Bowery Poetry (formerly known as The Bowery Poetry Club) is being reimagined, according to Bob Holman. Possibly America’s most well-known poet, due to his extensive presence on PBS over the years, Holman is the founder of Bowery Poetry and the author of 20 volumes of poetry. Though he is a globetrotter and champion of endangered languages and dialects, he prefers to be known as the Bowery Bard.
So, what’s up for Bowery Poetry going forward? “It’s going to be an event space,” said Holman. “We’ll still have Bowery Poetry events, but the space will also be available for rentals.” At present, on the weekends, the space is home to Duane Park, an upscale burlesque supper club. Part of the impetus for scaling back the number of poetry presentations is the approaching re-opening of the Nuyorican Poets Café after a three-year, 24-million-dollar renovation.
“The Bowery Poetry Club has served as a home to the Nuyorican Poetry Slams while we’ve undergone this massive Nuyoricanstruction,” said Caridad de la Luz. De la Luz is considered by most as the world’s foremost performance poet. Known as la bruja (medicine woman or good witch), she is the executive director of the Nuyorican Poets Café. “Bob Holman introduced slams to the Nuyorican and so we came full circle during this time, which I felt was important culturally.” The Nuyorican Poets Café was founded by my friend and longtime collaborator on the Plexus Art Operas, Miguel Algarin.
Located at 236 East Third St., the new renovation will provide two new theater spaces for music, spoken-word, and other ground-breaking cultural events. As I was writing this column, both Caridad and Holman told me that, while originally scheduled for a Halloween grand re-opening, construction delays have led to a rescheduled opening at a date to be announced. Until then, Bowery Poetry will continue its current slate of programming.
Meanwhile, Bob Holman has made 2 movies for the Venice Biennale, at the behest of actor Willem Dafoe. Titled Beside Myself and We are the Dinosaur, both were directed by H. Paul Moon.
Holman continues to give poetry readings at various downtown venues. He is a sought-after lecturer and frequently mentioned as a candidate to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. In a New Yorker profile, Henry Louis Gates Jr described Holman as “the postmodern promoter who has done more to bring poetry to cafes and bars than anyone since Ferlinghetti.”
His popular podcast Poetry Is Bread is an excellent jumping-off point for anyone wanting to immerse themselves in knowledge about contemporary American poets and poetry. Holman will continue to add to the collection of interviews and recordings on an intermittent basis. Eagle-eyed folks might catch a glimpse of the relentless poet wheeling around downtown on a bicycle.
UPCOMING
An Early Evening of Poetry and Music is a free presentation at the Tompkins Square Public Library featuring Barry Wallenstein performing his poetry accompanied by jazz guitarist John King, pianist Robert Silverman, and percussionist Kaori Yamada. Also reading will be New Romantic poet Jeffrey Cyphers Wright and ML Lieber visiting from Detroit.
June 2, Tompkins Square Library, 331 East 10th St., from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The next evening Yohanna Roa will be part of Unyielding Bodies at Emily Harvey Foundation. Roa’s piece is titled Clandestine Republic: A Saeta for Sor Juana. Accompanying Roa will be Flamenkora, a trio consisting of Volker Goetze on flugelhorn, Ali Boulo Santo Cissoko, a Paris-based West African kora master, and Roberto Monteiro on flamenco guitar. Acclaimed Mexican mezzo-soprano Guadalupe Peraza will also be collaborating with Roa in this performance art piece.
The project emerged from Roa’s sustained engagement with Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz’s Response to Sor Filotea de la Cruz and the Atenagorica Letter, which combined constitute a monumental defense of intellectual inquiry. Yohanna Roa describes herself as “a New York-based transcultural feminist visual artist whose work engages performance, textiles and archival intervention to examine how history, memory, and knowledge are materially embodied.”
The evening’s program also includes a video titled The Science of Female Pleasure by Liz Canner and a panel discussion with the artists and performers, led by art historian and curator Jovana Stokic.
June 3, The Emily Harvey Foundation, 537 Broadway, Second floor, 6 p.m.Pulitzer-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa’s new radio play and comic book Jupiter Invincible and Harriet Tubman will have a staged reading directed by Melissa Maxwell. The dynamic cast features De’Marcus Woods, Steve Maurice Jones, Barry-Suzanne Collins, Pete Williams, Serena Phillip, and Ian Hersey. The reading is part of the Harold Clurman Poetry Reading Series curated by Joanne Edelmann.
The reading is produced by Ram Devineni (who also produces the Poetry Is Bread podcast with Bob Holman.)
Tuesday, June 16, Stella Adler Center for the Arts, 65 Broadway, 7 p.m.
And that, my enthusiastic bohemians, is a wrap for this month. The beaches are open!
DiLauro is a playwright and poet. A Stone for Aquarius; or Faustina and the Count, Being a Drama in Contemporary Verse Addressing Alchemy, Immortality, and Murder is his most recent effort.
