Penny ARCADE, John GIORNO, Thurston MOORE, John S HALL, RENO, Joseph KECKLER Yoshiko CHUMA Jonas Mekas Look who read at the annual St Mark's Poetry Project Marathon Reading on the the first day of the new yea

For 42 Years ever since Anne Waldman came up with the idea of a marathon poetry reading as a benefit for the St Mark's Poetry Project on the first day of the New Year there has been this poetry reading in the Sanctuary of St Mark's Church in the East Village formerly known as The Lower East Side. Ginsberg, Di Prima, Corso all read and Patti Smith has been the highlight in recent years,  This year perhaps because of the darkness in the world we live in today was about as good as the Poetry Project marathon has been in years. Despite no Patti (she was in SF doing three shows ) the sanctuary sizzled with poets, dancers and musicians on fire with passion and insight , I spent about four joyful hours sitting in Church  (rare for me) and being reminded of why, despite all the horrendous changes in our neighborhoods due  to the stranglehold the real estate industry has on the city, we who have figured out how to still love living in New York City and why, Downtown is now an attitude spread over the boroughs and not just physically locate in downtown Manhattan ..This is why we all show we all showed up on this the first day of 2016 . I missed some friends ( Philip Glass, Martha Wilson , Sarah Schulman, David Henderson, Todd Colby, Emily XYZ, Tom Savage, Jennifer Bartlett, Church of Betty, and ran out of battery just before Eileen Myles got up to read the shortest but most sticky poem of the day. I have already posted on Facebook the heart stopping call to arms of Pamela Sneed and Patricia Stills. Here are some of the highlights that I was able to document. Sad to say I was not able to shoot Anne Waldman, but others did. So take a moment to imagine yourself comfy in the Marathon hall or the side room wth food to eat, book full of poems to nourish the spirit and the catch up conversation that usually only happen once a year

I  there just as Nurit Tilles sat down to stride piano the hall   
I am going to upload some of the acts that followed

 dawn landry martin

The Poetry Project Chair John S Hall ( who had an indie hit song a few years back called "Detachable Penis"  show the power of poetry to look into a dark room and see hope        

Yoshiko Chuma and her dance company the School of Hard Knocks is synonymous with creative vision downtown. For the last few years she has traveled to troubled hot spots to create work as she did in Palestine.  Working with everyone's favorite new musician on the scene the composer and performer Dane Terry (see him in this year's Under the Radar at the Public Theater this month ) She shocked the room with a powerful dance discourse on fear 

 Joseph Keckler, multi-disciplined artist and singer extraordinaire returned from Artist-in Resident commitment  just in time to sing to us a song written by the downtown "nature chanteuse"  Carol Lipnik and had audience on their feet when finished .

The musician and writer Thurston Moore picked up Keckler's energy and read a poem about a recently passed poet who had been a regular reader.

Penny Arcade, performance artist. and reality check activist shared a part of her recent multi-awarded Edinburgh/London  hit "Longing Last Forever"  (one performance at Joe's Pub this month before she takes it to  Australia ) and when finished had again the audience/community on their feet exhilarated by the power of her words

93 year old Jonas Mekas, founder of      the Anthology Film Archives is

a flashpoint for who is missing

 (Taylor Mead) and who is still here 

John Giorno is with Anne Waldman the true link back to the beats and Boroughs and the spirit of the 50's and 60's beat poets. Penny Arcade calls him her mentor. In this moment of religious fanaticism on all sides Giorno lassos the truth and parades it around like a becalmed show horse.  

RENO

there were so many good performances at this  Poetry Project this year .... but here is a little taste of what the upcoming show that Reno will be doing at Dixon Place : A very public note about the 2nd amendment and guns..

The above are but a taste of the magic of words spoken  out loud by a living human beings to other living human beings gathered in community to celebrate the power of poetry in word dance and song. 

(cc) Jim Fouratt 1/2/16 nyc