April 13: Vizsolyi, Casey-Whiteman, Lobko, Morgan, & Wenger

Metro Rhythm is starting off spring with a delightful nosegay of verse for you. On April 13 we’ll have work from some fantastic New York poets– Daniel Wenger, Dolan Morgan, W. M. Lobko, Jocelyn Casey-Whiteman, and M. A. Vizsolyi, to be exact– along with drinks and general bonhomie. And there’s no better place to watch spring hoping eternally around you than Brooklyn Fire Proof.

As usual, we will commence kicking at 8:00 pm. Not as usual, we’re doing our kicking on a Saturday, so you should plan on being fully divested of your weekday cares, and ready to get down with some poems.

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Daniel Wenger studies poetry at Brooklyn College and works as an editor at Medium.

Dolan Morgan lives and writes in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where he is an editor at The Atlas Review. His poems and stories can be found in Pank,The Collagist, Contrary, Armchair/Shotgun, Red Lightbulbs, Field, elimae, TRNSFR, The Believer, and numerous other journals. His work mythologizing airplane hijackings is featured in the documentary project, Fortnight.

W. M. Lobko’s poems, interviews, & reviews have appeared in journals such as Hunger Mountain, Kenyon Review, and The Paris-American. Current work appears in Seneca Review & is forthcoming in The Literary Review & Boston Review. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, & was a semi-finalist for the 92Y / Boston Review “Discovery” Prize. He is a Founding Editor of TUBA, a new review of poetry & art. He studied at the University of Oregon & currently teaches in New York.

Jocelyn Casey-Whiteman is author of Lure (Poetry Society of America New York Chapbook Fellowship, 2009). Her poems have appeared in journals such as Boston Review, Guernica, DIAGRAM, Jet Fuel Review, Threaded, and she’s received grants from the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, Columbia University, and the Vermont Studio Center. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University and now writes and teaches yoga in New York City.

M. A. Vizsolyi holds degrees from Pennsylvania State University and New York University, where he was a Starworks Fellow. He has taught poetry at New York University and to pedi-atric patients at the NYU Medical Center. His poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Margie, 6×6, Slice magazine, and Sixth Finch. He teaches skating and ice hockey in Central Park and lives in New York City with his wife, the poet Margarita Delcheva. His book The Lamp With Wings, was selected for the 2010 National Poetry Series Prize by Ilya Kaminsky.

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The event is free and open to the public. Please do RSVP on Facebook.

FEBRUARY 22nd: MELNICK / LAUER / RICHARDSON / GALEO/ SCHLACHTE

 Metro Rhythm is back and reading to kick-off the 2013 season in style! Come join us at Brooklyn Fire Proof on Friday, February 22nd for a warm winter’s night of poetry and revelry.

Starting at 8, we’ll have poetry from LYNN MELNICK / BRETT FLETCHER LAUER / CAT RICHARDSON / AMBER GALEO / CARL SCHLACHTE

After that, we’ll spill back into BFP’s cafe/bar for more good times.

Come early to enjoy BFP’s great food and happy hour specials! Stay late to dance the night away!

Brooklyn Fire Proof is at 119 Ingraham Street in Bushwick, just a couple blocks from the Morgan L.

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LYNN MELNICK was born in Indianapolis and grew up in Los Angeles. Her poetry has appeared in BOMB, Denver Quarterly, Guernica, Gulf Coast, jubilat, The Paris Review, A Public Space, and elsewhere. Her fiction has appeared in Opium and Forklift, Ohio, and she has written essays and book reviews for Boston Review, Coldfront, LA Review of Books, Poetry Daily, and VIDAweb, among others. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

BRETT FLETCHER LAUER is the deputy director of the Poetry Society of America and the poetry editor of A Public Space. His first book, A Hotel in Belgium, is forthcoming from Four Way Press. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Fence, Harper’s, and elsewhere.

CAT RICHARDSON’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Tin House, elimae, Four Way Review, and Sonora Review. She is an editor at Bodega (www.bodegamag.com).

AMBER GALEO is a born-and-bred New Yorker. She is an M.F.A. candidate in Poetry at Columbia University, and also holds an M.A. in Human Rights from Columbia University. Her poetry and social criticism have appeared in various publications, and she currently works at the Academy of American Poets.

