[OutVoice] Robert Urban hosts RAINBOW READING - 10/9 Babylon, L.I.

[THEMUSENYC at aol.com]

(note - there are still a few 15 minute performance slots open at this event 
for LGBT poets -
plus one slot for an LGBT singer/songwriter/musician - contact me via this 
email address - robert urban)

In Celebration of NATIONAL COMING OUT WEEK:
A special edition of Rainbow Reading @ Pisces Cafe in Babylon Long Island
Sponsored by PRIDE ALLIANCE OF LONG ISLAND and POETS WEAR PRADA
Special guest host: ROBERT URBAN
featuring: VITTORIA REPETTO, JEE LEONG KOH, DOROTHY FRIEDMAN, JEE LEONG KOH, 
ROBERT URBAN, MELISSA CLARK, THOMAS MARCH

Tuesday October 9
6pm - 10pm starting with an open mic.
@ Pisces Cafe
14A Railroad Avenue (at the Babylon LIRR Station)
Babylon, New York 11702
admission: FREE!

VITTORIA REPETTO -  Since it’s release last year Vittoria Repetto's first
poetry book Not Just A Personal Ad has won accolades;
in a Lambda Book Report column, poet and reviewer
Rigoberto Gonzalez wrote "Poems of intense sensibility
and gorgeous imagery are a rarity these days; but this
book of verse by a distinctly working class,
distinctly lesbian, and distinctly Italian American
voice is a must for all readers of good
poetry.”Vittoria Repetto has been published in
Mudfish, Voices in Italian Americana, Rattle, Lips,
The Paterson Literary Review, Italian Americana,
Unsettling American: An Anthology of Contemporary
Multicultural Poetry, Identity Lessons: Learning
American Style, The Milk of Almonds: Italian American
Women Writers on Food & Culture, and Harrington
Lesbian Fiction Quarterly among others. She has a
chapbook entitled Head For the Van Wyck that contains
a poem that her current publisher refused to print for
fear of being sued by Camille Paglia.Her poems have
been chosen as "Editor's Choice" in the Paterson
Literary Review for four times in a row since 2003.
Vittoria Repetto is the vice president of the Italian
American Writers Association. She was a judge in the
2005 Publishing Triangle's Audre Lorde Award for
Lesbian Poetry & Thomas Gunn Award for Gay Poetry and
she has been hosting the Women's Poetry Jam at
Bluestockings Bookstore for the last seven years.

JEE LEONG KOH - Born in Singapore, Jee Leong Koh read English at
Oxford University and completed his Creative Writing
MFA at Sarah Lawrence College. His poems have appeared
in Singaporean anthologies, and in American and
British journals such as Crab Orchard Review, Gay &
Lesbian Review Worldwide, The Ledge Magazine, and
Mimesis. His chapbook, Payday Loans, was published in
April 2007, and is available at his blog
(http://jeeleong.blogspot.com) and Poets Wear Prada
Press website. Of the chapbook, Marie Howe says,
"Smart, irreverent, often unnerving, these sonnets
smirk, smile, argue and bless."

DOROTHY FRIEDMAN - Dorothy Friedman August, who D. H. Melhem calls "a
necessary poet" and Colette Inez cites for her "urgent
messages" and "striking use of original imagery" is an
award winning and widely published poet with two
books. She's won two New York Foundation of the Arts
fellowships, as well as grants from NYSCA and the
Puffin Foundation and published poems in The Partisan
Review, The California Quarterly, Hanging Loose,
Mudfish, among other journals. She's read her work at
such venues as The St. Mark's Poetry Project, The
Nuorican Poet's Cafe, The Bowery Poetry Club, Barnes &
Noble and The Cornelia Street Cafe. Currently, she
directs a poetry program for The Living Theater and
teaches writing there and at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice.

