Episode 116: The Gathered Congregation

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Poets Jason Schneiderman, Cate Marvin, R. A. Villanueva, Lynn Xu and Rachel Zucker consider the pleasures, challenges, eccentricities and value of live, in-person poetry readings. These musings are followed by excerpts of the June 6, 2023 reading in Bryant Park (hosted by Jason and featuring Cate, Ron, Lynn and Rachel) and comments from the audience.  

Links, Bios, & Support Info

• Bryant Park Reading Series

• University of Maryland

• Library of Congress

• William Meredith

• Kim Novak

• BMCC

• KGB reading series

• David Lehman

• Star Black

• Paul Romero

• Sonia Sanchez

• Allen Ginsberg’s “Sunflower Sutra”

• Phllyis Levin 

• Matt Yeager

• David Lehman

• Will Harris’s Brother Poem

• José Oliverez’s Promises of Gold

• Martha Graham Cracker

• Justin Vivian Bond

• Patty LuPone

• Bridget Everett

• KGB Bar Reading

• Richard McCann 

• Kinokuniya Bookstore

• Willam Blake’s “Ah! Sun-flower” 

• June Jordan’s “Sunflower Sonnet Number 1"

• June Jordan’s “Sunflower Sonnet Number 2"

Bios, in order of appearance:

Jason Schneiderman is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Hold Me Tight (Red Hen, 2020). He is Professor of English at CUNY’s BMCC and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His next collection, Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire, will be published by Red Hen Press in 2024. 

Cate Marvin's latest book of poems is Event Horizon (Copper Canyon Press, 2022). She teaches at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York and resides in Southern Maine. Her poems have recently appeared in The Kenyon Review.

R. A. Villanueva is the author of Reliquaria, winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize. New work has been featured by the Academy of American Poets, Ploughshares, Poetry, and National Public Radio—and his writing appears widely in international publications such as Poetry London and The Poetry Review. His honors include commendations from the Forward Prizes and fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, and Kundiman. Born in New Jersey, he lives in Brooklyn.

Born in Shanghai, Lynn Xu is the author of And Those Ashen Heaps That Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight (Wave, 2022) and Debts & Lessons (Omnidawn, 2013) and the chapbooks: June (Corollary Press, 2006) and Tournesol (Compline, 2021). She has performed cross-disciplinary works at the MOCA Tucson, Guggenheim Museum, The Renaissance Society, Rising Tide Projects, and 300 S. Kelly Street. She teaches at Columbia University, coedits Canarium Books, and lives with her family in New York City and West Texas. 

Rachel Zucker is the author of a bunch of books, including, most recently, The Poetics of Wrongness. She is the founder and host of Commonplace and directrix of the Commonplace School of Embodied Poetics. She lives in Washington Heights, NY and Scarborough, ME and is mother to three sons.