I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to curate and host an event that brought together some of the most talented artists and organizers in the Queens literary community. The QUEENS LITERARY TOWN HALL is a night I will never forget, and now there are lots of photos and a video of highlights featuring ALL the performers and presenters:
First Tuesdays Reading Series & Open Mic Enigma Bookstore Newtown Literary Journal Oh, Bernice! Reading Series REZ Reading Series / Richmond Hill Library Readings Boundless Tales Reading Series Five Boro Story Project / Art, Food & Soul Astoria Bookshop Canvas of Words Heightening Stories Poetry Teachers NYC Mindful Writing with Emily Herzlin Mission to dit(Mars) Nature of the Muse reading & live writing
All of these individuals and organizers are from all over Queens – Kew Gardens, Jackson Heights, Astoria, Jamaica, and more – and if you’d like to see what’s in store for the Queens lit community in the coming months and who is working hard to promote and support it, please check these people out! I am lucky to know all of them, and every single person who helped promote the event and joined us to celebrate that night.
Watch the video below and please GO HERE for many more photos and info on the presenters and performers.
When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.
The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, a lover’s quarrel with the world. In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. […]
If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. […]
But democratic society–in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost’s hired man, the fate of having “nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope.” […]
I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens.
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 –
XO
a.
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.
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”
More info about the event and QCA’s 3rd Space series:
3rd Space – Queens Literary Town Hall
Where do artists gather to be with other creative minds and spirits?
Artists in Queens now have a unique independent creative space where the artistic and cultural communities in the borough can come together to talk shop, attend workshops, network and share their works in progress in the 3rd Space at the Queens Council on the Arts.
3rd Space is a series of monthly events that invites local artists to host events to build strong and vibrant artist networks and to creatively lead the continuing transformation of the borough’s cultural economy.
The inaugural 3rd Space event features “The Queens Literary Town Hall”, curated by Queens based artist Audrey Dimola. The evening will be part performance, part soapbox, and part networking opportunity, and will serve as a platform for local writers/literature lovers to connect to each other and to the literary organizations and reading series in Queens.
3rd Space – Queens Literary Town Hall Friday, October 18th from 6:30-8:30pm
Queens Council on the Arts 37-11 35th Ave, Entrance on 37th Street Astoria, NY 11101
Scheduled to appear: Boundless Tales Reading Series, First Tuesdays Reading Series & Open Mic, REZ Reading Series, Oh Bernice! Reading Series, Newtown Literary Journal, Astoria Bookshop, Enigma Bookstore, and more.
I feel very grateful right now to be able to connect with people through my own work as well as through my cultural efforts in Queens. I am forever indebted to the art and words of people from present day to centuries past – the inspiration that has pulled me through some of my darkest days.
To be able to pay that forward – to connect with the universe in such a way that it allows me to deliver a message to someone at the particular moment they need it – be it a piece of my work, direct spoken encouragement, sharpie-scrawled words on a wall outside, my book, a poem sticker, or just a smile or an outstretched hand.. There’s just nothing better. Because I know how important those moments have been for me – and to be that for someone else is just unbelievably precious.
I had an absolutely WONDERFUL time at my first solo featured reading at First Tuesdays in Jackson Heights. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to Richard for the opportunity and to everyone who shared the evening with me!
Among many other reasons to be overjoyed, I was also so happy to hear that the following poem delivered its message – something I feel very strongly about. WHEN will we take ownership of who and what we are? WHEN we will give ourselves permission to be exactly what we ARE? No gatekeeping, no being held back, no waiting for someone ELSE to say yes. What validates you as an artist? Is it within yourself? Or is it when someone else acknowledges you – publishes your work, accepts you into a festival or a gallery? It’s something I know we’ve all struggled with. Here is my take – or at least what I try to remind myself as much as possible – it’s a poem from my book, “Decisions We Make While We Dream.”
