While I'm waiting for the new book, Blue Fan Whirring, from Nirala Press (www.niralapress.com) to come in, please join me every Tuesday and some Thursdays for 3 hours of jazz old and new 7-10pm www.mediasanctuary.org 

Bring Your Own Vinyl! Bring Your Own Voice! 

CAPS and The Vinyl Room introduce BYOV Open Mic! Inaugural program Wednesday, April 18 7pm . . .$3 suggested donation. Refreshments.  2 poems / 5 minute open mic. 

Towne Crier, Thursday April 26 7pm. #poemsprosedialogue   Open Mic sign-up 6:45 - 7:15pm  5 minutes  Open mic participants to discuss work with audience and fellow readers.  

On Wednesday, February 21 at 7pm at The Vinyl Room,  2656 E Main St, Wappingers Falls, NY, CAPS will inaugurate  our new reading series -Spinning Poetic Messages. Hosted by Myael Simpkins, this new event will be pure open mic.

John Kihlmire, owner and operator of The Vinyl Room, is looking forward to this event and introducing to poetic voices to the already dynamic Hudson Valley poetry scene. The Vinyl Room also features craft beer, artisanal wines, and snacks. A $3.00 donation is suggested. C'mon out if you can. Spread the word far and wide!

The 2018 edition of our successful #wordsmusicdialogue series at The Towne Crier's Main Stage returns on Thursday, March 1 at 7pm. Our guests for the 2018 kick-off are CAPS VP Glenn Werner and the intimate, compelling music of Rick & Michele Gedney, Open Book. A $5.00 donation is suggested. C'mon out if you can. Spread the word far and wide!

A most special thanks to individual CAPS members John Martucci and Emily Monahan for the recent and very generous donations to the CAPS cause of nurturing the diverse voices of our large poetic community and to providing an open, democratic forum for those voices to be heard. It is because of dedication like that that CAPS thrives. Thanks John! Thanks Emily! 

We know and don't in any way expect all our members to be as generous, but we do encourage you to please renew your memberships for 2018 if you haven't already done so. Watch the website for the opportunity to renew online coming in the near future.

2017 was a year of long visualized, creative realizations for our Calling All Poets Series. And I'd like to take a few moments recounting them and hopefully give you all an idea what the future holds for the Hudson Valley's longest running poetry performance series.

In August, after being rent chased from Beacon after nearly sixteen years, we celebrated the start of our second full year at Roost Studios and Art Gallery in New Paltz. But oddly, and perhaps in an ironic twist only the creative muses could perpetrate, it was Beacon, at Quinn's Resturant, that welcomed us back to CAPS hometown with two (February and July) SRO, trailblazing performances of Jazzoetry, a vibrant and visceral fusion of jazz, poetry, and rhythm and blues. Special thanks to all at Quinn's, especially Che Pizaro, Tom Schmitz, George Spafford, and James Keepnews. Featuring six of the Valley's truly gifted and incomparable jazz players, the Jazzoetry Quartet - bassist Robert Kopec, piano/keyboardists Joe Tranchina and Neil Alexander, sax and reeds man Eric Person and soundscapist Dean Sharp and drummer T. Xiques - laid down the groove, the swing, the funk and the ska behind Dutchess County Poet Laureate Poet Gold, Suffolk County Poet Laureate George Wallace, CAPS stalwarts Jim Eve, Glenn Werner, Penny Brodie, (host of WVKR's Mingus Moments and widow to the Valley's own jazz legend and mentor Hugh Brodie) Terence Chiesa; special guests Rev. Evelyn Clarke, Esther Taylor Evans; American Songbook stylist and Executive Director of the Maverick Chamber Concerts Kitt Potter (Kitt's been instrumental and an invaluable source of energy for much of CAPS recent activity) many diverse open mic'ers, and yours truly. Then, on October 31st, with the full exuberance of Tony Falco at The Falcon in Marlboro, CAPS presented JazzQuerade, a Halloween-themed revue that had Kopec, Tranchina, and T. Xiques returning as a trio to support Kitt singing "I Put A Spell On You" and "Witchcraft" among others, Poet Gold, Westchester's own musical gift and creative arts mogul Steve Worthy, Lady Esther Gin, actor/storyteller Steve Jones, and a reunion of the poetry, politics 'n pathos mid-90's duo New Nervous Voice (actually Steve Worthy and your humble narrator.) Watch the CAPS website - www.callingallpoets.net - for future Jazzoetry dates.

