Something New (Jersey) III

Something New (Jersey) III: A Celebration of NJ Poets

April 10, 2016, 3-5 pm

Location: Location: Hoboken Historical Museum, 1301 Hudson St., (201) 656-2240

New Jersey has produced some of the most distinctive voices in American poetry: William Carlos Williams, Joyce Kilmer, Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, to name a few. On Sunday, April 10, at 3 p.m., the Hoboken Historical Museum, in partnership with nonprofit publisher CavanKerry Press, will host the third annual celebration of the vibrant diversity of New Jersey’s poetic talent, “Something (New) Jersey,” featuring a new group of contemporary poets. The Museum is located at 1301 Hudson St., Hoboken. All are welcome, and a $5 donation is suggested.

This two-hour public event will feature 10 New Jersey poets reading a selection of their own work. The poets taking part this year include Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Ernest Hilbert, Eliot Katz, Nancy Mercado, Lamont Steptoe, Rich Villar, BJ Ward, Teresa Carson, NJ “Poetry Out Loud” contest winner Celeste Sena (of Jersey City), and Hoboken Historical Museum’s Poet in Residence, Danny Shot. The Museum’s previous poetry events have exceeded seating capacity; arrive early to secure a seat.

Participating Poets:

Maria Mazziotti Gillan is winner of the Association of Writers and Writing Program’s 2014 George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature, the Poets & Writers’ 2011 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, and the 2008 American Book Award for All That Lies Between Us. She has published 20 books and is Founder/Executive Director of the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, N.J., and director of the creative writing program/professor of English at Binghamton University-SUNY. www.mariagillan.com.

Ernest Hilbert’s debut poetry collection, Sixty Sonnets (2009), was described by X.J. Kennedy as “maybe the most arresting sequence we have had since John Berryman checked out of America.” His second collection, All of You on the Good Earth (2013), has been hailed as a “wonder of a book,” “original and essential,” an example of “sheer mastery of poetic form,” containing “some of the most elegant poems in American literature since the loss of Anthony Hecht.” His third collection, Caligulan (2015), has been called “brutal yet beautiful,” defined by “pleasure, clarity, and discipline,” “tough-minded and precise,” filled with a “stern, witty, and often poignant music,” “a page-turner in a way most poetry books can never be.” He was raised in Mt. Holly, N.J., and currently lives over the river in Philadelphia.

Eliot Katz is the author of seven books of poetry—including Unlocking the Exits and Love, War, Fire, Wind—and has been a longtime activist for a wide range of peace and social-justice causes. Katz’s most recent book is a readable, scholarly volume, entitled The Poetry and Politics of Allen Ginsberg. He currently lives in Hoboken with his partner, the writer Vivian Demuth.

Nancy Mercado is the editor of the Nuyorican Women Writers Anthology published in Voices e/Magazine for the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College-CUNY; an online literary journal. She is a guest curator for the Museum of American Poetics and assistant editor for Eco-poetry.org; a website dedicated to addressing the issue of climate crisis. She traveled to Havana, Cuba, by invitation, to present her work at Casa de las Americas, was featured on National Public Radio’s “The Talk of the Nation,” and on the PBS NewsHour Special: “America Remembers 9/11.” Mercado served as the Guest Editor of Phati’tude Literary Magazine’s issue; ¿What’s in a Nombre? Writing Latin@ Identity in America, and as an editor of the acclaimed underground literary and art publication: Long Shot, for 11 years. She also served as the publication’s editor-in-chief for one of those years. The author of It Concerns the Madness (Long Shot Productions) and editor of if the world were mind, a children’s’ anthology published by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Mercado also authored seven plays which have all been theatrically produced. Nancy Mercado continues to present her work throughout the U.S. and abroad. For more information, go to: www.nancy-mercado.com

Lamont B. Steptoe was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founder of Whirlwind Press, he is the author of twelve collections of poetry and editor of two collections by the late South African poet, Dennis Brutus.  Steptoe is winner of an American Book award and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.  His latest collection is Meditations in Congo Square.

Rich Villar is a writer, performer, editor, activist, and educator originally from Paterson, N.J. His first collection of poems, Comprehending Forever (Willow Books), was a finalist for the 2015 International Latino Book Award, and his work was recently anthologized in Poetry of Resistance (University of Arizona Press). He teaches poetry and prose to all ages in various settings, both traditional and nontraditional, and he is an alumnus of both the Bread Loaf and VONA/Voices workshops.

BJ Ward is the author of four books of poetry. His most recent, Jackleg Opera: Collected Poems 1990-2013, received the Paterson Award for Literary Excellence. His poems have appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, The New York Times, The Normal School, and The Sun. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the NJ State Council on the Arts.

Celeste Sena is a senior at McNair Academic High School in Jersey City. She represents New Jersey in the Poetry Out Loud National 2016 Finals, to be held May 2-4th in Washington, D.C. She studied for two years at the Performing Arts Workshop in Jersey City, building craft in monologues, scene work and improv with Nicole L. Lorenzetti. Ms. Sena trained for seven years with the Junior Division at the Ailey School/Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. She will study acting for stage and screen in college. Celeste is a Shonda Rhimes fan, and hopes this is her own Year of Yes.

The organizers of the event are Teresa Carson, Associate Publisher of CavanKerry Press, and Danny Shot, Poet in Residence at the Hoboken Historical Museum, along with Robert Foster, Executive Director of the Hoboken Historical Museum. Carson is a poet as well as publisher at the not-for-profit literary press, which has been based in Fort Lee, N.J., since its inception in 2000. She has coordinated events such as poetry readings, book parties and fundraising events, including statewide community outreach programs for CavanKerry Press. Danny Shot teaches English at Brooklyn Tech High School. He co-founded Long Shot Magazine with Eliot Katz in the early 1980s. He has performed at, as well as coordinated, events throughout the region.