“validation”
it seems to me
validation
is the muse’s silent killer..
you write and stand on a street corner
holding a sign,
or shouting from a mountaintop,
or thrashing in the sea,
waiting for someone to notice.
we writers have to ask ourselves
over and over – does it matter?
in so many ways
the greats, and others like them,
have said – write not for an
audience.
the purest writing comes from you,
unadulterated.
praise or criticism may come
afterwards –
or alternately, you may
have only silence.
but whatever you are faced with,
i tell you –
picking up the pen is your
validation.
you have realized
the grand illusion –
created something
out of nothing.
and do you know what else?
have you considered
how much of your audience is invisible –
simply part of the pen and ink,
the walls of your heart,
the fragments of memory..
spirits of the past,
circumstances of the present,
possibilities of the future –
star-trails and planets
and the universe all one –
it all moves to an
infinite,
luminous bloom
when you take that breath,
that step – to create.
how much more validation
do you need?
In other semi-related news! I’m very, very excited to be hosting the first QUEENS LITERARY TOWN HALL on October 18th from 6:30-8:30pm as part of Queens Council on the Arts‘ 3rd Space Series, which offers artist-led performance and exhibition opportunities the third Friday of the month. Part performance, part soapbox, and part networking opportunity, the Town Hall event will serve as a platform for local literary organizations and reading series to connect with each other and to writers/lit lovers in the borough. Please join me for this sampling of literary Queens – all in one place, all in one night!
On that note – this week I put together a list of all the Queens literary resources I know of (including reading series, literary organizations, workshops, bookstores, etc), posted on the new Boundless Tales website. Please check it out here and share it with your contacts!
We’re all fighting this good fight together – closer than we may seem. Keep walking your path, sharing your stories, and making your art. It’s the only way to live authentically – and to connect with others authentically, too.
Looking forward to this season of transformation..
XO
a.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Celebrating the return of Boundless Tales Reading Series! – 9/19/13 [Facebook]
Hosting Queens Literary Town Hall as part of QCA’s 3rd Space series – 10/18/13, 6:30-8:30pm [More to come!]
INSPIRATION:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
– ‘Wild Geese’ by Mary Oliver
This summer has been beautiful – I’ve done a bunch of things I’ve wanted to do, sometimes for years – kayak on the East River, yoga in the park, yoga on the roof, climb the highest mountain I’ve hiked thus far, perform at the NYC Poetry Festival, ride my bike to work four days a week..
It’s also been a difficult one – but only in the sense that in life the strain helps us to learn. Our discomfort is speaking to us. Change is ever-present. It’s all in our heads. Loosely in the way of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths – life is suffering but there is a way OUT of that suffering..
I am trying to hold on to the fact that things will never be straightforward. Some days you won’t want to get up. Some days you won’t want to see anyone. Some days you will be completely consumed by fear, cut off from the universe and from gratitude. Some days it will feel like it will never end.. Like you’ll never come out of it. Like you know better but you just don’t GET IT. Like something is wrong with you.
But we need these moments. We need these moments to learn, to expand, to grow. To remember where we came from. To learn to let go. To remember we CAN be happy, we can exist without the ten ton weight of anxiety sitting on our chest all day.. To return to what we knew we always were. To fully savor the light because of the time you spent in the dark.. To live openly and freely within the ebbs and flows of life – dancing and moving with them, not in fear of them.
Your heart must always be ready to leave and ready to begin again, must form new bonds with courage and without regret. Every beginning offers a magic power that protects us and helps us to endure. – excerpt from “Stages” by Hermann Hesse
And today is another beginning. With the help of my best friend and fellow neon rebel on the other side of the world – we are taking control back. Rising early – yoga, running, meditation, IMAGINATION. Singing songs. Feeling love. Doing work. And going forward..
I turned to a random page in the Bhagavad Gita and the quote struck me to my core.
This is where I’m going.
My favorite season will be drawing to a close soon but “there is eternal summer in the grateful heart” (C. Thaxter) – and I am looking forward to fall. I have my first event as the solo featured reader at First Tuesdays coming up, Boundless Tales is returning, and I am planning a QUEENS LITERARY TOWN HALL in October – part performance, part soapbox, part networking, and a place for all the movers-n-shakers of the Queens lit community to come together. It will be presented as part of Queens Council on the Arts‘ 3rd Space series, which offers artist-led performance and exhibition opportunities the third Friday of the month. For more info email info@queenscouncilarts.org with 3rd Space in the subject line.
MORE DEETS TO COME!
