The Quetzal Quill (and the Henny Penny Syndrome)

I attend at least two poetry readings a month in New York City. A few venues I check on periodically like The Bowery Poetry Club and Cornelia Street Café—both are fabulous spaces that lend themselves to the intimacy between a reader and an audience. So when the time came that I decided to curate my own series, I turned to Angelo Verga, poet and best friend of the NYC poetry scene.

My role models for participating in the community at large are many, but they include Francisco X. Alarcón, Scott Hightower and Martha Rhodes. Over the years I have been amazed at how generous these poets have been, as educators, mentors and champions of other poets.
Alarcón was my old professor of Chicano literature at UC Davis, and he rallied the troops on a number of occasions to make us go public with our poetry. Once he even took us to the local radio station, where we all arrived dressed up for the stage. Only afterward did we all have a laugh about how the only people that saw us looking good were the radio engineers. But many heard our voices.
Hightower was an inspiration from the first time I heard him talk about mentorship at an AWP in D.C. back in 1997. He bumped into me at an elevator and asked, “So you’re a poet?” That was the first time anyone had ever considered me in that light, and since then, I still turn to him for moral support.
And people better show some mad respect at Martha Rhodes for all that she does for poetry, from directing Four Way Books, to curating countless reading series in the city, to checking in with people during the good times and the not so good times.
I’d like to challenge every poet to do his or her part as well. Belief in the ivory tower is an excuse for laziness, for sitting around selfishly waiting for others to put in the muscle. I come across too many writers who hide behind their art and this misguided sense that “the writing comes first.” I agree with them that the writing comes first, but when it’s the only thing that comes, that’s a problem. It’s the Henny Penny syndrome, indeed. And then folks find themselves surprised that when they finally throw a party (or a career) nobody shows up.
The Quetzal Quill is my own humble effort, besides my book reviews and my seats in various literary institutions. I invite poets who have recently published a book, and usually poets whose books I have reviewed favorably.
I call it my traveling cabaret because it takes place wherever I happen to be, and so far it’s been in L.A., Austin, and Urbana, Illinois, but mostly Manhattan, and then, exclusively at the Cornelia Street Café.
I invite you to come to the Café for the next event this Saturday, September 22 at 6pm ($7 cover). I’ll be hosting three fierce poets: Cathy Park Hong, Aracelis Girmay and Eduardo C. Corral. I’ll see you there!