Week One

As the first Readings of our second season approached, I was nervous-- last year went so close to perfect, could we repeat ourselves? Would we be able to capture the same friendly, carefree summer feel we had last year--or would we have lost our magic over the Winter? Last year our smallest crowds were in June (though we were ecstatic at the turnout then!)-- would our audience re-start at last year's beginning? Or would we build on the growing crowds we ended last season with?

I needn't have worried. Over 65 people came out to enjoy a beautiful Spring evening. Sun, a light breeze. Perfect.

Steve Kriss, our designated good luck charm, started us off as he did last year, this time reading from the great Civil War novel "Red Badge of Courage". His dramatic reading kicked off the season with a bang! Paula Curci followed with a unique blend of poetry and song-- sweet and strong and imaginative. Lara Tupper read from her engaging novel " A Thousand and One Nights", taking us behind the scenes of a cruise ship through the eyes of a lounge singer--warm and funny. And then Max Wheat thrilled the audience with his love of Long Island's natural beauty--and brought the house down with his scathing "Trump on the Ocean"--which was interrupted several times by enthusiastic applause!

An enjoyable evening all the way around!

Next week promises to be just as special (weather permitting!) We have back with us three of our favorites from last year--and one "new-to-us" Reader who faithfully attended our series last summer.

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/

Next week, June 9, we feature:

Peter V. Dugan

Peter V. Dugan is a resident of East Rockaway, a graduate of The New School in New York City and a member of the Rockville Centre Poets. Peter was one of our first published Readers--his participation helped open the doors for our program throughout the literary community. He, through Poets in Nassau, is hosting a series of poetry readings at the Oceanside Library--the first of which was extremely well attended. Wysteria Ltd. published his first book length collection titled Medusa’s Overbite in 2001. He has taught poetry workshops and classes on form and style. Mr. Dugan has won local and national awards for his poetry. Some notables are an Honorable Mention by The American Academy of Poets, a 2^nd place for Farmingdale State College Raynor Wallace poetry contest, 2^nd place and two Honorable mentions in the Barnes and Noble Poetry awards and a 2^nd place for the Dowling College Poetry Slam. His pieces have been published individually in recent years in Long Island Sounds anthology 2007, Aitia, a magazine of philosophy and art 1995, Road Poet, Perpetual Toxins, Good Liar, The Poet’s Art, The Five Town Forum, The Nassau Herald, and every year from 1997-2007 Long Island PPA Literary Review.

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan

Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan is the founder and president of The North Sea Poetry Scene. http://groups.msn.com/TheNorthSeaPoetryScene , she was a 2005 nominee for Poet Laureate of Suffolk County, New York, and nominated in 2006 for Pulitzer Prize for poetry book, Let Me Tell You Something. Her books & CD include: Between Willow and Cedars (2003), The Bitter The Sweet (Street Press 2004), One Woman's Voice (The North Sea Poetry Scene Press2005), Let Me Tell You Something (Street Press, 2006), and For Michael, (to be released Summer, 2007). She is working on a new manuscript, Howling the Moon (to be released Spring, 2007). Nuzzo-Morgan is the Editor of Long Island Sounds Anthology. She is creating an archival center for Long Island poetry that will be a gathering place for poets, whose Web site can be found at http://www.lipoetryarchivalcenter.com .

Tammy was also instrumental in opening doors for us,and is one of the Gazebo's best friends.

Robert Savino

Robert Savino is a native Long Island poet and practicing retiree. His poems have been published widely, in print, from the Long Island Quarterly to The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, as well as in The Light of City and Sea: an Anthology of Suffolk County Poetry, 2006 (Street Press) and primal sanities!: a Tribute to Walt Whitman Anthology, 2007 (Allbook Books); and online in PoetrySuperHighway, Combat and http://poetry.about.com.:Winter Poems anthology.
Robert is the winner of the 2008 Oberon Foundation Poetry Competition.

Herb Siegel

HERB SIEGEL has assembled two collections of poems over a span of fifty years. One of them is “Poems For The Universe”, and the other is “Poems From My Drawer.”

Herb was a CEO of major public companies, and served on numerous corporate and bank boards. He is a Certified Professional Consultant, a Chartered Consultant, and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Certified Consultants and Legal Experts. He holds a Ph.D. in International Law from Columbia, and authored over twenty-five publications on multi-national commerce and Privatization. He was a delegate to The College of Law of England and Wales, lectured at Yale, Harvard, and NYU business schools, the New York Board of Realtors, and other economic and business forums. He also was a thesis examiner for the Rutgers University Graduate School of Banking and Finance. He is Chairman of the Whitestone Consulting Group, Ltd., since 1989.

Subjects of universal interest inspire him to embrace poetry that promises to educate, challenge, and entertain, and then add his own touch of sardonic humor and hope. Earlier poems appeared in the NY Times and other anthologies, and he is regularly featured, and contributes to the open mic forums of Poets in Nassau.

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/