Let's Get Funky: Super Fun Poetry & Music Party This Friday at Funkadelic Studios

Funkadelic Studios is a really cool rehearsal studio space--very conveniently located at 335 W. 35th St., 3rd Floor (btwn 8th & 9th). Poetry Party Phenom Susan Scutti has lined up a cool list of local bands, plus in between and with the bands, there's poetry! Featured poets include Jackie Sheeler, Mark Brunetti, Elijan, and Steve McNamara. If you show up with your words, you can read too!

It's a Party! It's Music! It's Poetry! It's Fun! Doors open 7. Poetry & Music starts 7:30. Runs till 11 or more! $5 at the door. BYOB.

And don't forget: Also on Friday: Son of a Pony poetry series at Cornelia St. Cafe. Doors open 5:45; show starts at 6. Featured reader is Clara Hsu. Host is the fierce poet whirlwind, Jackie Sheeler. $7 admission, includes free drink.

Questions? info@threeroomspress.com

Go Go Go: Jackie Sheeler and Jean Lehrman Saturday at Cornelia St. Cafe

Don't let the snow keep you indoors this weekend. Get out in it. You don't get the real "snow" experience online.

And you don't get the live poetry experience online either. Chicks are boss this Saturday at with a reading featuring the one, the only, The Jackie Sheeler (check out her cool new website and awesome blog get angry with me), PLUS therapist/poet Jean Lehrman (joined by bartender/vibraphonist Dan McCarthy), PLUS the woman with the voice of gold Jane Omerod, PLUS ex-stockbroker-turned-SLAM-finalist Phyllis Talley. To review, that's: Jackie Sheeler, Jean Lehrman, Jane Omerod AND Phyllis Talley, all on one bill. Whew! 

You'd think a hot line up like this would cost a fortune, but you can slip in for a mere $7. Such a deal! See you there: Cornelia St. Cafe, 29 Cornelia St., Sat. Feb. 23, 6-8 p.m.

Poet's Winter Getaway at Cape May

Karen walks into her shadow. Cape May 2008.

Last weekend, Cape May, New Jersey was THE place to be for all up and coming poets. And the trio of Three Rooms Press poets who attended -- Jackie Sheeler, Karen Hildebrand and Kathi Georges -- made the most of a beautiful thing. Writing poetry in the mornings, workshops in the afternoons, dancing at night. It was all there.

One real highlight was a wonderful workshop with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn. His comments were dead-on in most cases, and he didn't pull any punches (gulp!). He let you know how to make a piece better through application of precise poetic techniques that most teachers and critics tend to be much more general about.

With Cornelia Street Cafe's Angelo Verga in attendance, along with former Manhattanite (now Philadelphia poetry prof) Lisa Grunberger, and the man with the world's cleanest bathroom, Greg Moglia, New York was well represented. The open reading (10-midnight) was a blast both nights. So nice to attend an open reading where most of the material is really great! Sharing the dance floor with the New Yorker's new favorite poet James Richardson was a treat--you should see his moves on Wild Cherry's 1976 hit "Play that Funky Music." Whew! Tore it up!

Below are a few pix. For more photos, plus more information on the phenomenal Stephen Dunn, see Karen's blog.

Can anybody say, "Road trip?!" JS is world's greatest driver.

Guess who's from New York? From left: Lisa, Greg, Angelo, Karen and Jackie.

All he needs is a little soup. Can't anyone give him a little soup?

Workshopping with phenomenal poet James Richardson.

Sunrise? Sunset? Either way, it's a nice place to be.

Punk Rock Journal to be Released on Saturday, June 30th, 4-6 pm at Bowery Poetry Club

Three Rooms Press will celebrate the release of TWO new books on Saturday, June 30th, from 4-6 pm at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City!

Poet Kathi Georges reads work from her new book, Punk Rock Journal, a defiant exploration of the anarchic early 80s Los Angeles punk rock scene from an insider's perspective (Georges was editor/publisher of The Eye, a SoCal music zine that featured interviews and reviews with X, The Blasters, Nina Hagen, The Minutemen, Rank and File, Middle Class, Bauhaus, Gang of Four, The Fleshtones, The Red Hot Chile Peppers, Los Lobos, Top Jimmy and The Rhythm Pigs and many more).

In addition, Jackie Sheeler celebrates the release of her first TRP book, to[o] long, a hard-hitting collection of prose poems that delve into the intricacies of urban sex, love, loss and redemption. Both poets will read to the electronic/punk swirlings of The Bass Player from Hand Job, who will also accompany TRP poets Peter Carlaftes (Sheer Bardom, The Bar Essentials and The I Can'to Cantos) and Karen Hildebrand (One Foot Out the Door).

This show will be videotaped in hi-def and shown round the world, so be sure to be there to be a part of it all. Doors open 3:45. Show runs 4-6. Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery (btwn Houston & Bleecker, across street from CBGBs).

ADMISSION FREE WITH ADVANCE RESERVATION!! Email: threeroomspress@mac.com

Anything but Britney...

If you're star-obsessed, but sick of Britney, here's an event for you: "Andy Warhol: In His Wake," a poetry-laced art opening celebrating the 20th anniversary of Warhol's death at The Carrozzini Von Buhler Gallery, 407 W. 13th Street (between 9th and Washington), on Thursday, Feb. 22nd. In addition to a group exhibition by Factory exes Ultra Violet, Taylor Mead, Billy Name and Ivy Nicholson, the event features poetry by Patricia Carragon, Taylor Mead, Star Black and the fabulous Jackie Sheeler (curator of the Pink Pony West Friday night series at Cornelia Street). The readings run from 6-7:30; the opening sprawls until 10. If Sienna Miller wasn't enough for you in "Factory Girl," get a whiff of the real thing.

In other news...Three Rooms Press hears rumors of a nationwide surge in female baldheads. Sinead O'Connor, you were so way ahead of your time!

Pictured: Andy Warhol, by Billy Name, photograph