Lolita & Gilda's Burlesque Poetry Hour

Happy New Year

2007-12-28T10:35:00.001-05:00

Burlesque Poetry Hour will be on hiatus in 2008 until Lolita returns to our nation's capital.

Until then . . . keep your pants on!

Laurel, Hugh, Mel and Rod TAKE IT OFF

2007-11-28T00:26:00.000-05:00

Laurel Snyder alludes to something inside of her

what could it be?

She wasn't referring to the sparkling necklace.

It earns $35 and talking to from Gilda.

Hugh Behm-Steinberg is shy

and green on the inside

and brings in $35 more green.

Special guest host Lisette introduces Mel Nichols

who has something inside too

what can it be?

a tampon?

and not just one! Tampons for everyone.

Poetry Tampons!

For everyone!

And a fresh new box of poetry tampons goes for $50.

What's inside of Rod Smith?

Someone's being coy . . .

Sometimes it's not what's on the inside that really counts

and the poetry condoms close the year with $30.

Burlesque Poetry Hour will be on hiatus for the first half of 2008 until Lolita returns to us.

November at Burlesque

2007-11-20T14:54:00.000-05:00

The garments fly this holiday season. Please join Gilda and special guest host Lisette in tempting Laurel Snyder, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Rod Smith and Mel Nichols to take it off on Monday, November 26th. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Laurel Snyder is the author of a collection of poems, The Myth of the Simple Machines, as well as a chapbook, Daphne & Jim: a choose your own adventure biography in verse. She also writes books for children and she blogs at http://jewishyirishy.com.

Hugh Behm-Steinberg is the author of Shy Green Fields. His poetry has appeared in such places as CROWD, VeRT, Volt, Spork, Slope, Dirt, Swerve, Cue, Aught and Fence. He teaches in the graduate writing program at California College of the Arts and is the editor of Freehand, a new journal of handwritten work.

Mel Nichols lives in Washington, DC, and teaches writing at George Mason University. Her chapbooks are Day Poems (Edge Books 2005) and The Beginning of Beauty, Part 1: hottest new ringtones, mnichol6 (Edge 2007), based on the daily blog project at thebeginningofbeauty.blogspot.com.

Rod Smith's latest collection, Deed, is just out from the University of Iowa Press. He is also the author of Music or Honesty, Poèmes de l'araignée (France), In Memory of My Theories, The Boy Poems, Protective Immediacy, and New Mannerist Tricycle with Lisa Jarnot and Bill Luoma. A CD, Fear the Sky, came out from Narrow House Recordings in 2005. Smith's work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies including Anthology of New (American) Poets, The Baffler, The Gertrude Stein Awards, Java, New American Writing, Open City, Poésie, Poetics Journal, Shenandoah, and The Washington Review. He edits Aerial magazine, publishes Edge Books, and manages Bridge Street Books in Washington, DC. Smith is also editing, with Peter Baker and Kaplan Harris, The Selected Letters of Robert Creeley, for the University of California Press.

Michael, Jennifer, Peter and Aaron TAKE IT OFF

2007-10-30T12:13:00.002-05:00

A night of nonstop unmentionables!

Michael Schiavo contemplates his situation

and finally mans up to take the stage

special guest host, Carmen, inspects the merchandise

International Male underwear!

Oooh, ladies like to touch!

Catalogue panties and other unmentionables go for $25.

Jennifer L. Knox rescues our minds from the gutter

classing up this sausage party

with the

slinkiest removal of

a . . .

. . . lacy lavender brassiere ever!

Lifts and separates!

$22 of multi-functionality.

Peter Davis tones down the evening with Hitler Mustache poems.

mouthes off to Gilda before

exposing his hand-designed, one-of-a-kind Cougarama Poetry Tour Tee.

Meow!

You're not getting my shirt off for less than $40! Growl.

The inimitable Aaron Be1z has a secret

[numerous pictures censored]

and this guy pays $40 for Aaron to put his clothes back on

It looks better on her anyhow.

See you next month.

It's Poetober at Boolesque!

2007-10-17T19:13:00.000-05:00

It's all tricks and treats this month! Please join Gilda and special guest host Carmen in luring Jennifer L. Knox, Aaron Be1z, Peter Davis and Michael Schiavo to take it off on Monday, October 29th. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Jennifer L. Knox's new book of poems, Drunk by Noon, is available on Bloof Books, as is her first book, A Gringo Like Me. Her poems have appeared in the anthologies Best American Poetry (1997, 2003 and 2006), Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to Present, and Free Radicals, American Poets BeforeTheir First Books.