CARL SCHLACHTE is a poet living in Brooklyn, where he is finishing his MFA at Brooklyn College. He is also the editor of The Brooklyn Review’s 30th Anniversary issue. Recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The West Wind Review, Underwater New York, and 1913: A Journal of Forms.

December 14: Broder, Pancrazi, McDonald & Seefahrt

Come join us at Brooklyn Fire Proof on Friday, December 14 for a holiday special of poetry and music.

Starting at 8pm, we’ll have poetry from Arthur Seefahrt (Columbia), Daniel McDonald (Columbia), Elsbeth Pancrazi (PSA), and Melissa Broder (Meat Heart).

After that, we’ll clear out the chairs and run with the shadows of the night: Foster Mickley will be spinning a set of his danceable wonders.

Come early to enjoy BFP’s great food and happy hour specials! Stay late to dance the night away!

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ARTHUR SEEFAHRT hails from Pennsylvania. He lives alone in the wilderness and is the author of nine unpublished children’s books about anthropomorphized fruit and sealife in warring feudal states, which unfortunately were destroyed years ago when his mother cleaned out his bedroom. He also writes poems.

Born near the city of Ur in the 21st century BC, DANIEL MCDONALD is over 200 feet tall with a rectangular base nearly the size of a football pitch. Divided into four progressively diminishing levels accessible by three narrow staircases, his original purpose is unclear. He currently resides in the courtyard of the British Museum.

ELSBETH PANCRAZI studied poetry at Vassar College and New York University. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. She will be a 2013 Artist-in-Residence at Caldera Arts in Sisters, Oregon. Her poems and book reviews have appeared on BOMBlog, Bookslut, Boog City Reader, Forklift, Ohio, H_ngm_n, Paperbag, and elsewhere in print and on the web.

MELISSA BRODER is the author of two collections of poems, Meat Heart (Publishing Genius, 2012) and When You Say One Thing But Mean Your Mother (Ampersand, 2010). Poems appear or are forthcoming in Guernica, Fence, The Missouri Review, Redivider, The Awl, et al.

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Brooklyn Fire Proof can be found at 119 Ingraham Street, just a couple blocks from the Morgan L. This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP on Facebook.

This Friday – Now featuring Dorothea Lasky

Hi folks! An update to our lineup: this Friday we’ll have Dottie Lasky headlining. Get ready, Thunderbirds… and RSVP here.

Lasky, Geter, Pond and Valente – THIS FRIDAY

Nears and dears,

It’s getting cold and wintry out there, bit by bit, but never fear– the Metro Rhythm Reading Series has your solution.

This Friday, November 30th at 8pm, come join us at Brooklyn Fire Proof for poetry, beverages, and music to which you can (and will) shake it.

Our excellent readers: Dorothea Lasky, Hafizah Geter, Catherine Pond, and Joanna Valente.

Music to continue our evening and blow your mind: provided by Cycles, featuring poet Julie Kantor.

And, to round it out and provide you with all your favorite poetic sing-and-dance-alongs: a set provided by DJ C-Sharp (AKA poet Liz Clark Wessel).

You won’t want to miss this historic event, our inaugural reading at Brooklyn Fire Proof– an amazing venue in Bushwick, perfectly situated for our winter revelries.

The reading commences at 8 o’clock, but we’ll be starting the party early: Happy Hour runs from 5-8. Brooklyn Fire Proof is located just three blocks from the Morgan L train stop.

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Joanna Valente is an MFA candidate in poetry writing at Sarah Lawrence College, where she is also a part-time mermaid. Previous work has appeared in La Fovea, The 22 Magazine, The Westchester Review, and Uphook Press, among others. She founded and currently edits Yes, Poetry. She received BA’s in literature and creative writing from SUNY Purchase.

Catherine Pond was raised in Alpharetta, Georgia. She received her BA from Skidmore College and is currently an MFA candidate in Poetry at Columbia University. She has been published in Death Hums and her work is forthcoming in Salmagundi and Redivider.

Hafizah Geter is a South Carolina native currently living in Brooklyn, New York. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and the recipient of a 2012 Amy Award from Poets & Writers. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in BOXCAR Poetry Review, RHINO, Drunken Boat, New Delta Review, Memorious, and Linebreak.

