The Launch Pad Goes Corsican: Monday, March 25! Rare Appearance By Patrizia Gattaceca!

Direct from Corsica! An Evening with Singer/Songwriter/Poet

PATRIZIA GATTACECA and Friends

Featuring the U.S. Launch of her book

Isula d’Anima / Soul Island

Renowned Corsican singer/songwriter/poet Patrizia Gattaceca travels to New York City for the launch of her first English / Corsican book Isula d’Anima / Soul Island (Three Rooms Press) at Le Poisson Rouge on Monday, March 25 at 7 pm. She will read from her book in English, French and Corsican, plus perform her music, with special guests.

PATRIZIA GATTACECA is well-known worldwide as a singer-songwriter, active in the Reacquistu (the Corsican cultural revival movement), and founder, with Patrizia Poli of the female polyphonic singing trio Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Courses, which catapulted to international fame after a stunning performance in the 1992 Winter Olympics. She has performed and recorded with John Cale, Patti Smith, Manu Dibango  and numerous other international musicians. Her poetry is remarkable: proverbs, filled with imagery of moons and mountains and sea and underneath it all, the taut sensation of loss and sorrow, the heartfelt exploration of the loneliness of the human condition, and, as well-known Corsican poet Ghjacumu Thiers describes, "the infinite within the finite." 

In addition to her creative work, Gattaceca is known as "one of the most courageous women of France." In 2007, she was accused of aiding Yvan Colonna, a suspect in the 1998 murder of Claude Érignac, the prefect of Corsica. Some background: On February 6, 1998, as he left a theater in Ajaccio, Corsica, Érignac was shot three times in the neck. An investigation identified Colonna as the prime suspect. He disappeared, sparking the biggest manhunt in French history. Colonna was captured in 2003.  

Four years later, Gattaceca was indicted for aiding Colonna in 2002 and 2003. She was shackled, brought to a Paris prison and fiercely interrogated for nearly a week. For three years, while her case was pending, she was unable to leave France, hampering her international singing career. When she finally was brought to trial in May 2010, she risked years of penal servitude for aiding Colonna. She admitted to feeding Colonna but denied that act made her a terrorist, telling Journal du Diamanche in a pretrial interview that while she disobeyed one law, she had obeyed another: “the duty to show hospitality and solidarity toward someone she considered innocent.” In July 2010, she was sentenced to time served. The prosecution immediately made an unprecedented appeal and, after numerous delays, Gattaceca is slated to go back to trial in April 2013. 

The Three Rooms Press edition of Isula d'Anima / Soul Island marks one of the world's only Corsican-English poetry books. UNESCO classifies Corsican as a potentially endangered language, although it is a key vehicle for the preservation of Corsican culture which is rich in proverbs and polyphonic song. Three Rooms Press' goal in publishing the book was to help preserve the language, and thereby the culture for future generations. 

The Launch Pad @ LPR is a series, created by Three Rooms Press in partnership with Le Poisson Rouge, which brings newly published work of established, emerging and estranged poets from around the world to the New York spotlight. Session 4 of The Launch Pad @ LPR is Monday, March 25. Doors open 6:30 pm; showtime: 7 p.m. Le Poisson Rouge is at 158 Bleecker Street (at Thompson). 

Additional information: info@threeroomspress.com.

Launch Pad 2: New Books by Kat Georges and George Wallace, 10/22 at LPR

Three Roms Press presents
The Launch Pad @ LPR
A New Series Celebrating 
New Books on Three Rooms Press
Session 2: Monday, October 22, 2012 
Doors open 6:30pm | Showtime 7pm
EOS: Abductor of Men, by George Wallace
Our Lady of the Hunger, by Kat Georges

Following a packed opening night, The Launch Pad series continues at Le Poisson Rouge on Monday October 22 with the launch of books by two award-winning, cutting edge NY poets: George Wallace and Kat Georges. The Launch Pad series was created by Three Rooms Press in partnership with Le Poisson Rouge, and brings newly published work of established and emerging poets from around the world to the New York spotlight.