Aaron Be1z writes poetry in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. His work has appeared in Boston Review, Fence, Painted Bride Quarterly, Black Clock, and other places, and his first full-length book, The Bird Hoverer, was published by BlazeVOX in 2007. Another of his manuscripts, Clementines, was selected as a runner-up for the 2006 Marsh Hawk Press contest by Denise Duhamel, who writes: "Aaron Be1z is a gravely hilarious poet . . . his ferocious intelligence, his love of glitz, and his wry take on relationships (both human and animal) are irresistible. Be1z's voice is bold, wise, inimitable."

Peter Davis' book of poems is Hitler's Mustache. He edited Poet's Bookshelf: Contemporary Poets on Books that Shaped their Art. His poems have appeared in journals like No Tell Motel, McSweeney's, Octopus, and Court Green. He lives in Muncie Indiana with his wife, son, and daughter and teaches at Ball State University.

Michael Schiavo's poetry and nonfiction have appeared in The Yale Review, Tin House, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Forklift, Ohio, 1913: A Journal of Forms, LIT, Painted Bride Quarterly, Seneca Review, and The Believer, among other publications. He is also a contributing editor to CUE.

Updated 2007 Schedule

2007-10-11T00:58:00.001-05:00

October 29
Jennifer L. Knox, Michael Schiavo, Peter Davis, Aaron Be1z

November 26
Laurel Snyder, Rod Smith, Mel Nichols, Hugh Behm-Steinberg

December 31
No reading

Piotr, Dean and Remica TAKE IT OFF

2007-09-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

Piotr Gwiazda is red hot

and peels off his red suede vest.

It's getting hot in here! So hot, apparently everyone's wallets melted shut. The vest goes for $10. Gilda is outraged!

But Piotr is an understanding sort.

Dean Smith is next and he knows what to do . . .

. . . show this persnickety audience the manflesh they crave. It worked! $20 for his EXCELLENCE tee.

Time for a lady to show us how it's done. Remica L. Bingham takes the stage

and takes the apple right out of Adam's throat.

Indeed!

And the audience shows all kinds of love -- $35 worth.

Thank you!

Spectacular September!

2007-09-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

Poetry bells! It's Back to Burlesque in September. Please join Gilda and special guest host Delilah in enticing Remica L. Bingham, Piotr Gwiazda and Dean Smith to take it off on Monday, September 24th. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Remica L. Bingham, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, received her MFA from Bennington College and is a Cave Canem fellow. In addition to other journals, her work has been featured in New Letters, PMS, Gulf Coast, Callaloo, Mosaic, and Essence. She was the recipient of the 2005 Hughes, Diop, Knight Poetry Award and was nominated for a 2005 Pushcart Prize. Her first book of poetry, Conversion, won the 2007 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award and was published by Lotus Press. Currently, she is the Writing Competency Coordinator at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Piotr Gwiazda's poems appear in Swink, Barrow Street, Drunken Boat, Hotel America, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. He published a book of poems, Gagarin Street, with Washington Writers' Publishing House (2005). He teaches contemporary poetry at UMBC.

Dean Smith's poems have appeared in Poetry East, Open City, Beltway, The Pearl, The Charlotte Review, Gulf Stream, and upstreet among others. His book of poems, American Boy won the 2000 Washington Writer's Prize and was also awarded the Maryland Prize for Literature in 2001 for the best book published by a Maryland writer over the past three years.

Jeffrey, Aaron and Jess TAKE IT OFF

2007-08-28T00:57:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Lee gets under our skirts

and slips into our hearts and off into

something more comfortable.

$13 never felt so great.

Aaron Tieger entraps us with his words

and gives us the key to his handcuffs

Arrestingly $18!

Woof -- I thought this was Burlesque . . . where's the boobies?

Jess Mynes has a secret

a hidden

lacy

tight-fitting secret

Let Gilda help with you with that

and show you how . . . how to make $20!

Bon Voyage, Lolita. Can't wait until your return!

