Category Archives: poetry
Tues 11/29 Maureen Brady & Francine Witte Read at Women’s & Trans’ Poetry Jam – Bluestockings
Women’s & Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike for Women & Trans’
Tuesday Nov 29th 7pm – 9pm
Feature Writers: Maureen Brady & Francine Witte
Maureen Brady is writing a collection of short stories centered on the theme of lesbian life-styles, to include the Saints and Sinners Prize Winning Story, “Basketball Fever.” Her most recent novel, Getaway, is the story of an abused woman who stabs her husband and escapes to live under the radar in Nova Scotia.
Francine Witte writes about the themes of her childhood family as well as the theme of pop culture. She has also been very attracted to writing that is inspired by paintings and photographs.
$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 only) – 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.
Poem: l’rondini di framura (the swallows of framura)
up from africa
for the season
to feast on insects eating orchid fruits
and to hatch their babies
under drain pipes
and the corners of tunnels.
peaceful jets,
they pitch,
roll,
glide,
and float
down narrow sloping streets
and circle ancient towers.
©- 2014 – Vittoria repetto
poem: summer 2014 – chinatown park
80 degrees
and the water games begin:
ballons and space guns
block vs block,
girls vs. boys,
b ball team vs. b ball team
run, throw, retreat,
repeat.
in their enthusiasm,
they rain
near misses on the daily bench sitters.
an old chinese woman,
resting from her collection
of discarded water bottles,
yells her distain.
©- 2014 – Vittoria repetto
Poem: day off – edge of columbus park
where i sit in warm weather
having bought brown rice for the sparrows only
read and watch
old chinese
hunt for empty bottles to redeem,
tourists – some looking lost,
nicky- a homeless woman from nigeria
who calls me mum and sits for awhile
refusing addresses for shelters
but will offer me some of her mango,
people tossing bread for the pigeons
some pigeons with missing toes or feet
having escaped traps
that would have made them dinner,
the black buddhist monk
with wisdom in his chosen name
walks around them
as they eat
@2013 – Vittoria repetto
poem: at columbus park
after i finish feeding them,
the sparrows watch me,
perch on the bench besides me
hoping for more.
one or two play chicken with me
flying so close to my head
i feel the half second breeze of their wings.
@2013 – Vittoria repetto
Tues 6/25 LuLu LoLo & Tammy Remington Read at Bluestockings’ Women’s & Trans’ Poetry Jam
Women’s & Trans’ Poetry Jam & Open Mike
Tuesday June 25th 7pm – 9pm
Feature Writers: LuLu LoLo & Tammy Remington
LuLu LoLo will perform excerpts from two of her plays:“38 Witnessed her Death, I Witnessed her Love: The Lonely Secret of Mary Ann Zielonko (Kitty Genovese Story)”; forty years after the brutal murder of Kitty Genovese, Mary Ann Zielonko breaks her silence and reminisces about gay life in NYC in the 60’s, her life with Kitty, the murder, the trial, and its aftermath and “OBITS: An Exercise In Limitation” a series of monologues based on obituaries from The New York Times written while an LMCC writer in residence.
T.Remington, a 2011 Pushcart nominee, has been a featured reader here at Bluestockings twice before as well as being a frequent open mic participant.
She will be reading her story “The Last Risk” which was published in Takahe Magazine in New Zealand last year and she’ll be reading her new story “Giving Ground” in June. Both stories tug at our ideas of what’s real and what’s imaginary with unexpected outcomes.
$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
Poem: w/ queers 4 economic justice pride march 2012
w/ queers 4 economic justice pride march 2012
1.
1pm
we wait to drive into the parade
but someone got music
I get into a dance
a bit of a trance,
a skinny black cocteau teen angel
catches my eye
as he watches me
we smile at each other
and look away.
2.
driving down
i spot a policewoman
got a rainbow flag
hanging out a leg pocket
she sees me looking
we are two Italian butches
giving the nod and a smirk
3.
the car announces an engagement
jay loves syd
syd loves jay
but
jay walks pumping the chants
and
syd takes pics all the way up the parade
everyone thinks
the driver and me are they
we get lots of congratulations
as i’m older and therefore jay
and must be faithful
i can only give
fleeting glances to pretty girls
@2012 – Vittoria repetto
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
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