Find your light – don’t hide from what you are. And rise before you fall. And hope for something more.. Live if you really want to. –Yuna
XO
a.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Featured reader at the season opener of First Tuesdays: A Neighborhood Reading Series in Queens – 9/3/13 [Info]
Celebrating the return of Boundless Tales Reading Series! – 9/19/13 [Facebook]
Hosting Queens Literary Town Hall as part of QCA’s 3rd Space series – 10/18/13, 6:30-8:30pm [Deets to come!]
INSPIRATION:
Therefore, thou noblest child of Bharata!
Govern thy heart! Constrain th’ entangled sense!
Resist the false, soft sinfulness which saps
Knowledge and judgment! Yea, the world is strong,
But what discerns it stronger, and the mind
Strongest; and high o’er all the ruling Soul.
Wherefore, perceiving Him who reigns supreme,
Put full force of Soul in thy own soul!
Fight! vanquish foes and doubts, dear Hero! slay
What haunts thee in fond shapes, and would betray!
– Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita
Very strange that we find ourselves already in mid-July. In less than a month I will be twenty-seven years old..!
I remember all the markers on this path – memories I feel even more strongly I need to release to the world, to honor them. To honor myself. To honor the beautiful people I have come across.
My Nana passed in December of ’11 – a chain reaction of transformation set off since then. I released my first book on what would’ve been her next birthday.. I am sitting on all the words that spilled from me in the months and months after – they will be the next chapter. “TRAVERSALS.” Soon..
I listened to voicemails of hers I hadn’t heard in more than a year, a day ago – completely cracked in half. Sometimes you forget how necessary it is to do that. Really crack. Really break.
And if you can – write from the pieces.
A friend of mine showed me a visceral poetry performance video yesterday and it set a fire in me. The ways we can show others what we feel, and have been through..
I feel blessed for the opportunities to be onstage again soon – to channel this energy. To remember what I’m here for. To hear from others where they too have been, and where they hope to go..
Speaking of – tomorrow I’m happy to be participating in the soft opening of one of Astoria’s brand new and MUCH needed indie bookstores, Enigma Bookstore! See below for details and please come out if you’re around. I am so proud to be a part of QUEENS LIT – we have all come so far in this past year..
I was also so pleasantly surprised to see my poetry sticker project picked up on Flavorpill’s Flavorwire.com! Street art and street poetry/performance is infinitely inspiring to me, and I feel so honored to be included on a list with people all over the world who put their expressions out there in such unique ways. The Compass Project will be back soon..
Looking forward to what the rest of the summer will bring. More sharing, more biking, more moving, more sun, salt, sweat, water, mountains, waves.. Words.
Always, always words.
Bowing to the power inside me, inside the universe, and in all of us that is greater than our sadness and fear –
XO
a.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Reading at Enigma Bookstore’s soft opening/Kea’s spoken word – 7/19/13 [Facebook invite]
Reading for Boundless Tales at the 3rd Annual NYC Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island – 7/27/13 [Facebook invite]
Featured reader at the season opener of First Tuesdays: A Neighborhood Reading Series in Queens – 9/3/13 [Facebook page]
INSPIRATION:
High overhead, isn’t half of the night sky standing/ above the sorrow in us, the disquieted garden?/ Imagine that you no longer walked through your grief grown/ wild,/ no longer looked at the stars through the jagged leaves/ of the dark tree of pain, and the enlarging moonlight/ no longer exalted fate’s ruins so high/ that among them you felt like the last of some ancient race./ Nor would smiles any longer exist, the consuming smiles/ of those you lost over there – with so little violence,/ once they were past, did they purely enter your grief. – RILKE
This was supposed to be a Wednesday update but – here we are! Making a promise to myself to update, starting… NOW!
I’m sitting here sweating after riding to and from amazing yoga at my beloved The Yoga Room. Eddie Teboul’s incredible Vinyasa class couldn’t have been any more apt (THANK YOU) – Independence Day. Independence from fear, anger, jealousy, sadness. Suffering is inevitable, we all know this. It’s how we deal with it..
