H. Dirksen Bauman is a Professor at Gallaudet University, and THE POETS has written extensively on the themes of American Sign Language literary theory and poetry. Sofia Abad was born in Polillo, Quezon in the Philippines and Bei Dao is an internationally acclaimed Chinese poet who has came to New York in 1972. She been short-listed for the Nobel Prize. He has lived in exile has been an active member of since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. He is a the Filipino-American community, leading member of the Misty School of poets and continues working for the Philippine American to serve as the poetic conscience of China’s dissident move- Government Employees of New ments, as he has for over twenty years. His books include Old York, and a member of the Filipino Snow, Landscape Over Zero, and, most recently, Unlock. Community Network. Charles Bernstein is one of the leading figures of the Ammiel Alcalay is a poet, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school of poetry. He is the author critic, and scholar. During the of more than 20 books, including Republics of Reality: war in the former Yugoslavia, 1975 – 1995 and My Way: Speeches and Poems. He is the he served as a vital primary David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters at SUNY Buffalo, source for providing access where he is Director of the Poetics Program and Executive to Bosnian voices in the Editor of the Electronic Poetry Center. American media. He has edited and translated numer- Toni Blackman is a rap lyricist, ous books, including Rezak writer, and performer whose Hukanovic’s The Tenth Circle of Hell, the first survivor’s work helps bring teens to a account in English from a victim held in a Serbian concentra- new love of language. She is tion camp. He teaches at Queens College. the founder of The Freestyle Union, an organization dedi- Elena Alexander writes poetry and “fictionnonfiction.” She cated to the elevation of hip organizes readings for the MAD ALEX Arts Foundation and hop music and art culture through cipher workshops, curates in-depth, live readings of all varieties of text, covering leadership training, artist development and performance. all communities. Her most recent work is Footnotes: Six Choreographers Inscribe the Page, and her poetry and prose Max Blagg is the author of several have appeared in many journals and anthologies. books, most recently Pink Instrument, a collection of poems; a Arts of Apsara Seth Dip novel, Diving for Blondes; and the (plays tro), Phan Keo (plays forthcoming book-length poem khim), Von Noth (plays Autobio-a-gogo. He has collabo- take), Mono Lay (plays rated with a diverse array of artists, skor), Vath Chum (vocal), and wrote the text for two artists’ and Srey Rieth Man (vocal), books, Jerelyn Hanrahan’s Notations on a Trek and James all learned ayai Brown’s New Poems/New Drawings. and other traditional music while growing up in Robert Bly has been a practicing poet for Cambodia. After surviving over thirty years, and has, according to forced labor, starvation, and disease during the Killing Fields, Library Journal, “an insured place as a they each fled to refugee camps in neighboring Thailand, major figure in American poetry.” His where they returned to their passion for their instruments. most recent books are Eating the Honey They arrived to the U.S. in the early 1980s. of Words and Morning Poems, and he has published several books of cultural Maggie Balistreri is the co-host criticism, including the bestseller Iron John, which launched with Jackie Shoeler, of the popu- the men’s movement to national fame. lar Pink Pony West reading series. Her first chapbook, The Evasion Jean Binta Breeze is an actress, English Dictionary, has been dancer, choreographer, and theatri- flying off the shelves at St. Mark’s cal director. Her work appears in bookstore, and she has been featured at many NYC venues, her collections, Ryddim Ravings from The Knitting Factory to CBGB’s. and Other Poems, Spring Cleaning, and On the Edge of an Island.

