What does anyone remember from any given year? Well, if I were to look back at 2024 from some distant, future vantage point, I would hope that I would recall more than a few details from the Segue Reading Series (which I got to co-curate with my friend Regie Cabico this fall). Every Saturday for two months, Regie and I co-hosted a wildly eclectic variety of poets: He delivered enthusiastic, warm-hearted introductions; I presented little art objects I'd made, inspired by their poems. But what will I remember, even a year from now? Will it be the hilarious limericks of Sloppi Chulo? the simmering insights of LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs? the flawless delivery of Pamela Booker? the deadpan humor of Thaddeus Rutkowski? the haunted depths of Xavier Cavazos? Possibly! But from our beloved opening pairing of Joan Larkin and Malcolm Tariq to the final interdisciplinary trio of Anne Waldman, No Land, and Joey De Jesus, there wasn't a weekend that didn't imprint pleasure on my brain. And so I'm deeply thankful to all those previously mentioned as well as poets Nancy Mercado, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Thomas Fucaloro, Norman Fischer, Jee Leong Koh, and the New York Neo-Futurists. It's worth adding that the whole shebang wouldn't have looked so natural without my new dear friend and AGOTT stalwart Tracie Dawn Willaims. I'm also grateful for getting to bond with the wizards behind the curtain: Segue founder James Sherry and managing director/editor Lonely Christopher. Oh, yes. Those eight weeks at Artists Space were memorable all around!
This photo of A Gathering of the Tribes Executive Director Regie Cabico, me, Malcolm Tariq and Joan Larkin was taken by Tracie Dawn Williams.
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