Festival

I attended the first day of the Carrboro Poetry Festival on Saturday. Held at the Carrboro Century Center, the festival began at 10:30 AM. I had a great time.

Patrick Herron introduced the poets. Poets reading at the first session were Dave Manning, Mitchell Lyman, E.V. Noechel, Daniel Wideman, Judy Hogan, and Jeffery Beam.

E.V. Noechel read from her book Murder of Crows. She read her poems "Hail," "Stone Fruit," "Next Time, Mercutio", "Love Song to the Razor Tailed Swallow," "Where the Oxygen Thins," "Pieces," "Pigeon," and "Pet."

The poets repaired to lunch in the "Poet Hospitality" room. After lunch, the next session began. Reading were Chris Vitiello, Clayton Couch, olufunke moses, and Tony Tost.

Chris Vitiello put on a tie and, accompanied by a tape-recorded voice, read work from a series of "businessman plays." Chris next read from his book Irresponsibility. He read a poem about "Secret Town."

Tony read from his book Invisible Bride.
He read his poem "The Mid-to-Late Nineties," as well as his poems beginning "'For all the talk of shadows, we are mostly blood,'" "We talked about going to church", "My beard is a bridge between my past and my face," and "As I flew through the windshield I knew being nice did not always work like magic."

Poets reading at the third session were Brian Blanchfield, Gerald Barrax, Mark DuCharme, and John Balaban.

I was happy to meet, among others, K. Silem Mohammad. I got a copy of his book Deer Head Nation (excerpt here) at the festival.

Among the publications available at the festival was The Displayer volume one, containing works by members of Lucipo.

A good number of people turned up for the event. The audience obviously enjoyed the readings a great deal. Many of the poems read contained humor, often satirical.