32 Lee Ann Brown’s most recent book, Tina Chang’s work has appeared in THE POETS Polyverse, won the 1996 New American many journals and anthologies. She Poetry Series Competition. She currently has received awards form the Academy serves as editor of the independent of American Poets, Poets & Writers, press Tender Buttons, which publishes Villa Montalvo, and Fundacion experimental poetry by women, and Valparaiso, and is the recipient of the teaches writing at St. John’s University Van Lier Fellowship. in Staten Island, Bard College, and Lesley University, and through Teachers Kassahun Checole founded Red Sea & Writers Collaborative. Press, the publisher and distributor of Third World Books. He dedicates his global travels to spreading the literatures Regie Cabico is a performer, come- of Africa, and is especially interested in intra-African dian, teacher, and poet par excel- translations, often making the first translation of texts lence who took first place in the between neighboring languages. 1997 National Poetry Slam as a member of the winning team, Steve Clay, the publisher of Granary Books, is an editor, Mouth Almighty. He co-edited curator, and archivist specializing in the art and literature of Poetry Nation: A North American the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. He co-authored, with Rodney Phillips, Anthology of Fusion; his most A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in recent collection of poems is enti- Writing 1960 – 1989 and co-edited, with Jerome Rothenberg, tled I Saw Your Ex-Lover Behind the Starbucks Counter. A Book of the Book: Some Works & Projections About the Book of Writing. Charles Cantalupo is a poet, essayist, translator, critic, Carol Conroy, author of the book of poems, The Beauty Wars, and playwright. He is facilitates a monthly memorization circle at Poets House Professor of English and and helps create special events at Teachers & Writers Comparative Literature at Collaborative. The Pennsylvania State Jayne Cortez works extensively University, and co-director with the rhythms of jazz and blues. of an initiative devoted to She has made nine recordings with the presentation and critical her band, The Firespitters, and has discussion of African languages and literatures. His many written ten collections of poetry, publications include Poetry, Mysticism, and Feminism: from including Somewhere in Advance th’ nave to the chops, a book of literary criticism; Anima/l Wo/ of Nowhere. Her poems have been man and Other Spirits, a collection of poetry; and the transla- translated into 28 languages, and tion, We Have Our Voice: Selected Poetry of Reesom Haile. she has received awards from The Joseph Castronovo, a Deaf child of National Endowment for the Arts, Deaf parents, received his first New York Foundation on the Arts, poetry award at a Deaf youth and The International African Festival, as well as the American convention when he was 17. He Book Award. has conducted a Nordic poetry Enid Dame, along with her husband, poet Donald Lev, is workshop in Sweden and “Primal the co-editor of Home Planet News, Poetry” workshops at three a literary tabloid that celebrated schools for the Deaf. His American- its 20th anniversary in 1999. Her Sign-Language poetry has been collections of poetry include On the seen at the Los Angeles Poetry Road to Damascus, Maryland, and Festival and Gallaudet University. Anything You Don’t See, and she is Mary Ann Caws is a Distinguished Professor of English, co-editor of the anthology Which French, and Comparative Literature at CUNY Graduate Lilith? Feminist Writers Recreate the School. She recently edited Manifesto: A Century of Isms, a World’s First Woman. She teaches groundbreaking anthology of poetry manifestos, which creative writing at Rutgers University explores the genre both as literature and as a history of the and is currently a lecturer at New evolution of poetic consciousness. Jersey Institute of Technology.

33 Fielding Dawson is an acclaimed novelist and teacher whose Call You If We Need You: Experiences of Women Working work serves as a vital link between prisons and the public. He Construction, selected as a New York Times Notable Book. A directed the PEN Prison Writing Workshop Program and longtime activist, she has used poetry, installation, and appears weekly on WBAI’s “Wake-Up Call,” reading letters theater to address gender issues in the workplace. and writing by inmates and interviewing individuals on prison-related issues. Ruel Espejo still hasn’t found a title for what she does, but remains optimistic. Her days include writing and working in Frances Dominguez was born in Hagonoy, Bulacan, and was that odd stretch of space between art and technology. raised in Dagupan City, Pangasinan. While working on her Someday, she hopes to live near the ocean. Master’s, she and her family immigrated to the United States. She has helped to organize a Balagtasan at the Kalayaan Hall Daniel Ferri, Haiku slam pioneer, of the Philippine Center. created the Head-to-Head Haiku competition and has been the Jesse Dominguez (translator) was born Headmaster for it at the National in Balanga, Bataan, Philippines. He is an Poetry Slam Tournament since 1995. MBA Graduate of Ateneo De Manila and A featured poet in the movie was voted Mr. Ateno of 1977. Married Slamnation, he is a sixth-grade with has two sons, he resides in Queens, teacher and a regular commentator New York, and is currently connected on NPR’s “All Things Considered” with Primerica Financial Services. and Chicago Public Radio’s “848.”

Cornelius Eady is the co-founder, with Toi Derricotte, of Cave Flying Words consists of Peter Canem, the country’s only workshop/retreat dedicated to Cook, a Deaf performer, and serving African American poets. He is the author of six books Kenny Lerner. Lerner’s poetic of poems, including The Autobiography of a Jukebox and, narratives, which he creates in most recently, Brutal Imagination. collaboration with Cook, serve to punctuate Cook’s vocabulary of Charles Easter writes in the Japanese body language. Their perfor- forms of haiku, tanka, haibun, and mances fuse poetry (written and renga. His book Spirit Dance and his ASL), body kinetics, and cinema- magazine black bough include works in style perspectives. these forms. He has informally run many renga parties in New York City, John Foley is a Curators’ and W.H. Byler Professor of Classical and creates and performs “music Studies and Director of the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition poems,” poetry set to his own music. at the University of Missouri.

