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Tues 5/28 Geri De Luca & Deborah Hauser Read at Bluestocking’s Women’s/Trans’ Poetry Jam
Women’s / Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike
Tuesday May 28th 7pm – 9pm
Feature Writers: Geri De Luca & Deborah Hauser
Deborah Hauser’s poetry chapbook” Ennui: From the Diagnostic and Statistical Field Guide of Feminine Disorders” is a satirical take on the current status of women and the “woman question.” Her poetry seeks to (dis)enchant the reader and dismantle the happily ever after myth.
Geri De Luca states that novelists only invent plots they can resolve. They ask the questions they can answer. They ultimately have to trust their own knowledge, experience and curiosity, and keep going deeper into the plots and questions they already have.
$5 suggested donation
This series, started in 1999, is hosted by Vittoria repetto – the hardest working guinea butch dyke poet on the lower east side
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen St.
(between Staton & Rivington)
1 1/2 blocks south from E.Houston
NYC
212-777-6028
info@bluestockings.com
Open mike ( for women & trans) - sign-up at 7 pm – 8 minute limit
Bring your poetry, your prose, your songs, and your spoken word.
Take V or F train to 2nd Ave. and exit from the 1st Ave exit and walk south down Allen St. (aka. 1st Ave) 1 ½ blocks to the store
the illusion of fate
the duchess
early 80’s
a curly headed teenager
checks out a dyke bouncer,
waits for her friend
talking inside
to a parent.
when the friend returns,
the bouncer says your wait is over
the 16 yr old giggles
“i’ve been waiting for you all my life.”
and the two giggle
and blush their way out the door
decades later, they meet again
one suggesting the meeting
the other keeping the secret
a few dates
a failed experiment
edith piaf sings
“non je no regrette” on the cd
a year later
peace march
her curls blow in the breeze
as she watches
the once bouncer climb a hill
call someone on her cell.
the bouncer wonders
what does she think
what does she think
© 2006 –Vittoria repetto
Tues Nov 30th – Bina Sharif & Christine Bruni read at Bluestockings
Women’s & Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike
Tuesday Nov 30th 7 PM – 9PM
Feature Writers: Bina Sharif & Christine Bruni
Bina Sharif will be reading from the excerpts of her ongoing writing projects called Manhattan Spleen and Sing Bird. It’s a stream of consciousness expression of the characters’ daily lives.
Her memoir Left of the Dial is about the healing power of creativity. Christina Bruni rebels the life she is expected to live after a devastating illness by using her love of fashion music and writing to create a life lived on her own terms.
Bluestockings Bookstore
$5 suggested donation
Hosted by Vittoria repetto – the hardest working guinea butch dyke poet on the lower east side
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen St.
(between Staton & Rivington)
1 1/2 blocks south from E.Houston
NYC
212-777-6028
info@bluestockings.com
Open mike – sign-up at 7 pm – 8 minute limit
Bring your poetry, your prose, your songs, and your spoken word.
Take V or F train to 2nd Ave. and exit from the 1st Ave exit and walk south down Allen St. (aka. 1st Ave) 1 ½ blocks to the store
Press contact person: Vittoriar@aol.com
Diane di Prima Readings on the East Coast
OLSON100
GLOUCESTER, MA
I’m reading with Michael Rumaker on October 9th
for the Olson100 celebration in Gloucester, MA
Google it! The festival has already started.
Many other fine readings and events are going on day & night, thru Oct 10.
——————————————————————————————————–
DIANE DI PRIMA: AN EVENING OF READING & CONVERSATION
October 15, Friday, 6:00pm, Martin E. Segal Theatre
Join the iconic poet and activist Diane di Prima for a rare New York City appearance. After her reading, Graduate Center Professor Ammiel Alcalay will engage her in a conversation about her work and life. Over the span of her remarkable career, di Prima has published 43 books of poetry and prose and, as per Allen Ginsberg, “broke barriers of race-class identity and delivered a major body of verse brilliant in its particularity.” She is presently the Poet Laureate of San Francisco. A two-volume Lost & Found <http://www.centerforthehumanitiesgc.org/lostandfound> chapbook selection of her lectures on poets H.D. and Robert Duncan will be available for purchase on the night of the event.
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York
——————————————————————————————————–
ALSO IN NY:
DIANE DI PRIMA READING WITH AMMIEL ALCALAY
OCTOBER 16 1:00 – 3:45: NOTE TIME!!!
After reading, there will be Q & A with the audience.
THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB
308 Bowery (Between Houston and Bleecker)
F train to 2nd Ave, 6 to Bleecker
mail@bowerypoetry.com <mailto:mail@bowerypoetry.com> 212-614-0505
Admission is usually $5 – 10
—————————————————————————————-
I MAY ALSO BE PERFORMING
ON OCTOBER 20 AT THE LIVING THEATRE
HOWEVER, THIS HAS NOT YET BEEN CONFIRMED.
