When Ryki Zuckerman of Earth's Daughters--the Buffalo based magazine that is widely believed to be the oldest extant feminist literary and arts periodical in the United States--contacted me last summer with plans for a new reading series at Hallwalls featuring community based poets and writers who have contributed significantly to the Buffalo area literary scene , I remember thinking that it was seemed an idea that was long overdue.
"We're calling it the Gray Hair Series," Ryki said. I did a double take, convinced I had misheard her.
Ryki gave me stern look over the bridge of her lowered glasses. "We're calling it the Gray Hair Series," she repeated firmly. "Buffalo is the City of No Illusions, a place where we don't need to pretend to be the younger than we are or subscribe to the latest literary trends."
The Gray Hair Series concluded its 2006-2007 run last week with a joint reading by three of the Earth's Daughters' longtime editors--Kastle Brill, Joyce Kessel, and Zuckerman, who also served as the series organizer and host. True to the spirit of Earth's Daughters origins as a feminist collective, Brill and Kessel opted to exchange poems in alternating fashion, with each piece essentially reacting and responding to its predecessor.
In its unassuming way, the series provided many of the most memorable readings Buffalo has seen in years over its 10-month run. No one who saw 94-year-old playwright Manny Fried read from his memoirs about blacklisting, heard 88-year-old Bill Sylvester recite projectivist poems that soared off into the linguistic empyrean, was moved by Olga Mendel's memoir of how exile from their native Cuba transformed her relationship with her mother, or Anne Pluto's stirring "October Requiem" for the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya will soon forget them.
If you missed the Gray Hair readings or want to revisit some of the work featured in the series, the good news is that forthcoming issue #72 (The Gray Hair Issue) of Earth's Daughters will publish a sampling of the work of all 21 poets and writers who read in the series this year. Subscriptions to Earth's Daughters are $19 for 3 issues and can be obtained from Post Office Box 41, Central Park Station, Buffalo, NY 14215. For more information, visit earthsdaughters.org.