Rosa Elena Egipciaco is from Moca, Puerto Daniela Gioseffi is a poet/translator/activist. Her new book is Rico. She practices and gives classes on Going On (Purdue University 2000). She is the editor of the art of mundillo, bobbin lace. She was Women on War: Essential Voices for the Nuclear Age, a 1990 President of the Cultural Center in Moca American Book Award Winner. and traveled throughout the island giving lectures at various institutions and univer- Reesom Haile is a poet and scholar who returned to Eritrea sities. She currently teaches at Boricua after a 23-year exile. His first collection of poems in Tigrinya, College and likes to recite poetry. Waza Ms Qumneger Ntnsae, won the 1998 Raimok prize, Eritrea’s highest award for literature. A Tigrinya/English Barbara Einzig’s work has been described as “the invention collection of his poetry, We Have Our Voice: Selected Poetry of another kind of novel… which might also be read as a of Reesom Haile, has also been released as a two-volume CD. serial poem, travel journal, or philosophical investigation” by Geoffrey O’Brien. She is a poet, fiction writer, editor, and Janet Hamill is a poet, painter, cultural critic who has published performer, and author of several numerous books, among them books of poetry and short fiction, most Distance Without Distance and Life recently The Eternal Café, Moves Outside. co-authored with Patti Smith. This year’s Gathering reunites Smith with Susan Eisenberg is a poet, oral histo- Hamill, her poetic mentor. With her rian, and master electrician. Her band, Moving Star, Hamill recently recent books are Pioneering: Poems completed her first full-length poetry from the Construction Site and We’ll CD, Flying Nowhere.

34 Victor Hernández Cruz’s work is most recent collection is The Collect Call of the Wild, and his infused with the music, colors and CD is In with the Out Crowd. He is currently working on textures of his Puerto Rican homeland The World of Poetry, the first digital poetry anthology and New York’s Lower East Side. He is (worldofpoetry.org), and is the Poetry Guide at About.com. the author of numerous books, among them By Lingual Wholes, Mainland, Marie Howe is the author of two collections of poems, The and the forthcoming Maraca: Selected Good Thief, selected for the National Poetry Series, and What Poems. He was featured on the Bill the Living Do. She has received fellowships from the Bunting Moyers PBS series, “The Language of Institute, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Life,” and his awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship and Guggenheim Foundation, and she teaches at Sarah Lawrence the New York Poetry Foundation Award. College and New York University.

Robert Hershon’s gifts to the world of Ararat Iyob, a former political prisoner, works for the Eritrean poetry are many. They include his own consulate in Washington. Her first collection of Eritrean 11 books of poems, most recently The poetry in English, Blankets of Sand, has received positive German Lunatic; Hanging Loose maga- reader response and critical reviews. zine, for which he has served as editor Dave Johnson is the author of Marble since 1966; and Hanging Loose Press, Shoot, a book of poems, and two plays founded in 1972, which has brought the entitled A Sister, A Cousin, An Aunt and work of such writers as Sherman Baptized To The Bone. He is also the Alexie, Ha Jin, Kimiko Hahn, Hettie editor of Movin’: Teen Poets Take Voice, a Jones, and Paul Violi to a grateful collection of teen poems produced in national audience. association with The New York Public Brenda Hillman is the author of six Library and Poets House, and is currently books, notably her two companion a Visiting Faculty member of the MFA Creative Writing volumes, Death Tractates, written Program at The New School for Social Research. in response to the sudden death of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s recordings are her closest female mentor, and among the top-selling reggae albums Bright Existence. A faculty member at in the world. He has written four books St. Mary’s College in Moraga, she of poetry and made 11 recordings, one has received fellowships from of which, LKJ Live in Concert with the the National Endowment for the Arts and the Dub Band, was nominated for a Guggenheim Foundation. Grammy Award. In 1990, the city of Edward Hirsch is the author of numer- Pisa awarded him at the XIII Premo ous books, including On Love and How Internazionale Ultimo Novecento for to Read a Poem. A 1998 MacArthur his contribution to poetry and popular Fellow, he teaches in the Creative music. Writing Program at the University of Hettie Jones is the author of the cele- Houston and writes a poetry column for brated memoir of the Beat scene, How The American Poetry Review and The I Became a Hettie Jones, and a collec- Wilson Quarterly. tion of poems entitled Drive. An experi- Amy Holman is a poet and founder of the Publishing enced teacher of writing, she is Chair Seminars at Poets & Writers, Inc., where she directs the of the PEN Writing Committee and Literary Horizons program. Her column, “Amy Holman’s currently facilitates a writing workshop Tough Love Guide To Publishing,” appears bimonthly in at the New York State Correctional Poets & Writers Magazine. Her work appears Facility for Women at Bedford Hills. in many journals and anthologies, including Kewulay Kamara comes from the The Best American Poetry 1999. Koinadugu District of Sierra Leone Bob Holman was the slam impressario at and is of the Kuranko Ba Mandeng the Nuyorican Poets Cafe for seven years. ethnic group. His family is part of the He founded Mouth Almighty Records, the finenu caste, who are poets, all-poetry label, and produced the PBS emissaries, mediators, and masters series, The United States of Poetry. His own of ceremony at important occasions.

