BOWERY BEATS

Bowery Beats VI

A New York avant-garde poetry experience

April 15th Wednesday

Bowery Poetry Club

6:30 PM Open doors

PERFORMERS:

Raymond Nat Turner

Iván Vergara

Edwin Torres

hosted and curated by Marcos de la Fuente

Edwin Torres is a self-proclaimed “lingualisualist” rooted in the languages of sight and sound, Edwin Torres was born in the Bronx and is a longtime resident of New York City. He is a poet whose highly acclaimed performances and live shows combine vocal and physical improvisation and theater. In describing Torres’s eclectic style, Brenda Coultas wrote of Fractured Humorous in a review: “It is a visit with the fractist, who in healing becomes the healer. The nomad is a constant in Torres’s work, an alter ego for this poet who is claimed by a diverse group of avant-garde factions that include: The Nuyorican Poets Café, Poetry Project, and the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E school. Thus he finds himself a nomad, a traveler among poets.” And according to poet Juliana Spahr, “Edwin Torres is our 21st Century Mayakovsky.”

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet privileged to have read at the Harriet Tubman Centennial Symposium. He is Artistic Director of the stalwart JazzPoetry Ensemble UpSurge!NYC and has appeared at numerous festivals and venues including the Monterey Jazz Festival and Panafest in Ghana West Africa. 

He currently is Poet-in-Residence at Black Agenda Report and KPFA Radio’s “Talkies.”  He’s also former Co-Chair of the New York Chapter of the National Writers Union (NWU). Nat Turner has opened for such people as James Baldwin, People’s Advocate Cynthia McKinney, radical sportswriter Dave Zirin and CA Congresswoman Barbara Lee following her lone vote against attacking Afghanistan.

Ivan Vergara is a lecturer at the University of Salamanca (Spain), where he teaches in the Master’s Program in Creative Writing. His artistic projects—pioneering in their use of transmedia poetry and performance—create bold, avant-garde audiovisual environments. He is at once digital, rustic, and a craftsman. He currently manages the Martín Luis Guzmán Bookstore—an imprint of the Fondo de Cultura Económica (Economic Culture Fund) of Spain—located within the Casa de México Foundation in Spain. In 2006, he founded the PLACA Platform in Seville; it remains the longest-running active project for publishing, production, and cultural management within the Hispanic immigrant community in Spain.