Don't Forget!

Don't get the Reading Marathon being held on January 1st at St. Mark's Church at @2pm.
I will be attending and hope to see you.

St. Mark's Church
231 E. 10St.
New York, NY

Refreshments will be served. Books for sale.

General admission $20/Students & Seniors $15/Members $10.

Words of Wisdom

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

~Buddha

Writing IS Art

Writing is an art form which stimulates, educates, entertains, encourage, and prods.
Words have a way of prodding our thinking. Going outside the paradigm is a good
thing because it hlps us to grow and to expand our thinking.

I come from a family of readers. My mom read novels from such authors as Frank Yerby.
My father read non fiction books about world events. He taught me much about Cuba before
Fidel Castro took control. My sister reads an eclectic group of books. I do the same. During
my teen and young adult years, I read every ragsheet that was printed. It ranged from very
radical to very conservative and everything in between. Much of the material was off the
wall but there were some points expressed that altered my perspective about a particular
issue.

Over the years my writing has changed. It's more to educate and encourage because both are greatly needed . During the Middle Ages, art was used to educate the masses of which only 3 or 4 percent could read. In Africa, history is expressed through oral story telling. Native-Americans did the same. Writing puts in words our thought, dreams, ideas, and perspectives. I don't believe that something written doesn't affect others because it does. Look at the ways the country is trying to limit access as to what we can read. When cities have to make budget cuts, it's always the arts that are first to go.

Writng has been a passion of mine since I was sixteen. I have written much this year; so much so that I will be putting out a chapbook or book sometime in 2011. Writers, poets, and playwrights are just as important in affecting change in our society as politicians and business. Perhaps more so because we can reach more people than business or political circles can. It doesn't matter which genre you write, we do influence people, hopefully for the better.

~Genevieve

Reading Marathon

On January 1st, the 37th New Year's Day Reading Marathon will be held at St. Mark's
Church at 2PM. I have attended the past two marathon readings and enjoyed them
immensely. There are many readers and the church is packed. Books will be on sales and
refreshments served.


37th Annual Marathon Reading
St. Mark's Church
231 E. 10th Street @2PM


~Genevieve

Words of Wisdom

Writing is a question of finding a certain rhythm. I compare it to the rhythms of jazz. Much of the time life is a sort of rhythmic progression of three characters. If one tells oneself that life is like that, one feels it less arbitrary.

~Francoise Sagan

Thanksgiving Wish

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

~Genevieve

Words of Wisdom

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.

~Margaret Fuller, journalist & critic, (1810-1850)

Kairo's Poetry Cafe

Sunday November 14th @ 3PM

Kairos Poetry Cafe (note venue change!)
Featured Poets & Musicians + open
Hosted by Alan Baxter

Space on White

81 White Street
$3
Robinzgrl2@aol.com abfilm@yahoo.com
refreshments served

Words of Wisdom

Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.


Tony Robbins

Write About Where You Are

One does not have to travel to exotic places to find ideas for stories. They are
right before your eyes. You may be in your dorm room, at work, or living in a
shelter. Your situation may or may not be ideal but story ideas are limitless.
The idea is broaden our horizons.

How many stories and books have been written about with haunted houses as
a backdrop? The battlefield has been a endless source of ideas. A party, a concert,
a restaurant, or a park are some other examples. Keeping our eyes and ears open
for for ideas takes intuition and focus. See how many ideas you come up with
from where you presently are.

Genevieve

Launch Party

WhenFri, November 5, 7pm – 8pm
WhereSolas Bar 232 E 9th St (between Stuyvesant St & 2nd Ave) New York, NY 10003 (map)
DescriptionNYC Launch Party for GHOSTED Tuesday, November 2nd at 7pm Solas Bar 232 E 9th St (between Stuyvesant St & 2nd Ave) New York, NY 10003 917-402-5217 http://www.yelp.com/biz/solas-new-york The official NYC launch of Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall's latest novel, GHOSTED. The book has been described as "an urban fairy tale as gritty and fantastic as anything by Chuck Palahniuk, but with a tender heart all its own," and The Canadian press has embraced Bishop-Stall's work as “nothing less than a masterpiece” (The National Post), “a rocky cruise along the edge of hell . . . remarkable” (The Globe and Mail), and “addictive” (The Toronto Star). Ghosted is a gritty literary thriller, a black comedy, a high-stakes poker caper, an urban cowboy adventure, and a love story. Bishop-Stall plunges fearlessly into the perilous terrain of drugs, love, and death in this ambitious debut. At 30, Mason Dubisee, aspiring novelist and social drifter, decides its finally time to settle down and so he takes a job as “The Dogfather,” a downtown hot dog vendor. When one day a mysterious customer offers him a job ghostwriting suicide notes for the despondent, Mason's life is complicated once more. A totaled hotdog cart, a sprung convict, a faked funeral, a scalped head, and a stolen horse later, Mason’s professional and personal lives have become irrevocably entangled and the line between suicide and murder hopelessly blurred. For more information on the location of the event, go to http://www.yelp.com/biz/solas-new-york, or

