You Gotta Have Hart--A Spring Literary Extravaganza

Three Rooms Press presents

You Gotta Have Hart!

A Spring Literary Extravaganza!

featuring

A Preview of New Releases on Three Rooms Press

and A Celebration of Poet Bob Hart's 80th Birthday

with special performances by

RYAN BUYNAK | MICHAEL T. FOURNIER

THOMAS FUCALORO | KAT GEORGES | BOB HART
KAREN HILDEBRAND | CARMEN MOJICA

JANE ORMEROD | PUMA PERL | LIZA WOLSKY

plus outrageous predictions from
NOSE/THROAT DUMBASS (aka PETER CARLAFTES)

TUESDAY, MAY 17, 7:30 pm | $10

Bowery Poetry Club | 308 Bowery | 212-614-0505

Celebrate spring with NYC’s leading performance poets, honor esteemed New York Poet Bob Hart (Lightly in the Good of Day, Bench Press) on his 80th Birthday, and get a preview at new Three Rooms Press releases at the raucous extravaganza “You Gotta Have Hart!” on Tuesday, May 17, 7 pm at Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery, New York, NY (212) 614-0505).

Special poet-performers include: Ryan Buynak, Michael T. Fournier, Thomas Fucaloro, Kat Georges, Karen Hildebrand, Carmen Mojica, Jane Ormerod, Puma Perl and Liza Wolsky, offering new work and tributes to the birthday guest of honor. Later, the famed Twitter oracle “Nose/Throat Dumbass” (a.k.a. Peter Carlaftes) will present his latest outrageous predications on what will happen in the rest of 2011—and beyond. Plus we will have a special presentation to poet Bob Hart on his 80th birthday.

In addition, we’ll offer a sneak preview at upcoming Three Rooms Press books including:

--“Oil & Water,” a look at photography and tour diaries of punk bassist Mike Watt;

--“Hidden Wheel,” a punk rock underworld novel by Michael T. Fournier;

--“Hunger Sinner,” intense collected poems by Three Rooms Press Founder Kat Georges;

--“You Are White Inside,” new poetry by B.R. Lyon

--“Have a NYC Night®” a NYC-based short story anthology

Doors open at 6:45. Show starts promptly at 7:30. Tickets $10 at the door.

Legendary Downtown Poets Steve Dalachinsky & Yuko Otomo Featured in NYC Friday, May 6

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011

Featured poet: Steve Dalachinsky

Spotlight poet: Yuko Otomo

PLUS NYC's Best Open POETRY Mike

Hosted by Kat Georges

STEVE DALACHINSKY was born after the last Big War & has managed tosurvive lots of little wars. His poems have appeared extensively in journals on & off line including, Big Bridge, Milk, Unlikely Stories, Xpressed, Evergreen Review, Long Shot, Alpha Beat Soup, Xtant, Blue Beat Jacket, Unbearable Assemblage Magazines, NY Arts Magazine, 88, Lost and Found Times, plus such anthologies as Beat Indeed, The Haiku Moment and the esteemed Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.

YUKO OTOMO's poetry has been read and heard internationally, including her native Japan. Her collections include "Small Poems," "The Hand of The Poet" (both Ugly Duckling Presse), "A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of Museum" (Propaganda Press), and "Fragile" (Sisyphus Press).

The featured reading follows the fabulous Son of a Pony open reading at the cafe. Poet & breathless mistress of ceremonies Kat Georges hosts. Doors open at 5:45 p.m.; the open reading begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $7, which includes a free drink.

Cornelia Street Cafe is at 29 Cornelia Street, between W. 4th Street & Bleecker, just around the corner from the W. 4th Street subway station. Phone: 212-989-9319. www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Jee Leong Koh reads from new poetry book this Friday at Son of a Pony

FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2011

Featured poet: Jee Leong Koh

Spotlight poet: Talia Boylan

PLUS NYC's Best Open POETRY Mike

Hosted by Kat Georges

JEE LEONG KOH is the author of three poetry collections, including Payday Loans (2007, Poets Wear Prada Press) and Equal to the Earth (2009, Bench Press) and his brand new book Seven Studies for a Self Portrait, which will be launching at this event. His poetry has appeared in Best New Poets 2007 (University of Virginia Press) and Best Gay Poetry 2008 (A Midsummer's Night Press), and has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2008. Born in Singapore, he lives in New York City, and blogs at Song of a Reformed Headhunter (http://jeeleong.blogspot.com).

