Monday, December 8, 2008

North Sea @ Village Bookstore

While not a Summer Gazebo Readings event, many of our friends are involved in the North Sea Poetry Scene--and are published in the 2008 Anthology.

A reading was held at the Village Bookstore on November 8, 2008--here are some photos (unedited--what you see is what I took!)





Information about purchasing the book, future readings, etc. can be obtained from
Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan thenorthseapoetryscene@hotmail.com

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Robert Dunn, RIP

A sad day for our Gazebo family; Robert Dunn, a gentle man who was one of our most popular and beloved readers passed away on Thursday.



I first met Robert at a reading at the Village Bookstore early in the summer of 2007. J R Turek was the feature, and as she was one of our earliest and most staunch supporters, and as I still had a few openings, I went to listen to her, to pass out a few flyers and, perhaps, recruit a few poets.

Robert read in the "open mike" portion. He was, as always, funny and insightful and thoroughly unique. He subsequently attended our Gazebo a number of times as an audience member, bringing, as his lawn chair, a wheelchair. Unique. A different drummer.

To everyone's delight, he also read for us, both last year and this summer. Last year he pitched in unquestioningly for two "crises" we had--first, pitched in on a moment's notice and read a few poems to help fill in some time occasioned by a couple of last minute reader cancellations.

The second "save", and one I will always remember fondly, occurred when Denis Gray, our last reader of the 2007 season, found himself enveloped by darkness-- the late August sun fell on us too early. Robert again came to the rescue--Denis read his marvelous work by the light of Robert's flashlight, which Robert held expertly over Denis' shoulder.

Robert's poetry was refreshing and comical, in a wry, intelligent manner.
His work, like Robert himself, was simply...unique.

I won't pretend I knew him well; although it was on my Fall "to do" list, I never even made it to his Asbestos readings. But he always had a kind word, or at least a curmudgeonly-humorous one, whenever we met, and I will always consider myself a huge Robert Dunn fan.

I understand that there will not be public services, but that there will be a memorial for him at The Vault, 90-21 Springfield Blvd, Queens Village. on Oct. 11th at 9:00 PM.and a small memorial at The Farmingdale Reading Series, Saturday, October 4, 2008 1:30 PM The Farmingdale Public Library 116 Merritts Road (Downstairs: Room A).

Our literary circle is poorer for his passing. On behalf of all of us here at the Summer Gazebo Readings series, we wish his family and friends peace.

Monday, September 1, 2008

2008 Readers

Jack Anderson
Doris Bush
Paula Comacho
Shawn Patrick Cooke
Yolanda Coulaz
Teri Coyne
Paula Curci
Helen Donato
Joan Dupre
Peter Dugan
Robert Dunn
Marilyn Goldsmith
Florence Gatto
Denis Gray
Bruce Grossberg
Barbara Hoffman
Vicki Iorio
Brenda Janowitz
Ann Kenna
Steve Kriss
Greg Lane
Ellen Lawrence
Geri Lipshultz
Joan Marg
Ursula Nouza
Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan
Tom Phelan
Anthony Policano
Barbara Reiher-Meyers
Sonia Russell (with Rob Gambel on the sax!)
Robert J. Savino
Ron Scott
Herb Siegel
Harriet Slaughter
Nancy Solomon
Sandi Sonnenfeld
Barbara Southard
Karen Swenson
Christine Timm
Lara Tupper
Judy Turek
Paula Uruburu
Frank VanZandt
Richard Vetere
Max Wheat
Clive Young
Corinne Zachary

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Beautiful Night

Another great evening on Monday--and now only one left!

Vicki Iorio started it off with a poem she wrote about her poetic spirit having been rekindled by our little program-- many thanks to her!


Corinne Zachary followed with insightful, well-crafted poetry;


Florence Gatto had the crowd laughing, with many nodding in recognition, as she read excerpts about growing up in an Italian household from her book "Scent of Jasmine";


Joan Marg was alternatingly touching and funny--a true delight;

and Yolanda Coulaz ended the evening with powerful. poignant pieces.

(More photos here)
This Monday, our last for the season, promises to be special. Monday, August 25, 2008 we feature:

Barbara Reiher-Meyers

Barbara Reiher-Meyers is a Long Island, New York poet, board member of the Long Island Poetry Collective. and the North Sea Poetry Scene. Barbara also curates a poetry calendar for www.poetz.com/longisland , has coordinated events for the Northport Arts Coalition, Smithtown Township Arts Council, and Walt Whitman Birthplace, among others. Her poetry has been published in print journals and on line. Barbara facilitates monthly workshops in Ronkonkoma, sends weekly Emails of local poetry events, and has edited several volumes of poetry . "Sounds Familiar" is the title of her first book of poems.

Barbara Hoffman

Barbara Hoffman is a widely published poet. Her poetry has been published in the Minnesota Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Blue Mesa Review, Gryphon, Poets On, Slipstream, Long Island Quarterly, Aura/Literary Arts Journal, Inkwell, The Long Islander, Ekphrasis, The Seventh Quarry (Wales), Out of Line, Margie, Fulva Flava, City of Sea and Light Anthology, Passaic County Community College Poetry Anthology 1989 and 1991, Each in Her Own Way, Fan, Sightings - Live Poets Society Anthology, The North Sea Poetry Scene Anthology 2005 and 2006, Performance Poets Association Anthology, Karamu, and Italian Americana.

In addition, Ms. Hoffman has had articles published in The New York Times and Newsday.

Her short fiction can be found in Catholic Girls, published by Penguin.

