Pause.

Just a moment to say…

Hello, everyone. New friends, old friends. My loves and cherished family. My Nana coming to me in dreams at night. Every stranger changed by a smile, with hand outstretched and face lit by enthusiasm. Hello, Queens crusaders like me fighting the good fight, and hello to all creators creating at every moment. All lovers of words and art and life, taking step by step. Everyone who has to be brave. Everyone who has to leave their comfort zone. Everyone who is standing on the ledge waiting to take the leap into exhilarating uncertainty.

This swirling soul in my chest, kinetic and wide-awake. It’s the rest of me that can’t keep up..

I feel blessed for it all. For this chance.

The Queens Literary Town Hall is one of my proudest moments – I could not be more ecstatic about and grateful for the participants, attendees, presentations, and performances.. I will never forget the energy in the room, the sheer joy watching people being able to connect with each other for the first time – to further their projects, their businesses, their passions. There is so much more to come, from all of us..! My good friend and journalist/videographer Cesar put together a great multimedia piece with some photos and videos, and It’s Queens Magazine is featuring my photos and article about the event this month! My brother and I are also editing a video piece, to come soon.

Tonight was ever-lovely artist Priscilla Stadler‘s opening reception for FAVORS at SPACE Gallery in Dutch Kills. I was one of two readers (so great to finally meet Elisa from El Paper!), and I was so happy to stand onstage amidst the springy green FAVORS spirals, each carrying a message of handwritten good deeds. FAVORS is meant to “challenge the people of Queens, NYC and beyond to smash the stereotype that New Yorkers are cutthroat, competitive egoists by doing favors for friends, family and strangers”! I’ve always loved the concept, and so to commemorate I read some poems included in the next iteration of my guerrilla poetry sticker project, the Compass Project – which I will hopefully be expanding (and printing from something other than my home printer..!) SOON. Suggestions are welcome!

There is much to be thankful for in this season of giving but I maintain that gratitude is for everyday. New paths are opening up and I am doing my best to walk them with grace. Feel your sadness, but let it slip through your fingers. The sorrow will leave, the memories will remain.. I remember.

See you out there – I feel so blessed to have done a reading, event, or performance every month in 2013! Not counting my birthday month of August.. I guess we all need a break sometimes ;) Wrap the year up with an exciting collaboration between myself, some amazing poets, and Queens-based new music ensemble thingNY at Aurora Gallery in Astoria – poets and music! Mash-up! Improv! The return of my “Nature of the Muse” reading/on-the-spot creation series in a new guise (..it’s a shifty one ;))! Can’t wait – more deets to come.

And I will leave you with some words, from me.

Thank you for reading, seeing, being, doing, creating, living, loving – you.

Infinite –

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Trajectories: words and music / collab with thingNY – 12/12/13 [Facebook]

INSPIRATION:

But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world
determined to do
the only thing you could do –
determined to save
the only life you could save.
– Mary Oliver, excerpt from “The Journey”

OUT OF MY HEAD & HEART:

here i am. and i can see the light catching the near-invisible threads between all these things that i do. you just have to move with the current. embrace instead of resist. no, it’s not perfect. yes, i am still looking. but that’s okay. this is my life. i want to be endlessly challenged, always moving, constantly creating. that is what we are meant for.. step back and you’ll see it. you don’t have to fixate as hard as you do. let the things that move you to tears, to grand sweeping emotions – be the things that actually matter. love. beauty. awe. ache. i am thankful to be here.. because finally i am walking in my own shoes. finally i am seeing the signs. finally i know it is a process. everything has a purpose. i am meant to take risks and make mistakes. and it’s okay. it IS okay and it will BE okay. i went from a few months ago feeling nothing in a way i hadn’t in a very, very long time – now i am here. i am not afraid anymore, i am not afraid. because life goes on and on and on and it is beautiful and terrible and shocking and perfect and harmonious and discordant and magical and a downright, absolute mess. but that’s what we’re here for. that’s the purpose. that’s it. if we did everything right, we wouldn’t LEARN. we wouldn’t have any richness or DEPTH of experience. it’s what we’re here for. that’s it. that’s it. and so i will be – the mischievous little goat breaking fences. peter in neverland. the restless sailor always voyaging. the little girl in fairy tales. and on and on and on. i believe, i wish, i hope, i love. and i will go harder, brighter, bolder, louder. because this is who i am. and there is no other way for me to be.