Spotlight poet TALIA BOYLAN is currently studying poetry at The Brearly School, and recently published a chapbook, "The Only Flat Place.

The featured reading follows the fabulous Son of a Pony open reading at the cafe. Poet & hospitable mistress of ceremonies Kat Georges hosts. Doors open at 5:45 p.m.; the open reading begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $7, which includes a free drink.

Cornelia Street Cafe is at 29 Cornelia Street, between W. 4th Street & Bleecker, just around the corner from the W. 4th Street subway station. Phone: 212-989-9319. www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Review: Mike Watt & the Missingmen @ Mercury Lounge 4/4/11

Reverence. That's the word to best describe the reaction of the crowd during Mike Watt & the Missingmen's sizzling performance Monday night at the Mercury Lounge.

Reverence? Concert crowds are generally described as "reverent" at singer/songwriter shows, featuring tender voices flowing sad songs of failed romance and mini-memoirs of victimhood.

This wasn't that kind of show at all, which makes the reverence even more phenomenal. Taking the stage after a couple of between-band Coltrane songs, Watt and crew—guitarist Tom Watson and drummer Raul Morales—floored the packed house with a no-holds-barred, non-stop presentation of Hyphenated-Man, Watt's third opera, released in 2010 on the Clenched Wrench label.

It was a punkropera that hailed back to Watt's Minutemen roots and covered all the ground in-between. Thirty songs, inspired by Heironymous Bosch and played live—non-stop, in order—with such intensity that, if it hadn't been for gravity, the completely blown away crowd would have been thrust out the doors and onto Houston Street.

From the opening road beats of "Arrow-Pierced-Egg-Man," Watt led the charge, as lead singer playing unbelievable bass lines, that came across live at twice the potency of the incredible crush of the recorded version. The second one tune ended, the next one launched, turning 30 songs into one complete work, and leaving mere seconds for between-song applause.

The crowd listened so intently throughout, that it became a part of the show, riding the waves of contrast in each song, amazed by how all of these sounds and styles could come from the pen of one man, and the performance of just three. It was madcap dancing during the great segue from "Hollowed-Out-Man" to "Finger-Pointing-Man" (with its wondrous Minutemen styling).

On "Mouse-Headed-Man," with its acapella repeated whispered phrase, "like a mouse," the percussion was the heartbeats of everyone in the room. Contrast that with Watt's ferocious wailing in "Man-Shitting-Man," and it became clear that this performance was about limitlessness, about exploring all the facets of what it is to be alive. About Watt's (and Coltrane's and d. boon's and punk rock's) credo: Refuse to be a slave. Refuse to be an automaton. Live your life. Every. Second.

After the melodic final H-Man tune "Wheel-Bound-Man" left a few stunned seconds of "what did we just see" silence, the thunderous applause brought out the men for an encore. Watt and his bass moved from the spotlight to behind the drums and let six-string shredder Watson take over on spiel.

But how do you top what just happened? How about a six song follow-up including Minutemen classics "Toadies," "Black Sheep" (from the great 3-song 7-inch Joy), "The Glory of Man" and "Anxious Mo-Fo." Ghosts were all over the place, none more felt than d. boon, the guiding force behind the Minutemen and all that's happened with Watt ever since.

Opening acts included The Wicked Tomorrow, a jammin' duo with Michelle Feliciano playing meaty drums and Ian Jacobs kicking the show into a higher gear with his guitar work. Appomattox also rocked, with complex, yet catchy tunes, which—at 4-5 minutes each—were the longest songs of the night!

More great photos from Deed Runlea who reviewed the gig on his great new weekly radio show "Crust Never Sleeps" (Tuesdays, 10-midnight @ New Town Radio

