[NEohioPAL] FIRST MONDAYS presents Deep Cleveland: An Evening of Poetry and Music featuring poet Josh Gage and clarinetist Bill Meyer

[Jean Seitter Cummins]

FIRST MONDAYS presents Deep Cleveland: An Evening of Poetry and Music
featuring poet Josh Gage and clarinetist Bill Meyer

FIRST MONDAYS welcomes poet Joshua Gage and clarinetist Bill Meyer to The
Alcazar for an evening of poetry and music on Monday, November 1 at 7 PM.
Sharing the podium are poets Mary Truzillo and Dianne Borsenik, frequent
contributors to the monthly “Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour,” hosted by Josh at
Border’s Books in Strongsville.  The historic Alcazar is located at the top
of Cedar Hill in the Cedar-Fairmount neighborhood of Cleveland Heights.

Joshua Gage’s first published collection, BREATHS, earned him a national
reputation as an author of haiku who, according to one critic “gives us
haiku straight up . . . Through the smoke and broken urban landscape, you
will find moments worth a deep breath of insight.”  Gage himself has spoken
of haiku as poetry for people who think they don’t like poetry. The
immediacy of the shortened form gives an intensity to everyday moments. Like
the late d.a. levy whose work he celebrates, Josh also has a strong
connection to Cleveland that he celebrates in DEEP CLEVELAND LENTEN BLUES, a
chapbook published by Deep Cleveland Press.

Mary Truzillo’s  Nebula winner, “Mars is No Place for Children,” and her
novel, AN OLD-FASHIONED MARTIAN GIRL, were selected as recreational reading
on the International Space Station. Her most recent book is THE DRAGON
DICTIONARY with Marge Simon and her poetry collection YOUR CAT & OTHER SPACE
ALIENS was a nominee for the prestigious Pushcart Prize.

Dianne Borsenik’s work has appeared in Slipstream, Haiku World: An
International Poetry Almanac and Voices of Cleveland and her chapbook
HARDDRIVE/SOFTWEAR was published in 2009 by Crisis Chronicles Press. Her
poems were featured in the 2008 and 2009 Cleveland RTA Poetry Projects. And
speaking of Halloween, actor Jonathan Frid, who played “Barnabas” on the
famous Dark Shadows television series, used three of her poems in his
touring program, “Genesis of Evil.”

The Alcazar is located at 2450 Derbyshire just at the top of Cedar Hill in
the Cedar-Fairmount neighborhood.  Parking is available on the street and in
the metered city lot just off Cedar Road at Derbyshire.  Call 321-5400 on
the day of the program to arrange handicapped parking in the Alcazar Garage.