“Over foreign seas an’ breaking skies”

got out work on time friday, made all the right MTA choices, and got to cornelia street in time to catch martín espada feature. great reader which is never a guarantee for a quote-page-unquote poet. afterwards, i picked up *way* too many of his books which i made sure were all autographed.

espada seemed to have no recollection of seeing me at the neruda reading and had *no* memory of the acentos poetry series.

i wasn’t expecting him to drop his jaw and yell, “oscar, compai!” i am just getting a lil too used to this local notoriety in the corner of the nyc poetry fish bowl and espada was a good dose of strong medicine. running a series out of the bronx is nothing that hasn’t been done before. being part of the louderARTS project is only important to people that *know* what the louderARTS project is. i don’t even mention the term “slammaster” anymore and can barely say it with a straight face. there are only a few ways to catch a poets attention and ididn’tt get to cornelia in time to even get one of those opportunities; ‘the contributions to the scene’ way is out; leaving published work as the only way to go, for now. don’t get it twisted, my world isn’t changed but i think i have some newer, higher goals in this game.

the ego was back on the mend at bluestockings, the cabana cabal did great and even added an unofficial pinch hitter when juan diaz (also listening to martín at cornelia) told me that cornelia wasn’t exactly feelin’ him. figured he needed a crowd that was more receptive to a young hermano‘s words and let him have some spotlight during my slot. oh, back to the ego, mahina movement’s gabby gave me the best intro i’ve *ever* gotten (gemini, in da house!). the whole vibe at herencia latina was on point.

between this and the wbai gig, i am seeing a few new heads at acentos

wasn’t able to make manny xavier’s feature at the nuyo or keith roach’s book release but thats how it goes.