

With An Open Ear For The Past... And A Constructive Eye To The Future

David Messineo

The real Thanksgiving

David Messineo returns to Barnes and Noble’s Open Mic program this Monday evening after little over a year, this time in the engaging guise of a trans-temporal poet, here to share observations amassed from six centuries’ worth of American/pre-Columbian history. 

Stamford is the second stop in a nine-city tour dubbed “Fading Into the Future” in support of his latest collection Historiopticon: A Rebalancing of American History (Blurb, 2012), which, at 324 pages, is his longest collection to date, begun twenty years ago and launched on the 500^th anniversary of Ponce de Leon’s landfall in Florida.  

First Mother's Day (for Peace), 1870s

In Stamford, David will concentrate mainly on obscure and prominent episodes from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From the first documented murder of a gay individual in American history, to the Salem witchcraft trials, David will share about one poem per decade of subjective historical honesty and visionary anticipation. The April debut reading in New York on Sensations' Youtube channel reveals his new project’s pronounced anachronistic intimacy (with a seasonal nod to National Poetry Month).

To date, David Messineo has published eight volumes of poetry, including First Impressions, Suburban Gothic (Snake Hill Press, 1999), Restoration: Poems andOther Writings (Snake Hill Press, 2002) and Historiopticon. Trailblazer, a forthcoming collection, will represent his 50th anniversary of poetry writing and the start of his sixth decade in the poetry field. Enjoy a sample reading from 2006’s Formal (Snake Hill Press), courtesy of Nick Miele, here. 

1990s Enola Gay exhibit controversy

Among the twenty longest-serving poetry editors and independent literary magazine publishers in America, David is a three-time-winner in the American Literary Magazine Awards for Sensations Magazine (www.sensationsmag.com), which will cease operation at the end of the year following fifty issues and numerous supplements and special one-off  publications produced over nearly three decades.

He received the Dwyer Award for Journalism in New Jersey History for the magazine’s three history research documents and a New Jersey State Jefferson Award for Public Service, both in 2009.

Tulsa "Black Wall Street" holocaust (1921)

Hosted by Frank Chambers and PoemAlley's Nick Miele, the Barnes & Noble 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

100 Greyrock Place Suite H009

Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248