[Nausheen Eusuf]

I'll be reading with Thomas Fucaloro at Carmine Street Metrics on Sunday, Mar 4, at 3pm. There will also be an open mic. The venue is Otto's Shruken Head, 538 East 14th Street, New York. Thank you to hosts Wendy Sloan and Anton Yakovlev!

The Facebook event page is here. Reader bios below. I hope some NY area Sphereans can make it!

Thanks,
Nausheen

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Nausheen Eusuf is a PhD candidate in English at Boston University and a graduate of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. Her poetry has appeared in The American Scholar, Southwest Review, Salmagundi, PN Review, Literary Imagination, Smartish Pace, and World Literature Today, and has been selected for inclusion in Best American Poetry 2018. Her first full-length collection Not Elegy, But Eros was recently published by NYQ Books (US) and Bengal Lights Books (Bangladesh). Website: www.nausheeneusuf.com

Thomas Fucaloro is the author of two books of poetry published by Three Rooms Press, most recently It Starts from the Belly and Blooms. The winner of a performance grant from the Staten Island Council of the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, he has been on five national slam teams. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the New School and is a co-founding editor of Great Weather for Media and NYSAI press. He is a writing coordinator at the Harlem Children’s Zone and lives in Staten Island. Has 3 chapbooks: Mistakes Disguised as Stars (Tired Hearts Press) and Depression Cupcakes (Yes, Poetry) and forthcoming There is Always Tomorrow (Madgleam Press).

[R. Nemo Hill]

I am headed into the Manhattan for this reading.

I've never met Nausheen, and am looking forward to hearing her read.
Thomas I know from the Saturn Series readings many moons ago. He's a trip!

Come on! It should be a treat.

Nemo

[Mark McDonnell]

Well it starts in ten minutes! I'm not there, it being 8pm in Blighty. But enjoy...

[John Isbell]

Hope the reading went well!

John

[R. Nemo Hill]

It was a great reading, for me personally. It combined both past and future, both nostalgia and expectation. As I mentioned I know Thomas from many years ago, but have not seen him in a long time. There were several attendees from that long past period who made an appearance, and so it was a resonant reminder of a period when I went to a lot of poetry readings and was part of a community which has long since dispersed: it was a lesson both in poetry and in the passage of time. It was also a great opportunity to see how Thomas has changed, matured as a poet.

On the other hand, Nausheen is someone I have never met before, except online, and it was a delight to meet her and hear her read for the first time. She read her work with a calm sincerity that is rare, and I got to buy her new book directly from her. The future looks bright.

I know there is another long discussion currently going on about whether poetry should be read aloud or not (it's just the latest discussion of the topic on the Sphere). And while I do not frequent readings like I used to do, I must defend them here (not that I haven't maligned them at times in the past, and not that there wasn't plenty of eye-rolling dross at this reading's open mike as well). One doesn't need to 'get' a poem all at once, and hearing it is only one facet of that ultimate reception. It can come after one is already familiar with the poem, or beforehand; but as with any gem, each of its facets contributes to the light it reflects. Admittedly, many poets do not read their own work well (which was happily not the case yesterday). Yet how can one learn except by doing, and failing, and doing again, and improving--all of which is done in diverse fellowship at a reading.

Anyway, even when alone in my room, I read everything aloud (except the newspaper), so poetry readings are only the next step. And that silence spoken of on the thread in question, well, isn't that a silence undisturbed by sound, a silence that is always there no matter what sound dances across it?

So thank-you, Nausheen & Thomas.

Nemo

[John Isbell]

Nemo: "undisturbed by sound." I like that. For my part, I agree, poetry readings don't prevent me communing with silence - a thing I value. At least, good readings don't. I'm glad the readings were so resonant, wish I could have been there.

Cheers,
John

[Jim Moonan]

Yes I wish I could have attended too. Boston is just too far a stretch and, though I'm in love with poetry, I'm lazy.
x

Nemo, your points made about poetry readings are well taken, as your thoughts are most always. Your characterization of silence as remaining undisturbed by the sound of poetry in the head is magnificent.
x

[Nausheen Eusuf]

Nemo,

I was really glad to meet you in person. You are one of my favorite Sphereans, not least because you write things like this:

Originally Posted by R. Nemo Hill

isn't that a silence undisturbed by sound, a silence that is always there no matter what sound dances across it?

Even your prose is pure poetry. Thanks so much for coming to the reading.

Nausheen