SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2015, 11am
THE SEAWAVES WILL LEAD A WORKSHOP ON “TRANSFORMING WORDS INTO A MULTI-MEDIA EXPERIENECE” AT THE OUTWRITE LGBT BOOK FESTIVAL, THE DC CENTER, 2000 14TH ST. NW, WASHINGTON DC
ALSO VISIT THEIR VENDOR TABLE AND MEET THE SEAWAVES!
OutWrite is a celebration of LGBT Literature. The weekend is full of book readings, writing workshops, book discussions, poetry readings and more. Several book LGBT publishers regularly exhibit at OutWrite. We will have both new and used LGBT books for sale all day long on Saturday August 1st. The 5th Annual OutWrite LGBT Book Festival will take place Thursday July 30th through Saturday August 1st with most events taking place at the Reeves Center in Washington DC. Most of the book readings and the exhibit hall will take place on Saturday August 1st.
Performance art has been the traditional, natural extension of the writer’s words. This workshop teaches authors how to produce an aural and reading experience via print-on-demand CD and book combos in several easy-to-understand steps. Drawing from the history of lyricism, in which ancient Greek poets sang their verses to avid audiences, author, composer, and performer Jeri Hilderley and author, publisher, performer Janet Mayes share their experience of making poetry available to contemporary audiences the way poetry is often meant to be shared. Audiences, who savor the performance word and can’t always get to coffee houses for live events or find what they want on Youtube, can enjoy breath-taking presentations of literature in such book and CD collaborations.
See the Facebook Event Page
Using Sappho as their muse, these groundbreaking lesbians from the 70’s explore the interconnections of lyrical language with translations, music, technology, and ecstatic love. Hilderley’s music to Konstantinos Lardas’ translations, first performed for LGBTQ audiences in the late 70s, are incorporated into a colorful ‘two gems in a jewel case.’ Hilderley and Mayes chronicle the genesis of their CD, Time Traveling with Sappho: a Love-Song Cycle, and collectors’ reference book (a compilation of essays, translations, scores, libretto, images of Sappho and her original poem fragments in Ancient Greek). They share their experience in shaping this complex, layered creation: a beautiful object people can hold in their hands, take home, and then play, read and enjoy, feeling connected in their own way to a great Greek lyricist poet-singer, wise-woman from the Isle of Lesbos – Sappho, the quintessential first known OutWrite poetess. Who else would be the muse of this 21st Century project?
Jeri Hilderley & Janet Mayes
PAST READINGS:
CD RELEASE PARTY! TIME TRAVELING WITH SAPPHO: A LOVE-SONG CYCLE
Saturday, June 20, 2015, at 7:00pm
Enjoy Mediterranean hors-d’oeuvres, wine/beverages and belly dancing; then the debut of our passionate song cycle, Time Traveling with Sappho. Q & A with The Seawaves and WordSpace Publications, producers of the CD and jewel case book featuring Sappho’s poem fragments–translated from the Greek by poet Konstantinos Lardas, Pulitzer Prize nominee, and set to music (voice, guitars and marimba) by Jeri Hilderley. A colorful and fun-filled multimedia event to celebrate the release of our time traveling music collage. Admission: FREE, but please buy a CD (with free download card)!
Bellydance America, 265 West 37th Street, near 8th Ave., Second Floor. NYC
Cover and book/CD packaging design: Virginia Cahill;
photo of marble head of Sappho credit: Carole Raddato
Dancing to “The Rose” with slide show of lyrics from the CD booklet [Photo: Jodi MIller] — at Belly Dance America.
Video from the Release Party:
More videos from the CD release party
Praise for the “Time Traveling With Sappho” CD Release event:
“What a fantastic event. Your music is truly extraordinary, and you looked absolutely beautiful, beaming. On the train home, Paul & I ripped into the CD and read about Sappho & the origin of the project. The presentation of the booklet is top rate & perfectly matches your moving musical interpretations of the poetry. (I love the typed fragments from Gus’ [Konstantinos Lardas’] original ms.) I couldn’t get the music / event out of my mind. The dancers added another dimension to the songs . I mean, I was ready to chuck teaching and become a belly dancing disciple! The combination of music and dance was transfixing.” — Marianne Burke, poet [including “Funeral Home”]
“Had a fabulous time! The professionalism of the production was impressive, the music, fitting to Sappho’s poetry and the belly-dancing, memorable – worth making a total fool of myself among the lissome and fluid pros!”–Jenna Orkin, journalist, author [including The Moron’s Guide to Global Collapse]
Saturday, April 5, 2014, 7-9pm
Bluestockings Bookstore: ‘Edgy Chronicles’: An Evening of Readings by Cheryl Clarke and Janet Rose
Two edgy lesbian authors read from their different but complementary genres for personal, artistic and political expression. Clarke, acclaimed activist, scholar, poet and essayist, is a prolific analyst and chronicler of struggle. Rose, activist, educator and psychologist, approaches issues through literary science fiction. Clarke will read from her published works, LIVING AS A LESBIAN, THE DAYS OF GOOD LOOKS: PROSE AND POETRY, 1980-2005. Rose will read from her published novel, BEYOND THE HORSE’S EYE—A FANTASY OUT OF TIME.