Dorothea Lasky is the author of three full-length collections of poetry: Thunderbird (Wave Books, 2012), Black Life (Wave Books, 2010), and AWE (Wave Books, 2007). She is also the author of six chapbooks: Matter: A Picturebook (Argos Books, 2012), The Blue Teratorn (Yes Yes Books, 2012), Poetry is Not a Project (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010), Tourmaline (Transmission Press, 2008), The Hatmaker’s Wife (2006), Art (H_NGM_N Press, 2005), and Alphabets and Portraits (Anchorite Press, 2004). Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Poets & Writers Magazine, The New Yorker, Tin House, The Paris Review, and 6×6, among other places. She is a graduate of the MFA program for Poets and Writers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and also has been educated at Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, and Washington University. She has taught poetry at New York University, Wesleyan University, Columbia University, Fashion Institute of Technology, Heath Elementary School, and Munroe Center for the Arts and has done educational research at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Philadelphia Zoo, and Project Zero.

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This reading is free and open to the public. Please RSVP on Facebook.

Hot off the presses: Justin Boening

Read brand new work from Justin Boening, who will be reading for Metro Rhythm tomorrow night, at Sixth Finch!

And we’ll see you tomorrow, at 8pm at Blue Angel Wines!

 

This Friday: Joanna Klink

Here’s a little sample of what’s to come this Friday– a classic poem from Joanna Klink.

We’re excited to see you at the Blue Angel! Don’t forget to RSVP and to like Metro Rhythm on Facebook!

Audio of Camille Rankine

Listen to a sneak peak of our 10/26 headliner Camille Rankine reading her poem, “Symptoms of Island”!

 

 

October 26: Joanna Klink and Camille Rankine with Justin Boening and Gerard Coletta

Autumn is back and so is Metro Rhythm with an all-star reading to kick-off this year’s series. Join us on Friday, October 26th, at 8:00pm, at Blue Angel Wines for Joanna Klink and Camille Rankine, joined by Justin Boening and Gerard Colletta!

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Joanna Klink is the author of three books of poetry, They Are Sleeping, Circadian, and Raptus.  Her poems have appeared in many anthologies, most recently The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry.  She has received awards and fellowships from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Jeannette Haien Ballard, and Civitella Ranieri.  Her works-in-progress include a fourth book of poems and a lyric meditation on Paul Celan, called Strangeness.  She lives in Missoula, Montana.

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Camille Rankine is the author of Slow Dance with Trip Wire, selected by Cornelius Eady for the Poetry Society of America’s 2010 New York Chapbook Fellowship. The recipient of a 2010 “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize, she is featured as an emerging poet in the fall 2010 issue of American Poet and the April 2011 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including American Poet, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, DIAGRAM, Indiana Review and POOL: A Journal of Poetry, and was commissioned by the New York Botanical Garden for their Literary Audio Tour. Camille received her BA from Harvard University, and her MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. Formerly the Manager of External Relations & National Programs at Cave Canem Foundation, she was named an Honorary Cave Canem fellow in 2012. Camille is currently Assistant Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Manhattanville College and lives in New York City.

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Born in the Adirondacks, Justin Boening is the current Roth Resident at Bucknell University. He’s the author of a forthcoming chapbook, Self-Portrait as Missing Person, which was selected by Dara Wier for a Poetry Society of America’s National Chapbook Fellowship. In the summer of ’12, he spent a month in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he was the Summer Literary Seminars St. Petersburg Review Fellow. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Boston Review, Colorado Review, Hotel Amerika, and Sixth Finch, among others. Boening is the senior editor at YesYes Books and an associate editor at Poetry Northwest.

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Gerard Coletta is from Boston. He is pursuing his MFA in Poetry at Columbia University, where he received the Bennett Poetry Prize. He has been published previously in Open City. He resembles Cat Stevens.

Metro Rhythm Fall Season Begins 10/26

Get ready for a new season of poetry and celebration, as Metro Rhythm enters its fourth year of events!

We’ll be starting off in rare style on Friday, October 26th at Blue Angel Wines in Brooklyn. Our inaugural reading of the season will feature Joanna Klink and Camille Rankine, along with Justin Boening and Gerard Coletta.

Our season will then continue with readings on November 30 and December 14, in our great new location at Brooklyn Fire Proof. More info to these two coming soon.

Keep checking in here and on Facebook to stay up to date on our events. And we welcome queries from poets (MFA and otherwise) who would like to read for the series at metrorhythmreadingseries@gmail.com.