May 2013
8 posts
A Sunnyside Smorgasbord
In addition to our Brooklyn Buffet, we here at Oh, Bernice! also offer you a Sunnyside Smorgasbord: Stefanie Lipsey will host readers Willa Carroll, Leila Ortiz, Tyler Rivenbark, and Sweta Srivastava Vikram. So if you don’t see us in Brooklyn, see us in Queens at Cafe Marlene at 7:30pm tomorrow, May 18th. Bring a bib.
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Willa Carroll, winner of Narrative Magazine’s...
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A Brooklyn Buffet
In honor of Oh, Bernice! taking the stage at Lit Crawl BK, I decided to compile some random, food-related facts about the readers. (Because, who wants to read about their credentials, am I right?) The one thing they have in common? They all have never heard of Supermarket Sweep.
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Rajiv Mohabir has been hit in the face with such foodstuffs as cake, eggs, pepper sauce, and coffee. ...
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Bernice Eats Brooklyn!
We show no mercy. Oh, Bernice! is polishing their silverware as they take their reading on the road to Brooklyn, as part of Lit Crawl BK.
Jolie Hale hosts team of hungry all-stars, ready to gobble up Cobble Hill:
Rajiv Mohabir
John Reid Currie
Deborah Fried-Rubin
Hoyt Jacobs
and Peter Vanderberg
Part two of the Oh, Bernice! double feature happens Saturday May 18th at Last Exit. (136...
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May, Baby, May
May is here and maybe you’ll spend it with the likes of Oh, Bernice! on Saturday May 18th, when we’ll be hosting not one, but two readings. (It’s a bi-borough double feature!) First up, is Sunnyside:
Stefanie Lipsey hosts an evening worthy of Tom Selleck’s moustache:
Willa Carroll
Leila Ortiz
Tyler Rivenbark
Sweta Srivastava Vikram
The action starts at 7:30 PM in...
You're Missing It!
Right now, as you read this text.
Tonight is the memorial service for one of the last true bohemians, poet and actor Taylor Mead, who died recently. I’m stuck at work, kicking myself. But, if you’re free, you should head down to this event, which celebrates his legacy.
- JR
bobholman:
The address is the same. 308 Bowery The look is not Come one and all To Taylor’s...
May-days
April is certainly over. (Goodbye, cruelty. Hello, Love.) And so is my month as the official Oh, Bernice! blogger. (I’ll give you a moment… Let it all out.) I want to thank everyone who came out to Cafe Marlene in April and made that night so special. I’m handing the reins back over to the very capable Brian Kim, seen here with a smoking baby:
(This is how we will combat...
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April 2013
18 posts
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Blood Oranges and Bleeding Hearts (Or, Why You...
John: Tell me about the last time you were cruel.
Jenna: I try to be kind.
And she is. So don’t forget to come to Oh, Bernice this Saturday to tell her so.
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Jenna Telesca is a reporter and a short story writer. Podcasts and blood oranges are her current obsessions. She is founder of the Oh, Bernice Writers Collective.
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“I’ve got a poem in my pocket for you.”
– - Oh, Bernice!
(Happy Poem In Your Pocket Day!)
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Sachiko Clayton, Cat Lover
John: Tell me about the last time you were cruel.
Sachiko: I denied my cat string time a couple of nights ago.
How could you, Sachi? To donate string to Sachiko’s cat, come to Oh, Bernice this Saturday at 7:30 with yarns in tow.
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Sachiko Clayton is a poet and translator from Queens. Her writing explores cultural-hybridity, homeland and handmade objects. She is...
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Rivenblog
Bernice’s own Tyler Rivenbark wrote a guest post on Newtown Literary’s Queens Blog about our reading series. You should check it out:
http://newtownliterary.org/2013/04/16/queens-literary-heroes-oh-bernice/
It’s a great summation of what we do. Groovy language for a groovy scene.
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The Certain Cruelty Of Aracelis Girmay
Aracelis has two books of poetry published and, therefore, doesn’t need to be subjected to my wacky questionnaires. But, I assure you, she is cruel. She once bit her own teeth.
Her work is beautiful in it’s lyric grace and sincerity. It’s almost cruel to subject an audience to this kind of talent. To get a better sense of her work, you should read this short prose piece, a...
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“I’m sorry I can’t go to Oh, Bernice! but I saw your event [on...”
– - Kimiko Hahn
If Kimiko Hahn feels bad about missing Oh, Bernice! just imagine how you’ll feel if you miss out. Save yourself the pain and come out to Sunnyside this Saturday.
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Kimiko at The Strand, Tonight @7PM
Bring your beach umbrella and your snorkel, Kimiko Hahn is going to be at The Strand tonight as part of a celebration for the tenth anniversary of the PSA Chapbook Fellowship. All the cool kids will be there.
http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/events/nyc/#psa_chapbook_reading_at_the_stra
$10 for general public,$5 for PSA Members. Strand Bookstore 828 Broadway
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Brian Kim Is An Onion
John: Tell me about the last time you were cruel.
