Poetry Beat

Outdoor poetry readings tend to be desultory affairs.  Even if insects don't attack and the thunderstorm passes it by, there is still the distinct possibility that the poetry will be no match for the rare beauty of an evening in June.

One notable exception has been Buffalo State College's Rooftop Poetry Readings, which move from late afternoons during the academic year to early evenings in the summer.

Renovations to the rooftop garden area of Buffalo State College's E.H. Butler Library will mean that this summer's series won't feature the gentle cross-breezes of last summer's memorable series.  Gone too, at least until August, are the acoustic sets by Buffalo area songwriters and musicians that precede and follow each reading. 

What remains, of course, is the poetry.  Lisa Forrest, the talented poet and senior assistant librarian at Butler Library who runs the Rooftop Poetry Club (with help from Media Services specialist Dennis Reed) has scheduled seven readings beginning tonight (June 20th) through August 30th in the air-conditioned main lobby of the library.  All the readings begin at 7 p.m. and feature two poets (or occasionally a poet and a prose writer) per event.

Leading off the series tonight are Michael Tritto, a former high school Spanish teacher whose well-crafted poems have been published widely, and Mark Lloyd, a poet and dramatist, who has directed six of his own one-act plays locally and is vice president of the Amherst Players.

Next Wednesday night (June 27) the series will continue with readings by Carol Townsend, a poet and associate professor of design at Buffalo State, and Ryki Zuckerman,  a former art teacher turned literary activist, and one of the longtime editors of Earth's Daughters magazine.

For a complete listing of readings this summer, and to learn more about the Rooftop Poetry Club, visit www.buffalostate.edu/library/rooftop.