There’s an awesome Summer Sixty challenge going on at TYR right now and although I’m not officially participating, I’m doing a challenge of my own. The nature of MY beast is sometimes inconsistency – yet I’ve come to the point where I realized.. Hey – I’m one of those people. I need this. I need yoga. I need the sound of OM resonating. I need chanting. I need sweat. I need communion with myself and others.
I put my head to the mat and think: I am bowing to the power in myself and in the universe that is greater than my sadness and fear.
And after – I feel the palpable difference. What more evidence do I need?
We are all so cerebral. Sometimes you can analyze yourself to death and still get nowhere.
There is a source we all come from that is greater than THIS – whatever external or internal affliction we are dealing with, imagined or actual, mental or physical. We all need a way out, but a way out and INTO awareness – into the VAST, infinite space we are actually occupying.
It’s like curling up in a cave in the corner of a HUGE, beautiful forest we are refusing to acknowledge. It’s there. It’s endless. And it’s beautiful.
I hiked in Cold Spring on the Breakneck Ridge trail and it was exhilarating in ways I can’t explain. Not only to feel the somewhat imminent danger but to stand up there and know we had traversed it – hand over hand, one foot in front of the other. Our sweat, our exertion – brings us this.
Overwhelming.
But everything is like that.
I am reminding myself to be patient. Every single day counts. Every single effort counts.
And there are ways beyond trying to conceptualize it in our minds. I have felt stuck beyond BELIEF. But today riding out of that yoga class – I feel the knots loosening. I want to flow freely. Heart broke loose on the wind..
Here’s hoping you acknowledge and celebrate your own independence today.
XO
a.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Reading for Malini Singh McDonald at REZ Reading Series in Kew Gardens – 7/11/13 [Facebook invite]
Reading for Boundless Tales at the 3rd Annual NYC Poetry Festival on Governor’s Island – 7/27/13 [Facebook invite]
INSPIRATION:
When water gets caught in habitual whirlpools,/ dig a way out through the bottom/ to the ocean. There is a secret medicine/ given only to those who hurt so hard they can’t hope./ The hopers would feel slighted if they knew. – RUMI
There are depths inside you too infinite to explain. When you need a reminder.. Look up. @audreyleopard on Instagram
Hello, hello out there! A little update from the road thus far..
I’ve added some new work to the site including performance videos and poems published, and everything is now organized into two categories: Poetry & Performance for poetry, prose, singing, creative projects and the like, and Articles & Media for journalism, blog posts, photos, and etc.
And away we go!
* I’m now part of the co-hosting team for Astoria’s Boundless Tales Reading Series! We just sent out an open call for writers with some interesting themes for each month – if you’re a writer/performer please check it out and submit your work! The next reading, which is also the last one of the season, is on June 20th at Waltz-Astoria and I’ll be hosting.
* Queens’ own Newtown Literary Journal is launching issue #2 at Odradeks in Kew Gardens (home of the rebooted REZ Reading Series) on June 6th. My prose piece “requiem (soon to be),” a written moment of silence for an LIC building on the chopping block, is published in it – thanks so much! Come on out and support QUEENS LIT! More info on their FB.
* I was really excited to be a part of some amazing events over the past few months..
** The second edition of my Nature of the Muse reading and live writing event was truly wonderful – I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out and was FLOORED yet again with the talent of the featured artists! THANK YOU all so much. And thanks to my lovely pal Paul I also got to sing for the finale ;)
** Reading at Oh, Bernice! was a huge highlight – I got to perform some new work including a piece crafted with some classic tunes, which meant a lot to me. My parents were also there, and I remembered the last time I performed at Cafe Marlene – it was the second reading I did back in 2011, and the first time they saw me read after getting back into performing. Coming full circle and finally getting to read and sing a hybrid piece – I was absolutely floating that night..
** After reconnecting with her at Nature of the Muse, I was so excited to be invited by the incredible M. Leona Godin to perform at her new WITH SPECIAL GUEST series at The Delancey. She really thinks outside the box and is a ridiculously entertaining host – at the beginning of this month I read my work for her show accompanied by fantastic singer/cellist (and total sweetheart) Calum Ingram, who played to my words, totally improv! LOVED IT.
