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.
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| 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
As president of the Fairfield County branch of the
Connecticut Poetry Society (now, in its forty-fourth year and spanning ten
chapters with the addition of Farmington Valley), tomorrow’s featured poet at
Curley’s is Frank Chambers, who will be reciting material drawn mainly from his
commitment to his family and, in particular, what he terms affectionately as “the
four young muses masquerading as children”.
Frank’s Open Mic program, which he has facilitated
faithfully for many years each month at the Stamford Barnes & Noble, has
been a valuable venue for expressions of hope, humor, honest outrage and
humanity by poets and essayists, not just from the immediate vicinity, but from as far
as across the nation and the world. 
Frank has placed poetry in such publications as PostScript, Poetry
Emerging, Long River Run
(the members-only magazine of the CPS), A First Tuesday in Wilton and the 2006 PoemAlley
anthology Wednesdays at Curley’s (Turn of River Press). 
Open Mic Poetry begins at 7:15 pm on the second Monday of
each month in the DVD and Music section on the main floor of the bookstore in
the Stamford Town Center mall:
