Upcoming: Cool Reading at Voxpop

Local filmmaker and poet Stepanie Gray is doing a reading poems from her book Heart Stoner Bingo at Vox Pop in Ditmas Park on Saturday (2/16) at 7PM. She emailed us to say that several of the poems she’ll be reading “are specifically about NYC and neighborhood themes/gentrification like Park Slope, East Village and Wburg/Bushwick.” Here’s a bit more:

Stephanie’s poems and prose poems in her debut collection deal with the city, queerness, gentrification, class, labor, working, pop culture, feminist heroines, real heavy metal, her hearing loss, and the vanishing parts of authentic New York, but not always in that order or at the same time. Often colloquial, experimental or a mix of language poetry and spoken word, Stephanie’s works can be humorous, philosophical and her readings are usually quite performative. Just some of the icons, fictional or real, mentioned in her book include the flaming Norma Rae, the folk signer Melanie, Johnny Weir, St. Joan of Arc, Van Halen, Madonna, Metallica, Eileen Myles, as well as the ‘hoods East Vilage, Red Hook and Williamsburg, among many others. A number of the prose poems in the book are also texts to experimental super 8 city films, of which Stephanie will show a few. Join us for a short reading, short film screening of actual super 8 films, and book signing.

Vox Pop, which is a great spot, is located at 1022 Cortelyou Rd bet Coney Island Ave & Stratford Rd. Take the Q to Cortelyou Road. More about the book here and more about Vox Pop here.

Check Out the New Ditmas Park Blog

There’s a new blog in Ditmas Park called–surprise–the Ditmas Park Blog. It’s the work of Ben Smith and his wife Liena, and looks to be a very valuable addition to the information flow about Ditmas Park. Mr. Smith an NYC blogging veteran. He’s a staff writer for The Politico and a co-founder of Room Eight. He created The Daily Politics at The New York Daily News and The New York Observer’s The Politicker. We look forward to reading the Ditmas Park Blog.