Boys Will be Naughty in August

2007-08-19T00:05:00.000-05:00

Please join us for an all male poet review at this month's Burlesque Poetry Hour. Jess Mynes, Aaron Tieger and Jeffrey Lee are taking it off for Lolita and Gilda at Bar Rouge in Washington D.C. Monday, August 27. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Jeffrey Ethan Lee published identity papers (Ghost Road Press, 2006), which is now a finalist for the Colorado Book Award for poetry. He also published invisible sister (Many Mountains Moving Press, 2004), which was praised as "a tour de force of persona and plot" by Denise Duhamel in American Book Review and called "a sledgehammer smeared with lipstick" by an unknown Amazon customer. He also published The Sylf (2003), which won the Sow's Ear Poetry Review Chapbook prize, and Strangers in a Homeland (Ashland Poetry Press chapbook, 2001). He also created identity papers (2002), a dramatic poem on CD with actress Lori-Nan Engler and percussionist Toshi Makihara. He won the first Tupelo Press Prize for literary fiction for The Autobiography of Somebody Else. He has published poems, stories, and essays in Many Mountains Moving, CrossConnect, North American Review, Crazyhorse, Crab Orchard Review, Washington Square, and American Poetry Review. He has the Ph.D. and MFA from NYU. Since 2005 he has been the poetry editor for Many Mountains Moving, a journal and small poetry press.

Aaron Tieger’s most recent chapbook is After Rilke (Anchorite Press, 2006). Other recent work includes February (Fewer & Further Press, 2006) and Coltsfoot Insularity (Fewer & Further Press, 2005), a collaboration with Jess Mynes. Other poems have appeared in 6x6, Asterisk, Past Simple, Turntable Bluelight, Effing, and several anthologies. Several chapbooks are forthcoming. He is the editor of the first American edition of the late British poet Richard Caddel’s book Uncertain Time, due out from Boston’s Pressed Wafer in November 2007. He lives in Ithaca, NY where he is co-curator of the SOON Productions Reading Series and the publisher and editor of CARVE Poems, a small magazine-and-chapbook press dedicated to innovative and under-the-radar poetry.

Jess Mynes is author of birds for example (CARVE Editions), In(ex)teriors (Anchorite Press) and Full On Jabber (Martian Press) a collaboration with Christopher Rizzo. His If and When (Katalanche Press), Sky Brightly Picked (Skysill Press) and Recently Clouds, a collaboration with Aaron Tieger are forthcoming this year. He is the editor for Fewer & Further Press and Asterisk. He also co-curates a local reading series, All Small Caps, in Western, MA.

Updated 2007 Schedule

2007-08-03T00:21:00.000-05:00

August 27
Jess Mynes, Aaron Tieger, Jeffrey Lee

September 24
Piotr Gwiazda, Dean Smith, Remica Bingham

October 29
Jennifer L. Knox, Michael Schiavo, Peter Davis, Aaron Be1z

November 26
Laurel Snyder, Rod Smith, Mel Nichols, Hugh Behm-Steinberg

December 31
No reading

Jehanne, Scott and Theo TAKE IT OFF

2007-07-31T11:25:00.000-05:00

Jehanne Dubrow is a stern mistress

and slips off her Banned Books bracelet.

Omigod it fetches $29!

Scott Glassman behaves himself

at first

What is he getting at?

Omigod, his snoopy tie!

But wait, there's a moratorium on ties for 2007 -- Lolita mad, oh no, attack of the 50 foot little woman!

The tie brings $24.

Theo Hummer classes up the joint

invites the always hot audience participation

and goes to town!

Omigod it's Gina Franco's feather boa!

It earns a scandalous $15!

Cheers!

July Sizzles with Verse

2007-07-15T22:53:00.000-05:00

Please join us for poems and spice and everything nice at this month's Burlesque Poetry Hour. Theo Hummer, Scott Glassman and Jehanne Dubrow are taking it off for Lolita and Gilda at Bar Rouge in Washington D.C. Monday, July 30. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Theo Hummer has taught English in a Czech cigarette factory, freshman comp at Cornell University, and creative writing at Auburn Maximum Security Men’s Prison. She co-curates the SOON poetry reading series in Ithaca, New York, and is writing a dissertation on formal experiment, performance, and the linguistic production of race in twenty-first century American poetry. Her poems have appeared in Sentence, Vox, the Indiana Review, and on the Verse website, and in 2006 Anchorite Press published her first chapbook, The Parrot Bride.

