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Alan Semerdjian is a musician and poet whose work Ian and I both admire. Alan had been the caretaker at the Walt Whitman Birthplace in Huntington, and he led a multi-media arts event there called “The Body Electric”, the likes of which Long Island has never seen before or since. Alan is a musician as well as a poet. On Saturday, November 14th, he will celebrate his new book of poetry, in the company of music, performed by a friend who plays the Chapman stick. A very worthwhile event…
Alan Semerdjian: In the Architecture of Bone
Long Island poetry reading, book release and signing
Saturday November 14th
7pm-8pm
The Book Revue
313 New York Avenue
Huntington, NY 11743
http://www.bookrevue.com/
From the write-up at the Book Revue:
Armenian-American poet and former Huntington resident Alan Semerdjian will speak about and sign copies of his new collection of poems, In the Architecture of Bone.
Combining the idiosyncrasies of family history, news items heard on NPR, and keen observations of immigrant and emigrant experience, Semerdjian’s new collection is an essential exploration of what it means to be an individual in America today.
At the center of this book is the question of what it is to be an immigrant—a “hyphenated American”—and of how geography provides evidence of our past as well as a way to approach the present, living with “the mind of a landscape.” Semerdjian takes recent Armenian history, a history of persecution and genocide, and juxtaposes it with contemporary news items on NPR about “incursions detainees interrogations.” In the Architecture of Bone is a stirring presentation of individual experience as central to communal history.
Alan Semerdjian, a former caretaker of Walt Whitman’s house, has published poems and essays in numerous print and online magazines—including Arson, can we have our ball back, Diagram, Lyric Review, Rattapallax, Ararat, Adbusters, and Chain; several anthologies including Primal Sanities (Allbooks Books, 2007) and Long Island Sounds (TNSPSP, 2008); and a chapbook, An Improvised Device (Lock n’ Load Publishing, 2005). His songs have appeared in films and television and have charted on CMJ. He has performed and read across the United States, and currently resides in New York City’s East Village. Visit him online at www.alanarts.com.
Filed under: Art, local, long island, Long Island Music, music, News, poetry, politics, war Tagged: | Alan Semerdjian, Armenia, Armenian, book release, Books, Chapman stick, huntington, immigrants, immigration, In The Architecture of Bone, long island, Long Island Music, music, poetry
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