Last night’s IWL reading was all kinds of wonderful. Different voices, different styles, maximum effort with an audience full of attentive listeners. It was my first time reading at Intersection for the Arts and lemme say, as both a reader and an audience member, its a dope space for poetry.
When I walked in the door they told me I was gonna be the first reader of the night which (for some strange reason) did not come as a surprise.
SET LIST
– Sepia
– Revelation & Anywhere Avenue
– Dedication
РCanto del Ni̱o Pobre
– After Working The Late Shift Again, A Young Boricua On Times Square
Composes a Response To a White Co-Worker Concerning The Myth of Racism
– My Father, A Cabdriver, Chimes In With A Few Words of His Own on The
Myth of Racism as He Drives by Times Square
– Sonnet for the Lexington Avenue Express—Mt Eden Ave Stop
Much newness present here with five of the seven poems being read for the first time and all of these poems written in the last three weeks.
Full disclosure time… Sepia was written as part of a collaborative writing exercise at one of the first IWL workshops. The piece read last night is a highly edited version of the lines I contributed. Dedication is a translation exercise which I was playing around with over a month ago but it didn’t come together until just yesterday afternoon. This piece is also in speed-edit mode thanks to the input of my amazing wife who also helped give shape to Sepia in record time.
All of this bodes very well for Sunday’s Achiote Press reading where I will be reading alongside some fly poetas and unveil a surprise or two. Ding- The Nebulous Bell!
More info on the Achiote Press reading at Craig’s blog or you can download a PDF flyer here.