Letter from New York

By Tim W. Brown

It figures: the year I move from Chicago to New York, the Cubs go deep into the playoffs before,
predictably, they folded. The Yankees went to the World Series, but they, too, imploded and lost,
although I didn’t really care, because I hate both of New York’s baseball teams.

Other things I missed this year in Chicago that we heard about here: the nightclub stampede, the
porch collapse, and the high-rise fire. I offer my sincere condolences to my grieving former
neighbors. The shit we dealt with in New York during the same time included two consecutive
blizzards, endless springtime rains, an assassinated alderman, a multi-state blackout, and a ferry
wreck.

Amid all these natural and man-made disasters, I was last back in Chicago for two weeks in April
for a residency at Ragdale -- wonderful, WONDERFUL experience. Otherwise, the time since I
moved has been taken up with settling into my new habitat, looking for and landing a new job,
and getting my foot in the door of the local literary scene.

I started close to home, which is Dobbs Ferry, New York, in suburban Westchester County.
Dobbs Ferry is on the Hudson River about twenty miles north of Manhattan. It’s Washington
Irving country; his statues are as ubiquitous here as Robert E. Lee’s down south.

With the aid of word-of-mouth and listings at www.poetz.com, New York’s best online poetry
calendar, I began tasting poetry in the Big Apple. I concluded that Chicago poets don’t need to
feel like they live in the second city when it comes to writing and reading poetry. I thought I
would summarize my findings for everyone back home below.

Hudson Valley Writers’ Center

Philipse Manor Train Station, Sleepy Hollow, NY
http://www.writerscenter.org/

This lovely space, housed in a renovated suburban train station about fifteen minutes from my
house, holds an open mic on the third Friday of every month. Expect a large turnout of 20 to 25
signing up to read. There is a five-minute time limit, which is strictly enforced via the ringing of
miniature Tibetan cymbals when your time is up.

Attendees mainly consist of suburbanites from Westchester County, but others from Connecticut
(including host Reggie Marra), Manhattan, and the Bronx regularly turn out. Talent level and
subject matter vary wildly, from very strong, to very funny, to very poignant, to very weak. In
addition to the monthly open mic, the Writers’ Center sponsors periodic readings by big-name
writers, including Joyce Carol Oates on December 4, and it offers writing workshops that teach
all genres.

1
Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia St. (between Bleecker and 6th Ave.), NYC
http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com/

This Greenwich Village institution sponsors spoken word events practically every day of the
month. Upstairs, a restaurant serves very good, modestly priced Italian and continental cuisine.
Downstairs a cabaret environment greets you, a narrow friendly space crowded with chairs and
cocktail tables. In addition to poetry, the stage regularly plays host to small jazz combos late
nights.

Cornelia Street is home of the popular Pink Pony Series held every Friday night. Open mics
usually attract between 20 and 30 readers. Host Jackie Sheeler sternly adheres to a three-minute
or two-poem limit. An attentive audience, thoughtful writers, and decent performers are the rule
at this venue. A featured poet appears every week.

Recently, I saw Charles Fishman of SUNY-Farmingdale featured. Though an academic, Fishman

writes accessibly. One poem was so good that I didn’t want it to end, which is saying something
for this jaded poetry listener, who often can’t wait for poets to get the hell off the stage already.
Fishman was a bit of an oddity for Cornelia Street Café; most readers are of the “community-
based poet” variety.

Bowery Poetry Club

308 Bowery (at Bleecker), NYC
http://www.bowerypoetry.com/

Across the street from the legendary CBGB nightclub, the Bowery Poetry Club is the current
poetry mecca in New York. One of its business partners is the reigning New York poetry scene
heavyweight, Bob Holman. I’ve been only once, to see the aforementioned Jackie Sheeler
perform with her poetry band, MinAsian CollectiVe.

A renovated storefront space with high ceilings, cement floors and blonde wood bar, Bowery
Poetry Club has a Scandinavian barn quality that struck me as cold and uninviting. You couldn’t
accuse the staff of being cold, however. I received a big hello from former Chicago poetry host
and Quimby’s employee Shappy, who tended bar and shot the breeze before the show started.

Sheeler worked it hard to warm up the sparse crowd; her delivery had a swinging, syncopated
quality that neatly complemented the quiet jamming and noodling of the avant garde jazz band
backing her. I think I have to return one of these days for one of their reputed red-hot open mics
to see this place in its true glory.