She was the subject of WLIW's Channel 21 show – Originals – Arts on Long Island series, and the subject of Riverhead Cablevision's Channel 27 show – Ideas and Images.

Ms. Hoffman has been awarded a Fellowship to Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sweetbriar, Virginia and a Fellowship to National Writing Project at SUNY Stony Brook. She was the winner of the American Pen Women award.

She has attended workshops with Galway Kinnell, June Jordan, William Stafford, Pattiann Rogers, Jorie Graham, Marvin Bell, Helen Cooper, Alfred Corn, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Ludwig.

Ms. Hoffman has been the featured poet at readings in New York City and throughout Long Island. (Bio courtesy of poetryvlog.com)

Barbara Southard

Barbara Southard grew up on a canal in Freeport, Long Island. She lived for several years in Woodstock, New York, then Corvallis, Oregon. Starting out as a painter and printmaker, her work evolved over the years into combining word and image on a Mac. Her poetry is a continuum of a life-long process. A number of her poems have been published in recent years in various journals and anthologies. She currently lives & writes in Miller Place, New York. (Bio courtesy of poetryvlog.com)

Karen Swenson

Karen Swenson's latest book, A PILGRIM INTO SILENCE, will be out this September. It includes sections on New York City, Tibet and Mother Teresa's home for the Dying Destitute in Calcutta. Swenson has gone to Asia for the last 27 years for 2 months of each year. She has been to Tibet 8 times and worked for a month at Mother Teresa's. She teaches at Barnard and NYU.


Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY. For more information, www.schoolhousegreen.org. or our new blog site http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.


The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, in support of the Oceanside Education Foundation. The Gazebo Readings will be held each Monday evening in June, July and August, and will feature 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, published authors, comedians, fiction and non-fiction writers, and local community members sharing some of their favorite literature. The Summer Gazebo Readings will be held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.

Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Realty
Gunderson Family
Tower's Funeral Home
Oceanville Mason Supply
Westron's Light Bulb Warehouse
NY Municipal Credit Union
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro, Inc. Insurance
Dr. Aaron Rappaport, DDS & Dr. David Rappaport, DMD
Marsh Hawk Press
LI Pulse Magazine
Councilman Anthony J. Santino
M. Schamroth & Sons

E. Fine
C. Scarlata & Family
Kaufman Family

Doc's Mechanical Piping & Heating Corp.
Village Book Shoppe
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys at Law


For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
www.schoolhousegreen.org
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Long Island Writer's Guild

Many thanks to the Long Island Writer's Guild who supplied us with 7 first-rate poets and authors last Monday-- Shawn Patrick Cooke, Marilyn Goldsmith, Greg Lane, Ellen Lawrence, Ann Kenna, Ursula Nouza, & Ron Scott. Despite a very light drizzle (or as we say at Schoolhouse Green, a mist of liquid sunshine), the crowd had a wonderful evening, and was exposed to the great work of this fine organization. (see photos below)

This Monday, August 18th we will feature:

Yolanda Coulaz

Yolanda Coulaz is a poet, photographer, editor, and founder of Purple Sage Press. She teaches poetry writing workshops to middle and high school students throughout Long Island and hosts the Farmingdale Library Poetry Series.

Yolanda edited and published the anthology For Loving Precious Beast to benefit Loving Touch Animal Rescue, and her first book of poetry Spirits and Oxygen is being used in an advanced course in poetry at SUNY Stony Brook.

Joan Marg

Joan Marg, is a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and Assistant Registrar working 21 years at NYIT. Joan has been a great friend of the Gazebo Readings--a regular attendee and loyal supporter. She enjoys writing poetry and short stories and is a member of the Farmingdale Creative Writing Group, Farmingdale Poetry Group, Performance Poets Association, and The North Sea Poetry Scene.

Her poems have appeared in Gridlock, Poetyr, North Shore Women's Newspaper, Long Island Sounds 2007, PPA Literary Reviews #9 through 12, Friends of the Hempsted Plains Poetry Anthology, Long Island Expressions Autism Awareness Anthology, Gifts From Our Circle, and 2001: A Long Island Odyssey.

She was awarded honorable mention from Writer's Digest National Writing Contest in 2004 and 2006 and 2007 from the Princess Ronkonkoma Poetry Contest.

In her poetry, Joan explores beauty in the natural world and the complex interactions among human beings, expressing insights of new joy.

Florence Gatto

Florence is a retired NYC educator. Her short stories and essays have been published in LI Writer's Guild anthologies, Newsday and Cucina Classica Cookbook. She is a frequent audience member here at the Gazebo. She writes a column for the Order Sons of Italy in America newspaper "The Golden Lion". She studied in a Fulbright program in Perugia and in Siena with a NY state Teacher's grant.

She calls herself an "Italophile" and requires frequent trips to Italy to feed her psyche.

Doris Bush

D. T. Bush, a writer of poetry and prose, is a member of the Long Island Writer's Guild. Her poems, essays and novel excerpts have been published in two of their anthologies, "Water Walking" and "2001; A Long Island Odyssey". She is also the creator, publisher, and editor of "Poetyr" magazine, a contest based magazine for and by Poets.

The author has enjoyed a successful book signing at the Book Revue and the Cinema Arts Center in Huntington, New York for Anton's Place; a work of adult fiction. Other published works include two illustrated children's books, "Rebecca's Song" and "Grandma's Glasses".

Other works waiting publication or works in progress include "Bear Claw, The Moon of The Awakening", "Stars Above The Forrest Dark", "Necessary Lies" and "The Cirrana Women".

