Poetry at the Beach

Parachute: The Coney Island Literary and Performance Festival -- two evenings of poetry, prose and performance in Coney Island -- is scheduled on October 13 and 14, in front of the Jellyfish at the New York Aquarium's Alien Stingers Exhibit, Surf Avenue and West 8th Street in Coney Island.

On Saturday, October 13, doors open @ 6:30 PM and readings begin @7 PM, featuring:

• Tina Chang, Brooklyn's Poet Laureate;
• Charles Denson, award-winning author of Coney Island Lost and Found;
• LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, author of three chapbooks and the album Television;
• Martin Espada, author of 17 books, most recently The Republic of Poetry; called the"Latino poet of his generation";
• Matthea Harvey, author or "Modern Life" and a "poetry enchantress."

On Sunday, October 14, doors open @ 6:30 PM and readings begin @7 PM, featuring:

• Emily XYZ and Myers Bartlett, celebrating 20 years of performing together;
• Coney Island Lost and Found author Charles Denson;
• Joanna Fuhrman, author of Freud in Brooklyn;
• Tracie Morris, author of Rhyme Scheme;
• Robert Sullivan, author of Rats and the Meadowlands; called "a mischievous reporter on the universe";
• Illustrious Burlesque performer Angie Pontani hosts.

On both evenings of the festival, a site-specific audio installation of Vito Acconci's poem, "Antarctica" will be sited next to the Black-footed Penguin exhibit at the NY Aquarium, so you can listen to poetry in an intimate outdoor location beside these adorable creatures.

Poet-architect Acconci is a native New Yorker. The MTA commissioned his firm, Acconci Studios, to design the West 8th street subway station. The firm's fluid architectural sculpture, "Wave-A-Wall," at the subway station across from the NY Aquarium, mirrors the ocean waves and roller coasters.

Parachute will also feature creative writing workshops by professional writers taking part in the festival; a recording of Walt Whitman at the Coney Island History Project; and one-of-a kind letterpress broadsides of Walt Whitman and Muriel Rukeyser poems about Coney Island.

Readings are free, although reservations are recommended.

To RSVP, email: parachutefestival@gmail.com

For more information, visit the website.

Media Contact: Amanda Deutch, Artistic Director
646-726-0182 (cell)
trafficlotus@gmail.com or parachutefestival@gmail.com