"Greenager a-glow-go" at St. John's Lower Manhattan Feb. 28 Noon

New York’s contemporary cutting-edge poets and playwrights join forces with St. John’s University student playwrights at “GREENAGER A-GLOW-GO!” The event runs Saturday, Feb. 28 at noon at St. John’s University downtown Manhattan campus’ Saval Auditorium. It kicks off Dr. Larry Myers international playwriting project.

The program will be hosted by “Greenagers” Kat Georges and Peter Carlaftes, co-founders of San Francisco’s Marilyn Monroe Memorial Theater. Their comic musical numbers will highlight the fun side of “going green.”

Also on the bill are as follows: Jackie Sheeler, creator of the blog “Get Angry With Me” who explores her personal green efforts; Angelo Verga, author of Praise for What Remains, examines the green side of finance; and Karen Hildebrand, author of One Foot Out the Door, who probes the green of envy. Undercover punk rock celebupoet Bass Player from ? offers musical interludes & excerpts from his book, Splitting Hairs. Performance poetry artists Madeline Artenberg, Ronnie Norpel, & Susan Scutti read their green-hued work. Also--JUST ADDED--Direct from Los Angeles!--the awesome performance poet Corrie Greathouse.

This event also puts St. John’s practicing playwrights in the center of New York’s poetry and playwriting scene. SJU playwrights include: Olivia Hartle, Kristopher Kaye, Caitlyn Mason, Taylor Pedane, Matthew Gray, Ben Less, James Losada, Maria Ruales, Mallory Soto, Feraz Khan and Anna Ilyadzhanova.

PLUS Lindsay Blodgett, Whitney Kimball Long, Brandon Medina, Lourdes Natalie Rose and Richard Wilt will perform a new work by award-winning Off-Broadway playwright Myers, exploring the personal face of today’s environmental movement.

All the jam-packed fun takes place on Saturday, February 28 at NOON in St. John’s University Saval Auditorium at 101 Murray Street (between Greenwich and West streets). Admission is pay-what-you can donation--no one turned away for lack of funds!

Go green with us--help expand the meaning of the word!

For more information, and to RSVP, email threeroomspress@mac.com.

Primiere Poet Angelo Verga at Cornelia Street Friday, Feb. 20

Angelo Verga's new poetry book, "Praise for What Remains" (Three Rooms Press) is a real gem, one of those books you start and can't put down. It's unlike anything I've seen and I've been read it now about 10 times.

Catch this one-time only complete reading of an amazing artist at New York's fabulous Cornelia Street Cafe Friday Feb. 20, 6 p.m.

Angelo Verga has been very widely published in the Americas & Europe. His six collections of poems include 33 NYC Poems (Booklyn, 2005), and A Hurricane Is (Jane Street, 2003). Verga promotes poetry in public spaces, notably The Cornelia Street Cafe where he curates over 300 literary events per year. He lives & writes in a highrise above the western edge of Manhattan with the Statue of Liberty as his night light.

In the amazing "Praise for What Remains," Verga takes on the capitalistic greed that multiplied exponentially in the last decade, and the resultant financial mecca that is now in the process of imploding. His takes are alternately tender and merciless, tearing down every sacred cow with poetry that explodes off the page in its confident stance.

Open reading before the feature. Sign up at 5:45 to be sure you make the list. Only $7 and that includes a free drink.