35 Maurice Kenny’s many books Yusef Komunyakaa’s Neon Vernacular won the Pulitzer Prize, include Between Two Rivers: and he is also the author of Pleasure Dome: New and Selected Poems, In the Time of the Collected Poems, 1975 – 1999; a newly published volume of Present: Poems, and Tortured Skins poems, Talking Dirty to the Gods; and Blue Notes: Essays, and Other Fictions. He has edited Interviews, and Commentaries. two anthologies of Native American poetry and fiction, and received the John Kulm’s family has farmed American Book Award for The Mama Poems. He is an editor for four generations in the Pacific of Many Moons Magazine and the publisher of Strawberry Northwest. Kulm writes poetry Press, a Native American publisher. A Visiting Professor at about farming and about other SUNY Potsdam, he will soon be teaching in the new Native topics as seen through a farmer’s American Program at St. Lawrence University. eyes, although this year he became the first in his family line to leave Saba Kidane, a 25-year-old poet living in Asmara, is already farming, largely due to low commod- recognized as a leading voice in Eritrean poetry. She directs ities prices. He currently works for the youth culture programming for Eritrean radio. the Chinook Observer, a community newspaper in Washington State. Galway Kinnell is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Stanley Kunitz is the current United Book Award. His many books States Poet Laureate, whose include When One Has Lived a Collected Poems was recently Long Time Alone and, most published by W.W. Norton. He is the recently A New Selected Poems. winner of the Pulitzer Prize and The He is also the co-translator of The National Book Award. He is the Essential Rilke. He teaches President Emeritus and co-founder of Creative Writing at New York University. Poets House, and the beloved mentor to a generation of young poets. Michael Klein’s memoir, Track Conditions, was recently optioned for film; his book of poems,1990 , won a Lambda Gregory Dunfunia Kweik, a Romani (Gypsy) poet, was born Literary Award. He is currently the visiting writer at SUNY- in Sweden and lived for many years in Staten Island. His Binghamton, and teaches poetry and essay writing at the parents, from the Lovara and Kalderash groups, were born in Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Poland and his grandparents were born in Russia. Centuries of discrimination against his people have galvanized his own Irena Klepfisz is a poet, essayist, political activism and transformed him into an advocate translator, and activist in the for Romani rights. lesbian/feminist and Jewish communities. She is the author of Julie Landau is a poet and trans- A Few Words in the Mother lator, whose recent book, Beyond Tongue, a collection of poetry, and Spring: Tz’u Poems of the Sung a book of essays entitled Dreams of Dynasty, is the first anthology an Insomniac. She co-edited The available in English of lyrics from Tribe of Dina: A Jewish Woman’s the golden age of the Chinese Anthology and Di Froyen: Women tz’u. In her own poetry, she adapts and Yiddish. She teaches Jewish tz’u, a song form written and women’s studies at Barnard College performed by prostitutes in the and serves as editorial consultant singing houses of eighth- and ninth-century China, to create for the Jewish feminist magazine Bridges. a new English form.

Ron Kolm is one of the founding Annie Lanzillotto is the literary curator at The Kitchen and members of the Unbearables. He is renowned NYC performing artist. the author of Welcome to the Barbecue and an associate of Tato Laviera is a Puerto Rican poet, playwright, and composer. Appearances magazine. He has taught at Rutgers University and directed the Prep School at University of the Streets. He has published several volumes of poetry including La Carreta Made a U-Turn and AmeRican.

36 Evangeline Lazaro worked as a into seven languages, won The teacher in the Philippines before Heartland Prize for nonfiction and coming to the U.S. In 1983 she The American Book Award, and was a moved to NYC. finalist for the National Book Award. His commentaries have been Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is origi- recorded and broadcast by BBC nally from the Bronx and now Radio, RTE in Ireland, and NPR. lives across the Hudson with his wife Salomé and their son Isaac Daniel, in West New York, Molly McQuade is the editor of By New Jersey. He is the founder and curator of the “a little bit Herself, an anthology of essays about poetry, released by louder” series and co-author of Burning Down the House Graywolf Press in 2000. Her debut volume of poetry, (Soft Skull Press, 2000). Barbarism, was recently published by Four Way Books.

