The PPW Reading Series

The Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street, downstairs
every Friday night at 6pm

A narrow blue room. Turquoised cobalt skinny as a cigarette, though no one smokes in here on Friday nights. Sexy young waiter squeezing sidewise through the poets, juggling plates of pasta, trays of drinks.

The spotlit stage is empty, a miked voice booms over the PA—“Next up, Dermot Hannon.” The poet stands, gripping a shoulder or two as he weaves up the populous aisle.

Applause, whistles and occasional hoots of delight are the soundtrack of every poet’s walk as successive open mike readers are called up to deliver three minutes of their best. Poems sometimes speak to poems, with new work written in response to work heard in this azure room the week before.

Everyone pays attention: from Suzanne at her command station behind the bar, to the gang of regulars cheering from their two back tables, to the featured poet sitting in a reserved space by the signup table. That feature might be a familiar NYC circuit poet such as Magdalena Alagna, Jay Chollick or Linda Lerner; a poet of national reputation such as Rachel Hadas or Hal Sirowitz; an occasional poet from the PPW ranks of semiregulars such as Elizabeth Harrington, Susan Varon or Bob Hart; innovators like Edwin Torres and Emily XYZ; or the Group of Six poetic performance group visiting from the UK.

At this series, if the audience loves what you’re reading they let you know, and if they don’t love what you’re reading they keep it to themselves. Respect, enthusiasm, generosity and a startling amount of talent prevail. The three-minute time limit is respected without complaint and almost without exception, as week after week the series meets its goal of hearing from every one of the thirty or so readers on the list.

The PPW series takes its name from the funky Ludlow Street café where it began in 1999, operating there for just over a year before the stage space was converted to a cocktail lounge. Guardian angel Angelo Verga of the Cornelia Street Café promptly welcome the displaced series and “West” was added to “The Pink Pony” when the reading moved in that direction on 1/19/01.

Most Friday nights find a standing-room-only audience of about forty people, though as many as seventy have sardined in when widely known poets were scheduled to appear. It costs $6 at the door and your first drink is free. A small bookstore operates at the signup table during readings, and currently more than 30 hard-to-find books, CDs and chapbooks are available.
 

Featured poets appear by invitation only. There is no application process, and direct solicitations are discouraged. Thanks.