Jan Alexander and Bruce Weber
LISTEN to my December 17th, 2024 WIOX show (also a podcast!) featuring Bruce Weber and Jan Alexander. Bruce is the producer and Jan is the coordinator of “Whirlwind” The 2025 Hudson Valley New Year’s Day Spoken Word/Performance Extravaganza. Bruce and Jan will tell us about this great event and read from their writings.
“Whirlwind” The 2025 Hudson Valley New Year’s Day Spoken Word/Performance Extravaganza, will take place Wednesday, January 1st, 2025 from 1:00-7:00 pm at The Local, 16 John Street, Saugerties. Admission is free. Wine and beer will be available for purchase.
Bruce and Jan and the “Whirlwind” organizers/staff will gratefully accept donations of books, new and used, fiction and nonfiction, hardcover and paperback for the Greene Correctional Facility in Greene County, New York and non-perishable food, beverages, toothbrushes or toothpaste for the Saugerties Food Pantry, which provides food for nearly 250 men, women and children in the area each month.
Bruce Weber is a poet and historian of American art. His poetry has been published widely in magazines both in print and online, and he is the author of six books of poetry, including These Poems Are Not Pretty (with Jan McLaughlin), How the Poem Died, The First Time I Had Sex with T. S. Eliot, Poetic Justice, The Breakup of My First Marriage, and most recently, There Are Too Many Words in My House (Rogue Scholars Press, 2019). For twenty-five years he organized the Alternative New Year’s Day Spoken Word/Performance Extravaganza in New York City. Upon settling in Saugerties in the Hudson Valley he moved the event where it will be held next year at The Local in Saugerties with the support of the Saugerties Arts Commission. Currently he and his wife Joanne curate the multidisciplinary series Dialogues for the Ear & Eye on the first Tuesday evening of the month at the 9W Diner in Saugerties.
Jan Alexander is the author of the novel Ms. Ming’s Guide to Civilization (Regal House Publishing, Sept. 2019), a fractured utopian tale that was a Leap Frog Fiction Prize semi-finalist. Her short fiction and reviews have appeared in the Chicago Tribune and literary magazines including Atticus Review, Everyday Fiction, Flash Fiction, Guernica, Silver Birch Press, and 34th Parallel. Her flash fiction stories have received two honorable mentions and a Pushcart Prize nomination. She has written about business and travel for many publications and taught Chinese history at Brooklyn College. She is also the author of Getting to Lamma, a novel, and co-author of Bad Girls of the Silver Screen, a look at Hollywood’s portrayal of prostitutes through the ages.