Wesley “Geno” Leech, a former Lon Minkler, a retired logger and merchant seamen and commer- author of four books of poems, cial fisherman, began writing logged the entire west coast from poetry while drag fishing on Alaska to the Redwoods of Northern the “Columbian Star” off the California, and now spends most of Oregon/Washington coast. He his time writing poetry and leading has recited his poems over the tours to Mount St. Helens. radio, at sea, and in waterfront bars from Eureka, California, Louis Mofsie received his Master of Arts at Hofstra University to Bristol Bay, Alaska. When he’s not working aboard and taught art for 35 years. He is currently the director of the the “Salvage Chief,“ he helps his wife, Joanne, at the Thunderbird American Dancers and is a member of the Hopi Sanctuary Restaurant. and Winnebago tribes.

Donald Lev has been writing and Lenard D. Moore, of Raleigh, North Carolina is a poet, teacher publishing poetry, fiction, and and essayist. His second book of poetry, Desert Strom: A criticism in magazines and Brief History, established him as one of the premiere poets anthologies for over 40 years. working in the haiku form here in the United States. Home Planet News, the literary Bill Morgan is an expert on Allen Ginsberg and the Beats as tabloid he and his wife, Enid well as the literary history of New York City. His books include Dame co-edit, is now in its 22nd The Beat Generation in New York City: A Walking Tour of Jack year of publication. Kerouac’s City, and Literary Landmarks of New York City. Richard Loranger is a 20-year veteran Dave Morice’s amazing feats of the performance poetry scene, include 1,000 poems in 12 whose experience includes almost a hours, a 1-mile poem, a poem decade of experimental theater in across the Delaware River, a San Francisco, Boulder, Austin, 10-hour blindfold poem, a Chicago, and New York. He is the 24-hour poem, and a 1-second author of a volume of poetry, The poem. He has taught Children’s Orange Book, currently curates the Literature and has published Brooklyn Voices reading series and several books of poetry, includ- serves, as general editor for the forth- ing Tilt, Quicksand Through the Hourglass, and Snapshots coming Brooklyn Review #18. from Europe, and two books of cartoons. His most recent Brendan Lorber fights the prosaic on several fronts. The book is The Dictionary of Wordplay. editor of LUNGFULL! Magazine, a literary journal that prints Tracie Morris is a former Nuyorican the rough drafts of writers’ work so readers can witness Poets Cafe Grand Slam Champ and the creative process, he’s also the author of The Address National Haiku Slam Champ, and has Book, Your Secret and, with Jen Robinson, Dictionary of been featured in PBS’s The United States Useful Phrases. of Poetry. She is a recording artist and Thomas Lynch is a funderal director and the author of three the author of two books of poems, Chap- books of poetry and two collections of essays. The T-her Won and Intermission. She teaches Undertaking — Life Studies from the Dismal Trade, translated at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville.