Scott Glassman lives in New Jersey and is the author of chapbooks Exertions (Cy Gist Press, 2006) and Surface Tension (Dusie, 2006) with Mackenzie Carignan. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Jubilat, The Tiny, Iowa Review, 580 Split, CutBank, and others. He has been the curator of the INVERSE Reading Series in Philadelphia and is currently developing a self-improvement seminar that incorporates eastern wisdom and western psychology. His website is http://scottglassman.com.

Jehanne Dubrow was born in Italy and grew up in Yugoslavia, Zaire, Poland, Belgium, Austria, and the United States. She is a Ph.D. candidate in creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is currently as a Sosland Foundation Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Hudson Review, Gulf Coast, The New England Review, and Poetry Northwest. A chapbook of Holocaust poetry, THE PROMISED BRIDE, will be published by Finishing Line Press later this summer.

Gwendolyn, William and Shanna TAKE IT OFF

2007-06-26T13:22:00.000-05:00

Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz . . .

. . . is too sexy for her little black dress

and her high heels!

They fetch $25!

Lolita introduces funny bunny William Allegrezza

and it was all pillowtalk

and unfastened belts

and the shirt off his back

and they paid him $27 for that!

Shanna Compton tucks us in

and gives everyone her phone number!

Text me y'all!

She's not really THAT kind of girl -- she sheds her one-of-a-kind FUTURE NEGLECTORINO cap

Very sporty! Earned $30 in auction!

The other hats glowed in envy!

See you next month, lovers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June Re-ignites the Poetry Love

2007-06-16T00:43:00.000-05:00

Please join us for poetry sparkage at this month's Burlesque Poetry Hour. Shanna Compton, Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz and William Allegrezza are taking it off for Lolita and Gilda at Bar Rouge in Washington D.C. Monday, June 25. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Shanna Compton's books include For Girls (Bloof Books, 2007), Down Spooky (Winnow Press, 2005), and GAMERS (Soft Skull, 2004). Her poems and essays have recently appeared in Absent, Tool, Ping-Pong, Dusie, and the Poetry Foundation website. Visit her online at shannacompton.com

Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz is a poet and fiction writer. Her work has been published in various online and print journals, eight anthologies as well as on coffee mugs and coffee can labels. She has completed a poetry chapbook, "What I Share With You" and her fiction chapbook, "Mother Love," published by Unlikely Stories Press is currently available.

William Allegrezza grew up in Mississippi, moved to Texas, later Louisiana, but now he lives in Chicago and teaches at Indiana University Northwest. He edits the e-zine Moria, which publishes experimental poetry and poetics articles, and is the editor-in-chief of Cracked Slab Books. His poetry, articles, poetry reviews, and translations have been published in many countries, including Australia, Italy, the United States, the Czech Republic, Finland, and the Netherlands. He has published five chapbooks and three books of poetry, including Ladders in July and In the Weaver's Valley. His book Fragile Replacements is forthcoming with Meritage Press.

Updated 2007 Schedule

2007-05-12T00:21:00.000-05:00

May 28
No reading

June 25
Gwendolyn Mintz, Shanna Compton, William Allegrezza

July 30
Theo Hummer, Susan Cronin, Scott Glassman

August 27
Jess Mynes, Aaron Tieger, Jeffrey Lee

September 24
Jennifer L. Knox, Piotr Gwiazda, Dean Smith, Remica Bingham

October 29
Michael Schiavo, Peter Davis, Aaron Be1z

November 26
Laurel Snyder, Rod Smith, Mel Nichols

December 31
No reading

Mairéad, Jordan and Alison TAKE IT OFF

2007-05-01T12:55:00.000-05:00

Mairéad Byrne livens the evening

She's looking at you!

If you think for one second your getting her Guinness belt . . .

. . . you are most mistaken, it's a lucky horseshoe bracelet -- and it fetches $55!

Jordan Davis works it

uh-huh . . .

oh baby!

and he slides off his sexy soft pink arm garter!

that garners $35 (baby not included)

Oh darling I would have given all the stars in the sky for your arm garter!

Alison Stine peaks the evening

and shows a little more leg

and a hot pink garter -- the soft pink arm garter's mate!

But that's not enough for this rowdy audience -- they DEMAND her fishnet stockings

It was a rough crowd

Sold for $45!

See you in June!