Speaking of the CAPS website, Greg Correll, a brilliant writer, artist, and web designer who graciously and egolessly oversees and maintains the site, was recently awarded a CUNY fellowship and is studying under many of most respected editors in publishing. While I'm at it, let's shout-out props to the many CAPS members and supporters who have had books published this last year, including Irene O'Garden, Hudson Valley's grand saint of poetry, Don Lev, Catherine Arra, Dr. Lucia Cherciu, Matthew J. Spireng, Rebecca Schmejda, and me. And let's not forget Cheryl A. Rice and Ken Holland who placed first and second respectively in the Stephen A DiBiase Poetry Awards and Raphael Kosek for winning the Bacopa Literary Review's nonfiction prize for her "Caregiver's Journal: How to Survive or Not."

And while we're recapping CAPS triumphant return to Beacon, June began CAPS run on the Towne Crier Cafe's Main Street Stage for a monthly program entitled #wordsmusicdialogue, a strikingly new twist on the traditional poetry reading/open mic format. Featuring two writers and one singer/songwriter (the past six programs have highlighted such names as Emmy and Golden Globe nominee and novelist John Leonard Pielmeier, memoirist Dara Lurie, award winning poets Mary Makofske, Roger Aplon, and Nepalese poet Yuyutsu Sharma; Beacon Poet Laureate Tony Pena, and singer/songwriters RoseAnne Fino, Kurt Henry, Marc Von Em, Judith Tulloch, Jim Coyle, and Slambovia's own Joziah Longo) Each artist performs for thirty minutes then discusses their art and craft with an audience always ready with questions. Special thanks to Phil Ciganer and Vickie Rabin for making this unique performance/salon a success.

Early in 2017 Calling All Poets Series was approached by Michael Sussman, the Valley's long crusading civil rights attorney, to help advocate for creative expression and establish an open forum in Ellenville, one of the growing number of Hudson Valley towns suffering under the weight of America's harsh and crushing economic injustice. For several months, Empowering Ellenville was home to a CAPS open mic every second Friday. Unfortunately, the program closed in August, but that has not stopped Calling All Poets from reaching out to our neighbors in Orange and Sullivan Counties. We want to hear from you. Your voice matters as much, if not more so, then any so called Presidential tweet. Let's make it happen.

Back to New Paltz at Roost Studios and poetry marathons featuring several professors and their students from SUNY New Paltz. Props to Creative Writing Director Pauline Uchmanowicz, Lecturer Larry Carr, and Professor Jan Schmidt for their continued support. In May, globally admired poet and retired Vassar professor Eamon Grennan, inaugurated The CAPS Masters Series with a brilliant and compelling evening of poetry and discussion. ARToetry, The Ekphrasis Exhibit - debuted in September. A visual/poetic collaboration between CAPS and Roost Studios,
spotlighting ten members from each ascendent organization working together to create a fuller discussion of the creative process and exchange of ideas. Marcia Cole, David Wilkes, Louisa Finn, Mary Newell, Tom Delooza, were just some of the participants. The Ekphrasis Exhibit has long been an idea that our VP, Glenn Werner had envisioned, and we would like to thank Roost Director Marcy Bernstein for being open to and genuinely excited by the idea and seeing it through. ARToetry - The Ekphrasis Exhibit book will be available by early 2018 through CAPS Press.

While we're all concerned about the cruel and crude de-evolution of America's heart and soul, when your family and community reaches from Brooklyn to Albany, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, there is bound to be, despite the many successes shared and mentioned previously, some glitch, some disappointments. 2017 had a couple of those for CAPS, but we look forward to 2018 to unify our voices to create the unity our country needs now more than ever. After all, if we can't talk to each other, how do we speak to, and for, the greater whole?


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/callingallpoetsseries/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbTkXI6QILPcHY8PDuhC0xg
 

 #wordsmusicdialogue

Intimate performance and conversation

Thursday, August 24, 20177pm

The Towne Crier Cafe presents Calling All Poets' #wordsmusicdialogue a strikingly new twist on the traditional open mic/poetry reading, fusing live performance by poets and songwriters with a one-on-one, living room discussion between the artists and their audience. Engaging, revealing, entertaining.

Award winning poets Mary Makofske and poet/publisher Roger Aplon join streetwise singer/songwriter/activist RoseAnn Fino to perform and then take questions from the audience. Calling All Poets president and program host Mike Jurkovic will moderate this unique performance/salon setting.