Brian: I don’t know if this was actually cruel, but I felt cruel doing it: There’s a student in my Intro to Creative Writing class who, for the first four or five weeks, really wasn’t putting much effort into her assignments. To give you a hint: Her characters’ names were Jack & Jill or Ted & Ned. It felt like...
Both Sides of Rejection
Speaking of the Newtown Literary blog, you should check out this post from Editor-in-Chief Tim Fredrick called “Both Sides of Rejection”:
http://newtownliterary.org/2013/03/08/both-sides-of-rejection/
It’s good insight for all you writers out there. (Myself included.)
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Meet Audrey Dimola
John Rice here, blogging in preparation of hosting for this month’s edition (4/20/13) of the Oh, Bernice! Reading Series. As a way to best get to know the readers, I asked them all the same question.
Tell me about the last time you were cruel.
Audrey: In my dreams I often wind up as a town-smashing dragon - pretty cruel to all those dream-townspeople. As penance, in my waking life I...
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Follow The Travelling Typewriter
Don’t worry, you’re not hallucinating: that typewriter is travelling—
as part of Queens Writes! weekend festivities. Gabriel Cabrera of Newtown Literary will be rambling around the borough of Queens with his magic typewriter, this Saturday April 13th, as a fundraiser for the journal. Anyone who can spare a dollar can type a line, culminating in one long group poem that will be...
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Queens Writes Bernice!
Several members of Oh, Bernice will be taking part in the Queens Writes! Weekend, a fundraiser benefiting Newtown Literary. We’ll be hanging out in at the Cafe Marlene (one of our favorite Queens spots) engaging in writing prompts and spontaneous jocularity to support this Queens-based journal—and you can come too!
Non-writers (and even non-Queensians) are welcome to come support...
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Bernice Gets Cruel
Because T. S. Eliot says that “April is the cruelest month” Oh, Bernice! is getting cruel. (Your shoes are untied.) And as we approach the big April reading, we’ll be giving you the run-down on the readers’ most cruel acts.
Because, as Nick Lowe says, “you gotta be cruel to be kind,” and Oh, Bernice! is nothing short of mind-shattering paradox.
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April Approacheth
And so does the monthly Oh, Bernice! reading series. Join us April 20th as John Rice, and his fabulous mustache*, as he hosts a parade of talented writers at the Cafe Marlene at 44-11 49th Street in Sunnyside, Queens, “same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.” (“Bat-time” being 7:30 PM.)
Readers include:
Brian Kim
Jenna Telesca
Audrey Dimola
Sachiko Clayton
and...
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“April may be the cruelest month, but we’d never be cruel to you. (Honest.)”
– Oh, Bernice!
March 2013
5 posts
Jonathan Kravetz!
Jonathan Kravetz, close personal friend to (the wax) Woody Allen, is our third and final reader tomorrow night! As you’ll read in his bio below, he gives you permission to pretend to know him, but show up at the reading tomorrow night and you’ll have to do a little less pretending. See you all there!
Jonathan Kravetz is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of DUCTS.org, a biannual...
Nancy Agabian!
Nancy Agabian, Queens College professor and recent recipient of the Excellence in Teaching by Adjunct Faculty award (congratulations!), will be reading tomorrow night! Be there or be a regular quadrilateral whose area is one side squared.
Nancy Agabian is the author of Princess Freak, a collection of poems and performance texts on sexuality and rage, and Me as her again, a memoir that...
6 tags
Three Rooms Press 6th Annual Dada Salon
Bernice’s own John Rice is set to take part in Three Room Press’s 6th Annual Dada Salon, at the Cornelia Street Cafe this Friday at 6PM—but he’s taken ill and can only perform if you believe in him. He needs you to clap your hands. Keep clapping. Clap some more. All the little boys and girls have to believe in dada. Your hands will hurt but your faith will be...
Jonathan Karpinos!
This Saturday is our next Oh, Bernice! reading, and we’ve got a good one in store for you. It’ll be an evening full of playwrights and performers. First up is playwright and infamous baby thief Jonathan Karpinos! (Note: Jonathan is, of course, not a baby thief — that’s his son in this picture.)
Jonathan Karpinos is a playwright based in New York. Recent work has...
February 2013
6 posts
John Reid Currie!
And so another Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Sad that it’s over? Sad that you didn’t have anyone to share it with? Happy it’s over? Happy that you didn’t have anyone to share it with? Indifferent about it? Well then, tomorrow night’s reading is for you! We have one last reader to introduce: Bernice’s own John Reid Currie. He’s got some poems...
David Puterbaugh!
Happy Valentine’s Day, world! We hope you’re able to spend the day with someone special. And if you don’t have someone special — even better! That means you can come to this Saturday’s reading and — oh, but there I go again, almost giving too much away. In the meantime, meet one of Saturday’s fantastic readers: David Puterbaugh!
David Puterbaugh...