April Showers . . . and Simmers

2007-04-23T14:55:00.000-05:00

Please join us for another hot and wet Burlesque Poetry Hour. Mairéad Byrne, Jordan Davis and Alison Stine are taking it off for Lolita and Gilda at Bar Rouge in Washington D.C. Monday, April 30. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Mairéad Byrne’s publications include three poetry collections, Talk Poetry (Miami University Press 2007), SOS Poetry (/ubu Editions 2007), and Nelson & The Huruburu Bird (Wild Honey Press 2003); three chapbooks, An Educated Heart (Palm Press 2005), Vivas (Wild Honey Press 2005), and Kalends (Belladonna* 2005); and two talk-essays. “Some Differences Between Poetry & Standup” (UbuWeb 2005), and “Avant-Garde Pronouns” (Avant-Post: The Avant-Garde in the Era of Post-Ideology, ed. Louis Armand, Litteraria Pragensia 2006). She is an Associate Professor of English at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. With Ian Davidson, she is the co-manager of the listserv British & Irish Poets. Before immigrating to the United States in 1994, she was a journalist, playwright, arts centre director, and teacher in Ireland.

Jordan Davis's first book of poems is Million Poems Journal. His reviews of books of poems have appeared at Constant Critic, and in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Paper, the Village Voice, and the Chicago Review. With Chris Edgar he edits The Hat, a sometimes annual literary journal. He lives in New York with his son and his wife, the writer Alison Stine Davis.

Alison Stine is the author of the chapbook Lot of my Sister, winner of the Wick Prize, from Kent State University Press. Her awards include a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry from Stanford University. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, New England Review, and many others, and are forthcoming in The Bedside Guide to the No Tell Motel: 2nd Floor Edition. She lives with her husband and stepson in New York, where she is finishing her first novel.

Bernadette, Marcela and Jill TAKE IT OFF

2007-03-27T10:23:00.000-05:00

Some Burlesques are extra hot.

Bernadette Geyer begins our evening of naughty poems

first finds her courage

and brings out the leather straps!

A perfect fit! Gilda demonstrates her experience and the leather suspenders bring $25!

Marcela Sulak keeps the temperature rising

It's getting hot in here! Marcela strips off her dress

Lolita likes what she sees!

And gets herself a new dress for $40

Jill Alexander Essbaum busts the mercury with her debauchery

and lets her bonny hair down

and slides her little red dress right off

the dress feels amazing!

Lolita can't help herself

and gets a second dress, for a new Burlesque record --$69!!!!!!

It's Spring and You Know You Want to TAKE IT OFF

2007-03-20T11:52:00.000-05:00

Or maybe just watch other people take it off. That's ok too! Please join us this Monday, March 26th as Jill Alexander Essbaum, Bernadette Geyer, and Marcela Sulak take it off! Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Jill Alexander Essbaum is the author of Heaven (University Press ofNew England, 2000) and Oh Forbidden (Pecan Grove Press, 2005). Hernewest book, Harlot, is forthcoming from No Tell Books (Fall 2007).Jill cites the following artists as indelible influences: SimonArmitage, A.E. Stallings, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker,John Bunyan, and Nick Cave. Jill divides her time between Austin, TX, and Zürich, Switzerland.

Bernadette Geyer is author of the poetry chapbook What Remains (Argonne House Press) and was twice selected as a Jenny McKean Moore Poetry Scholar at George Washington University. Her poems have appeared in Hotel Amerika, South Dakota Review, The Midwest Quarterly, The Marlboro Review, 32 Poems and elsewhere. Geyer’s full-length manuscript, Dead Men, was a finalist for the OSU Press/The Journal Poetry Prize and for the Richard Snyder Memorial Publication Prize. She is editor-in-chief for The Word Works, a literary non-profit in the DC area.

Marcela Sulak teaches courses in modern world poetry, modern American poetry and translation. Her translation (from Czech) of Karel Hynek Macha's poem May has been published by Twisted Spoon Press in 2005. She has translated the Congolese Mutombo Nkulu-N'Sengha's book-length poetry collection, Bela-Wenda. She is currently working on a book entitled 1920s New York as a Construction Site for Modernist "American" Narrative Poetry. Her own poetry has appeared in such journals as Fence, Indiana Review, River Styx, The Notre Dame Review , and Quarterly West.

Bruce, Caroline and Daniel TAKE IT OFF

2007-02-27T19:56:00.000-05:00

Stepping in at the last minute and playing for the DC team, Bruce MacKinnon reads his naughty verse

and boldly breaks the Burlesque "no tie" rule! Somebody's asking for a pantsing!

Lolita is furious! Tie fetches $15

Caroline Maun sings for supper

She really gets into it!

and strips off her hand-made one-of-kind silver necklace. What a performance! A new Burlesque record. $55!!!!!!!