A suggested $5.00 donation empowers CAPS (a 501c3 non-profit organization) to further broaden its endeavors to nurture the spoken word and guarantee an open, democratic forum for free speech throughout our region.

Please plan to arrive at least 15 minutes early. Program begins promptly at 7pm.

Our 9th Annual CAPS Marathon promises, as always and ever, a wide array of voices and ideas that makes our community the unique forum it is. Some of those scheduled to appear are: Irene O'Garden, Guy Reed, Greg Correll, Seamus Casey, Mary Panza, Tara Yetter, Lucia Chercui, John Martucci, Susan Konz, Dara Lurie, Kate Hymes, and Cassandra Clarke. From SUNY New Paltz we'll have Larry Carr, Pauline Uchmanowicz, and Jan Schmidt. We're hoping to have a special open mic section for students and a discussion of The Roost Studios/CAPS 'Ekphrasis Project.' Spread the word!

Several CAPS poets and Roost Studios artists have been collaborating on works for a special monthly exhibit The Ekphrasis Project. The works will be in the Roost Studios & Art Gallery starting Thursday, August 31 - Sunday, September 24. On Saturday, September 16 from 7-9 there will be a reception and artist talk. 

Due to the closing of the Empowering Ellenville Community Center, CAPS will no longer be holding our Second Friday open mics.   

 Friday, June 2, 2017 promises to be one of those poetry evenings our far flung community will talk about for months when Calling All Poets brings Susan Konz & Mary Panza to Roost Studios for a one-of-a-kind reading of poetry, pathos, humor, and insight.

Susan's first book, Second Sleep, was published in 2016 by Lion Autumn Publishing and her poems have appeared in publications such as Waymark – Voices of the Valley, I Want You to See This Before I Leave zine, and the CAPS Poetry 2015 Anthology(CAPS Press) She is almost done with an MFA and sometimes wonders whether she is, in fact, waking or dreaming.

*

Mary Panza has been a mainstay on the Albany Poetry scene since 1988. She has been witness to countless open mics, naked poets, fires, drunks, chapbooks, career changes, organizations (both coming and going), festivals and great poetry and spoken word.

She is Vice President of Albany Poets and host of Poets Speak Loud, a monthly open mic held the last Monday of each month at McGeary's in Albany. She is the author of the wildly acclaimed Housewife Tuesday blog. She was on her way living the rest of her life as a party girl when (at 37) the party really began when she became a mother.

Her work is ever evolving as she tries to figure it all out.https://albanypoets.com/poets/mary-panza/ 

We've discovered energy, community, and two fine poets - Lee Squires and Anya Rogers - during our first two open mic invitationals in Ellenville. So join us if you can. CAPS Ellenville 

@Empowering Ellenvile, 159 Canal Street, Ellenville.

For more info, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 On behalf of Jim, Glenn, Greg, Chris, myself and the entire CAPS community, I'd like to say a special thanks to Eamon Grennan. His warmth, humanity, and  humor made for a most special evening.

Here's the YouTube link:

https://youtu.be/0mBbuOxaFMI

Friday, May 5 8pm: 

Born in 1941, Eamon Grennan is a Dublin native and Irish citizen who has lived in the

United States for over thirty years. He was educated at University College in Dublin

and Harvard University.

His collections include: Matter of Fact (Graywolf Press, 2008); The Quick of It, (2005);

Renvyle, Winter (special limited edition, 2003); Still Life with Waterfall (2002),

winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Selected & New Poems (2000);

Relations: New & Selected Poems (1998); So It Goes (1995), a finalist for the

Paterson Poetry Prize; As If It Matters (1992); What Light There Is and Other Poems

(1989), a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize; What Light There Is (1987);

and Wildly for Days (1983).

As well as a number of Pushcart Prizes, he has received awards from the National

Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from the

John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

He taught at Vassar College until his retirement. He lives in Poughkeepsie, and spends

as much time as he can in the West of Ireland.

Join us for a very special evening.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/eamon-grennan

Here are the YouTube links for last night's reading.

See it all in full, living, democratic colour!

part 1: Anne Gorrick & Bill Seaton

https://youtu.be/ld89OI1IMQY

part 2: open mic w/Greg Correll, Cheryl A. Rice, Tara Yetter, Glenn Werner, Jim Eve,

Hayden Wayne, Leslie Gerber, Kate Hymes, Christopher Wheeling and others

https://youtu.be/ld89OI1IMQY

'scuse me for

outwardly processing but

I can't control myself

these days. There's too much

to masticate and castigate

not to. But I'm

low on patience

and need action. Abolition.

