Poetry reading at City Lights, San Francisco 20 Mar 2018

It was a dream come true to launch my third collection of poetry Zoreh with a reading at the iconic City Lights in San Francisco.

I’d asked Janaka Stucky to read with me as he’s a phenomenal poet I’d seen perform in May 2015 at the 50th anniversary of the Wholly Communion. The reading was held upstairs in the poetry room at City Lights and was so full people were sitting on the stairs.

Peter Marvelis introduced Janaka who started the reading. He drew the audience in and then blew them away reading from his collection The Truth Is We Are Perfect and his limited edition chapbook O My Prison dedicates to Jean Genet.

Afterwards I got up, to read my poems, before doing so I explained how City Lights is the Madison Square Garden of poetry venues, but for me City Lights holds so much more.

I started with Shackles, Feathers, and Cut Up and then went out to introduce and perform my new poems. Afterwards it was wonderful to shake hands and meet the diverse audience members. For some it was their very first poetry reading.

Reading at City Lights was an honour, a dream come true and a catalyst for more things to come. Thank you to Peter and the entire team of incredible people at City Lights.

Photo by Michael Zagaris

Photo by Michael Zagaris