OpEdge followers living in the New York City area are in for a treat, I write somewhat fat-headedly.
I’m performing my poetry in a feature reading on May 21 at 7:00 pm at the Thirteenth Street Theater, 50 West 13th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Manhattan. It’s close to Union Square, so there are a lot of ways to get there.
Reading with me is the wonderful jazz poet Barry Wallenstein. Barry is well-known for his poetry performances with jazz groups. A retired professor of literature and writing at City University of New York (CUNY), he has 8 books and 7 CDs of poetry. Barry founded the journal Poetry in Performance and CUNY’s Poetry Outreach Center, which in 2012 celebrated its 40th anniversary. His “restless vision and nearly flawless ear for phrasing record the muchness of our world with a seductive music and unexpected turns of language,” is how poet Colette Inez aptly describes his work. Prominent jazz bassist Ken Filiano will accompany Barry on the bass.
I’m going to present the complete gamut of my poetry styles, including some political, love, surrealistic and abstractly musical poems. But I will focus on my theatrical poems: little operas or stories in poetry told from the point of view of one or more different characters. I’ll read poems from my book “Music from Words” and some newer work. Imbuing all my work is a pervasive musicality created by irregular meters and lines, word play, assonance and alliteration. My favorite description of my poetry is from Michael Wurster in Small Press Review: “Jampole is absolutely unique in the way he expresses his material, especially with regard to sound, meter and rhythm.”
So you’re going to see more than just a couple of guys reading their poems. You’re going to experience poetry as music and theatre.
If you have any interest in poetry or if you just want to support my OpEdge column, I urge you to attend and bring your friends. The admission fee is $10, with all proceeds going to Jewish Currents magazine, which is sponsoring the event.
A copy of the flyer is below (click for larger image). Share it with friends. Print and hang in a prominent place. Spread the word. And be there—or be square.
