Long Time No Chat

Here's a post from last fall that I abandoned as a draft without posting, and I can't recall why. So I'll post it now.

I practically forgot about this blog of mine -- time to start making a record of my poetic or literary musings and adventures again.
Recent outings included another excellent poetry performance produced by Emotive Fruition that featured a variety of actors reading a staged presentation of poetry highlighting women's voices. Like all Emotive Fruition productions, this one really highlighted the dramatic element of poetry and the power invoked by layering multiple voices together.
Also, out at the music venue National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Paul Muldoon convened another combination of music and literature, this time uniting a classical trio (flute, violin, cello) with a Ukranian novelist and the American poet, and memoirist and human rights activist Carolyn Forche.
And, most importantly of all, I partook in a four week master class poetry workshop at the 92Y in New York City. The class was led by the inspiring and amazing poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips, and I'd encourage any poet who has a chance to do a workshop or class with him to take advantage of the opportunity. The class brought together one of my favorite groups of writers I've shared a workshop with, and I think many of us were sad that the workshop only lasted for four weeks.
Also, in addition to Rowan's poetry (Heaven is his most recent volume, and he has another highly anticipated collection coming out next year), he's also written a very entertaining and compelling nonfiction book about teens, The Circuit. The book follows the professional tennis tournament during the 2017 season, with many digressions about the nature of the sport and its followers (the piece about the origins of clay court tennis is worth the price of the book).