Yu can check with them. Contact:
Brad Burgess (978) 273-5443 or birdsy18@gmail.com
THE LIVING THEATRE
21 CLINTON ST NY
directions at www.LivingTheatre.org
the fade out by Vittoria repetto
The following poem is appearing in the 38 issue of the Paterson Literary Review.
the fade out
i miss the first signs
him speaking only in italian
figured a chance to practice mine
said the sunday times
has stories of people he doesn’t care about
figured his usual lack of caring
not trouble reading
2
new year day ’99
i call dad up
to wish him a happy new year
says he was tired
went to bed early
when i ask what he cooked
he can’t remember
says i opened a can
a can of what, i ask
he can’t remember
he gets annoyed
cursing porco di madonna e jesu
pig of madonna and jesus
the same curse to my mama
on the day she died
the 12 yr old in my head
looks around
sees the martial arts
the medical knowledge
in my brain
whispers in my ear
we know how to kill him now
i shut the kid up
as dad says piselli
a can of peas
and i say ciao
see ya dad and hang up
2 days later
he walks into my office
a 2 day old beard
he couldn’t find his razor
3
hospital referral
not enough piss
for a test
we hit the local bagel place
some coffee
hoping to load him up
he stares at the counter
the signs.
not talking
i wonder
can he count on one hand
the times he’s had a bagel
italian chef
50 yrs
in the foreign land of new york
4
he goes off
just after easter
his usual 6 months in italy
to make this year’s wine
3 days later
he’s wandered off
lost somewhere
they search in the wrong direction
down the hill
dad’s face on TV
for 4 days
more than warhol’s 15 minutes of fame
.
5
back in l’merica
he wanders again
he’s at st. vincent’s emergency.
i put some clothes on
get up there
he ids his butch daughter
to the attending
as his brother.
on way out of the assisted home
to a restaurant
gnocchi with pesto
he hovers over
the pretty young girl at the front desk
thinking he’s the cat’s meow
not seeing himself
bent and befuddled
7
he’s waiting
for the free barber,
he complains to me
not enough money in his wallet.
he explores,
throws a chair.
i back up
to protect him
from
my demon.
i finally start
to clean his apartment out
the containers of farina, polenta all ajar
and full of bugs
the pasta machine
the coffee grinder
the potato masher
for the swiss chard pie
all dirty
and busted
the frustration of not knowing
anymore
before lunch
we call italy
tells franca
he never sees me
she says call her
and you will see her
and i sit in front of him
and watch
as he calls
vittoria
vittoria
vittoria
10
too unmanageable to go out
i bring him some gnocchi
for me
some fried calamari and broccoli di rabe.
i sit him down
refuses to eat
so i eat mine
he stares at me eating
somewhere in his head
a voice says eat
and he does
11
on the way up the elevator
from the early thanksgiving dinner
he seems to know me
talks a little
i lean over
and even though
it was never enough;
i whisper in his ear
dad i know you did the best you could
you understand?
he nods yes.
12
his 80th birthday
the social worker brings a sheet cake
i feed him
he is old man
his head drops
leaning into the plastic fork
he is child
his head drops
he is protozoa
cytoplasm engulfing the fork
i lift the prongs into his hard palate
he lifts his head
looks at me
says in italian
i know you
you’re the one w/ the money
in the hospital
diagnosed w/ malignant colon cancer
he keeps ripping
the feeding tubes out
they tie his arms down
6 months or more to live
legato giu come un cane
tied down like a dog
or….
let him go
i lift the sleeping eyelids
eyes three whites
blue iris
no pupil
person gone
a shell
i stroke his cheek
kiss it
ciao
15
i come home
holy saturday
dinner w/ friends
answering machine message
that he’s passed
remembering him saying
to an 8 yr me
not to call him dad
pronouncing it
w/ an e thrown in
I’m papa, no dead
and now
dad’s dead
dead
dead
© 2008 –Vittoria repetto
Tuesday Oct 26th Maureen Brady & Roxanne Hoffman read at Bluestockings
Women’s & Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike
Tuesday Oct 26th 7PM – 9PM
Feature Writers: Maureen Brady & Roxanne Hoffman
Maureen Brady will read from a new collection of linked stories about a woman who stabs her abusive husband and runs away before knowing if he will survive, and makes her way to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Roxanne Hoffman will be sharing some work about her multi-ethnic heritage, growing up female in this too often male dominated world, her mother dating at 80, as well as her vampy favorites
Bluestockings Bookstore
$5 suggested donation
Hosted by Vittoria repetto – the hardest working guinea butch dyke poet on the lower east side
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen St.
