April Poetry Reading Lineup at the Towson Library

The 6th Annual Cruellest Month Reading Festival
April 4, 11, 18, and 25, 2011 / 6:30PM to 8:30PM
Towson Library / 320 York Rd, Towson, MD 21204

The Towson ARTS Collective, in partnership with the Towson Library, kick off National Poetry Month with a FREE reading and performance series celebrating the diverse literary talents of Baltimore’s best writers and performers. Each evening is hosted by a local arts organization, each reflecting the promise of creative and collaborative literacy in and around our community. Featured poets will read from their books, and performers will dramatize the poetic forms via song, dance, and theatre. An open mic for our audience members will follow. Light refreshments will also be served, and you will have a chance to speak with the performers and buy their books.

April 4
Do you suffer from disillusionment and alienation? Do reenact all of your interactions to try to discern why they went so badly? Do you always seem to be woefully overdressed or underdressed? Then this show is for you! Barbara DeCesare hosts TAL’s Cruelest Month for April 4, showcasing the awkward talents of: Hiram Larew! Michael Gushue! and Plato Hieronimous! With surprise plays requiring audience participation!

April 11
BrickHouse Books, owned/operated by Baltimore native Clarinda Harriss, presents two guests: Maryland attorney and poet Doritt Carroll, whose recent poetry collection, In Caves, was released in 2010; and poet, scientist, and scholar Bill Rivera, whose poetry collection, Buried in the Mind’s Back Yard, will be out in 2011.

April 18
Join Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore! for an evening of Mobtown-infused poetry featuring readings from E. Doyle-Gillespie, S.J. Ferrandi, Gavin Heck, Ian Hochberg, Sarah Jane Miller, Fernando Quijano III and more. Smile, Hon editor, publisher, and contributing writer William P. Tandy will host.

April 25
Join the Maryland Writers’ Association (MWA) for a reading and book launch party. A baker’s dozen of poets will share their work from Life in Me Like Grass on Fire: Love Poems, a poetry anthology published by the MWA in celebration of National Poetry Month featuring 50 Maryland poets.