Revel in an authentic mix of live music and poetry, presented on the front steps of the Unitarian Universalist Society in
Stamford!
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| Chris Belden |
Open to all and free of charge, Café Night: One-Night Stand for
the Arts represents a distinctly casual option from customary summertime entertainment,
showcasing the live music of multi-instrumentalist Chris Cortigiano and screenwriter/novelist Chris Belden
(2012’s Carry-On is his well-received
second title; Songs About Anything and Camouflage are two albums of original songs).
Regional poets Faith Vicinanza, Mar Walker, "Professor” Arturo Pfister and Linsey Morse provide engaging and varied spoken-word counterpoints.
Regional poets Faith Vicinanza, Mar Walker, "Professor” Arturo Pfister and Linsey Morse provide engaging and varied spoken-word counterpoints.
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| Faith Vicinanza |
Founder of Bethel’s popular Wednesday Night Poetry Series, Faith has
penned several collections, including Husband
(2008) and In the Thick of It (1996),
both from Hanover Press, her own Newtown-based publishing house.
Touching plays an elegant dual
role, both in the tactile and emotional sense, in “Confession”, which is used as a case
study of Faith’s creative methodology in this interview with Poetry Liner Notes’
Robin Elizabeth Sampson:
Confession
When I would lie jumbled across the length of you –
all that was lost between us a little more or less
each day, or pushed aside – always arching
over the not-lost, the not-pushed-aside –
I pretended not to lean to the curve of sorrow's belly,
your hand on my knee, your tongue in my mouth
and then we would stumble, or is it that I stumbled
and nothing ever changed, black always claiming
to be something paler, cherry blossom pink perhaps
or simple yellow. I do not miss holding myself apart,
a defense against your pointed intellect. Oh, but I miss
your wicked sense of humor. I don't miss wanting
something more, or thinking there was something
more to be wanted. I miss my head on your shoulder.
Please forgive me. For this, it is too late to make amends.
For the rest of everything that faltered between us,
I forgive us both.
When I would lie jumbled across the length of you –
all that was lost between us a little more or less
each day, or pushed aside – always arching
over the not-lost, the not-pushed-aside –
I pretended not to lean to the curve of sorrow's belly,
your hand on my knee, your tongue in my mouth
and then we would stumble, or is it that I stumbled
and nothing ever changed, black always claiming
to be something paler, cherry blossom pink perhaps
or simple yellow. I do not miss holding myself apart,
a defense against your pointed intellect. Oh, but I miss
your wicked sense of humor. I don't miss wanting
something more, or thinking there was something
more to be wanted. I miss my head on your shoulder.
Please forgive me. For this, it is too late to make amends.
For the rest of everything that faltered between us,
I forgive us both.
Copyright 2008, Faith Vicinanza
Faith’s
friend, poet/painter/songwriter Mar Walker was editor of the Bent Pin Quarterly from 2007-2009, which
is archived here.
Mar
took part in the 2011 National Poetry Slam in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is a
member emeritus of the Shijin Poetry Troupe (Undone Poems by
Shijin appeared in 2008 via Hanover). A devout agnostic, Mar considers
matters of dogma and disbelief in her latest chapbook from 2011, Tabernacle of Bees. Enjoy this reading of
“What Is”, originally written for PA's April 2012 Mysteries of Light presentation (also at the UUSIS), where Mar butts the evanescent trials of human pro-/regress against the abidance of Nature and time with a forthright, yet reassuring intimacy:
Besides producing several collections, Mar has placed individual pieces in Common Ground Review, Connecticut River Review and Fairfield Review, among other publications.
“Professor” Arturo Pfister embodies the humor, pathos and unique spice of the Big Easy in his collection My Name Is New Orleans: 40 Years of Poetry and Other Jazz (Margaret Media, 2009), as well as in this representative performance from 2007:
Learn more about Arturo and his storied hometown at his blog.
 |
| Linsey Jayne Morse |
Girls
learn at very young ages
that outer beauty is the water-
oasis in the desert they crave.
They are taught
to smile in plaster of Paris,
hypocrites behind closed doors.
They cut themselves in secret, starve
for passion.
Each young lady
feigning optimism
and poise, accepts her place
below male fantasies,
above the unsightly.
They learn to heave aside the weak, to shun the strong
and not to trust anyone,
in a world of facades,
mascara
and hair spray.
learn at very young ages
that outer beauty is the water-
oasis in the desert they crave.
They are taught
to smile in plaster of Paris,hypocrites behind closed doors.
They cut themselves in secret, starve
for passion.
Each young lady
feigning optimism
and poise, accepts her place
below male fantasies,
above the unsightly.
They learn to heave aside the weak, to shun the strong
and not to trust anyone,
in a world of facades,
mascara
and hair spray.
Copyright
2009, Linsey Morse
Funded through a CAPP
grant from the City of Stamford, Café Night is co-sponsored by The Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling and Education.
Donations welcome.
Where:
UUSIS,
20 Forest Street (directly across from the Avon Theatre)
When:
6-8 PM, Saturday, August
10, 2013
Contact:
Nick Miele at 203-504-1027; nmiele@aircastle.com
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