Daniel Padilla takes us gently into that goodnight

and into ecstasy!

Go Lolita, Go! Sexy white button-down goes for $20.

Detroit Shacks Up with DC!

2007-02-19T01:48:00.001-05:00

Please join us for the first ever "Detroit Night" at Burlesque Poetry Hour. Four readers venturing from half away across the country, Daniel Padilla, Caroline Maun and James Hart III are taking it off for Lolita and Gilda at Bar Rouge in Washington D.C. Monday, February 26. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Caroline Maun is an educator and poet living in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. She is Assistant Professor of Critical Literacies in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Wayne State University, a post she assumed in 2004. She has published three books, The Collected Poems of Evelyn Scott (2005) The Sleeping (2006), the latter being a collection of her own poems, and Virtual Identities: The Construction of Selves in Cyberspace (2007). The Sleeping was published by Detroit's Marick Press, headed by Mariela Griffor. The Sleeping contains two poems nominated for the 2007 Pushcart Prize and won "Poetry Book of the Year" from Chickenbones. Prior to her appointment at Wayne State University, Maun was the founding Writing Center Director at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

James Hart III is author of White Holes (2006), published by Marick Press of Detroit, MI. He is the curator of the Zeitgeist poetry series and also the author of the watchable book (Weightless Press, 2003). His work has also appeared in the Café Review, Wayne Literary Review; Dispatch Detroit, Volumes 6 and 7; pasttentspress.com and thedetroiter.com.

Daniel Padilla, both a visual artist and a poet, was born and raised in Michigan. He was co-founder of the literary magazine the furnace. He has studied at the Wayne State University's Writers' Workshop and the Kenyon Review's Summer Writers' Program at Kenyon College. He has read at the Grosse Pointe Artist Association, Izzy's Raw Art Gallery, and the DIA. He also has shown his art at Frameworks in Plymouth and Izzy's Raw Art Gallery. His first book of poetry, Solute, was published by Marick Press in 2006. Daniel Padilla now lives and works in Plymouth, MI.

Anne, Kate and Betsy TAKE IT OFF!

2007-01-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

Anne Gorrick slips into the new year

Gilda is all thumbs

So Anne has to take it off all by herself

What in the world . . .?

A bra overflowing with text!

What would you pay for a poetic bra?

$28, that how much!

Kate Greenstreet builds on the momentum

Brings the audience into the mix

Makes them do her TAKE IT OFF bidding

Wow

Poetry Earning Power = $25

Betsy Wheeler shines

And primps

Gives Lolita a few tips

Blows kisses to her adoring fans

Leaving them something to remember

For the bargain price of $18

A New Year, A Sexier Burlesque

2007-01-19T22:06:00.000-05:00

Join us for the first Burlesque Poetry Hour of 2007! Another all-girl review. Kate Greenstreet, Betsy Wheeler and Anne Gorrick are taking it off for Lolita and Gilda at Bar Rouge in Washington D.C. Monday, January 29. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Kate Greenstreet is the author of case sensitive (Ahsahta Press, 2006) and Learning the Language (Etherdome Press, 2005). Visit her online at kickingwind.com.

Betsy Wheeler’s poems have appeared in Forklift OH, The Hat, No Tell Motel, Painted Bride Quarterly, Pindeldyboz, Octopus, GutCult, Can We Have Our Ball Back and elsewhere. Co-editor of Pilot, and Stadler Fellow at Bucknell University, she lives and writes in a little cottage in Lewisburg, PA.

Anne Gorrick’s work has been published in many journals including: American Letters and Commentary, the Cortland Review, Dislocate, eratio, Fence, Gutcult, Hunger Magazine, No Tell Motel, the Seneca Review, Sulfur, and word for/word. She has work in the anthologies The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel, (No Tell Press, 2006) and Homage to Vallejo (Greenhouse Review Press, 2006). Collaborating with artist Cynthia Winika, she produced a limited edition artists’ book called “Swans, the ice,” she said with grants from the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY and the New York State Council for the Arts. She also curates the reading series Cadmium Text, featuring innovative writing from in and around New York’s Hudson Valley. More about the readings at www.cadmiumtextseries.blogspot.com.

2007 Moratorium

2007-01-07T21:05:00.000-05:00

Burlesque readers are forbidden from shedding ties and scarves for auction during 2007. (soooooo 2006)

Any reader breaking this rule will be swiftly pantsed and photographed by Lolita and Gilda.