Saturn Series
213 Second Ave. (at 13th St.), NYC
http://www.poetrycentral.com/saturn.html

This venue has become something of a home base for me. Held Monday nights at the sleek,
candlelit Nightingale Bar in the East Village, this series draws a healthy mix of readers from the
local scene. Unlike most of the city’s open mics, which are limited to poets, this one welcomes
performers from other art forms and literary genres. I have seen singers, guitarists, monologists
and aspiring stand-up comedians perform at Saturn, in addition to poets and fiction writers.

The open-minded hosts, Su Polo and David Elsasser, plus a generous five-minute time limit
foster this diversity. As primarily a fiction writer these days, I’m glad that this series exists,
offering me room to try out new material. A featured reader also appears each week among 15 to
20 open mic readers. On December 8, yours truly reads from his work-in-progress, a comic
historical novel set in 1830s America.

Bar 13
35 East 13th St. (between Broadway & University Place), NYC
http://www.louderARTS.com/

Bar 13 is arguably the hottest place to see a reading in New York presently. This East Village
night spot hosts an open mic and slam on Monday nights sponsored by Louder Arts. Bar 13
attracts a more multicultural crowd than most of the venues discussed in this essay. Regulars
include downtown hip-hop poets and homeboy bards from da hoods and barrios of Brooklyn and
the B-X. I stopped in on a recent Monday to catch a book release party honoring Willie
Perdomo’s new book, SMOKING LOVELY (Rattapallax Press).

Perdomo attracted a huge turnout and didn’t disappoint with a whipcrack-smart performance. A
few lucky souls claimed the bar’s comfy chairs near the stage while the rest stood and sweated in
the dark as Perdomo read poetry that dealt with New York’s bottomless well of tragicomic
characters. A great attraction for the audience, Bar 13 features a two-for-one drink special every
Monday night during readings. Another small but effective touch: DJ Frank Rempe spins little
introductory tunes as each poet takes the stage.

Nuyorican Poets Café

236 East 3rd St. (between Aves. B & C)
http://www.nuyorican.org/

Located on the Lower East Side for over twenty-five years, the Nuyorican Poets Café usually
comes to mind first when thinking about New York poetry venues. I visited not long ago to check
out poets Hal Sirowitz and Paul McDonald. Be forewarned, the Café is a dive, and on the night I
attended the house opened late. The bar opened even later, resulting in warm beer and white
wine. Still, there were plenty of historic poetry vibes to soak up plus a reading on stage to listen
to.

From Louisville, Kentucky, McDonald read from his recent collection LIKE NEON (Wasteland
Press). His highly excellent poetry is by turns lightly comic and brutally frank in dealing with
alcoholism and dysfunctional relationships. “Poet Laureate of Queens," Hal Sirowitz was
something of a disappointment. He began with a wonderful poem extolling the virtues of living
in Queens.
But his set soon devolved into a series of lame odes to the poet's penis. Moreover, his performing
style was distracting. How can I say this nicely? -- I can't seemingly-- he comes off semi-
retarded, mumbling his poetry and nervously digging his left hand into his jeans to play pocket
pool. It’s difficult for me to imagine how Sirowitz became a small press darling and fixture of the
New York poetry scene.

I have noticed a few stark differences between the New York and Chicago spoken word scenes
that favor New York. None has to do with quality – there are strong and weak writers and
performers in both cities. Rather, the differences have to do with reading logistics.

First, venues mean what they say when they announce time limits. I have yet to witness an
instance of somebody ignoring a three-minute limit and reading for twenty minutes. Unlike
Chicago, New York simply does not tolerate this behavior. The host will interrupt you and
demand you get off the stage. The large numbers of open mic readers require strict time limits;
otherwise, only a handful of people would get to read.

Second, events generally start at the appointed time. When the reading is scheduled to begin at
eight o’clock, it starts at eight o’clock, not eight-thirty or eight-forty. Hosts must be mindful of
the clock, because the venues often schedule events like music or plays afterwards. The Bowery
Poetry Club often schedules two or three poetry events back-to-back in a night.

Third, those venues that host a featured reader usually place his or her set in the middle of the
open mic. This is a good strategy for holding an audience, at least if you’re the feature. If half the
open mic takes place after the feature reads, then half as many people are able to sneak out after
they read and before your set begins.

When I catch up with raking the leaves and fertilizing the grass surrounding my suburban abode,
I will explore additional poetry venues in New York, including a couple in Brooklyn that sound
interesting, and report on them. Meantime, I leave you with this one word of advice: Duck!