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!
PoemAlley
members and friends are invited to read a poem or share a memory in
tribute to Caroline Holme, a beloved and involved member of the
Curley's Tuesday night community in Stamford and the Hudson Valley
Writers Center in New York. Caroline passed away this past weekend.
A
regular member of PoemAlley, Caroline was known both for her generous
feedback on others' work as she was for her own pieces submitted to
the group, which were prized by Jennifer Franklin, her instructor at
the Hudson Valley Writing Center, for their blending
of the "hyperbole
of the metaphysical (with) the passionate interiority of the
confessional".
Below
is a portion of a moving letter, courtesy of Bill Buschel, from
Caroline's brother, John, to Jennifer Franklin bespeaking Caroline's
inspiring devotion to her favorite form of writing:
“As
you know, Caroline loved to write poetry. She was thoughtful,
courageous and assiduous in her craft. Your skillful guidance helped
her fulfill a deep desire to express herself honestly to her readers,
and receive their understanding and acceptance in return. Caroline
was so grateful for the guidance and understanding you offered her,
and mentioned to me in several conversations how much she appreciated
your gifted teaching."
Caroline
also studied with Elaine Sexton at the Sarah Lawrence Writers'
Institute. Her family
invites friends, fellow writers and classmates to attend either or
both of the following gatherings:
As attested to by the numerous interspersed sentiments expressed below by past and present PA members since the May 19
passing of Hobart (Hoby) Rosen, the wit, inspiring productivity and generous life
experience of this eighty-nine-year-old poet, photographer/artist has inspired a swell of treasured memories among friends and creative associates of arts organizations in the Stamford area and beyond.
"He
was such a lovely man. A gentle man, an artist and a man who loved life."
--Bill Buschel
A shaper of words as much as light, bronze and other media in
his Canal Street studio space at the Loft Artists Association (see the interview below beginning at 3:49), Baltimore-born Hoby initially studied film at Johns Hopkins and the
University of Southern California, fought in the Battle of the Bulge during
World War II as a nineteen-year-old infantryman (which he recounted as part of
his featured presentation at Curley’s in 2012) and went on to work in the animation
field (see the personable puppet characterizations in the clip from a stop-motion animated version of Hansel & Gretel near the end of this post).
While convalescing in an English hospital following the war, his
extensive romantic correspondence with Norma Lipman, his cousin’s university
roommate, culminated in marriage during a Manhattan blizzard in 1948.
Less than ten years later, his traumatic wartime experiences
were ultimately addressed with a tranquil, life-affirming undertaking in the
form of the Point O’Pines camp for girls, located in New York’s beautiful
Adirondack Mountains. Founded by Norma and Hoby, the camp is now in its
fifty-seventh season and is still going strong. The galactic, long view is
likewise contrasted with miracles implicit in everyday life and small-scale
observation in his reading of “Questions for You”, found here as part of his
multi-disciplinary Youtube page.
"He
was a complete man. I shall miss him. No doubt we all will."
--John
O'Keefe
Upon learning of
his death, one of the many reminiscences from campers (known as “Hoby’s Girls”)
and staffers perfectly represents the quiet enthusiasm and muti-layered humor
for which he was so well known in Stamford: “"I never knew anyone who
could pull off such stern looks with so much love behind them." After
retiring from the camp, he continued his support of youth through the Horizons Art Happening program in New Canaan, where he shared his love of sculpture with children.
Predeceased by Norma,
and his daughter, Emily, Hoby is remembered by by his son, Andy Rosen (Paula),
daughter, Julie Bowman (Tom), and companion, Sandy Semel, along with five grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, cousins, nieces, and nephews.
"… this is a moment to reflect on the
moments we each have to use our lives to the fullest and creatively not put off
anything we need to do.
I met Hoby at the
Artists Studios down on Canal Street - he had a studio there and patiently
showed me his work - so it was very wonderful to meet him again
at Curleys. He was so artful in turning a phrase that had stark
simplicity and layers of meaning. I miss him.
Peace to you and everyone in our Curley's family."
--Renee Neely
"Hoby
was an amazing man. I miss him all ready. This is so sad."
It is his series
of commentaries and interviews broadcast on Graffiti,
the arts program he hosts on Hellenic Public Radio (Cosmos FM 91.5), however, that
constitutes the main platform for his interest in Greek history, culture and
the ancient world. Graffiti guests
have included novelist Jeff Siger, author of the Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis
mystery series, and Professor William A.P. Childs, co-curator of the Princeton
University archaeological exhibit “City
of Gold: Tomb and Temple in Ancient Cyprus” from 2012.
