* Cover is given where known * There is a one-drinkminimum per set * Reservations for shows downstairs can only be made by phone:212-989-9319
Photographs by Thomas Ando All art is for sale. Please inquire
Kathleen Crisci considers herself, first and foremost, a storyteller. Her friends and family live in constant dread that any mishap to befall them will be seized upon and used in a poem or prose piece. "It didn't happen like that" is a common and typical response of family members. Nevertheless, Kathy Crisci perseveres in her craft and hopes that those who recognize themselves in her work, particularly her mother, will forgive her for the liberties she takes. Currently she is an MFA candidate in non-fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College. A piece she wrote, Windows, may have found a place in an anthology called Dirt, which will be published by Seal Press next spring.
Thaddeus Rutkowski grew up in central Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Cornell University and The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of the novels Tetched (Behler Publications) and Roughhouse (Kaya Press), Both books were finalists for an Asian American Literary Award; Tetched was chosen as one of the best books reviewed in 2006 by Chronogram magazine. His stories and poems have been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter.
For the past 12 years, Lee Sachs has been an information technology consultant. Previously, Mr. Sachs attended NYU's graduate film program. He has published articles in Premiere Magazine, Details and Metropolis, worked with directors like Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola, performed at Cornelia Street Cafe, Dixon Place, PS122 and The Knitting Factory and even appeared on Late Night with David Letterman as a Stupid Human Trick. Lee Sachs lives outside of New York City with his wife, son and a bunch of pets.
Gabrielle Mitchell-Marell has contributed articles and reviews to Publishers Weekly, Variety, New York Magazine online, New York Theater News and Citysearch.com. She has taught at Fordham University and the Writing Center at Yeshiva University. She has an MFA in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She grew up in Woodstock, New York.
Rick Rofihe is the author of Father Must, a collection of short stories published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Grand Street, Open City, Unsaid, Swink, and on epiphanyzine.com. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, SPY, and on mrbellersneighborhood.com. A recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award, he has taught writing at Columbia University, and currently teaches privately and at Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York. He is a member of PEN, and the judge of the annual RRofihe Trophy Short Story Contest for Open City magazine.
Cover $7 (includes one house drink)
A new twist on the ancient tradition of oral history.
SpeakEasy is people telling stories-- true stories. Period. No scripts. No crib notes. No rehearsals. SpeakEasy has a dynamic and constantly changing cast of storytellers that include such greats as Mike Daisey, Jonathan Ames, and Reno, along with homemakers, lawyers, dog walkers, street magicians and writers
You never know what you'll hear. So join us for what could be a life changing experience!
Cover $10 www.speakeasystories.com
“Eisenstadt skillfully blends spacious groove with textural intimacy.” - Time Out New York Cover $10 www.harriseisenstadt.com
Euphoria Ripens
Barry Wallenstein (poetry) Adam Birnbaum (piano) Vincent Chancey (French horn) Steve Carlin (guitar) Daniel Carter (sax & trumpet)
& guest musicians: Claire Daly (Baritone Sax); Neil Haiduck (Clarinet)
$12 admission includes a drink ( $7 for students with ID) Cover $12 (includes one house drink)
Cervini and Stylianou will will present songs from each of their upcoming albums as well as some breathtaking duets. Cover $10 www.amycervini.com , www.melissastylianou.com
Arrive before 6 pm to sign up.
Featured readers EVIE IVY, Co-host of Brooklyn's GREEN PAVILION READING & CHRISTINE TIMM, Co-host of Bowery Poetry Club's INTER-COLLEGIATE SLAM
Cover $7 (includes one house drink) www.poetswearprada.blogspot.com
The first thing you notice about Gretchen Parlato is that she's a singer with a deep, almost magical connection to the music," says jazz legend Herbie Hancock. "She takes a lot of chances with her understated style, and it works. Every note is expressive, powerful, and pretty. And most important, her heart is in the right place." Gretchen's petite bearing and vocal enchantments evoked another famed spell-casting pixie for one reviewer, who called Gretchen's 2003 performance with Herbie in Paris "a fairy-tale like show. . . in the universe of Bjork."
With this shrewd, emotive, and subtle approach, Gretchen has quickly created a buzz around New York. She moved from Los Angeles in 2003, after completing the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, where she was the first vocalist ever to be selected by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Terence Blanchard. In 2004, she charmed and awed judges by taking first prize in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Vocals
Cover $10 www.malikazarra.com , www.gretchenparlato.com
Janice Eidus is the author of six books, including her most recent novel, THE WAR OF THE ROSENS, and a short story collection, THE CELIBACY CLUB. She has twice won the O.Henry Prize for Short Fiction, and has written essays on pop culture, Jewish identity, and parenting, for The New York Times and other places.
Colette Inez has published nine poetry collections, including the recent SPINOZA DOESN'T COME HERE ANYMORE. Her memoir, THE SECRET OF MONSIEUR DULONG, was published in 2005. She has won Guggenheim, NEA, and Pushcart prizes, among other honors. Colette Inez teaches creative writing at Columbia University.
Marilyn Kallet is the author of 14 books, including CIRCE, AFTER HOURS, poetry from BkMk Press, and LAST LOVE POEMS OF PAUL ELUARD, translations from Black Widow Press. With Kathryn Stripling Byer, she edited THE MOVABLE NEST: A MOTHER/DAUGHTER COMPANION. She is a Lindsay Young Professor at the University of Tennessee.