After far too many years working for others, including a brief stint as instructor for Continuing Education at Molloy College, this Long Island writer is now retired and devoted to writing, painting, traveling and working for and supporting poets by way of Poetyr Magazine's annual contests.
Corinne Zachary

Corrine grew up on Long Island and now lives in Bayside after graduating from St. John's University with an M.A. in English. She recently became an associate editor at celebratewithstyle.com a website, media company, and soon to be magazine.
She has been writing poetry for about 7 years now, and had her first public reading at our Gazebo last year.

Upcoming Readers:

August 25 Barbara Hoffman Barbara Reiher-Meyers Barbara Southard Karen Swenson

Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY.

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.


The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, in support of the Oceanside Education Foundation. The Gazebo Readings will be held each Monday evening in June, July and August, and will feature 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, published authors, comedians, fiction and non-fiction writers, and local community members sharing some of their favorite literature. The Summer Gazebo Readings will be held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.

Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Realty
Gunderson Family
Tower's Funeral Home
Oceanville Mason Supply
Westron's Light Bulb Warehouse
NY Municipal Credit Union
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro, Inc. Insurance
Dr. Aaron Rappaport, DDS & Dr. David Rappaport, DMD
Marsh Hawk Press
LI Pulse Magazine
Councilman Anthony J. Santino
M. Schamroth & Sons

E. Fine
C. Scarlata & Family
Kaufman Family

Doc's Mechanical Piping & Heating Corp.
Village Book Shoppe
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys at Law


For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
www.schoolhousegreen.org
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Perfect Weather, Perfect Readings

How perfect was Monday night? The weather was the best of the year-- simply beautiful. The readings? Equally delightful.

Another large crowd was treated to four fine Readings. Paula Camacho led off with a touching tribute, then poetry with crowd-pleasing twists;


Sonya Russell, accompanied by Rob Gambel on alto sax, gave a unique reading-- powerful and entertaining;

Bruce Grossberg treated us to a poem which simply has to be illustrated and turned into a children's book;


and Teri Coyne, reading excerpts from her novel, had the crowd on the edge of their seat.


(Check out more photos below).


This week we turn our event over to the Long Island Writer's Guild. They have selected 7 of their members to read for us--altering our usual 10 minute-per-reader pattern to fit their members within our 40 minute format. It promises to be an eclectic, and electric, evening!

This Monday, the Long Island Writer's Guild provides us with:

Shawn Patrick Cooke

Shawn Patrick Cooke wrote his first book, in crayon, at the age of three. although thirteen out of sixteen pages were left blank, the remaining three did feature illustrations by the author. since then, Shawn has found more success with typing his stories. He has read at the Library of Congress, and has frequently placed in the Writers' Weekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest. He lives in Bohemia, NY which isn't nearly as iconoclastic as it sounds.
Marilyn Goldsmith

Marilyn Goldsmith, who now lives in Syossett, NY with her husband, formerly taught English at C.W.Post College. She is a member of the Long Island Writers' Guild and the Taproot Workshop where she finds inspiration and encouragement from fellow writers. her poems have been published in an anthology,"Songs of Seasoned Women". Performance Poets Association, Mobius, The Farmingdale Poetry Group, Kaleidoscope Magazine, and the Taproot Journal, which in addition to her poetry, has published her prose pieces.
Greg Lane

Greg Lane:retired from Untied Airlines in 2003 with 27 years of service. presently operates small custom furniture business and writes. He holds a BA from Washington College, Chestertown, MD, lives in Massapequa with his wife, Barbara and twin daughters, Jackie and Lauren who graduated American University, 2008. His writing began with what he refers to as "a primitive novel that should have prompted a prison sentence." Greg recently finished his fifth, which is currently being edited for possible publication. Greg has been a member of the LIWG for the last five years, along with a number of private workshops.
Ellen Lawrence

Ellen Lawrence was born in Switzerland to immigrant parents. She came to New York at an early age and now lives in Nassau County. A longtime animal welfare worker and a retired business owner, she wrote her first poem at the age of ten and has been writing ever since. She is a member of the Long Island Writers' Guild, and has written monthly poetry columns for local newsletters. Her work has appeared in many recent Taproot Journals and in the anthology"For Loving Precious Beasts". Many of her poems focus on her family and her pets. She has written short stories and children's picture books, and often writes about one of her favorite places, the beach. She is currently working on her memoirs.
Ann Kenna

Ann Kenna is a constant student, wife, and mother. She meditates and strives to live in the moment. She has worked for many years in Special Education. She conducts poetry workshops with fourth and fifth grade students and ends each school year by publishing a chapbook of their work and hosting a student poetry reading. Her work has appeared in on-line publications, the Long Island Sounds Anthology 2007 and 2008, Primal Sanities, Oberon Poetry Journal and the Meadowlark. She has been a featured reader for Performance Poets Association, Poets in Nassau, and the Asbestos Arts Group. She is a member of the North Sea Poetry Scene, The Long Island Writers' Guild, Long Island Poetry Collective, and the Farmingdale Poetry Group. She spends huge amounts of time trying to tame an unruly Golden Retriever named Charlie.
Ursula Nouza

Ursula Nouza was born and raised in Columbia, South America, where children are exposed to poetry at a young age in the home and at school. Her love for language began in early childhood and as a result she came to the U.S. in her sophomore year of high school to learn English, followed by four years of Interpreter School in Switzerland. After working as an interpreter and translator, she returned to college to embrace her first love:teaching. Ursula has taught Spanish in elementary, middle, and high schools, and currently at the college level. For the last five years, inspired by the LI Writers Guild, she has been writing poetry of her own, and two books.
Ron Scott

Ron Scott is a native of Brooklyn, NY who migrated to Long Island, via Queens, and a tour in the United States Army. He admits to alumni status from Syracuse University and New York Institute of Technology; both of which served as his foundation for a career in accounting. Ron is an avid sportsman,dedicated to the preservation of outdoor life in all capacities. A veteran of the Vietnam War, he credits his military experience for his introduction to the trials and rewards of the writer's life. Collectively, his work is meant to arouse the pensive and celebrate a sense of humor. Ron takes particular pride in offering material readers can identify with from their own experiences.