Speaking of video,
Life in a Day is one of numerous
engagingly provocative pieces shot and edited by Bill in his ongoing assay of the
creative and human scene in the Connecticut/New York area:
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.
Videographer/blogger, poet/narrative artist and former PoemAlley Advisory Committee Chair, Bill Buschel now applies
his gently authoritative vocal presence in two prestigious venues this month.
Cornelia Street Cafe
Saturday
night’s Greek American Writers at Manhattan’s 30-year storied Cornelia Street Cafe—urban
crossroads of culinary and creative authenticity--is hosted by poet,
essayist/translator Dean Kostos (whose 2005 collection, LastSupper of the Senses, from Spuyten Duyvil,was required reading
for a course in alternative poetics at Duke University).
Dean Kostos
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Bill’s sensitive commitment to
Greek culture/mythology and contemporary social observation, expressed through
his Graffiti arts interview program on Hellenic Public Radio, involvement
with assorted PA programs and his blog, Just My Eyes, is answered amply by Cheryl’s bi-cultural
input as a New York spoken-word performer, much informed by her still-vibrant Trinidadian
roots. Click on the title below to find out about her most recent collection, Convincing the Body (Vintage Entity Press, 2005).
As a painter and crossword
puzzle designer, Gary J. Whitehead recites selections from the
forthcoming A Glossary of Chickens (Princeton University Press). A recipient of
the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, his accomplishments as a Hudson
Valley-based English teacher were also acknowledged with a Princeton University
Distinguished Secondary School Teaching Award.
Beginning
June 24, Bill, himself, will head to the Hudson Valley to share what he knows of broadcasting, drama, poetry and even juggling to teach a three-session course
on public speaking, whether for poetry, storytelling, or even business speaking
for the corporate lecture circuit-bound.
Hudson Valley Writers’ Center
Great Speakers Are Made, Not Born is part of the 2013 summer curriculum
of the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center, a resource for advancement of
the art and craft of writing located in the old Philipse Manor train station and
founded in 1983 by the celebrated poet Margo Taft Stever, in tandem
with Slapering Hol Press, the publishing arm of the HVWC.
The Hudson Line (Main
Street Rag, 2012) is her latest chapbook; Margo has also read at the Geraldine
Dodge Poetry Festival and the Shanghai International Studies University in
China.
Bill
has spoken and/or led workshops on Storytelling on the Radio, Shakespeare at 500
and Alexander the Great: A Study in Blue among other subjects. Most recently,
he wrote Spreading Mom, a ten-minute animated feature which premiered April 7 at
Stamford, CT’s Avon Theatre Film Center.
Get a feel
for his performance style from a Stamford Barnes & Noble Open Mic reading
from 2012:
As course attendees
will learn, purpose, theme, intended audience—even setting, all have a role in
enlivening one’s delivery so that it enlivens your listeners. In "The Lunch Stop", the highly
personable, in-character approach of Geoffrey Lewis and Celestial Navigations, the musical
storytelling trio, demonstrates how affecting the results can be:
Following her previous guest appearance in the Stamford area at Curley's Diner last October, last night's Barnes & Noble Open Mic program shared the work of featured poet Kaaren Whitney, a
former Connecticut resident and contemporary universalist, who has run a homeopathic practice in
the UK for more than forty years. Devoted
to the promotion of the environment and a reawakening of humanity's
spiritual ties to it, Kaaren serves as a guardian of a local
labyrinth and Tree Circle in England. Much of her work inspired by these themes
can be found in Painting to Poem (2006), Leaves of Hope (2006), A
Book of Graces (2009), Shades of Light and Dark (also 2009), as well
as several anthologies. You can find her latest work on the prose and poetry webzine Ink, Sweat and Tears, to which she is a frequent contributor. Click on Bill Buschel's video above from her 2011 PoemAlley reading to get the flavor of her material and presentation.
A
commended winner of the Fakenham
Poetry Competition in 2008, Kaaren has read at the Halesworth Fringe
Festival and other open mic events in the United States, the UK and
as removed as Australia. Kaaren's work often accentuates the Living Wheel of the Year, an English website celebrating Celtic festivals
and different aspects of nature culture.
Hosted
by Frank Chambers and PoemAlley's Nick Miele, Barnes &
Noble Open Mic 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 7:30 p.m.
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
PoemAlley
members and friends are invited to read a poem or share a memory in
tribute to Caroline Holme, a beloved and involved member of the
Curley's Tuesday night community in Stamford and the Hudson Valley
Writers Center in New York. Caroline passed away this past weekend.
