It’s all happening.

Banksy in Woodside, QUEENS! Incredible.. More info

It’s remarkable where these strange and wonderful oscillations of life will take you..

I truly want to thank everyone who has supported me, reached out, heard my call, or gave me a chance to speak about what I am most passionate about.

The first ever Queens Literary Town Hall is this Friday!

DNAinfo New York interviewed me and did a great story, Brownstoner Queens sounded the alarm, BORO Magazine ran an interview with me in its latest print edition, the Town Hall was shouted out in a NY Daily News article about the growing Queens literary scene, the LIC/Astoria Journal did a preview, and of course..

I got the amazing opportunity to speak with Rocco Vertuccio on NY1!

It’s really been amazing and I plan to do so much more from here.. These things are just a part of me – crusading for Queens, spreading cultural awareness, and connecting people – I can’t imagine it any other way.

Can’t stop, won’t stop..

I also feel very lucky to have one of my poems, “exceptions,” published in issue 14 of the absolutely stunning literary magazine, Words Dance. Please check them out and read the gorgeous and powerful work they’re sharing with the world!

Speaking of publishing – I was able to share my piece “requiem (soon to be)” that was published in the Spring/Summer ’13 Issue #2 of Queens’ own Newtown Literary Journal at their reading at Astoria Bookshop last week. If the crowd was any indication – word is getting out there. People are coming to these new spaces, connecting, and recognizing (hopefully more and more) that there are so many opportunities to enjoy this expanding literary world in Queens.

Please check out the list of QUEENS LIT RESOURCES I put together and share it with your contacts! It’s the only way we can keep going forward – by supporting and promoting each other.

See you out there this week! I’ll be hosting this month’s edition of Boundless Tales Reading Series at Waltz-Astoria, which also got a write-up in the Queens Chronicle! The theme is “departures” which couldn’t be any more appropriate.

“Verily the lust for comforts murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral. But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed.”

Kahlil Gibran’s words always resonating in my head. Comfort in the unknown. Bliss in the adventure.

Let go, take a deep breath – and enjoy.

XO

a.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Hosting at Boundless Tales Reading Series – 10/17/13 [Facebook]

Hosting Queens Literary Town Hall as part of QCA’s 3rd Space series – 10/18/13 [QCA]

Reading at artist Priscilla Stadler’s ‘Favors’ opening in LIC – 11/8/13 [Favors]

INSPIRATION:

Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.
But you, children of space, you restless in rest, you shall not be trapped nor tamed.
Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast.
It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye.
You shall not fold your wings that you may pass through doors, nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling, nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down.
You shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living.
And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing.
For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.
– Kahlil Gibran, excerpt from “The Prophet”