37 Sharam Nazieri is an internationally acclaimed Irarian singer. dance. A Visiting Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Culture at Berkeley, she received the 2000 Hank Nelson worked as a logger in Outstanding Artist Award from the Korean American Women the Pacific Northwest and Alaska Artists & Writers Association. for the past three decades. He has produced three tapes as a singer- Oliver Platt is an award-winning actor who has appeared in songwriter and storyteller. Most of numerous TV series and films, including Big Night, his songs and poems reflect his Funnybone, Bicentennial Man, and Bulworth. working days in the woods and the loggers he has known. Paul Polansky’s work testifies unflinchingly to the persecution of Nuala ní Dhomhnaill is one of the premier poets writing in East European Roma (Gypsies). For Irish today. Her work easily crosses the borders between the the last ten years he has done mythic and the everyday. She is the author of numerous human rights work in the Czech collections of poetry, most recently Republic on the holocaust, and in The Water Horse. Kosovo on Roma victims in ethnic conflict. His books include Living John O’Donohue is an Irish poet, Through It Twice: Poems of the author, and Catholic scholar from Romani Holocaust and Not a County Clare, Ireland. His books of Refugee: The Plight of the Kosovo Roma After the 1999 War. poetry include Echoes of Memory (1994) and Conamara Blues (2001). Oliver Ray is a poet and musician who lives in NYC. He plays in Patti Smith’s band, and his poems have appeared in a few Melanie O’Reilly is one of small magazines. Ireland’s finest singer-songwrit- ers, whose exhilarating work Claudia Rankine is the author, blends Irish traditional music and most recently, of Art for Plot jazzy worldbeat rhythms. Her and The End of the Alphabet. debut album, Tir na Mara, She teaches at Barnard College. recently re-released as Oilean Draoichta, features songs in Jonathan Reeve is a third-year poetry student at NYU and collaboration with Irish poet, Nuala ní Dhomhnaill. Her new poetry editor at Gathering of the Tribes. album, House of the Dolphins, has been nominated for “Best Bertha Rogers has written four Contemporary Album” and “Best Female Artist” by Irish books of poetry, translated Beowulf, Music Magazine. and produced audio and video U Sam Oeur’s work documents the programs for radio, television, and recent terrors in his native Cambodia, the internet. She has been a poet and celebrates the enduring beauty and visual artist in residence for Arts of its culture. Driven out of Phnom in Education programs throughout Penh by the Khmer Rouge, he and New York State and elsewhere. She his family returned to the U.S. after is the founding director and editor- surviving six concentration camps. in-chief of Bright Hill Press, and is He is a former member of the the administrator of the New York State Council on the Arts National Assembly of Cambodia, a Literary Curators website, www.nyslittree.org. secretary general of the Khmer League for Freedom, and a Bob Rosenthal is an adjunct Professor of English at New York UN delegate, and is the author of Sacred Vows, translated by Technical College and the author of four collections of poetry Ken McCullough. and one book of prose. He has co-written and produced Chan Park specializes in Korean five plays, and has taught workshops at The Poetry Project. language and literature, Korean He was Allen Ginsberg’s secretary for the poet’s last 20 years, traditional song narrative, and and is currently writing his account on the business of Asian and Western drama and Allen Ginsberg. theater. She has been trained in the traditional Korean performing arts of p’an sori singing, kômun’go sanjo playing, and changgo drum

38 Jerome Rothenberg is considered the Carol Silverman, associate professor of Anthropology and father of ethnopoetics. He is the Folklore at the University of Oregon, has been involved with author of over 50 books of poetry Romani (Gypsy) music and culture for over 20 years as a and the co-editor, with Pierre Joris, of researcher, teacher, performer, and human rights educator. In the two-volume Poems for the her publications she has investigated the relationships Millennium. He has received a among music, politics, ethnicity, ritual, and gender in the Guggenheim Fellowship and several Balkans. She also served as educational coordinator for the awards from the National Endowment 1999 tour of “The Gypsy Caravan.” for the Arts. The Gathering is proud to honor him for illuminating the connections between oral and Pang Xiong Sirirathusak is a noted paj ntaub (reverse written poetries from around the globe. quilting), and musical and dance representative from Xieng Khouang province Douglas Rothschild is a poet and critic whose work has in Laos. She has appeared widely and to great acclaim. He is the author of taught Hmong Matchbook and the founder of The Poetry School of Poetry. culture to people during her stay in Kate Rushin is the author of The Black Back-Ups, a New York the refugee camps Public Library “Books for the Teen Age” selection. She is of Thailand and currently the Visiting Writer at the Center for African continues to do so American Studies at Wesleyan University. in America.

Jun Sales, born, raised, and educated in Les Slater is a specialist in Carribbean culture living Tarlac, Philippines, has been writing and in Brooklyn. reciting poems since he was in elemen- tary school. He migrated to the United Carolina Slim (Elijah Staley) is a States to create a golden opportunity for longtime member of the MUNY his family, who are still in the Philippines. (Music Under New York) roster of He is currently doing business with Bistro artists. For most of his professional Castellvi. career, he was a drummer, playing and touring with John Lee Hooker, Ed Sanders’ poetry has been likened in energy and ambition Brownie McGhee, and Big Maybelle. to that of Blake, Whitman, and Ginsberg, blending slang, He now concentrates on singing the neologisms, and classical Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Blues and playing guitar. He has also written novels, short stories, song lyrics, and nonfiction. His most recent work is1968: A History in Verse. Patti Smith is an internationally acclaimed poet and musician whose Najeeb Shaheen is a renowned Palestinian oud player from a records include Gone Again, Peace well-known family of Arab musicians. and Noise, Gung Ho, Easter, and Horses. Oliver Ray will be joining Toni Shapiro-Phim is a dance ethnologist/anthropologist who Smith in a reading of his poetry. specializes in the performing arts of Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Cambodia. She is the co-author of Dance Sekou Sundiata writes for print, in Cambodia, and has a Ph.D in cultural anthropology from performance, music, and theater. He Cornell University. has recorded and performed with a wide variety of artists, including David Thomas, Nona Hendryx, and Vernon Reid. Jackie Sheeler is the publisher of He was featured in the Bill Moyers PBS series on poetry, the busy poetz.com website and “The Language of Life,” its associated monthly poetry and has recorded two newsletter. She has just complied CDs, The Blue Oneness an anthology, entitled Off the of Dreams and longsto- Cuffs. Together with Maggie ryshort. He is a professor Balistreri, she co-hosts the popular Pink Pony West Reading at The New School, where Series at the Cornelia Street Café. She received the Marilyn he also produces the K. Prescott Award in 2000 for her poem “Banished.” Talking Book Festival of Danny Shot is the publisher and editor of Long Shot, an arts Literary Arts. and literary magazine he founded with Eliot Katz in 1982. A book of his own poetry and stories is forthcoming.