ROBERT URBAN this award-winning
singer/songwriter, lyricist, composer, producer, poet
and published literary writer is also owner/operator
of the Manhattan-based Urban Productions Recording
Studio. Robert supports the NYC tri-state arts
community through producing and hosting his all-LGBT
Urban Productions Boldly Presents live-in-concert
series (now in its 7th year). He is the author of the
poetry book Abominations; founder of Gay Guitarists
Worldwide; and contributing writer to MTV/Logo's
AfterElton.com arts and entertainment magazine.In 2006
Robert hosted & produced the sold-out Pure Poetry
reading event at NYC's Telephone Bar and the Two
Spirit Celebration at NYC's Theater of the Collective
Unconscious, which featured LGBT Native American
poets. In 2006, Robert was voted OutMusician of the
Year by the national OutMusic organization. His poems
“Brothers Beware” and “Fable” won the Stonewall
Society's 2003 and 2004 Pride in the Arts literary
verse awards, respectively. Robert's poetic writings
have been published in various literary/poetry
journals and he regularly reads his work at NYC poetry
events including the Bowery Bar's Queer Ink and the
Telephone Bar's We Three Productions twice monthly
poetry reading.

MELISSA CLARK is a pre-op TS, singer/songwriter,
living near Syracuse, NY. She plays a variety of music
ranging from an LGBT Catholic Mass, twice monthly, to
coffeehouse and open mic style blend of acoustic and
electric guitar backed Americana, Rockabilly
influenced and pop music from the sixties to the
present. Her influences are The Beatles, Mary Chapin
Carpenter, a variety of acoustic artists, and Melissa
Etheridge, Bruce Springsteen and Roy Orbison. She
tries to combine the fullness of a "male born" voice
with the huskiness of an alto/contralto feminine
voice. Occasionally enjoy weaving Blues influences
into the music, as well. Original music includes
topics such as Coming Out, inner reflection, fitting
into the world around us, and generally the Folk,
Country, Americana style topics from an LGBT
perspective. Her mission is to encourage others by
noting our uniqueness without alienating ourselves
from everyone else.  She is also a cancer survivor and
readily encourages all people to have whatever
screening tests may apply to their situations done, as
early detection of any disease is so much more
manageable than attempting to deal with "final stage"
symptoms. This applies especially to HIV, and not only
cancer!

THOMAS MARCH is a poet and critic who lives in New
York City, where he teaches at the Brearley School.
In 2005, his poem “Virginia Woolf’s Pockets, Full of
Stones” was a finalist for Gival Press' Oscar Wilde
Award for poetry.   His poems have appeared in A Café
in Space, The Gay and Lesbian Review, The North
Atlantic Review, Perigee, Spoon River Poetry Review,
Verbatim, and the anthology Poetic Voices without
Borders - Volume 2 (Gival Press 2006).  He regularly
reviews books for The Gay and Lesbian Review and
American Book Review, and has had reviews  published
in New Letters, Shenandoah, and The Believer.

TERRY & BARBARA BRUNETTE - Brooklyn-born, Barbara Brunette, who is a 
Singer/Songwriter/Musician, started performing in her teens as Lead Guitarist/Lead 
Singer in cover bands on Long Island, NY. She grew up listening to diverse styles 
of music and developing a real passion for it.  In her early 20s she left the 
band, for a career in Textiles, Real Estate.  Later on she had a successful 
career in Kitchen Design.  She has written over 70 songs in different styles.  
She loves the Blues and songs with a 'Bluesy' flavor, Rock, Jazz, Pop, 
Country, etc.  She currently records her own work out of her Digital Recording Studio 
in West Babylon, NY. 

Terry or 'Ligeia' which is her artistic name, had a rigorous classical 
education, having to study Greek, Latin, French and Italian, etc.  She speaks 
various languages, has lived abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  She is a Vocalist, 
Writer/Poet/Artist/Musician, is a true Bohemian and Free-Spirit, Literature, 
Art, the Occult, Moonbathing and walking in the rain. 



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