Upcoming Readers:

August 18 Yolanda Coulaz- The Reverend Mofo Doris Bush Florence Gatto Joan Marg
August 25 Barbara Hoffman Barbara Reiher-Meyers Barbara Southard Karen Swenson

Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY.

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.


The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, in support of the Oceanside Education Foundation. The Gazebo Readings will be held each Monday evening in June, July and August, and will feature 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, published authors, comedians, fiction and non-fiction writers, and local community members sharing some of their favorite literature. The Summer Gazebo Readings will be held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds.

Admission is free.


Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Realty
Gunderson Family
Tower's Funeral Home
Oceanville Mason Supply
Westron's Light Bulb Warehouse
NY Municipal Credit Union
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro, Inc. Insurance
Dr. Aaron Rappaport, DDS & Dr. David Rappaport, DMD
Marsh Hawk Press
LI Pulse Magazine
Councilman Anthony J. Santino
M. Schamroth & Sons

E. Fine
C. Scarlata & Family
Kaufman Family

Doc's Mechanical Piping & Heating Corp.
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys at Law


For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
www.schoolhousegreen.org
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

Monday, August 4, 2008

Photos From August 4, 2008

Paula Camacho, Sonia Russell & Rob Gamble, Bruce Grossberg & Teri Coyne



Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Around this time of year, being of somewhat limited literary talent, I start running out of adjectives to describe how wonderful our Monday evenings are. Let me just say that the weather was exquisite, and the Readers were wonderful.

Joan Dupre, a late fill-in (life happens, even to our Readers!) was fantastic! She was warm, and funny and set a great tone for the evening.



Christine Timm was equally delightful-- she had the audience totally in her sway--one moment laughing, the next emotional. Her "tattoo" slam poem at the end of her set was masterful.




J R (Judy) Turek, our good friend, pitched in with a beautiful, and educational, poem centering on Long Island, and its heritage, as it applies to her garden;



and Clive Young alternatingly brought the crowd to chuckles and grimaces, as he read a very powerful, perfectly crafted short story.


(See more photos here)

This Monday, we feature some more great talent--two old friends and three new-to-us Readers:



Paula Camacho
Paula Camacho moderates the Farmingdale Poetry Group, which meets at 7 PM on alternate Weds. from September to June at the Farmingdale Public Library. Her poems have won awards and have been published in several magazines and anthologies, including Writers' Journal, Lucidity, Farmingdale Observer, Newsday, North Shore Woman's Newsletter and the anthologies of Performance Poet's Association Literary Review, Long Island Quarterly, Long Island Expressions, Dream, For Loving Precious Beasts, Long Island Sounds: 2007, Friends of the Hempstead Plains, Songs of Seasoned Women and the Farmingdale Poetry Chapbook. She was chairperson on the Committee to Establish the Nassau County Poet Laureate law and was a panelist on the Nassau County Poet Laureate Panel. Currently she is working as the coordinator of Maxwell Wheat's Nassau County Poet Laureate Committee. She is a panelist for Nassau Grants for the Arts. She has published Hidden Between Branches, and two chapbooks, The Short Lives Of Giants, and November's Diary.

Teri Coyne
Teri holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York University. Before turning to fiction, Teri wrote and performed stand-up comedy in clubs around New York City for many years. She has written several short films which were produced through NYU.

Teri has studied novel writing at the Iowa Summer Writers Workshop, memoir with Frank McCourt at the Southampton Summer Writer's Program, fiction with Masha Hamilton at the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City and poetry with Philip Shultz at NYU.

Teri's debut novel Skin and Bones will be published by Ballantine in July of next year. Teri has also written a memoir entitled Wish You Were Here about her family trips she took as a young girl. She is currently at work on her second novel Grace and Heart.

Teri leads a technical writing and training team at a large global law firm. She divides her time between New York City and the North Fork of Long Island.

For more information on Teri visit her website at www.tericoyne.com.


Bruce Grossberg

Bruce Grossberg is happy to be returning to the Gazebo. He is the author of two plays on Ulysses Grant, and is currently working on a third. Bruce has also written a number of shorter works, including Shakespeare In The Park, which has been seen at the Samuel French One-Act Festival, and other plays which have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, and Texas. He blogs occasionally at www.bafterthefact.blogspot.com. Sometimes television actor, sometimes lawyer, Bruce lives in Forest Hills with his wife, the artist Laura Rovinsky, and their daughter, Sofia.