39 Szaszcsavas is a musical ensemble of Roma (Gypsies) from a chants in their original language and village in Transylvania, Romania. Learning traditionally by in translation. She has been working ear, they have a wide repertoire of table and dance music and with African American poet Wanda songs, in part because they perform professionally for Phipps since 1989 on translations of Hungarians, Romanians, Ukranian poetry. Together they have and Roma. Members of received the AGNI Translation Prize the ensemble are all and The National Theatre Translation related; the three elders, Fund Award. playing lead violin, kontra (chord viola), and Rafael Tufiño is a well-known Puerto Rican poet whose work bass, have been has been inspired by Palés Matos. performing together for Jean Valentine is the author of eight over 30 years. collections of poetry, including The River at Wolf and Home-Deep-Blue. Katja Tanmateos is a Romani (Gypsy) poet who has lived in She recently won the Poetry Society Sweden and Spain and is active in Romani cultural projects. of America’s Shelley Award. Her parents, metalworkers and merchants from the Kalderash group, fled Russia at the time of the communist revolution. Janine Pommy Vega is the author of Her poetry has been featured in the Swedish press and televi- 15 books of poetry, most recently sion, and she has been hailed as a major figure in the new Mad Dogs of Trieste: New & Selected generation of Romani poets. Her poetry explores the Romani Poems and Tracking the Serpent: experience and the dilemmas of Romani women. Journeys to Four Continents. She has performed extensively with her band Tiamalù and solo in English and Spanish. Anne Tardos is the author of the multicultural performance Having taught inside prisons for 20 years, she is the Director work Among Men, which was produced by the Westdeutscher of Incisions/Arts, an organiza- Rudfunk in Cologne under the title Unter Männern. Her poly- tion of writers working with lingual books are Cat Licked in Garlic and Mayg-shem Fish. people behind bars. She has Her latest book is Uxudo, a polylin- edited an acclaimed anthology gual edition. of poems by prisoners, These Cheryl Boyce Taylor is a poet, activ- are Successful Hands; and ist, and visual artist born in has co-authored, with Hettie Trinidad. She is the author of two Jones, Words, Wall, Razor Wire, books of poetry, Night When Moon a PEN-sponsored guide for Follows and Raw Air. writers on how to start a writing workshop in prison. Dennis Tedlock is the McNulty Professor of English, Research Cecilia Vicuña is a Chilean poet, editor, artist, and filmmaker Professor of Anthropology, and co-director of the Center for works in the oral tradition of the High Andes. She forges a the Americas at SUNY Buffalo. His books include Finding the poetic universe in which ancient wordplay meets modern Center: Narrative Poetry of the Zuni Indians and Breath on linguistics and contemporary realities. the Mirror: Mythic Voices and Visions of the Living Maya, Anne Waldman is an internationally known performance among others. He received the Elsie Clews Parsons Folklore poet, teacher, editor, and author of over 30 pamphlets and Prize and the PEN Translation Prize in Poetry for Popol Vuh: books of poetry, including most The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life. recently the 20th anniversary edition Virlana Tkacz, a director, of Fast Speaking Woman and writer, and translator, founded Marriage: A Sentence. She is a Yara Arts Group in 1990, a resi- Distinguished Professor of Poetics at dent company at La MaMa The Jack Kerouac School of Experimental Theatre, because Disembodied Poetics at The Naropa she had access to magnificent Institute, which she co-founded with texts from overlooked cultures. Allen Ginsberg in 1974. She is She creates original theatre currently working on a CD of her pieces by bringing together poetry and songs entitled Alchemy! fragments of drama, poetry, Alchemy! and a book of essays and song, historical materials, and interviews entitled Vow To Poetry.

