A second-floor reading room at the Red Bank Public Library is the setting for this Saturday’s River Read poetry-‘n-whatnot jam. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
In true hermit crab fashion, it’s a native offering that’s skittered from venue to venue around town – with past homes having included the Dublin House Pub, No Joe’s Café and the now-defunct Frank Talk on Shrewsbury Avenue.
But when the poetry event known as River Read: Words by the Navesink sets up shop this Saturday morning at the Red Bank Public Library, it will mark a welcome return for the monthly series that was unfortunately evicted from that riverview roost when the library was temporarily forced to cancel its Saturday programming.
With subsequent host location Manhattan Bagel having recently closed its nearby City Centre location (as reported here on redbankgreen) – and with the RBPL once again offering restored (if still limited) Saturday hours – River Read ringmasters Gregg G. Brown and Linda Muhlhausen trek across the street and up the stairs once more, for the first in a new season’s series that happens this Saturday at a new, earlier time: 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.
The featured guest artist in what was once a bedroom of either Mr. or Mrs. Sigmund Eisner is poet, eminent historian, academic and jazz musician with deep Jersey Shore roots: Daniel Weeks, five of whose seven published volumes of poetry have been issued by Brown’s own acclaimed Blast Press imprint. A widely collected poet and essayist, and a sought-after translator of French symbolist works, Weeks (currently an assistant research professor at the Thomas A. Edison Papers, Rutgers University) will “read a few of my own poems and also discuss the use of sound and rhythm in poetry,” he says in a Facebook post. An open reading will follow.
It’s all free – with those complimentary panoramic views of the Navesink – and attendees are welcome to “bring a covered cuppa and soak up some inspiration,” during the Saturday session that’s capped with the now-traditional River Read open reading. Contact lindacjm (at) gmail.com for more info on this and other upcoming events in the series.