Fort Greene Residents

To the residents of the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn, there is a wonderful bookstore located in the area.

~Genevieve

www.greenlightbookstore.com

Words of Wisdom

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

~Robert Frost

Jack Of All Trades

There's an interesting article in Writers Magazine called "Be a Jack Of All Trades".
Short story writing and essay writing are my main genres but I have written some
prose and a couple of horror stories. I tried my hand at playwriting and I enjoy it.
It's good to try something else because it stretches the mind.

What helps me in in mywriting is that I'm not married to reading one particular genre
or author. It's keeps my options open to areas that I know little about. I'm a curious
person. That's what drew me to writing a mystery story. Hey, maybe a novel is in the
future.

~Genevieve

www.writersmag.com Click on 'articles', then more articles.

Words of Wisdom

Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.


~Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973)

Books in Bed-Stuy

Here is the website to a bookstore in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

www.brownstonebooks.com

Poets on First Avenue

The Inspired Word

Featured poets & limited open mic (signup at 6:30!)
Hosted by Michael GeffnerOne and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street @ First Avenue$10

www.oneandoneny.com/212.598.9126 21+ only -- bring ID!

Segue Reading Series

Saturday, October 9

Segue Reading Series: Joan Retallack and Astrid Lorange - $6

4:00 PM

Joan Retallack's most recent volume of poetry is Procedural Elegies/Western Civ Cont'd/ (Roof Books, 2010). She is also the author of The Poethical Wager (2004) and editor of Gertrude Stein: Selections (2008), both from University of California Press. Retallack is John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Humanities at Bard College. Astrid Lorange is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. She is writing on Gertrude Stein, Alfred North Whitehead, John Cage, and Joan Retallack. For the last year she has been based in Philadelphia, and is enjoying archival jaunts around North America. She is working on a chapbook. Watch Live on the Web!
http://www.bowerypoetrylive.com/

Words of Wisdom

Education is all a matter of building bridges.

~Genevieve

Great Stories in Not So Great Circumstances

Some of the best stories have been written under not so great circumstances. The apostle Paul wrote half of his epistles while in jail. Many wonderful songs have been written during much heartache and loss. I never ever minimize any situation because I believe there is a story to be
told.

At present I'm living in temporary housing. I see the many lives that I have crossed. I'm developing characters and scenarios for later stories. Take advantage of every situation that comes your way. Write down characteristics, mannerisms, and above all the redeeming qualities
the characters you developing possess.

~Genevieve

NuyoricanPoetsCafe

The Nuyorican Friday Night Poetry Slam
Every Friday Night>@10pm> $10 admissionCurrent Schedule:

Sep 24> Spotlight: Anwar>$10
Oct 1> Spotlight: Oosagyefo/Kevin Sandbloom>$10
Oct 8> Spotlight: Simply Rob>$10
Oct 15> Spotlight: Lauren Whitehead>$10

The Nuyorican Friday Night Poetry Slam is pretty popular and fills up fast, so please get in line early. (suggested arrival latest 9:15pm). Hosted by Mahogany Browne.

Note: Semi-Final Slams>$12 Admission (5 times a year, see schedule)Grand Slam Finale>$15 Admission (yearly event, usually April, see schedule)

If you are interested in becoming a Friday Night Slam Spotlight, please send samples of your work both written & recorded (MP3 or provide video links, etc.) to slamspot@nuyorican.org

located at 236b East 3rd St. bet. Avenues A & B.

Words of Wisdom

It is very near impossible to become an educated person
in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

~James Baldwin

Book Review

Nine Lives

By Dan Baum

Rating: 4

Nine Lives by Dan Baum is a book that interviews nine residents of New Orleans before, during and after Hurricane Betsy and Katrina. The backgrounds of the people were diverse and different as night and day.