Sonia Russell
Sonia Russell is an author, publisher, poet, and orator from Long Island, NY. Her first novel, "The Cost of Love," debuted in September 2007 under the pseudonym of LeRoia. This novel, which is the first of a series, as well as the first publishing effort of her company SoniSpeaksVolumes Publishing, LLC, has sparked book clubs, book signings, and table talk book signings in several cities. Sonia (LeRoia) was the featured author at Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.'s Women's Month "Meet the Author" in Jamaica, New York in March of this year. She was also featured at Hue-man Bookstore in Harlem, on a panel of five authors called "First Voices," where she discussed "The Cost of Love," in April. Sonia recently obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in English, and endeavors to teach creative writing. Sonia's readings at the Gazebo this year will focus on Love, the theme surrounding her book and recently inspired poetry.

Susan Deacon


Upcoming Readers:

August 11 Long Island Writer's Guild
August 18 Yolanda Coulaz- The Reverend Mofo Doris Bush Florence Gatto
August 25 Barbara Hoffman Barbara Reiher-Meyers Barbara Southard Karen Swenson

Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY. For more information, www.schoolhousegreen.org. or our new blog site http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.


The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, in support of the Oceanside Education Foundation. The Gazebo Readings will be held each Monday evening in June, July and August, and will feature 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, published authors, comedians, fiction and non-fiction writers, and local community members sharing some of their favorite literature. The Summer Gazebo Readings will be held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.

Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Realty
Tower's Funeral Home
Oceanville Mason Supply
Westron's Light Bulb Warehouse
NY Municipal Credit Union
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro, Inc. Insurance
Dr. Aaron Rappaport, DDS & Dr. David Rappaport, DMD
Marsh Hawk Press
LI Pulse Magazine
Councilman Anthony J. Santino
M. Schamroth & Sons

E. Fine
C. Scarlata & Family
Kaufman Family

Doc's Mechanical Piping & Heating Corp.
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys at Law


For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
www.schoolhousegreen.org
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

Monday, July 28, 2008

Photos From July 28, 2008

Featuring Joan Dupre, Christine Timm, J R (Judy) Turek and Clive Young


Thursday, July 24, 2008

Perfect

Perfect weather. Perhaps our largest crowd. 5 incredible Readers. Another typical summer evening at the Gazebo!

Jack Anderson led off with funny, thoughtful (and poignant) poetry;


Geri Lipshultz followed with interesting, well-crafted story-poems;


Richard Vetere brought power and life to his works, enthralling the crowd;




Tony Policano was warm and engaging;


and finally we were treated to J R (Judy) Turek who was masterful--funny, touching, insightful-- simply a delight!



(Check below for more photos)

This Monday, July 28, 2008 we feature:


Christine Timm
Christine Timm is a NYC performance poet. She produces and co-hosts the NYC College Slam, Love Poetry Hate Racism events, and the Bowery Kids entertainment series at the Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan and co-produces and co-hosts the Smalls Lit Series at Smalls Jazz Club in the West Village. Her most recent publications can be found in Polarity, Arabesques Review, and The Long Island Quarterly. She has a collection of poetry forthcoming on Small Books Press. She has a Ph.D. in English Lit from the Graduate Center at City University of New York with dissertation on the Beats and spoken word. She is Associate Professor of English at Westchester Community College where she teaches modern American poetry, creative writing, and composition.
www.myspace.com/christine_timm

Lee Kostrinsky
Lee Kostrinsky is a writer and musician. His first book of fiction "Here Nor There" was published in 2001 and his first book of poetry "Why Pat Cooks" was just recently published this year on the new Smalls Books. Lee is also the co-owner of the legendary Smalls Jazz Club in New York City.

Clive Young
Clive Young is an author and lecturer covering the crossroads between high technology and popular culture. He is the author of Crank It Up [Backbeat Books, 2004], which profiles the world's top rock concert roadies, exploring how they make the biggest acts in the world sound great, night after night. The book received strong reviews from mainstream magazines like Billboard and Hit Parader, as well as specialist press. He is now racing to finish this next book, Homemade Hollywood, a history of amateur filmmaking, which will be published in 2008 by Continuum Books.

He has covered the music industry as both the senior and web editors of Pro Sound News and has also written for MTV, VH1, American Songwriter, Music Business International, Wine Enthusiast and many other outlets. His comedy screenplay, Worst Case Scenario, recently won Script Magazine's national competition.

When not tapping away on the keyboard, he often lectures at libraries around Long Island, discussing the histories of movie special effects, music videos and more; he will present programs on these topics at more than 20 libraries across Long Island this summer. For more information, visit his website at www.cliveyoung.com.


U
pcoming Readers:

August 4 Teri Coyne Bruce Grossberg Paula Comacho Susan Deacon Sonia L. Russell
August 11 Long Island Writer's Guild
August 18 Yolanda Coulaz- The Reverend Mofo Doris Bush Florence Gatto
August 25 Barbara Hoffman Barbara Reiher-Meyers Barbara Southard Karen Swenson


Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY. For more information, www.schoolhousegreen.org. or our new blog site http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/


The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.


The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, in support of the Oceanside Education Foundation. The Gazebo Readings will be held each Monday evening in June, July and August, and will feature 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, published authors, comedians, fiction and non-fiction writers, and local community members sharing some of their favorite literature. The Summer Gazebo Readings will be held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.


Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Realty
Tower's Funeral Home
Oceanville Mason Supply
Westron's Light Bulb Warehouse
NY Municipal Credit Union
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro, Inc. Insurance
Dr. Aaron Rappaport, DDS & Dr. David Rappaport, DMD
Marsh Hawk Press
LI Pulse Magazine
Councilman Anthony J. Santino
M. Schamroth & Sons

E. Fine
C. Scarlata & Family
Kaufman Family

Doc's Mechanical Piping & Heating Corp.
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys at Law


For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
www.schoolhousegreen.org
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Photos from July 14, 2008

A Spectacular Evening

Monday evening was a spectacular night all the way around. We were treated to simply the best evening of the summer--perfect weather (all the more surprising given the rain earlier in the day). As good as the weather was, the readings were even better.