All poet-pantsing photos will be posted on this site.

2007 Burlesque Poetry Hour Schedule

2007-01-07T20:45:00.000-05:00

January 29
Kate Greenstreet, Betsy Wheeler, Anne Gorrick

February 26
Detroit Night - Mariela Griffor, Daniel Padilla, Caroline Maun, James Hart III

March 26
Jill Alexander Essbaum, Patrick Herron, Marcela Sulak

April 30
Scott Glassman, Jordan Davis, Mairead Byrne, Alison Stine

May 28
No reading

June 25
Gwendolyn Mintz, Shanna Compton, William Allegrezza

July 30
Theo Hummer, Remica Bingham, Susan Cronin

August 27
Jess Mynes, Aaron Tieger, Jeffrey Lee

September 24
Jennifer L. Knox, Piotr Gwiazda, Dean Smith

October 29
Michael Schiavo, Peter Davis, Aaron Be1z

November 26
Laurel Snyder, Rod Smith, Mel Nichols

December 31
No reading

Happy New Year from Lolita & Gilda!

2007-01-01T22:33:00.000-05:00

2007 Schedule Coming Soon . . .

Until then -- vote in our "Best Burlesque Rack" and "Best Burlesque Nether Region" of 2006 Polls!

Best Burlesque Nether Region of 2006

2007-01-01T22:26:00.000-05:00

www.neomyz.com/poll

Ken "Plaid Crotch" Rumble

Jaime "Sock Monkey" Gaughran-Perez

Kim "Fresh Purple Thong" Addonizio

Best Burlesque Rack of 2006 - VOTE NOW!

2007-01-01T21:38:00.000-05:00

www.neomyz.com/poll

Shafer "Talk to Daddy" Hall

Maureen "No Head" Thorson

Karl "Big Tease" Parker

PF "Twinkle Nips" Potvin

Harriet, Amy & Deborah TAKE IT OFF

2006-11-28T10:04:00.000-05:00

Lolita gets us in the mood for evening and poetry

Harriet Levin's poems get an extra lift

from some plush stripped socks pulled from her otherwise respectable bosom

As Lolita attests, they do indeed add a cup size and a great value at $20!

Amy King dazzles and twinkles

and strips off a shiny silver I (heart) U FOREVER necklace

Amy is The Man Who Loves YOU, retail value $18

D. Ager closes the year

And takes off her belt to give a very naughty burlesque audience the thrashing they so richly deserved (and enjoyed)

Gilda has experience in such matters and this final item goes for $18

Farewell Burlesque 2006! Time flies when you're taking it off. See you in 2007!

We're Stripping Off our Last Shreds in November!

2006-11-21T11:50:00.000-05:00

Join us for the last Burlesque Poetry Hour of 2006! Amy King, Harriet Levin and Deborah Ager are taking it off for Lolita and Gilda at Bar Rouge in Washington D.C. Monday, November 27. Reading will begin at 8:00 p.m. in The Dark Room at Bar Rouge.

Amy King is the author of Antidotes for an Alibi and the forthcoming, I'm the Man Who Loves You. She is the managing editor for the online magazine, MiPOesias, and teaches English and Creative Writing at SUNY-Nassau Community College. Please visit www.amyking.org for more.

Harriet Levin is the author of The Christmas Show (Beacon Press) which was chosen by Eavan Boland for a Barnard New Women Poet's Prize. She is a winner of a Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award and a Grolier Poetry Prize. Recent work has appeared in The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, Denver Quarterly Review, Antioch Review, Ploughshares and Gulf Coast, among other journals. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and a PEW Fellowship in the Arts Disciplinary Winner. She teaches at Drexel University and is Director of the University Writing Program.

D. Ager is publisher and editor of 32 Poems; poems from the magazine have appeared in Best New Poets 2005 and Best American Poetry. Her own writing has appeared in The Georgia Review, New Letters, Best New Poets 2006, and elsewhere. She has been awarded fellowships at the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Maureen, PF and Gianmarc TAKE IT OFF

2006-10-31T01:24:00.001-05:00

It's BOO-lesque!

Maureen Thorson, Queen of the Spiders, spins her web of poems

until T.S. Eliot (aka Gilda) takes her crown and demands for her to disrobe

The Spider Kingdom levied $35 in auction

PF Potvin wings it