Cheryl Clarke is a poet, essayist, scholar, and activist. Her most recent books are the critical study, “After Mecca”: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement (Rutgers University Press, 2004), and The Days of Good Looks: The Prose and Poetry of Cheryl Clarke 1980-2005 (Carroll and Graf, 2006). Sinister Wisdom and Midsummer Night’s Press reprinted her iconic book of poetry Living as a Lesbian, originally published by Firebrand Books in 1986. She is the recipient of the 2013 Kessler Award from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the City University of New York. She lives with her partner in Jersey City, NJ and Hobart, NY.
Born a “red diaper baby,” Janet Rose came of age in the sixties. The younger was a fan of comic book superheroes, her introduction to science fiction. The older couldn’t get enough of Star Trek and Star Wars. She also gobbled up Asimov, Le Guin, Delany (among many others) and her favorite, Octavia Butler. From them she learned that science fiction is among the most versatile genres for political expression. Beyond the Horse’s Eye (WordSpace Publications) is her first novel. Writing and Rewriting (Macmillan) came out of her work with SEEK students at CCNY. She lives with her partner in Jersey City, NJ, and Manhattan.
Bluestockings: a bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center
in the Lower East Side of Manhattan — 172 Allen Street, NYC between Rivington and Stanton–F train to 2nd Ave. or W. Houston Bus to Allen St and walk south toward Stanton
Saturday, March 29, 2014, noon-6pm
Meet the author of Beyond the Horse’s Eye at the WordSpace Publications exhibition table #14, where a signed copy is available at special Rainbow Book Fair discount. Rose will read an excerpt of erotica from the novel at 1pm in the Renaissance Room A on the Mezzanine.
The Rainbow Book Fair at the Holiday Inn Midtown: 440 West 57th Street, New York City, New York, 10019 (between 9th and 10th Avenues; South side of 57th Street)
Thursday, March 13, 2014, 7:30pm
Word Bookstore: Jersey City Local Author Night: Jaime Godfrey, Janet Rose, and Jackie Clark. Readings, Q&A, signing/mingling
Word: An Independent Community Bookstore: 123 Newark Ave, Jersey City · 201-763-6611 (a few yards from the Grove Street PATH)
Saturday, March 8, 2014, International Working Women’s Day at the Solidarity Center
Author Janet Rose reading a scene in which J, a lesbian teen, meets a trans man on an asteroid rest stop on her way back to earth from another galaxy. (credit: Brenda Sandburg)
Author Janet Rose reading scenes taking place in Woodstock at the Golden Notebook Bookstore (Woodstock), Nov. 9, 2013 (credit: Jeri Hilderley)
Saturday, November 9, 2013, 2pm
Woodstock Scenes from Beyond the Horse’s Eye
The Golden Notebook Bookstore
29 Tinker Street
Woodstock, New York
Meet the author at the Brooklyn Book Festival: Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013, 10am-6pm, at the National Writers Union table
Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza
209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY
Reading and Discussion at the BOOK SALON – National Writers Union Booth
(next to the union table)
Time: 3:00
Sunday, June 2, 2013, 5-7pm
Videos of this event are posted in excerpts
Celebrating Gay Pride Month:
Book Signing/ “Coming Out” /Reading
The Solidarity Center
147 West 24th Street (between 6th & 7th Avenues)
Second Floor
New York City
(light refreshments)
Meet the Author/Book Signing
5th Annual New York Rainbow Book Fair Saturday, April 15, 2013, noon-6pm
Reading: 5:30 pm
Holiday Inn Midtown
440 West 57th Street
New York City