Sandi Sonnenfeld started us off with a provocative essay;
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the always gracious and entertaining Robert Dunn followed with his wry, funny poetry;

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Brenda Janowitz was delightful-- an engaging, theatrical reader, the excerpts from her novel had every couple on the Green nodding and grinning in self-recognition;

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and we ended with a passionate and powerful reading by Denis Gray--one that had so great an impact that when he finished it took a few moments for the crowd to start breathing again.

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More photos of the Readers and the crowd can be seen here.

This week coming up promises more of the same-- a very special lineup.

Monday, July 21, 2008 we feature:

J R Turek

J R (Judy) Turek is a very special friend of our program-- her support has been invaluable these two years.

J R strives to write a poem a day and mostly succeeds. She is in her tenth year as Moderator of the Farmingdale Creative Writing Group and is a member of Maxwell Wheat's Nassau County Poet Laureate Committee, serving as the chairperson of the Nassau County School Poetry Contest. A portion of the proceeds from her poetry book, They Come And They Go, supports Autism Awareness organizations on Long Island.

In 2007, she was a co-editor of Long Island Sounds: 2007, Finding Our Voices, and Performance Poets Association Literary Review #11. In 2008, she has co-edited Long Island Sounds: 2008 and Performance Poets Association Literary Review #12. You can see and hear her read her poetry on www.poetryvlog.com.

J R has been published in primal sanities!, The Towe Auto Museum Poetry Collections 2007 and 2006, Asbestos, Soul Fountain,Long Island Sounds: 2007 and 2006, Long Island Quarterly, For Loving Precious Beast, The Long Islander, the East Meadow Herald, Performance Poets Association Literary Review Volumes 8 through 12, Friends of the Hempstead Plains, Long Island Expressions Autism Awareness, 2001: A Long Island Odyssey, and the Farmingdale Poetry Chapbook. She is also a contributor to Grassroot Reflections. Her poetry will appear in Primal Sanities!, The Towe Auto Museum Poetry Collection, Assbestos, Soul Fountain, and PAUMANOK: Poetry and Pictures of Long Island.

In 2008, J R was awarded the Conklin Prize for Poetry; 2nd place in The North Sea Poetry Scene's poetry contest; and 1st place in the Mid-Island Y JCC poetry contest. J R's poetry has also won awards from Princess Productions, Writer's Digest, The Towe Auto Museum, and Lake Ronkonkoma poetry contests.

She is a born and bred Long Islander who resides in East Meadow with her soul-mate husband, her dogs, and her extraordinarily extensive shoe collection. If you see the license plate MSJEVUS, follow her; chances are, she's going to a poetry event.

Anthony Policano
Anthony Policano is a Long Island poet born in Brooklyn three days before Jack Kerouac's On The Road was first published. He thinks that this may explain his fondness for jazz, long trips and run on sentences.

A former technology manager for J.P. Morgan Chase, his passion for poetry has recently reawakened. He writes, attends workshops and reads his work publicly at every opportunity.

In 2007, he was awarded 1st place in the Long Island Poetry Collective contest and received honorable mentions in several others. His poems have been published in PPA literary review, Loomings, Flutter, Poetryvlog.org and soon to be published in Primal Sanities (a Whitman anthology) and Xanadu (fall issue).


Anthony is married, has a daughter and calls Oyster Bay home.


Jack Anderson

Jack Anderson is the author of nine books of poems and prose poems, including Field Trips on the Rapid Transit (Hanging Loose Press) and Traffic (New Rivers Press), which won the Marie Alexander Award for prose poetry. He has appeared in recent anthologies of subway poems, police poems, and poems about New York City streets. A dance historian and critic, he is the author of seven books of dance history and criticism, a dance writer for the New York Times, New York correspondent for The Dancing Times of London, and dance critic for the New York Theatre Wire (nytheatre-wire.com, then click on "Dance").

Richard Vetere

Mr. Vetere is a novelist, playwright, film and TV writer and actor. He teaches a masterscreenwriting class at NYU and screenwriting at Queens College. He wrote the novel The Third Miracle published by Simon & Schuster and he co-authored the screenplay which stars Ed Harris, Anne Heche and is produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The novel has been translated into seven languages so far. He is also the author of eleven plays all published by Dramatic Publishing. His play Machiavelli, which ran Off-Broadway last season and his play Caravaggio, which had its world premiere in Chicago last season, will both be available this month. He wrote the movie How To Go Out on a Date in Queens which stars Jason Alexander and Kimberely Williams. His other movies include The Marriage Fool staring Walter Mathau and Carol Brunett and Vigilante . His new musical A 100 Yrs Into the Heart opens Off-Broadway this fall. His TV shows include Threat Matrix for ABC and The Wonder for CBS produced by George Clooney. He has two volumes of published poetry Memories of Human Hands and A Dream of Angels. He is on the board of directors for the Queens International Film Festival and a member of Writers Guild, Dramatist Guild, Authors Guild, Poets & Writers and represented by the William Morris Agency. He is a born and raised New Yorker.