Ocean Vuong & David Perez Read in NYC 4/1/11 @ Cornelia St. Cafe

FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2011

Featured poet: Ocean Vuong | Spotlight poet: David Perez

PLUS NYC's Best Open POETRY Mike | Hosted by Kat Georges

Born in 1988 in Saigon, Vietnam, Ocean Vuong is the author of Burnings (Sibling Rivalry Press 2011). He currently resides in New York City as an undergraduate English Major at Brooklyn College, CUNY. His poems have received an Academy of American Poets Prize, the Beatrice Dubin Rose Award, the Connecticut Poetry Society's Al Savard Award, as well as three Pushcart Prize nominations. His work appear in Word Riot, the Kartika Review, Lantern Review, SOFTBLOW, Asia Literary Review, and PANK among others. "It is not just that Ocean can render pain as a kind of loveliness, but that his poetic line will not let you forget the hurt or the garish brilliance of your triumph; will not let you look away. These poems shatter us detail by detail because Ocean leaves nothing unturned, because every lived thing in his poems demands to be fed by you; to nourish you in turn." --Roger Bonair-Agard, two time National Slam Champion, author of Tarnish and Masquerade

Writer, editor, journalist and actor David Pérez was born and raised in the South Bronx of parents of Puerto Rican descent. Growing up in the Millbrook Houses in the 1960s and navigating his way through Catholic school comprise much of the storyline for his “memoirito” Wow! (11B Press), which New York Times bestselling author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez calls: "A coming-of-age story that is universal in scope: lovely, funny, rich and evocative." David has written hundreds of published articles and has performed on stage and film. He lives in Taos, New Mexico with his wife, poet Veronica Golos.

The featured reading follows the fabulous Son of a Pony open reading at the cafe. Poet & acclaimed mistress of ceremonies Kat Georges hosts. Doors open at 5:45 p.m.; the open reading begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $7, which includes a free drink.

Cornelia Street Cafe is at 29 Cornelia Street, between W. 4th Street & Bleecker, just around the corner from the W. 4th Street subway station. Phone: 212-989-9319. www.corneliastreetcafe.com

Poets Jane Ormerod & Elliott D. Smith rock the pony Friday March 4

FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2011

6 PM | CORNELIA STREET CAFE

SON OF A PONY POETRY SERIES

Featured poet: JANE ORMEROD

Spotlight poet: ELLIOTT D. SMITH

PLUS NYC's Best Open POETRY Mike: Hosted by Kat Georges

Jane Ormerod is the author of the full-length poetry collection, Recreational Vehicles on Fire (Three Rooms Press, 2009), the chapbook 11 Films (Modern Metrics, 2008), and the spoken word CD Nashville Invades Manhattan. Born in England, she now lives in New York City and performs extensively across the United States and beyond - San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Britain, Canada, Ireland, and The Netherlands to name just a few places. She is a founding editor at Uphook Press.

Elliott D. Smith reps Louisville, Cincinnati, and Brooklyn. When he's not working with formerly incarcerated people or conducting research on masculinity, he drinks whiskey and talks too loudly. He believes in the power of tattoos, reference books, and matching music with the weather.

The featured reading follows the fabulous Son of a Pony open reading at the cafe. Poet/ecstatic madame/curator Kat Georges hosts. Doors open at 5:45 p.m.; the open reading begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $7, which includes a free drink.

Cornelia Street Cafe is at 29 Cornelia Street, between W. 4th Street & Bleecker, just around the corner from the W. 4th Street subway station. Phone: 212-989-9319. www.corneliastreetcafe.com

And don't forget: Dada Poetry Salon on Friday, March 18!

NJ's The Idiom Poets Invade Manhattan--1 Night Only--Feb. 18

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2011

6 PM | CORNELIA STREET CAFE

SON OF A PONY POETRY SERIES

Featured poet

The Idiom Poets of New Jersey

Chris McIntyre | Steven McNamara | Mark Brunetti

PLUS

NYC's Best Open POETRY Mike

Hosted by Kat Georges

Creative and poetically-inspired, The Idiom Magazine is going into its 5th year of publication. It won the London Book Festival: Magazine Category in 2007 and was banned from Rutger's zine festival for obscene material and a 4 1/2 foot paper-mâché volcano which attracted a lot more attention than expected. Behind the Idiom are three poetic forces of nature: Chris McIntyre, Steven McNamara & publisher Mark Brunetti. Each poet has a distinctive voice; together, they make the world vibrate with possibility.

The featured reading follows the fabulous Son of a Pony open reading at the cafe. Poet/convivial mistress of ceremonies Kat Georges hosts. Doors open at 5:45 p.m.; the open reading begins at 6 p.m. Admission is $7, which includes a free drink.

Cornelia Street Cafe is at 29 Cornelia Street, between W. 4th Street & Bleecker, just around the corner from the W. 4th Street subway station. Phone: 212-989-9319. www.corneliastreetcafe.com