EOS: Abductor of Men, by George Wallace is a bilingual collection (Greek-English) dedicated to the contemporary struggles of the Greek people. Wallace rivets readers with his thoroughly original, modern day beat flow, elevating bakeries to the temples of gods and love to a powerful river. "Like no other poet you've read before...Wallace doesn't want to simply remake the conventions of the contemporary free verse poems as we understand them; he seems to want to remake the reader herself, to alter her aesthetically and psychologically," says Terri Brown-Davidson, Pedestal Magazine. With stunning translations to Greek by Lina Sipitanou, this book is like no other you've read before. George Wallace (AB, MPH, MFA) is an award winning poet and journalist from New York who has performed his work across America and in Europe. Author of Poppin’ Johnny (Three Rooms Press, 2009) and twenty-five chapbooks of poetry, he has served as editor of Poetrybay (www.poetrybay.com), Long Island Quarterly, Walt’s Corner, Great Weather for Media, and other electronic and hard copy literary publications. In 2011 he was named Writer in Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace.

Our Lady of the Hunger, is the first full-length collection of poems by Kat Georges, whose work has been heard and published internationally for three decades. Often hilarious, always insightful, Kat Georges writes inspired narrative poems inspired by punk rock, pop culture, food and the driving need to create, all the while exploring what it is to be a woman in the modern world. Georges is an internationally-recognized NYC-based poet, playwright, performer, editor and designer. In addition to writing poetry, she has directed numerous Off-Broadway plays, curated poetry readings (including the bi-monthly Son of a Pony poetry reading series at Cornelia Street Cafe), and performed widely. She is co-founder and editor of Three Rooms Press; their most recent books include Maintenant 6: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art; Have a NYC: New York Short Stories; and Mike Watt: On and Off Bass, a collection of photos and distilled tour diaries from the great punk rock bass player. Her poetry is included in The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thunders Mouth Press), The Verdict is In (manic d press; also co-editor); Mas Tequila (Mas Tequila Press); and The Unbearables Big Book of Sex (Autonomedia), among countless other journals and literary magazines.

Session 2 of The Launch Pad @ LPR is Monday, October 22. Doors open 6:30 pm; showtime: 7 p.m. Admission is free; reservations are highly recommended. Le Poisson Rouge is at 158 Bleecker Street (at Thompson). Additional information: info@threeroomspress.com.

Jane Ormerod & Hala Alyan Dual Book Launch at Le Poisson Rouge Oct. 3rd!!!

Two of NYC’s premier female poets—Hala Alyan and Jane Ormerod—share the stage at the first installment of The Launch Pad @ LPR, a new series, created by Three Rooms Press in partnership with Le Poisson Rouge, which brings newly published work of established and emerging poets from around the world to the New York spotlight.

Palestinian-American poet Hala Alyan writes with “stunning angularity,”
says Greywolf Press poet Fred Marchant. “Start to finish, these poems convey
a singular vision and represent an important new voice in the international poetry arena.” In her new Three Rooms Press book Atrium, Alyan traces lines of global issues in personal spaces with fervently original imagery. Reviewer Alex Rowell, in Now Lebanon notes, “Atrium is, in fact, a formidable volume: irreverent, clever, hyper-erudite and laugh-out-loud funny, with moments of arresting darkness and disturbing intensity to boot. Whether it’s Greek mythology, nightclub culture, obscene sex acts or Beirut, there is scarcely one subject in these 88 pages to which Alyan doesn’t bring fierce originality, feeling and flair.”

NYC-based visual poet Jane Ormerod has captivated audiences internationally with her
impactful delivery of her work. On the page, her work is even more astonishing. In her new Three Rooms Press book, Welcome to the Museum of Cattle, she is absolutely fearless, in both subject matter and style, as she explores films, life and innocence with a totally original and exciting language. Says Daniel Yaryan, producer of San Francisco’s “Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts series, “Her signature style is beyond belief—moving lightspeed with an astoundingly unique beat and the ability to communicate with complete command of language.” London-based artist Daniel Sturgis adds that her poems and performance, “sublimely acknowledge the entwined traditions of Dada and early modernist poetry, the gendered and transgressive literary punk of Kathy Acker and Patti Smith, and low-fi dub rant."

Session 1 of The Launch Pad @ LPR is Wednesday, October 3. Doors open 6:30 pm; showtime: 7 p.m. Admission is free; reservations are highly recommended. Le Poisson Rouge is at 158 Bleecker Street (at Thompson). 

Additional information: info@threeroomspress.com.

Coming soon to The Launch Pad

Monday, October 22, 7 pm

George Wallace (his new book EOS: Abductor of Men)

Kat Georges (her new book Our Lady of the Hunger)

Wednesday, November 7, 7pm

Robert Gibbons (his new book Close to the Tree)

Peter Carlaftes (his new book I Fold With the Hand I Was Dealt)