Geri Lipschultz

Geri Lipschultz has published in The New York Times, Kalliope, Black Warrior Review, Dunes Review, North Atlantic Review, College English, and others. She was awarded a CAPS grant from NY State for one of her novels. Rob Bundy directed a staged reading of her full-length play, and she performed in her one-woman show, Once Upon the Present Time, produced in NYC by Woodie King, Jr. She has directed and produced children's theatre, and her production, Rising Above the Shadow -- Women's Artistic Responses to September 11th, featured the work of fifty women artists – painters, musicians, dancers, writers. Her fiction was nominated for the Foley award, and she was also a Heekin semi-finalist. She teaches writing at Suffolk Community College and has taught thousands of children as a poet in the schools. She received her MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.


Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY. For more information, www.schoolhousegreen.org. or our new blog site http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/


The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.


The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, in support of the Oceanside Education Foundation. The Gazebo Readings will be held each Monday evening in June, July and August, and will feature 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, published authors, comedians, fiction and non-fiction writers, and local community members sharing some of their favorite literature. The Summer Gazebo Readings will be held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.

Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Realty
Tower's Funeral Home
Oceanville Mason Supply
Westron's Light Bulb Warehouse
NY Municipal Credit Union
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro, Inc. Insurance
Dr. Aaron Rappaport, DDS & Dr. David Rappaport, DMD
Marsh Hawk Press
LI Pulse Magazine
Councilman Anthony J. Santino
M. Schamroth & Sons

E. Fine
C. Scarlata & Family
Kaufman Family

Doc's Mechanical Piping & Heating Corp.
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys at Law


For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
www.schoolhousegreen.org
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Patriotic Readings

Our Fourth of July barbecue and readings, held on the 7th, was exceptional! A large crowd enjoyed beautiful weather, and read/heard the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, Lincoln's "With Malice Towards None" Second Inaugural Address, Teddy Roosevelt on conservation, FDR's "Nothing to Fear" Inaugural, Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech, and excerpts from his farewell speech on the necessity of teaching history to our children; and, finally, MLK's "I Have a Dream".

Great night all the way around.

Monday, July 14th, we're back to our regular schedule of outstanding authors and poets. It's a special line-up-- We have two women who grew up locally and then went off to find great success-- and three of our favorites from last year, back to delight us again! Come on down--and bring a friend!

Our Readers this Monday, July 14th are:
Sandi Sonnenfeld

Sandi Sonnenfeld grew up in Rockville Centre and graduated from Oceanside Senior High. Drawn to the arts at a very early age, Sandi studied ballet for more than 15 years, ultimately attending classes at the Joffrey Ballet School in Manhattan. She attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she majored in English (and minored in dance), graduating magna cum laude. After a brief stint performing with a professional dance troupe in Boston, Sandi enrolled in the MFA program in fiction writing at the University of Washington, where she studied under National Book Award winner Charles Johnson. While at the UW, Sandi was awarded the Loren D. Milliman Writing Fellowship, the top scholarship given to only one writing student each year. Since that time, Sandi has published more than 30 short stories, essays, and journalism pieces in a variety of publications, including Sojourner, Voices West, Hayden's Ferry Review, ACM: Another Chicago Magazine, Somerset Review, The Raven Chronicles, Perigee and in the upcoming issue of New Works Review (newworksreview.org).

Her first full-length book, This Is How I Speak, a memoir in diary form that explores Sandi's struggle to come to terms with the end of her dance career even as she embarks on a new one as a writer, was published by Seattle's Impassio Press in June 2002. This is How I Speak was a BookSense 76 finalist and for which The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association named Sandi a 2002 Celebration Author, one of a select group of writers whose work merits special attention.

Writing awards include The David Dornstein Memorial Creative Writing Award for Young Writers (1998) sponsored by the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, as well as a finalist for Rosebud Magazine's X.J. Kennedy Award for Creative Nonfiction (2001), Greensboro Review Literary Awards (2001) and the Serpentine Fiction Award (2000). Sandi currently resides in Brooklyn with her filmmaker husband Warren Berry and the world's most perfect cat, Princess Stormwalker. Visit www.sandisonnenfeld.com for more.

Brenda Janowitz

A native Oceansider, Brenda Janowitz has had a flair for all things dramatic since she played the title role in her third grade production of Really Rosie. When asked by her grandmother if the experience made her want to be an actress when she grew up, Brenda responded, "An actress? No. A writer, maybe."

Brenda attended Cornell University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Human Service Studies, with a Concentration in Race and Discrimination. After graduating from Cornell, she attended Hofstra Law School, where she was a member of the Law Review and won the Law Review Writing Competition. Upon graduation from Hofstra, she went to work for the law firm Kaye Scholer, LLP, where she was an associate in the Intellectual Property group, handling cases in the areas of trademark, anti-trust, internet, and false advertising. Brenda later left Kaye Scholer to pursue a federal clerkship with the Honorable Marilyn Dolan Go, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York.

Since her clerkship, Brenda has worked as a career counselor at two New York City law schools, where she published a number of articles on career related issues in publications such as the National Law Journal and the New York Law Journal. She currently lives in Manhattan where she lectures on the publishing process and teaches creative writing at Mediabistro.

Denis Gray

Denis Gray is a great friend of our series. A frequent member of our audience, Denis was our final reader last year--reading his wonderful works by flashlight and headlights as the sun set on us last August. He is a novelist/playwright who lives in Woodmere, Long Island. He is the author of 28 books, three novellas, thirteen plays, and over fifty short stories. His novella Benny's Last Blast!!, was published in 2002. He expects the release of his first audio short story CD, "Black Love Notes," later this summer.

