Poetry Electric: On the Line - Freedom and Beauty

Andrei Codrescu is an homme-de-lettres whose poetry, novels, and essays have been infiltrating the American psyche since he emigrated from his native Romania to Detroit in 1966. Has authored scores of books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He founded the legendary Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Life & Letters, and edited the anthology from Black Sparrow Press as well Up Late, American Poetry Since 1970. His film Road Scholar won a Peabody award. He has been a commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered” since 1983. His latest book is Too Late for Nightmares from Black Widow Press.

John Yau is a vital voice in extending the possibilities of linguisitic intercourse.Award-winning poet, critic, curator, professor, and publisher of Back SquareEditions, he is author of over 50 books including Radiant Silhouette, IngGrish, and The United States of Jasper Johns. He received a BA after studying at Bard with Robert Kelly and an MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College where he associated with John Ashbery. He teaches art history and criticism at Rutgers University. Robert Creeley called Yau a genius.  

Amber Atiya, a housing and women's rights advocate, is a multidisciplinary poet from Brooklyn. Dig on her poems in A Gathering of the Tribes online, Soul Sister Revue Poetry Compilation, Boston Review, and elsewhere. Her visual and text-based art/objects have been exhibited at the Knockdown Center, Bessie's Brooklyn, and Pace Univeristy. A 2021 recipient of the Oscar Williams and Gene Derwood Award for Poets and Painters, she is a member of a women of color writing group celebrating 20 years in 2022. Her chapbook, the fierce bums of doo-wop, was published by Argos Books.

Jeffrey Cyphers Wright received his MFA in poetry after studying with Allen Ginsberg. Best known as a New Romantic poet, he is also a publisher, critic, eco-activist, impresario, singer/songwriter, filmmaker, puppeteer, and artist. He is author of 18 books of verse, including Blue Lyre and Party Everywhere. He writes criticism for American Book Review and ArtNexus. A book of sonnets and artwork called Doppelgängster is forthcoming from Mad Hat Press. The former publisher of Cover Magazine,The Underground National, Wright now publishes Live Mag! www.livemag.org

www.jeffreycypherswright.com

Lydia Cortés is the author of the collections of poetry, Lust for Lust and Whose Place. She has also been widely published in many anthologies. She has been awarded residencies in Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Valparaiso in Mojacar, Spain and at The MacDowell Colony. She is currently at work on a poetry memoir about herself and the late, great Nuyorican poet and playwright Pedro Pietri. 

Gregory Crosby is the author of Said No One Ever (2021, Brooklyn Arts Press) and Walking Away From Explosions in Slow Motion (2018, The Operating System).

Cutting-edge choreographer/director/instigator/movement-explorer/performer, Yoshiko Chuma continues a lifetime obsession with the mythology of danger. Landing in New York in 1976, Chuma settled in lower downtown Manhattan, labelled as a dangerous place to be at the time. Devoid of the culture and inflation you see before you now, Yoshiko managed to begin her career in lower Manhattan, spanning an impressive 40 year career to date.

Judith Simonian began her career during the emerging 1980s downtown Los Angeles art scene that spawned street art and performances, galleries, and institutions such as Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) and Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA), before moving to New York City in 1985. She continues to exhibit her work extensively in NY, around the country, and abroad. See "Plush," a solo 12-year survey of Judy's work fromSeptember 29, 2022 to January 6, 2023 at 1 GAP (Grand Army Plaza) Gallery in Brooklyn.

Moses Ros is a Bronx, NY based sculptor, painter, and printmaker. He has exhibited solo at venues including Yeshiva University Museum in New York, the Paterson Museum in New Jersey, and the Bronx Museum. The Smithsonian Museum of American Art and El Museo del Barrio are among public and corporate collections holding his works. Ros studied printmaking at Bronx Printmakers and worked at The Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Lower East Side Printshop, and The Manhattan Graphic Center. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute and is aRegistered Architect. mosesros.com / @moses_ros.

Basil King, born in London, England in 1935, has been painting for over seven decades and writing since 1985. He does both in Brooklyn where he has lived since 1969, publishing poetry collections and chapbooks and completing several thousand works of visual art. His most recent book, There Are No Ghosts There Are Portraits, has just been co-published by Pinsapo Press and Lost & Found, the CUNY Poetics Document Initiative. www.basilking.net

Ilka Scobie’s recent book “Any Island” is published by Spuyten Duyvil. She is a native New Yorker who writes about contemporary art for London Artlyst and is a deputy editor of Live Mag.