Poetry News: Burlesque poetry

It's Poetry, Jim but not as we know it..


Burlesque Poetry Hour

Taking It Off for Your Art


by: Sandra Beasley


It was January 2006, and a new year always brings the thirst for something different. I was trying a new cocktail: the Down ‘N Dirty Martini (olives and a dash of Tabasco). A new scene: a banquet in the cozy, cherry-paneled Dark Room at the Bar Rouge on 16th Street. A new series: Burlesque Poetry Hour, which promised fresh, edgy poets in a swank setting. The inaugural reading featured Deborah Landau, of New York, and West Coast poet Kim Addonizio. I was ready for anything.
Well, almost anything.
After Kim Addonizio’s scorching set of poems on love, betrayal and the praises of gin, our hostess Gilda coaxed the audience into chanting:
“Take…it…off. Take it off!”

.burlesque poetry
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WH AUDEN
In praise of a guilty geniusBritain has a curious ambivalence towards the poet and critic WH Auden, in part since he 'abandoned' England for the US in the 1930s. In the year of his centenary, Katherine Bucknell welcomes the new attention due a rare and questing spirit Sunday February 4, 2007
WH AUDEN

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and the latest edition of The Poetry Life and Times is up and its excellent.

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