Jimmie Margaret Gilliam & Trudy Stern @ The Church, 12/13
Spoken word has gotten more hype in the last twenty years than in the previous hundred. Poetry slams are in nearly every city, celebrities are producing spoken word albums, dvds and broadway shows, and rap and hip hop makes millions in the recording industry. Even advertising has gotten into the act. But lest we forget, poetry is not merely a young person's game. As Marc Smith, the founder of the poetry slam is fond of saying, we stand on the shoulders of giants, many of whom are still writing and performing. Hallwalls and the Earth’s Daughters Collective respects this truth and America's long tradition of poetry readings, by bringing us The Gray Hair Reading Series. Naturally, the series presents readers "of a certain age" as my mother prefers. While there may be a lack of "bling" to blind the eyes, the craftwork and maturity of their work provides a fresh, calm voice in a world where loudness is sometimes mistaken for quality.
If you're looking for more than an urban internal rhyme scheme, join Hallwalls and the Earth's Daughters Collective at The Gray Hair Reading Series, featuring Jimmie Margaret Gilliam & Trudy Stern. The series programmed and organized by ryki zuckerman. Bios for the well-loved performers are provided below.
Hallwalls, 341 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY, 854-1694. Wednesday, 7:30 P.M., Free.
Jimmie Margaret Gilliam was a co-editor of Earth's Daughters from 1975 to1986. Now Professor Emerita at ECC, she taught English Literature on the College's City Campus from 1971 to 1995. She is co-author of the poetry volume The Rime & Roar of Revolution (as Jimmie Canfield, with Bob Dickens, 1975) and author of the poem/novel Ain't No Bears Out Tonight (as Jimmie Gilliam Canfield, 1984) and Pieces of Bread (as Jimmie Canfield Gilliam, 1987), which was on the Academy of American Poets 1987 Fall Reading List. Her work was featured in Writers At Work, an anthology published by Just Buffalo in 1995 and used in the Buffalo public schools. She has given readings and workshops all over WNY, in Albuquerque, NM, and in her hometown of Asheville, NC. Her poems have appeared in a variety of publications, including the “Poetry Page” of The Buffalo News, Earth's Daughters, The Asheville Poetry Review, Eve Magazine, The July Press, and Black Mountain Review.Owner of the Elmwood Avenue tea house tru-teas!, tea mistress of Buffalo, artist, and poet Trudy Stern has been a frequent contributor to poetry anthologies and Buffalo literary events for over 30 years. She hosts Poetry at the Tea House on the first Sunday of every month at Insite Gallery, tru-teas!' next-door neighbor at 810 Elmwood. She holds the distinction of being the shortest tenured member of the longest running women's poetry collective and publication, Earth's Daughters. With her partner and husband Michael Morgulis, Trudy illustrated and published folios of broadsides for the inaugural readings for the then fledgling Just Buffalo in early 1978. (In those days, she was known as “Trudy Dreamer.”)