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

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