Lorraine Schein!
Okay, okay — enough teasing this Saturday’s super-special Oh, Bernice! reading. So what if tomorrow is Valentine’s Day? Like we’d let some manufactured holiday influence our reading. No, we’re gonna keep it real, which is why Lorraine Schein will be there to read some of her fantasy/sci-fi pieces. (Plus humorous pieces and pieces about Queens.) So don’t miss...
Tejas Desai!
Another reader we have lined up for Saturday’s special reading is fiction writer Tejas Desai. Tejas recently published a novel — you can check it out here. Get ready to hear about long walks on the beach, candle-lit dinners, and picturesque sunsets. Or wait — maybe I’m thinking of something else…
Tejas Desai recently backpacked in Laos, which is from where...
Joel Allegretti!
This Saturday is the next Oh, Bernice! reading, and we’ve got something very special planned. So let’s get right to it and introduce our contes— er, our readers. Our readers. First up: Joel Allegretti!
Joel Allegretti is the author of four collections, the most recent being Europa/Nippon/New York: Poems/Not-Poems (Poets Wear Prada, 2012). His second book, Father Silicon (The...
January 2013
6 posts
John Weir!
Last but not least: Your second John of the evening, John Weir. John previously read at Oh, Bernice! in June 2012 and his reading was the highlight of our entire first season. Trust me: You really don’t want to miss him when he reads again this Saturday. See you all there!
(Here now is a bio written by Saturday’s host, Jason Fischedick.) John Weir is an esteemed professor at Queens...
John Rice!
Get your double-dose of Johns this Saturday! First up, Bernician John Rice. John is a poet, a witster, and a food aficionado The picture of him below is what I can only assume mid-John Weir impersonation. Or maybe it’s a Bela Lugosi impersonation? Only one way to find out: Show up on Saturday and ask him to do his John Weir-Bela Lugosi impersonation.
John Rice is as tall as a human-sized...
Jolie Hale!
We have a special treat for you this Saturday: Talented writer (and fugitive) Jolie Hale will be reading! Ask her about life on the lam. Or her cats. Either way, you’ll get a very enthusiastic response.
Jolie Hale is a South Carolina native banished from her homeland for her crimes, including but not limited to: attempted murder of her landlady’s favorite pigeons; and telling people...
Ann Podracky!
The woman, the myth, the legend: Ann Podracky will be reading this Saturday! Ann’s work is funny, wry, and emotional — you won’t want to miss it.
Ann Podracky‘s work has appeared most recently in WSQ (The Enchantment Issue, 12/12), Hanging Loose, and Poetry and Performance (Issue 40). Ann has read her work in different venues throughout the city including KGB, Bowery Poetry...
Jonathan Alexandratos!
Jonathan Alexandratos (dramatist, prose writer, and part-time actor) will be reading this Saturday! Ask him about the one-act play he acted in (along with Bernician Brian Kim) back in the summer of 2010. Once he overcomes the trauma of those repressed memories resurfacing, he’ll be sure to entertain you with fascinating anecdotes!
About a week ago, Jonathan Alexandratos found himself...
Valerie Sawicki!
The Oh, Bernice! reading series is turning one year old this Saturday! To help us celebrate, we have a full line-up of great readers. So let’s cut to the chase and start the introductions. First up, the talented Valerie Sawicki!
Valerie Sawicki is a humanities teacher who occasionally writes a thing or two. The mind of Freud, the whimsy of Zooey Deschanel, and the writing insecurities of...
December 2012
5 posts
Roger Sedarat!
Tonight, tonight! (Believe in me as I believe in you tonight.) It’s kind of appropriate that I’m linking to the Smashing Pumpkins, since poet and translator Roger Sedarat has rock star hair. He’s also a bona fide rock star — in the sense that he owns a pretty rockin’ Strat. And, most importantly, he’s reading at Cafe Marlene in Sunnyside — tonight! See you...
Rigoberto González!
Rigoberto González is reading tomorrow! You won’t want to miss this multi-talented writer. He writes poetry, he writes prose, he writes non-fiction — but which will he read from? Only way to find out!
Rigoberto González is the author of ten books of poetry and prose, and the editor of Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing. He is the recipient of Guggenheim and...
Brian Kim!
Brian Kim can drink whiskey AND look to the left. Dexterity like that is only possible in prose writers. Brian is reading this Saturday, so swing by and marvel at his ability to drink and look to the left AT THE SAME TIME.
Brian Kim, resident lefty, writes short fiction. He graduated from the MFA program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College, where he now teaches as an...
Deborah Fried-Rubin!
It’s time gear up for this Saturday’s Oh, Bernice! reading! Come on out to Sunnyside, Queens and help us herald in the End Times (if you’re into that sort of thing) with a night of poetry and prose. First up: Bernice’s own Deborah Fried-Rubin. Last month she was the hostess with the mostess, now this month you can catch her as the reader with the… cedar…...
November 2012
10 posts
