Poetry Reading And Live Drumming This Weekend At The Community Garden
Extend your summer pleasure with critically acclaimed poetry and live drumming this Saturday and Sunday at the East Fourth Street community garden.
The garden, located an East 4th Street between Caton Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway, will host a free poetry reading Saturday, September 10 at 3pm. And be sure to return on Sunday, September 11 at 1pm for the popular performance — Bang The Drum: a Japanese Taiko drumming ensemble.
If you’re not yet convinced, check out the impressive bios for each of the five poets reading on Saturday:
Dell Lemmon has published poems in The Straddler, WSQ (Women’s Studies Quarterly), Mudfish, and PMS (poemmemoirstory). Her first book of poems, Single Woman, is available online and at certain Barnes and Nobles stores. Her poems will be published in the first Brooklyn Poets Anthology (Brooklyn Arts Press). She has a Ph.D. in Performance Studies and has been involved with the contemporary visual arts for over 20 years.
Emily Blair’s poetry has appeared in The Boiler, Sixth Finch, The Mississippi Review, and others. She received a New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship in Poetry in 2014 and in Fiction in 2006, and is the author of the illustrated chapbook Idaville (Brooklyn Artists’ Alliance, 2010). Also a visual artist, she creates multimedia books and collaborates on community-based projects with artist Michelle Illuminato. More of her work can be seen at emilyblair.com and nextquestion.org.
Boni Joi was born in North Miami Beach, Florida, raised in New Jersey, and discovered her lost lineage in Salem, Massachusetts. Her first collection of poetry, Before During or After Rainstorms, was published in 2012. She works as a photographer and reference archivist and lives with musical chef Tobi Joi in Brooklyn.
Magdalena Schmidt is a registered nurse, erstwhile editor of Long Shot magazine, and author of the chapbook The Cranky Bodhisattva, available from Blast Press. She earned an MFA at Hunter College, has published 20 nonfiction books for children and teens, and has had poems appear in both web and print magazines, such as Big City Lit, Gargoyle, and The Bitter Oleander
Carolyn Steinhoff’s poetry has appeared in The Cape Rock, And Then, Emerge and other journals. Her book of poems, Under the World, was recently published by Nauset Press. John Ashbery said, “Carolyn Steinhoff’s poetry mimics the life of the body as the mind intuits it. The two are like lovers, in fact, both blessed and doomed to one another’s company. These are haunting, plangent poems that reverberate in one’s consciousness long after reading.”
And on Sunday…
Sunday, September 11 at 1pm, the Brooklyn-based Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center (KWTC) will once again be sending their taiko drum ensemble to perform at the garden.
Last year’s concert was the most popular and well-attended event of the year!
The players in this year’s KWTC Ensemble include Eriq Robinson, Rachel Daddino, Rassi, and Richie Arbas.
Taiko has roots as a living folk art and in classical traditions; the music and choreography have been used in everything from grassroots community celebrations to sophisticated jazz compositions, and generations of Japanese festivals. These can serve as a profound means for building energy, unifying groups and inspiring individuals to push their own limits.
The Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center preserves, teaches and promotes various styles of taiko and fue (Japanese bamboo flutes), disseminates Japanese music and culture among students, and fosters a community among taiko players, musicians, and others.
Its founder, Kaoru Watanabe, studied in Japan and has performed in every prefecture, and in venues across the world, including New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Catch them on Sunday, for free, at our very own community garden.