Absolution that this statecraft

between us, between the world

is more than funds and suppression.

More than archived warheads and

blanching at darker skin than cardboard.

I don't buy it.

It's not policy

it's theology.

And the faster we make

that distinction

the better. God can't lead us

all into battle

but each

will claim

his banner.

And you know the shit-storm

that shadows: tin cut messiahs

yell for blood

and everyone bleeds.

We all become bovine

and crave a good steak

w/our pillaged wine

and sterling spoons.

We feed their children ours

and that has got to stop.

'cos I won't spend

my golden years

mucking out

the shit of kings.

Bleaching their chambers

of virgin blood. Lighting their pyres

and burning my own.

Quinn's  

330 Main Street  Beacon, NY

Monday,  February 27th    8-11pm    Suggested Donation

Calling All Poets & Quinn's presents JAZZOETRY – Music Set To Words.

This hotly anticipated inaugural event features many of the Hudson Valley's celebrated

actors, poets, and storytellers who know how to groove 'n flow with the incredibly gifted

musicians that make up the Jazzoetry Quartet.

The evening will move in and out of time with jazz instrumentals & jazz vocals, as poets

and storytellers perform spoken word and improvise with the ensemble.

Jazzoetry Quartet:

Kitt Potter - Vocals/Jazzoetry

Neil Nail Alexander – Piano

Robert Kopec - Upright Bass

Eric Pearson - Sax, Reeds, Flute

Jazzoetry Features:

Dutchess County Poet Laureate Poet Gold

Mike Jurkovic

Glenn Werner

Born in 1941, Eamon Grennan is a Dublin native and Irish citizen who has lived in the

United States for over thirty years. He was educated at University College in Dublin

and Harvard University.

His collections include: Matter of Fact (Graywolf Press, 2008); The Quick of It, (2005);

Renvyle, Winter (special limited edition, 2003); Still Life with Waterfall (2002),

winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Selected & New Poems (2000);

Relations: New & Selected Poems (1998); So It Goes (1995), a finalist for the

Paterson Poetry Prize; As If It Matters (1992); What Light There Is and Other Poems

(1989), a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize; What Light There Is (1987);

and Wildly for Days (1983).

As well as a number of Pushcart Prizes, he has received awards from the National

Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from the

John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.

He taught at Vassar College until his retirement. He lives in Poughkeepsie, and spends

as much time as he can in the West of Ireland.

Join us for a very special evening.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/eamon-grennan

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury

what else do you need to know?

How they've fleeced your bloodline.

Gutted your sons and defaced

your angel daughters.

How they put the planet

up for sale. Sky brown. Dead Sea.

Cut down mountains to get their goods

to a new market now that yours is

dark and shuttered.

How you always owe them something

even if they've claimed

each extremity. One by one.

Lopped off and

thrown in a hole

leading to

the process machines

that break the shit down

into dinner. Packaged brightly

w/lots of salt. And sugar.

And booze. 18% by volume.

How we dance on our last leg

the latest gyration. The newest dodge

and hustle. And I wish I had a hacksaw

to cut the shin away.

Letter Home

Some Civil War guy

in 1863 wrote:

Martha, I have seen

the dog

'n pony

show

and I

can't watch

no more.

Me neither.

I know

the feeling.

Especially

blue

vs.

gray.

I know

the blood

don't matter.

The air

is out

of the

balloon.

You can call

customer service.

But I doubt

they answer

the phone.

shiny banjo catfish . . my first collection of haiku, senryu, short poems 'n post-its . . .

Jane Street (our tellings)

 They all wanted to fuck me
on Jane Street but didn't.
Such was the luck
of the brotherly type.
A witness to women
learning to walk
along the Rockaway sand.

Playing them Dusty. Joni. Laura.
Our voices rising to the sky
black w/worry. Intrigue. Late periods
and trouble at home. Manhattan dying.
The Bronx afire. The autumns
in Washington Square.

We talked to the city and
the city talked back.
Whispered us secrets
and lies. And truths that later
proved true.

They all wanted to fuck me
on Jane Street but didn't.
Such was the luck
of the brotherly type and
some pangs still play
in our tellings today.
Certainly sickness. Certainly death.
Certainly the tides, high and low and
who did who on Jane Street.