Over the years, Denis' work has been featured at many poetry venues within the tri-state area. He thanks the "Summer Gazebo Reading Series" for this opportunity for his work to be heard. This is an event, he feels, which promotes the cultural richness of the vast community of great contemporary writers.


Adriana DiGennaro

Adriana read last year to glowing praise-- a truly exceptional young poet! A member of the Academy of American Poets and the Italian American Writers Association (IAWA), Adriana DiGennaro is a graduate of Bennington College in Vermont where she studied literature and creative writing. A native New Yorker, her second book of poetry, Acts of Contrition, was published in Spring 2007 by Windstorm Creative. Peripheral Vision, her first book published in 2001 by Writers Ink Press, debuted when she was just 17. That same year she was on Red River Review's list of nominees for a Pushcart Prize.

Ms. DiGennaro's poetry has been featured in Edifice Wrecked, The Abrabesque Review, BigCityLit, Red River Review, PoetryBay, Merge, The Aurora Review, Poetz, Boston Literary Review, The Tipton Poetry Journal, Tryst, Ancient Heart (United Kingdom), Eclectica, City Writers Review (NYC), Poetry Midwest, Esopian, Adagio Verse Quarterly, Falling Star Magazine, Flutter, Wonder Writings, Long Island Quarterly, Triplopia, Ward6Review, Clean Sheets, Sidereality, Southern Ocean Review (New Zealand), Perigee, Sage of Consciousness and The Improper Hamptonian. She is the youngest poet whose work is featured in The Light of City and Sea (Street Press 2006), an anthology of Suffolk County poetry edited by Suffolk County Poet Laureate Daniel Thomas Moran.

Other anthologies with her work include Southshire Pepper-Pot: A Literary Feast With Culinary Refrains (Windstorm Creative, 2006); Susan B. & Me: An International Collection of Women's Writings & Photographs edited by Patricia Ronsvalle, LCSW (Big Kid Publishing, 2006); In Our Own Words: A Generation Defining Itself edited by Marlow Peerse Weaver (MWE Press, 2005), Whispers of Inspiration: An Anthology of New American Poets edited by Darlene and Steven Manchester (Sunpiper Press, September 2005); Ancient Heart Magazine Poetry Anthology Vol. III edited by Richard van der Draaij (Ancient Heart Press, 2005). To watch a short video of her reading at Good Times Books, Port Jefferson, NY, go to: www.poetryvlog.com.

A born city dweller and dreamer obsessed with all forms of reggae music, she needs lots of sunlight and is happiest when in transit. She is always in search of adventure. She lives and works in New York City.

Robert Dunn

Also a fan favorite from last year-- Robert is guaranteed to bring laughter to Schoolhouse Green! Writer/artist Robert Dunn is the author of such books as Zen Yentas in Bondage, Horse Latitudes, and Baffled in Baloneyville. He is the editor of Asbestos Poetry Journal and has served as Editor of Medicinal Purposes Literary Review and The New Press Literary Quarterly. Mr. Dunn's poetry has appeared around the world, which is more than you can say for him. His comic strip, Knish & Carob, has appeared in Street News. In every generation, there are 36 individuals whose very existence persuades the Almighty not to destroy the world. Among these 36 individuals, Mr. Dunn is definitely #37.

The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road, Oceanside NY. For more information, www.schoolhousegreen.org. or our new blog site http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/

(By the way, check out photographs of our readers and the Green at http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/)

We are re-scheduling the Readers we lost to the weather. Subject to additions, our schedule for the balance of the summer is:

July 21 Jack Anderson Judy Turek Geri Lipshultz Anthony Policano Richard Vetere
July 28 Betsy Transom -double slot Christine Timm Lee Kostrinsky Clive Young
August 4 Teri Coyne Bruce Grossberg Paula Comacho Susan Deacon
August 11 Long Island Writer's Guild
August 18 Yolanda Coulaz- The Reverend Mofo Doris Bush Florence Gatto
August 25 Barbara Hoffman Barbara Reiher-Meyers Barbara Southard Karen Swenson


The Readings start at 7pm at Schoolhouse Green, located on Foxhurst Road, just east of Long Beach Road.

The Summer Gazebo Readings are sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Oceanside, in support of the Oceanside Education Foundation. The Gazebo Readings will be held each Monday evening in June, July and August, and will feature 4 readers each evening. Scheduled readers include some of Long Island's most prestigious poets, published authors, comedians, fiction and non-fiction writers, and local community members sharing some of their favorite literature. The Summer Gazebo Readings will be held outdoors; seating is limited, so bring a lawn chair, a blanket, a picnic table. The grounds are open, and the public is encouraged to come early and have a quiet summer's picnic on the grounds. Admission is free.

Sponsors include:
Home & Hearth Realty
Tower's Funeral Home
Oceanville Mason Supply
Westron's Light Bulb Warehouse
NY Municipal Credit Union
Childs Murphy Kuehn & Cesiro, Inc. Insurance
Dr. Aaron Rappaport, DDS & Dr. David Rappaport, DMD
Marsh Hawk Press
LI Pulse Magazine
Councilman Anthony J. Santino
M. Schamroth & Sons

E. Fine
C. Scarlata & Family
Kaufman Family

Doc's Mechanical Piping & Heating Corp.
Bondi & Iovino, Attorneys at Law

For more information:

Tony Iovino
68 Yorktown Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
H 516 763-1667
C 516 459-3262
W 516 741-8585
www.schoolhousegreen.org
http://summergazeboreadings.blogspot.com/