Lauren K. Alleyne hails from Trinidad and Tobago. She has published in many journals, including BLACK ARTS QUARTERLY, and she won a poetry prize from ATLANTIC MONTHLY in 2003. A Cave Canem Fellow, she now teaches at Hobart & William Smith Colleges.
Rebecca McClanahan is the author of nine books, most recently DEEP LIGHT: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS 1987-2007 and THE RIDDLE SONG AND OTHER REMEMBERINGS, which won the Glasgow Award for nonfiction. She has also received a Pushcart Prize in fiction and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in nonfiction, among other honors. She teaches in the MFA Program at Queens University in Charlotte.
Rochelle Ratner is the editor of Bearing Life: Womens'Wriitings on Childlessness" (The Feminist Press, 2000). She'll have two new books published this coming fall -- Mother and Child, her first novel in 16 years, will be published by Hamilton Stone Editions, and Ben Casey Days, book of prosepoems, will be publishes by Marsh Hawk Press.
Gloria Vando Hickok is a poet and publisher of Helicon Nine Editions.
"What amazes me is how tight this trio is and how they change direction, tempo and dynamics in mid-flow. Without a doubt, one of the best piano dates we've heard so far this year. " -Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery Cover $8 www.jessestacken.com
Rochelle, poet, essayist, novelist, critic, friend, mentor, sister to all contributed over 80 books of poetry, literature and insight to the world. We are proud to read in her honor:
Alethea Black – reading from her upcoming story in The North American Review
Marian Bock – reading selections from Rochelle's collections Combing the Waves and Balancing Acts
Anita Bernstein – reading her poems recently published in Parnassus Literary Journal and the Minnesota Review.
Michele Bowman – reading from her poems
Christine Panas - reading select poems by Rochelle. Cover $7 (includes one house drink)
Spin-17 the nouveau-experimental duo plays an eclectic mix of cover songs by composers Lee, Lifeson and Peart (Rush); Toru Takemitsu and a selection of Japanese enka-blues by 70’s cult movie siren Meiko Kaji (whose songs were featured in the film Kill Bill). Ed Chang guitar, sax, homemade electronics Motoko Shimizu vox, percussion, turntables
Jody Redhage & Chie Sato Roden triple-threat cellist/composer/vocalist Jody Redhage and dynamic advocate of the contemporary piano repertoire Chie Sato Roden get together on a performance of Japanese composer Yoichi Togawa’s JHO-EN, a sonata for piano and cello.
William Fowkes reads Wallpaper, the short saga of a frustrated writer who puts his rejection letters to good practical use.
Aja-Monet the youngest Nuyorican Grandslam champion (2007) reads a selection of her breathtaking poetry.
Allan Kozinn (New York Times) contextualizes CCi’s monthly performances in the basement of the Cornelia Street Cafe – “... part of the ecology of urban night life.” CCi artistic director, Jed Distler, curates the programs abetted by director Arnold Barkus and lighting designer David Lovett.
Box office: 212.663.1967 (advance purchase discount available) Admission at the door: $15 gen’l, $10 student/sr + one drink minimum
www.composerscollab.org
Featured Teller: Robin Bady
Format: OPEN TELLING (6 to 7 minute limit), FOLLOWED by Featured Teller
ROBIN BADY comes to storytelling from a long line of performers, storytellers, painters, writers, and other liars, near-do-wells and thieves! Writer, actor, director, educator, musican and storyteller, Robin Bady performs throughout the US and Europe. Her stories celebrate the hero in all of us, and are sourced from oral histories, true ghost happenings, folklore, literature and her own family lore. Her explorations include collaborations with musicians and visual artists. Robin co-founded a theater company in Chicago, was artistic director of youth theaters in Chicago and NYC, and founded the multicultural storytelling ensemble Shirazad's Children. She writes the modern political fables of �Aesop Sez� with cartoonist Richard Codor. Robin is currently the Director of the Storytelling Center of NYC.
Cover $7 (includes one house drink) http://www.barbaraaliprantis.org
We're thrilled to finally nab the globe-trotting Pete Holmes as our headliner. Pete has managed to excel at just about every avenue of comedy there is. Not content to simply play clubs and colleges all over the country as a brilliant stand-up, as in Comedy Central's "Premium Blend" and VH1"s "Best Week Ever" , Pete is also a brilliant improviser... as in Chicago's Improv Olympic and NYC's Upright Citizen's Brigade. But you want to know the thing Pete does that drives your Motelmeister green with envy? Pete's also a New Yorker cartoonist. Damn.
Joining Pete, Laughing Liberally and XM Radio political satirist and funny man Harry Terjanian will drop in keep us up to date on the political scene, not that politics matter all that much these days, eh? Our good friend and sometimes missing-in-action comic Thomas Middleditch has promised to be here as well. Thomas is currently a member of UCB's "Baby Wants Candy" and quite a character if we do say so ourselves. (That's us as in the motel, Thomas is way too shy for those kind of claims.)
Pakistani (by way of Iowa) comedian Kumail Ali will take a break from his much heralded one-man show "Unpronounceable" to explain to us just how much fun America can be, and good friends Mara Herron and Aalap Patel round out a most wonderful 90 minutes of comedy, made fresh for you right in front of your very own eyes.
That's our story, and we're sticking to it. We hope you can join us, as the difference between a full house and an empty room is... just appalling, frankly. We'll leave the light on for you, and thanks for your support. Cover $10 www.myspace.com/morrisongod
Cover is given where known Many spoken words events are free There is always a one-drink minimum per set; times are door opening times
May 06-May 13, 2008 
