Capitol Readings, the Midtown Scholar and Catching Up

Poets at the Capitol in Harrisburg, PA — Five Poets Read at the Capitol Building in Harrisburg

Here it is Sunday already and I have not told you anything about the much promoted readings at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Well, it was an active Thursday, that’s for sure. And the week before that was very active as well, with music gigs, and poetry on the streets, and all the preparations into the day long event that was awaiting me.

So here’s the quick report: It went very well. Five of us read, and hopefully I’ll have some video up of it soon. PCN will have the program on the air coming up on the 27th I think. I got to meet the Chair of the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, Mrs. Susan Corbett, wife of Governor Tom Corbett. She was classy and gracious, astute and intelligent, and gave us a moving introduction. She couldn’t, however stay for the entire program, and had to rush off to other pressing matters before my segment of the reading. Ah well. I appreciate her support of the project.

The bookstore reading that night was equally enjoyable, maybe more so, though it is hard to compare the two venues. It was at the Midtown Scholar, hands down the coolest bookstore I’ve ever been to, complete with coffee shop, and floors and hallways of new and used books, two stages, yes two! The owner was gracious and enthusiastic and our hosts, the members of the Almost Uptown Poetry Cartel, were just awesome. And if you are not used to my links in bold yet, you’ve got to check them out!

MidtownScholar Bookstore – interior (Photo credit: origamidon)

I’ll give a more thorough update on Thursday’s activities and readings after I’ve gotten time to edit some of the video coverage. I have finally caught up on my sleep, so today I’ve been going through the footage from last week’s Poetry Under the Paintings event in Lewisburg, but I’ll have Harrisburg videos up as soon as I can this upcoming week. Here’s a little piece that I was testing out on the PUP group. It needs a bit of polish I think, but it is fun to take a new draft for a test drive like this in front of a forgiving audience. It was nowhere near ready for the Commonwealth reading, but it is appropriate to this season. Oh, if you’ve driven through Penn’s woods in late September or October, you might recognize these scenes.

Oh, and we have been blessed at Faustina’s with some wonderful rhythm and musical accompaniment, usually with Steve Mitchell, but we have also featured Dave Miller of the Dave Miller Band recently, and last Thursday, my adorable, talented partner and pianist, Brian!