I liked Wilbert Rawlins, Jr., a no-nonsense black man who was a father figure to boys who were fatherless or parentless. Billy Grace was an interesting man who cracked into high society from a working class background. He never digressed from his roots, seeing the snobby and bigoted side of the who’s who of New Orleans. I most identified with Joann Guidos, a male to female transsexual. I am a gender variant person who started out as a cross dress to where I am now a transsexual. Joann kept me interested in reading this book.

What interested me in this book is the city. I wanted to travel to New Orleans before Katrina. Now I want to go there more than ever. From what I read in Nine Lives, there’s still much work to be done especially in the Ninth Ward.

I felt as if I was in New Orleans when Katrina near wiped out the city. I could feel Wil Rawlins' intensity and as he tried to keep a ragtag bunch of kids together. I felt as if I was there with him. I felt the same way about Billy Grace and especially Joann Guidos.

What I enjoyed reading Nine Lives is that the people interviewed spoke in their own narrative. Each character was so different and having someone else speak for them who have done a grave injustice to them, I believe.I rate this book a four because I love being involved with the characters. They were people we all can identity with in some way.

~ Genevieve

Alternative Reading

As a fan of the alternative and the unusual, the website below has some goo listings and information.


www.newpages.com

Words of Wisdom

He listens well who takes notes.

~Dante Alighieri

Cheryl B.

Check out the website of writer, poet, and performer Cheryl Burke. There's much happening in September with her and I will check out one her gigs.


www.cherylb.com

Horror Writers

I would like to know who are your favorite horror writers?

~Genevieve

Widening Our Horizons

I try and read at least one book per month. My interests vary widely from religion to economics to biographies to history. As a writer I need to read different genres if I am going to convey knowledge of these subjects to my audience. In turn, it opens our minds to new ideas and different perspectives.

I tend to gravitate to books and articles by people who may not fit conventional mores. I have Herman Melville's books. He is a writer whose work was criticised by the critics of his day. I find his books exciting and something different from what I have experienced. His knowledge of sailing and the sea is uncanny. Melville is one of those authors who 'flies under the radar' when famous authors are discussed. Recently, his work has experienced a revival.

Though a particular genre may not be your thing, give it a try. It can open our eyes to a world that we may not have known existed. It can also be a vehicle for future endeavors where you have a reservoir to draw from.

~Genevieve

Words of Wisdom

A whale ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.

~Herman Melville

Words of Wisdom

If something touches the deepest recesses of your soul, write it down and share it with others.



~Genevieve

Eclectic

I read a wide variety of books. They range from history to poetry to science to religion. I guess you could say my taste is eclectic. I tend to gravitate to controversial and eccentric folks. I read many authors who tend to fly under the radar of popularity. Herman Melville, who worte Moby Dick is one of my favorite authors. I like stories about the sea and far away lands.

The words of wisdom posted earlier is so true because there are so many ideas for stories everywhere. Maybe because I read so many different books some of my ideas may be different but that's just my experience. I have gotten ideas from the simplest of activities. It can be children playing or a cold wind blowing through leafless treelimbs. Every once in a while an idea will hit me in the face. For the most part most ideas come in ordinary circumstances .

~Genevieve

Words of Wisdom

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers
are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any.

~Orson Scott Card

Words of Wisdom

Write the kind of story you would like to read. People will give you all sorts of advice about writing, but if you are not writing something you like, no one else will like it either.

~Meg Cabot

Words of Wisdom

It's been a great place to get in touch with what people are really thinking. And to make contact with readers and other writers. Egalitarian, wide open, like the Wild West!

~Greg Bear

Words of Wisdom

A stumble is not a fall.

~ Haitian saying

Calling All Writers

For those of you would would like to write about happenings in your local area, here is a website that will explain whatyou need to do to get started.

Gennee

www.examiner.com

Words of Wisdom

A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.

~Gwendolyn Brooks

Words of Wisdom

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

~Confucius, Chinese philosopher (551BC-479BC)

Words of Wisdom

A man of knowledge chooses a path with a heart and follows it and then he looks and rejoices and laughs and then he sees and knows.

~Carlos Castenada

Mid-Week Inspiration

Rob a people of their sense of history and you take away hope.

~Wyatt T. Walker

THE LITERARY LOUNGE: Words of Wisdom

THE LITERARY LOUNGE: Words of Wisdom
Poetry Project

Words of Wisdom

Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form.

