Every Sunday Coldfront features five upcoming cross-borough readings in NYC. Here are this week’s featured picks starting TODAY!

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Parlé Summer Poetry Series
TODAY, Sunday, Aug 19th @ 6:30p
161 W. 22nd Street, The Hidden Room, New York, NY

This summer poetry series puts teen poets in the same room as their veteran counterparts for a 2-part event. It starts with a teen open mic with a teen feature and continues into our adult feature. Open mic continues throughout the night in an effort the spotlight the best of ALL age groups.

Featuring:

Katherine George is a part of the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music and a member of the Slam Team, where she continues to excel and improve in two of her passions. She started singing at the age of six with her older brother, who is also a professional singer. Initially, she explored her singing talents in the world of Rhythm and Blues training with various teachers and at institutions in New York City. As for poetry, Katherine states, “It was always more of a leisure thing for me, however, I always loved watching Def Poetry Jam and how the performers were so passionate about their words.”

Marcus Wright is a true spoken word poet for the college audience. Wright knows what it takes to please a campus full of students, because he is a student himself, currently taking a break from his junior year at Lincoln University. He spent the first two years of higher education as Lincoln University’s official special guest at almost every school talent show, performance event or awards dinner. During the weekends he would perform at colleges and universities across the country, growing a fan base and knack for giving students what they wanted to hear. Check out video of Marcus Wright performing “Dearest Mama”.

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Tuesday August 21st, 2012 @ 7-9pm
Brownstone Poets Series
Cafe Dada, 57 Seventh Ave (corner of Lincoln Place), Brooklyn, NY

Susan Maurer’s forthcoming poetry collection Josephine Butler, is to be published by Phoenix Press International (Les Édition Phoenix). This unique press has bases in France, Senegal, Canada, and the U.S. Sylvie Kandé, one of the editors, was her excellent editor. (Sylvie has just had her second book published in French by Gallimard). Susan is a publication junkie and loves to give readings. See her read on YouTube (on Poetry Thin Air).

David Messineo, Publisher and Poetry Editor of Sensations Magazine, comes to Brooklyn as part of his “2012 Informal Tour” for his 120-page hardcover book, Formal, featuring his structured/formal poetry. Expect a diverse 15-minute set to include ekphrastic verse; a rondeau redouble; the sonnet, sestina, pantoum, and villanelle; and range topically from paintings, to Queen Elizabeth I, to politics and contemporary issues, many from a liberal perspective. David uses full proceeds from his book sales to help finance the publication and publish other poems, so consider helping him out with a purchase, as he attempts to have his publication break even financially without government grant funding at the close of its award-winning 25-year run.

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Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012 @ 6-9pm
Ugly Duckling Presse – Cellar Series (Off-site)
RH Gallery, 137 Duane Street, New York, NY

UDP’s Cellar Series goes off-site to RH Gallery featuring authors and former editors from UDP’s early years.

Come to the reading and catch UDP’s exhibition of limited-editions, prints and broadsides. (Extended until 6 September.) NOTE: The reading will be recorded for the Cellar Series Podcast which can be found on iTunes.

James Hoff is an artist living in New York City. He is the recent author of How Wheeling Feels When the Ground Walks Away (PAN) and Inventory Arousal (Bedford Press). Upcoming publications include I’m Already a Has-Been (No Input Books) and Copyright the Typos (Kelley Writers House).

Marisol Limon Martinez is an artist based in Brooklyn. She is the author of After you, dearest language (Ugly Duckling Presse) & First Space, Then Structures (Nothing Moments Press). Her artists’ books are in numerous collections that include the MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Getty. She wrote and recorded her first solo album Autoportrait under the name Marisol Limon, and recently completed her latest book which she is currently adapting into a live performance.

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Saturday, August 25, 2012 @ 3-7pm
Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
Richard Rodgers Amphitheater, Marcus Garvey Park, Mount Morris PW at W. 122nd St.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary, the festival will present word artists / poets between sets who will help celebrate the legacy of Charlie Parker and further illuminate jazz in a diverse way.

Musicians: Roy Haynes / Rene Marie’s ‘Experiment In Truth’ / Derrick Hodge / ERIMAJ

Poets: Edwin Torres / LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs

Writer, vocalist, and sound aritst, Latasha N. Nevada Diggs is the author of three chapbooks which include Ichi-Ban and Ni-Ban (MOH Press), and Manuel is destroying my bathroom (Belladonna Press), as well as the album, Television. Her work has published in Rattapallax, Black Renaissance Noir, Nocturnes, Polvo, Spoken Word Revolution Redux, Drumvoices Review, Long Shot, The Black Scholar, P.M.S, Bum Rush the Page, Jubilat, Everything But the Burden, Black Belt, Tea Party Magazine, and more.

Edwin Torres, a bilingual Nuyorican poet, was born in the Bronx and is a longtime resident of New York City. He is a highly acclaimed performance poet, and his exuberant live shows combine physical improvisation and theater. He is also the author of the collections Fractured Humorous (1999) and In the Function of External Circumstances (2010); the chapbook Lung Poetry (1994), with photographs by Luigi Cazzaniga; and the self-published chapbooks I Hear Things People Haven’t Really Said (1992) and SandHomméNomadNo (1997). His recordings include Oceano Rise, Novo, and Holy Kid.

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Sunday, August 26th, 2012 @ 3-7pm
Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
Tompkins Square Park, East 7th Street between Avenues A and B

Music by: Ernestine Anderson Quartet / Gregory Porter / Andy Milne & Dapp Theory/ Sullivan Fortner

Poets: Jon Sands / Sheila Maldonado / Nikhil Melnechuk

Jon Sands is a Brooklyn based author known for electrifying readings. He wrote, The New Clean, released in 2011 from Write Bloody Publishing, and starred in the award winning 2011 web-series Verse: A Murder Mystery from Rattapallax Films. He is Director of Poetry Education at the Positive Health Project (a syringe exchange center located in Midtown Manhattan), an adjunct with the City University of New York, as well as a Youth Mentor with Urban Word-NYC. He’s represented New York City multiple times at the National Poetry Slam, tours extensively, both nationally and internationally, and makes better tuna salad than anyone you know.

Sheila Maldonado grew up in Coney Island, New York, across the street from the Atlantic Ocean. Her family hails from Honduras. She teaches creative writing for The City University of New York and Teachers & Writers Collaborative. She holds degrees in English from Brown University and poetry from The City College of New York. Her poems have appeared in Rattapallax, Callaloo and Me No Habla with Acento: Contemporary Latino Poetry. ONE-BEDROOM SOLO (Fly By Night Press, 2011) is her first book of poems. She lives in a one-bedroom in uptown Manhattan.

Nikhil Melnechuk is an actor, poet, writer, director, and producer of the Bowery Poetry Club‘s reading series BOWWOW.

– Stephanie Ann Whited