A Night With Three Downtown Muses Of Contact, Caring And Community

Cherished experiences as both beneficiaries and devotees of writing, interlaced with a continuing zeal for reaching out, support and belonging unify the work of the three featured PoemAlley speakers sharing the podium next Monday evening as part of a special Barnes & Noble Open Mic reading.

Adriana's the one in the white coat...

While formally hailing from Norwalk, Adriana Rexon confesses her Tuesday nights at Curley’s have made Stamford feel like home. She has studied poetry at Princeton with such acclaimed names as Tracy K.Smith and James Richardson. But her first and best teacher has always been her father, who used to read poetry aloud to her at bedtime instead of Good Night Moon. As a result, she has come to trust the sound of words more than their meanings--which exist both as an inspiration and an approach to her work.

Adriana continues to sate her phonic fascination by learning foreign languages, so far having tackled Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, French and Persian—a few of which she might even be pretty good at now!  

Rona D. Schenkerman, earliest of the trio to join PoemAlley, is a social worker who believes that everyone has a gift, though some just haven't found theirs yet. Besides the teens with whom she works, her numerous passions are dancing, poetry, animals and nature.

Herb Davison (1931-2009)

Her mother taught her how to read and she's been playing with poetry for as long as she can remember. Much like Adriana, upon first discovering Curley's she hasn't left “home" since. Rona is indebted to her friend and beloved PA alumnus Herb Davison (now writing poetry in the clouds) for introducing her to the diner’s Tuesday night family, of whom she remains thankful and awed. Some of Rona’s favorite contributions are reproduced in PoemAlley collections such as Wednesdays at Curley’s (Yuganta Press, 2006); most recently, she has placed poetry in And Then, Robert Roth’s literary magazine.

A Brooklyn girl at heart, Roberta Strom resides in Stamford, where she's still on the hunt for a decent slice of pizza. She speaks a little Chinese, is a free spirit, loves dancing and greyhounds. An enthusiastic Curley’s regular, Roberta lights up the place every Tuesday with her direct and heartfelt, all-stops-pulled-out pieces.

Hosted by Frank Chambers, 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 Town Center), beginning at 7:15 p.m.

 

For more information, contact:

Barnes & Noble

100 Greyrock Place, Suite H009

Stamford, CT 06906

203-323-1248

Souls Who Knew Things

Hoby Rosen in his studio at
Loft Artists Association

This evening PoemAlley will be holding a special group reading in front of Curley’s Diner to honor the memories and contributions of Herb Davison, Alex McDonald and Hoby Rosen, three cherished members who have passed away in recent years.

Fellow poets will gather to read some of their favorite pieces compiled for distribution by Veronica Jones in Columbus Park, embodying three lifetimes’ experience, moving observation and humor, to be followed by dinner inside.

Below is a tribute to Herb (killed on his way to PoemAlley five years ago), written by Curley’s co-owner, Eleni Anastos Begetis:

Herb Davison

At the end of your voyage, of your Stygian ride
Heed not the ebb tides with the death of the light-
dark rises shadows in the pond of the dead-
Of people like us, loved ones whom you left behind,
Lest you torture yourself those long days and restless nights.
But in the full moon, when the earth swims in static,
On those Tuesday nights when our club is alive,
Climb to the granite hills and look up to the sky.
In every star is the face of a poet,
In each breath of the wind is a poem.
Within our hearts there is sorrow,
Within our minds there is a word of wonder.

Even when you don't hear our electric comments to celebrate the spirits as we orbit,
The simple in life, our passion for poetry--to which you gave your life,
I know you are sure we speak of you as though you never left us,
Because your 'soul knows things,' like mine.

Hoby and Alex McDonald at Curley's

Besides their writing, the output of these men’s lives have encompassed--directly and indirectly--a remarkable range of areas, with profound impacts on family, friends, community and the region, from Hoby’s sculptural work and his co-founding of a summer camp for girls, Herb’s jewelry-making and his striking self-designed geodesic residence in Stamford, to Alex’s contribution of a state political figure via his son, Andrew J. McDonald, currently serving as Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Find out more about some these sorely-missed friends here.

Where:
Curley’s Diner
62 W. Park Place
(between Target and Columbus Park)

When:
Tuesday
September 2, 2014
7 pm