(between Staton & Rivington)
1 1/2 blocks south from E.Houston
NYC
212-777-6028
info@bluestockings.com
Open mike – sign-up at 7 pm – 8 minute limit
Bring your poetry, your prose, your songs, and your spoken word.
Take V or F train to 2nd Ave. and exit from the 1st Ave exit and walk south down Allen St. (aka. 1st Ave) 1 ½ blocks to the store
Press contact person: Vittoriar@aol.com
Mon, Sept. 13 Poetry Reading by Diane di Prima & Maria Mazziotti Gillan – San Francisco
Monday, September 13 Poetry Reading by Diane di Prima and Maria Mazziotti Gillan 7pm Bird & Beckett Books And Records, 653 Chenery Street, San Francisco, CA
Monday, Sept. 13, 7:00 pm
“The Poetry of Daily Life”
Maria Mazziotti Gillan comes out from Paterson, New Jersey
to join her long-time friend and colleague, Diane di Prima in an exchange of poems.
Di Prima is San Francisco’s Poet Laureate, and a long-time supporter of the store.
We’re pleased to welcome her back to the Bird & Beckett stage in her “official” capacity.
And more importantly, we’re pleased to be the venue for her reading and dialog with Gillan. Maria and Diane have read together at Bird & Beckett twice in past years, when Maria has made the trip out west for the Petaluma Poetry Walk.
The two friends share an Italian-American heritage and long lives in poetry. Born and raised in Paterson, Maria founded and directs the Pasaic County Community College Poetry Center.
Guernica editions has just published her an edition of her work entitled What We Pass On: Collected Poems 1980-2009. Visit this website for info on Maria’s book: http://old.pccc.edu/poetry/Mariapoem.htm
Tues July 27th Allegra Mira & Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai at the Women’s & Trans’ Poetry Jam
Tuesday July 27th 7PM – 9PM
Feature Writers: Allegra Mira & Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai
Allegra Mira casts lonesome, erotically-charged poems about work, addiction, and love. They are the frozen moments of time found in car garages, warm bedrooms, on kitchen floors and frayed front porches.
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai’s (http://www.yellowgurl.com) spoken word poetry explores the nexus between gender, culture, politics, and generations.
Bluestockings Bookstore
$5 suggested donation
Hosted by Vittoria repetto – the hardest working guinea butch dyke poet on the lower east side
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen St.
(between Staton & Rivington)
1 1/2 blocks south from E.Houston
NYC
212-777-6028
info@bluestockings.com
Open mike – sign-up at 7 pm – 8 minute limit
Bring your poetry, your prose, your songs, and your spoken word.
Take V or F train to 2nd Ave. and exit from the 1st Ave exit and walk south down Allen St. (aka. 1st Ave) 1 ½ blocks to the store
Press contact person: Vittoriar@aol.com
Tues July 13th – Reading at Sideshow! The Queer Literary Carnival
Sideshow! The Queer Literary Carnival: http://sideshowreadingseries.wordpress.com
Serious Literature for Ridiculous Times happens next on July 13th for FREAK FLAG with Sassafras Lowery, Vittoria repetto, Thad Rutkowski, & Charlie Vasquez. Sideshow happens every second Tuesday of the month at The Phoenix, 447 East 13th Street @ Avenue A, Doors at 7:30pm. Free!
Not Just A Personal Ad by Vittoria repetto
“Poems of intense sensibility and gorgeous imagery are a rarity these days; but this book of verse by a distinctly working class, distinctly lesbian, and distinctly Italian American voice is a must for all readers of good poetry.”
Rigoberto Gonzalez – On My Nightstand – Lambda Book Report – Fall 2006
“My joy in reading these poems was Repetto’s rebel energy. She revels in her lust without avoiding her history. This is also a woman of courage as she negotiates the complexities of a multicultural existence. She tunes in to people who ride in her cab; she loves the city and the love of women. For her sex is freedom to indulge her desire; it is not possessive but an exchange of pleasure. Growing up in an age when all things sexual were disguised in metaphor, or never mentioned. I found her candor refreshing and stripped of anxiety.”
Chuck Forester – Lambda Book Report Winter 2007 Page 30
“Her poetry has what T.S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens and the rest of them lack, clinging as they all do to their elitist view of poetry. I’d say she’s exactly what poetry needs — she returns it to the people, even if the people, as Gerry Locklin says, don’t read poetry.
But maybe if more poets start writing like her, they will, or at least listen to it.”
Edward Field
Available at www.bluestockings.com
, www.mcnallyrobinsonnyc.com, www.womensbookstore.com, www.booksinc.net & www.amazon.com