Yoga warriors on the beach in Coney Island with instructor Dina Ivas
** Later on in the month, the weather wasn’t exactly on our side, but it was a testament to good vibes and good friends that Lola Star and I’s Coney Island Oasis still went on – we did misty yoga on the beach with teacher Dina Ivas, heard some music and poetry, and shared snacks. SO grateful for all the attendees who didn’t let the chill spoil their fun!
** And – last week.. I got to faux-officiate a wedding! Ever-lovely Sammy Davis referred me to the folks at The Not Wedding, which is a bridal show alternative in the form of a big, fake wedding with vendors, food, music, dancing, and more. This was the very first NYC Not Wedding and I had such a blast performing spoken word for this real couple’s ceremony. They were just shy of their actual one year wedding anniversary and used it as a kind of vow renewal – all beautiful, kick-ass people I am so glad to have met!
Faux officiating, REAL LOVE at The Not Wedding – Instagram by @dolcedreamsevents
Currently – plotting out my next course.. I cannot wait to experiment with more forms of performing and collaborate with my beautiful friends. And hey, if you have a project you’d like to work on, if you want some poetry at your event or a fun MC – let me know!!
Stay tuned for the next Nature of the Muse later this summer, and updates on my next book. :) Just in case you’d like to check out my first book, Decisions We Make While We Dream, it’s still on sale right HERE! Earlier this month we passed the one year anniversary since I released it, in memory of my beloved Nana. Time sure does fly..
But – here we go. Flying right along with it..
Crawling out of the dark into an infinite summer –
Poetry sticker from my Compass Project phase II, last summer in NYC
To praise is to praise how one surrenders to the emptiness.
To praise the sun is to praise your own eyes. Praise, the ocean. What we say, a little ship.
So the sea-journey goes on, and who knows where! Just to be held by the ocean is the best luck we could have. It’s a total waking up!
Why should we grieve that we’ve been sleeping? It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been unconscious.
We’re groggy, but let the guilt go. Feel the motions of tenderness around you, the buoyancy. – RUMI, from ‘Buoyancy,’ trans. by Coleman Barks
These days have been about riding the waves. Learning again how to be kind to myself, to work with my mind, and to fight for myself, the people I love, and what I am here to do.
Sometimes all we have to do is reach out to realize again and again that we are not alone. Such a simple fact – yet how often we forget. We are sitting crouched in the corner of a room with our legs drawn up, head on our knees – not realizing there are others in the room, doing the very same. We are all fighting the same battles, having the same fears – regardless of what it looks like on the outside. We have to keep walking, keep fighting, keep knowing that – things can change. And all we can do is roll with them. Ride the waves. On and on..
“Cry out in your weakness,” Rumi writes. “Crying out loud and weeping are great resources. […] Cry out! Don’t be stolid and silent/ with your pain. Lament! And let the milk/ of loving flow into you.”
It’s the only way to begin to help yourself, to help the universe help you, and also to help the people around you.
This sense of separation, of bewilderment, of disconnectedness – it derails us completely. We’re staring at the door but we can’t get ourselves to move. We lose our sense of purpose, we don’t want to get out of bed, we resist every situation instead of embracing it. We feel detached from the source energy of the universe, from our infinite potential, from the love and goodness that surrounds us always.. We become so completely entrenched in this feeling of isolation and emptiness that we cannot possibly fathom the illusion it actually is.
That current, that potential, that love energy is always there – just a breath or a moment or a perspective shift away.
“The grief you cry out from/ draws you toward union,” Rumi writes. Be honest with your longing, your sorrow, your restlessness – be KIND to yourself in feeling such things. Everything happens for a reason.. Even those things that seem completely pointless. “Your pure sadness/ that wants help/ is the secret cup./ Listen to the moan of a dog for its master./ That whining is the connection.”
We are all on this journey together. And even feeling nothing – is feeling something.. One day at a time, one foot in front of the other. It’s not where we’re going, but what we learn along the way.
Trust yourself, trust the journey. Ride the waves.
Because this – this sadness, this emptiness, this strangeness. It isn’t forever.
It just isn’t.
Thank you to everyone who has shared their moments of darkness and their ways back out into the light with me over the past few days. Thank you to everyone who has been patient, stoic, honest – lanterns in the shadow.
Peace and joy to you, my dear friends – especially when you need it most.
audrey nova di mola : wilds of the deep heart 