40 Bruce Weber is the author Artists Involved with Partner Programs of two books of poetry, Jane Alberdeston ♦ Charles Althier ♦ Quraysh Ali Lansana These Poems are Not Pretty ♦ Meena Alexander ♦ Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz ♦ John (Miami: Palmetto Press, Ashbery ♦ Cheryl B. ♦ Reverend Babb ♦ Holly Bass ♦ Clifford 1992), and How the Poem Bernie ♦ Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge ♦ Pena Bonita ♦ Lisa Marie Died (New York: Linear Arts Bronson ♦ Toni Brown ♦ Buddah (Giovani Pasquale Pavolli) Press, 1998). He organizes ♦ Guillermo Castro ♦ Staceyann Chin ♦ Hortensia Colorado ♦ and co-hosts the Sunday Noon Meem Danish ♦ Eisa Davis ♦ Jill Dearman ♦ Xue Di afternoon readings at ABC ♦ Jed Distler ♦ Denise Duhamel ♦ Anne Elliot ♦ Sarah Gambito NO RIO in the Lower East Side of New York, and also orga- ♦ Elena Georgiou ♦ Gogol Bordello ♦ Linda Gregg ♦ Pejmon nizes the seven-years’ running Alternative New Year’s Day Hadadi ♦ Dominic Hamilton-Little ♦ Shannon Hamann ♦ Spoken Word/Performance Extravaganza. His group, Bruce Monica Hand ♦ Syed Mohammed Hanif ♦ Duriel Harris Weber’s No Chance Ensemble, recently put out its first CD. ♦ Reginald Harris ♦ Syed Azizul Hasan ♦ Kathryn Hellerstein ♦ Jeanne Hopper ♦ Dean Hutchins ♦ Susan Imhof ♦ Tyehimba King Wellington is a master Jess ♦ Brandon Johnson ♦ Jacqueline Johnson ♦ Jacqueline of the improvised Trinidadian Jones LeMon ♦ Sabiha Khatoon ♦ Dennis Kim ♦ Bill Kushner calypso tradition. ♦ Be LaRoe ♦ Tom Lee ♦ Rachel Levitsky ♦ Antonina LiCastri ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Suzanne Wise is the author Timothy Liu Bonnie Rose Marcus Mariposa Dawn Martin ♦ ♦ ♦ of The Kingdom of the Douglas A. Martin Patrick Martin Charlotte Meehan ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Subjunctive, and her work David Mills Veronica Mitchell Lenard Moore Dennis ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ also appears in the anthol- Moritz Hafez Nazeri Shahram Nazeri Joyce Carol Oates ♦ ♦ ♦ ogy American Poetry: The Next Generation. Greg Pardlo Gaspare Pipitone Antonio Provezano James Ragan ♦ Asad ur Rahman ♦ Humera Rahman ♦ Malin Ramirez Emily XYZ has been perform- ♦ Donald Revell ♦ Clara Sala ♦ Jason Scheiderman ♦ Maureen ing and recording her poems Seaton ♦ Nancy Shakirl ♦ Reginal Shepard ♦ Barbara Synder since 1982. She has been ♦ Kristin Stuart ♦ Cole Swenson ♦ Juliette Torrez ♦ Giuseppe featured in the PBS television Turricano ♦ Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon ♦ Rinaldo Wilson series, “The United States of Poetry,” and in two antholo- Organizers/Curators gies, Aloud: Voices from the Felice Bell ♦ Michael Broder ♦ Helene Browning ♦ Robert Nuyorican Poets Cafe and Browning ♦ Regie Cabico ♦ Steve Cannon ♦ Gaetano Cipolla ♦ Verses That Hurt: The Rachel Cooper ♦ Ellie Covan ♦ Jim Cyrus ♦ Ram Devineni Poemfone Poets. ♦ Adele Heyman ♦ Frances Hui ♦ Michele Kotler ♦ Annie Lanzillotto ♦ Darrell Larson ♦ Carolyn Micklem ♦ Rick Pernod ♦ Lu Yu is an original member of La MaMa Chinatown and a Elizabeth Reiss ♦ Joseph Sciorra ♦ Nancy Larsen Shapiro founding member and honorary advisor of the Pan Asian ♦ Anantha Sudhakar ♦ Angelo Verga ♦ Jen Weiss Repertory Theatre, where he is currently directing The Legend of Whitesnake. He appeared in over 30 Mandarin movies and in numerous Hong Kong television programs. He is the Director of the Performing Arts Division of Arts Resources for Teachers and Students, Inc., and the Executive Director of Tsai Fung Dance Company.

Others: Susan Bee David Goldfarb Nick Plombino Carolee Schneeman

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