~Toni Morrison

Words Can Spark Positive Change

Yesterday's word of wisdom can be applied to writing. We write because we desire to reach as many people as we can. Literature can inspire, encourage, and challenge. It's wonderful when a song, poem, or story changes a person's life for the better.

Words of Wisdom

That action is best which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.

~Francis Hutcheson (1694-1746)

Today's Word

SEINE


n. A fishing net for encircling fish, usu. hauled ashore.

Today's Word

PERI-

prefix Around, about

Reading @ Solar Bar

NYC PhillySound Reading for St. Mark's Bookshop Poetry Series

When: Thu, February 25, 7:30pm – 9:30pm

Where: Solar Bar
232 E. 9th St
(between 2nd and 3rd aves.) (map)

Description: NYC PhillySound reading for St. Mark's Bookshop Poetry Series featuring
PhillySound poets CAConrad, Ryan Eckes, Ish Klein, Frank Sherlock

http://PhillySound.blogspot.com

Today's Word

BI-

1. having two; thing having two (bilateral)

2. occuring twice in every year or once every two (biweekly)

Talk At Bluestockings

Wednesday, February 24th @ 7PM

- $5 Suggested

Presentation: Nicholas Powers “Haitian Aftershocks” The situation in Haiti is horrible. Come out for a first-hand account of the turmoil in Port-au-Prince by writer Nicholas Powers with an elaboration on the history of American involvement in the poorest country in the hemisphere.

Bluestockings
172 Allen Street

Today's Word

ACQUIESCE

v.intro 1. agree
2. raise no objection
3. accept (an arrangement)

Words of Wisdom

No one is fit to judge a book until he has rounded Cape Horn in a sailing vessel, until he has bumped into two or three icebergs, until he has been lost in the sands of the desert, until he has spent a few years in the House of the Dead.


~Van Wyck Brooks

Today's Word

ALEATORY


adj. depending on chance

Today's Word

TORPOR

sluggishness, lethargy, apathy, indolence, passivity, sleepiness.

Today's Word

FIRTH

1. narrow inlet of the sea.

2. estuary.

Today's Word

PAEAN

n. song of praise or triumph.

Words of Wisdom

Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.


~Alex Haley, African-American Novelist (1921-1992)

Today's Word

MALAPROPISM

Use of a word in mistake for one sounding similar, to comic effect, e.g. allegory for alligator.

Today's Word

CONNUBIAL

adj. of or relating to marriage.

Words of Wisdom

PARA-

1. Beside

2. Beyond

I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.


~Langston Hughes

Today's Word

TABLEAU

1. Picturesque presentation.

2. Silent and motionless group of people arranged to represent a scene.

Words of Wisdom

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

~St. Augustine

Today's Word

CIABATTA, n.

An Italian bread made with olive oil.

Open Reading

The Poetry Project will have have an open reading at St. Mark's Church (131 East 10th Street, New York).

Open Reading
February 1, 2010
8:00 pm
Monday
Sign-in at 7:45pm

Today's Word

HERALDRY

n. the study of coats of arms.

Today's Word

VERTIGINOUS

adj. Dizzy, inconstant, causing dizzines, rotary.

Today's Word

DESCANT

n. A treble accompaniment to a main melody.

Today's Word

AMORPHOUS

adj. shapeless, formless, unstructured, nebulous, vague, indeterminate

Reading In Brooklyn On Tuesday Night

Tuesday, January 26 2010

7:30pm
Perch Café: Brooklyn

Perch Café presents a literary reading

Perch Café and Bar
365 Fifth Ave.
Brooklyn NY

www.theperchcafe.com/

Words of Wisdom

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

~Dwight D. Eisenhower, American President (1890-1969)

Words of Wisdom

Writing should be enjoyable rather than a drudgery.

Poetry Reading Marathon

I attended the annual New Year's Day Poetry Reading Marathon at Saint Mark's Church. It was the second year of doing so. I listened to words spoken, sung and acted. I went in the early evening tis time. There was wall to wall people. I stayed for two hours or so.

I love the many creative people that participate. No two poets are alike. There's old, young, ecletic, humorous and all things in between. Maybe someday I will participate.

Words of Wisdom

Taking an interest in what others are thinking and doing is often a much more powerful form of encouragement than praise.

~Robert Martin

2010

HAPPY NEW YEAR!




Genevieve

2010

Happy New Year!